KEY POINTS:
Have you ever wondered about the high number of Asian students who make the top classes and win prizes at our schools? Are those kids naturally academic or are they just hard workers? Hosting two South Korean students has given me an insight into the study habits of some of these children.
At the dinner table this week, my husband asked our students how they had fared in their English vocabulary test that day.
"Not good," said 12-year-old Angela*.
"Not good," said her 10-year-old brother Michael*.
He said he had only spelled four of the 30 vocabulary words correctly.
"So what happens now?" asked my husband.
"We must write out each word 30 times."
After dinner, they went upstairs to do their homework. They sat at their table and neatly wrote out lists of words.
Meanwhile, my children were tackling their homework assignments downstairs in their usual laid-back fashion. My 12-year-old son sat at the dining room table doing his 10 minutes of homework and chatting to anyone who happened to pass by.
My 10-year-old son refused to practise his speech for the upcoming speech competition, declaring he "didn't care". In frustration at the lassitude downstairs compared to the diligence upstairs, I confined him to his bedroom, hoping for a change of attitude.
At 9pm I checked on the progress of our boarders. Many pages were filled with neat script but they were far from finished.
Time for bed, I said to the 10-year-old. My own son was already slumbering below, tired out from a physical game of basketball.
But no, Michael didn't want to go to bed, he wanted to finish his homework. I argued with him that it was too much work and he was young and needed a good night's rest.
"But teacher said I must do it tonight."
I told him I would write a note to the teacher explaining that he was not able to finish his homework because he had to go to bed.
Reluctantly, he obeyed me and hopped in bed. Angela told me that she would finish her homework by 11pm.
Dismayed, I asked her to finish by 10pm.
Michael and Angela spend each evening studying, and that is after a busy day at Remuera Primary School and Remuera Intermediate School, respectively, followed by after-school tuition.
They do not come home until 6pm each day. To top it off, they are attending school in New Zealand during their summer "holidays" in South Korea.
When I complained to their teacher about the amount of homework and late hours, he smiled and said that for Korean children it was "normal".
With a strong economy, South Korea has emphasised education of its young people. Parents spend large sums on extra-curricular education, including language tuition.
But at what price? Its suicide rate has more than doubled in the past decade. In 1995 11.8 per 100,000 took their own lives. In 2005, that figure rose to 26.1 per 100,000, giving it the highest suicide rate of any OECD country.
Figures from the National Statistics Office in South Korea show that more than 1000 young people aged between 10 and 19 years took their own lives between 2000 and 2003.
Sadly, it seems the pressure to study proves to be too much for some of their young people.
But those who can cope are up there collecting the accolades and trophies on prize day.
* Michael and Angela are not their real names.
* Maria de Jong Hurley is a freelance Auckland journalist.
