You see, Korea is fundamentally Pygmalion. The Pygmalion effect is the idea that by setting expectations high, these expectations are more likely to be met. But in Korea, expectations are indefensibly high. This tool is used to pry workers away from their wages -- just like in the states. However, students in Korea also experience this lifestyle. A consistent, amassing set of expectations are placed on students. Once a student has achieved the next level, instead of a reward, another step manifests itself. This is a pervasive aspect of American business culture that has proliferated throughout the world, and in the sad case of Korea, into the classroom.
Expectations inhibit reward. If expectations are met, there is no need to reward anyone. However, when expectations are exceeded, there is an apparent need to reward those who achieved them. If expectations are persistently high, where lies reward?
Typically, I'd default into blaming our culture for destroying these poor bastards lives, but greater forces are at work here. The self-efficacy of a Korean is broken by their culture. The culture of family. Don't misunderstand my intentions. I believe family is very important and a strong family is a recipe for moral and social success. Still, what almost all Koreans feel is a need to satisfy their elders. I don't understand why the weak and decrepit ones dictate society in Korea. It doesn't seem sociologically possible. Examples of this are rare in history and nearly absent in nature. Still, it is prevalent -- beyond prevalent -- it is ubiquitous. Self-efficacy is squelched by family. Obligations to earn a pittance of three USD per hour for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week eviscerate any hopes, dreams, desires, or personality. Perhaps Koreans feel trapped as a gear in a great, overbearing mechanism over which they have no control, but they don't seem to show any signs of faltering.
Can't you see how such a self-fulfilling prophecy is cyclical? A Korean is born into expectations, that are subverted into obligations until the death of all elder relatives. There is a constant sacrifice. As obligations to parents subside, obligations to children (which are inversely expectations) are subsumed. Neither obligation is rewarding, leading to the anticipation of reward in old age. Anticipation and expectations turn the old man dour.
But still, ask your elders if they feel unsatisfied in their age. Ask them if they still feel like you owe them something or ought to usher them to their graves.
Rosenthal was an idiot. Expectations breed contempt, not satiation.
