Advancement (?) of Civilization

Well, it's been a busy week of doing almost nothing -- at work, anyway. The evenings were pretty much filled: Monday, I had to go find some English books for some kids I'm tutoring now. Tuesday, there was a dinner for one of the teams in the consular section, which Tahra had been on. Wednesday, I met with the aforementioned kids to teach them some English. Thursday, I met with my long-time student as usual. Tonight, I meet with the hairdresser whom I am also tutoring. Makes for a busy schedule, but when I'm pulling in an average of $30+ an hour (range $25 - $50) for speaking in my native language, I'll deal with it.

Alas, I can't think of anything great to write about. I had a few brief flashes of brilliance during the week, and thought "wow, that'd be a great blog entry! I should write about that!" But I have forgotten them all.

It continues to boggle my mind how immature Korean children seem to be compared to "Western" children. I've been in several places (English camps, or even just near schools as they let out for the day) where I've inquired about the age of some of the kids, and I've been astounded to hear that they are several years older than I would have guessed. And that is taking into account the difference in how Koreans count age. Basically, they say you're one right from birth, while we would say you turn one a year after your birth. To complicate it more, some Koreans count age changes with the calendar year -- so if you are born in late December, you start at one and turn two with the new year. So, just after a little more than a year of actual life outside the womb, you'd be three! Anyway, I digress. Granted, I don't have much experience of late with children, but it seems that the 10- and 11-year-old that I'm tutoring these days are more like 6- or 7-year-olds. Or maybe I'm just getting really old.

I would think that civilizations that have been around as long as most Asian civilizations have would be very advanced and mature, having learned so much from their experience over the centuries. But it seems almost the opposite here. It may come from Korea's practice of keeping itself isolated (e.g., the "Hermit Kingdom") for so long, but there are so many superstitions and rigid ways that sometimes I can't help but shake my head in disbelief.

I suppose the true test will be to look at our culture/civilization in another 1,500 years and see how we're doing.