Korean Military Service

[Jacqueline]

I'm very interested and curious about the korean mandatory military service.
I want to know more about that so i hope you guys do a lesson about it.


It's so sad that all these great singers and actors have to go to the army for 2 long years!!!
That's why i'm very interested in the topic LOL. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[steved]

I think this woudl be an interesting topic. I had heard that some people have the option of serving in some of the state run 민속촌/historic villages as part of their service instead of the traditional two years as active military. Are there other options available? IF so, who qualifies? How does this effect schooling/jobs? (I imagine that since it is mandatory that everything is just put on hold.) What about women in the military?

[maxiewawa]

Yeah, I'm sure this would be interesting.

Maybe we could include some survival phrases for American soldiers in Korea? I'm sure that many people who came to Korea for the military would be interested in the language.

[matthew254]

in the same vein, what of those who do not serve? not AWOL type but exempt type - any social stigma? do any men stay longer than 2 years? for any circumstance are women required to join? compelled? for that matter, can they sign up?

[the_haunted_boy]

This sounds fun for a culture class. There are not enough culture classes, there are so many things about Korean life that still confuse me because of the shortage of culture classes, but I am glad that I am at least picking up on the language.

As for the military, I recently saw some movie about the Korean military and another movie about foreigners in the military getting sent to Korea. The military seems like a good topic.

[Keith]

wow, seems like there's a lot of demand for this culture class! It is definitely an interesting topic, and it's definitely a large part of Korean men and their lives.

I'll try to answer some of your questions real quick:

Men who are exempt from the military generally don't carry a negative stigma. Most of the time your friends would say "Wow you're lucky!" Sometimes you get the whole "you're not a man until you go to the military" type thing, but that would probably be from old Korean 아저씨's

There are different services out there. Hyunwoo did an Audio Blog once about serving in the subway stations. Hyunwoo himself served using his English skills. So there are a ton of non-traditional positions out there. They all have their benefits, and cons as well. Some are chosen by luck, and some are chosen by test score (English tests, etc).

For Korean stars,I heard that 원빈 (Wonbin) went and left after a few weeks cause his leg was injured. But everyone was saying that he was given special treatment because of his status as a Korean celebrity. Don't know whatever happened to him though.

We'll try to fit in a culture class on the military, ASAP! It was a lesson that we really wanted to do as well, but we just haven't found the time, or personnel to do it yet.