Wow, I don’t respond for once during a day of work and when I come back about five other (much more qualified) people come in and respond.
Anyway, just to reinforce the importance of education: when I used to go to Korea when I was in middle school, I often wouldn’t see my cousins during the week. They’d leave for school early, and after school was over they’d have the extra-schooling outside of that, not coming back until 11 or so. They also go to school on Saturdays, although it’s a shorter day. There’s a saying that goes something like this: 4 hours of sleep a night = not getting into any school. 3 hours = an okay school. 2 hours = good school, and 1 hour = best school. It’s a joke, but it’s got a kernel of truth in it.
Regarding the US: yeah, there is a lot of anti-American sentiment, particularly among the students. I haven’t read a Korean newspaper in a long time, but my dad does all the time, and it makes him mad. I think that a lot of the older generations think that the younger kids don’t realize how much they owe the US. And of course, there’s the general levels of anti-US in the world.
Oh, and who says giant robots don’t cause much destruction? That’s just shows you the quality of the Cataclysmic Police Squad. Apartments and buildings down one day, rebuilt the next.
Oh, and cell phones are huge in Korea. Everybody has one. And pretty much everyone has broadband connections too. Dial-up is stone age. My cousins were shocked when they came over and we were still using a modem.