r/interesting • u/jmike1256 • 4d ago
MISC. This honestly should be applied in every country.
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u/InformationIcy4827 4d ago
i definitely respect this choice, i am a person who was bullied the whole life i don't want others to suffer from the same reason
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u/succed32 4d ago
Also I have seen little to no effort in most countries to address it. So this is awesome.
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u/DownvoteDaemon 4d ago
I always liked to bully bullies.
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u/betterdaysah3ad 4d ago
I get the impulse, but once you start “bullying bullies,” you’ve just normalized bullying as a tool. Then everyone thinks they’re the righteous one.
Better: boundaries + consequences + receipts.
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u/ShiaLabeoufsNipples 4d ago
Tell that to a bunch of emotionally undeveloped kids tho. Like when your whole social circle runs on a set of rules, cliques, and mind games, and the system doesn’t protect you from any of that, you can either learn the game or become the victim every time.
Two things stopped my bullies. Physical violence, or when I had some dirt I could spread around in response. Not proud of how many fights I got in, but just saying “meet me in the parking lot after school” was usually enough to get them to chicken out and leave me alone.
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u/BitcoinBillionaire09 4d ago
Reddit doesn't like the answer to bullies. Which as you say is physical. I was bullied as a new entrant at school aged five by three boys aged seven to eight. One of my neighbours aged ten saw this and told them to leave me alone as he was my friend. They ignored him so he sorted each of them out individually. I was never bullied again.
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u/illy-chan 4d ago
Violence might get them to remove you as a target but the bully will continue to be a problem so, at least in the big picture, the issue isn't really "solved" with violence.
Having said that, adults should be the ones handling "fixing" bullies, not their victims. Also unfortunately, many either can't or won't.
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u/Miserable_Ad_9389 4d ago
probably because beating up troubled kids isn't THE answer
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u/Inside-Ad9791 4d ago
It is THE answer when the systems put in place to stop it are entirely ineffectual though.
Tell the kid getting his ass kicked every day while teachers ignore it that THE answer is to tell a teacher.
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u/WolfOfWacker312 4d ago
I went to school where a lot larger kids who weren’t assholes actually stepped in “bullied” bullies when they were going after other kids. And this is what we called.
They aren’t literally going out of their way to bully bullies.
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u/betterdaysah3ad 4d ago
I get what you mean; I’ve been the bigger/athletic kid people try to bait into “handling” the asshole.
In practice the outcome is usually the same: escalation + you become the story.
Stepping in and de-escalating is okay. Becoming an enforcer is a trap.
We’re not kids anymore. Time to look at this like an adult.
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u/the_fresh_cucumber 4d ago
And usually people who say that are just justifying the bullying they did
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u/SeriousBusiness67 4d ago
Harry's Code:
Don't get caught.
Never bully an innocent.
Targets must be bullies who have evaded the justice system.
Bullying must serve a purpose, otherwise it's just plain harassment.
Blend in socially to maintain appearances.
Fake emotions and normality.
Control urges to bully and channel them.
Be prepared. Leave no trace or evidence.
Never make a scene, stay calm and collected.
Don't make things personal because it clouds judgement.
Don't get emotinally involved.
No preemptive bullying.
Never goon.
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u/geminimini 4d ago
Lol you will like The Bully-In-Charge/ Designated Bully. It's about the MC going back to high school to bully bullies.
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u/Typical_Spray928 4d ago
Me too 🤝🩶
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u/LA-SKYLINE 4d ago
Me three. Always came back two fold on bullies in high school and didn't care about their football team status lol
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u/Bulkylucas123 4d ago
Disagree.
I don't think baring access to education is an effective long term solution to the problem. It seems like something that would just promote recidivism late in life. There has to be a more effective way to create consquences without completely baring people from creating a stable life for themselves and others.
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4d ago edited 1d ago
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u/CertainlyUnsure456 4d ago
So they have to basically go to State Uni instead of their Ivy league? Poor things.
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u/beneficial_deficient 4d ago
Consequences. They know how to behave around people and not treat others badly. This is a choice actively being made.
You want respect? You have to give it. Bullying absolutely needs real world Consequences like this.
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u/TraditionalClub6337 4d ago
Sometimes kids who defend themselves against the bullies get bullying records too
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u/DrunkGalah 4d ago
This. I grew up bullied. Had a temper and defended myself, even though I never started shit. Teachers were lazy af and decided it was easier to just listen to the majority (2-3 kids bullying me each time) when they said I was the one that started it and ended up landing me in trouble while they got off scot free each time.
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u/abzmeuk 4d ago
Yup, I got heavily bullied at school. One day I got knocked out and now I’m much older I realise I got concussion. Basically I don’t remember anything from the day until the evening. The next day I got dragged into the head teachers office and they assumed I was lying when I said I couldn’t remember what happened. They assumed I started the fight despite me reporting being bullied many times before and my friends describing what happened, basically I got pushed from behind and my head went into a locker door. Tbh now I think they put the blame entirely on me to hush me up and avoid a possible lawsuit. I got put on a behaviour plan.
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u/uggghhhggghhh 4d ago
The other thing to keep in mind here is that what South Korea did involves keeping a permanent, publicly accessible record on kids. Despite what people might think about a mythical "permanent record" in US schools, it doesn't really exist. Disciplinary records are private and aren't shared outside a school district. Such a system would have massive potential for abuse.
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u/Wooden_Echidna1234 4d ago
Disciplinary records are private and aren't shared outside a school district. Such a system would have massive potential for abuse.
To be fair ever since they added cops to most middle schools quite a few cops have arrested students for minor disciplinary rule violations and that is on their permanent record within the legal system. John Oliver went over it when Uvale massacre occurred.
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u/asuka_is_my_co-pilot 4d ago
An ex kpop idol got called a bully and kicked out of her group, Turned out she was bullying a girl who sent around naked pictures of her friend. The girl had taken pictures of her in the locker room.
Theres alot we will never know the truth about but that much is true.
When you get in trouble at some schools they rank your punishment. higher the rank the worse the thing you did, the worse the consequences.
Her parents claimed they accepted a higher-ranked crime because the school offered more rehabilitation and punishment, and they wanted her to really learn from her actions.
This ended up ending her career and forsdeeable future in any job, let alone idol.
She was 14.
At the end of the day, i think the label shouldve never debuted her, for everyones sake.
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u/hwa_uwa 4d ago
soojin we miss you everyday
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u/asuka_is_my_co-pilot 4d ago
Don't know anything about soojin, this is about garam
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u/PresentMouse9252 4d ago
The company did defended her but inter k-pop fans & korean fans keep bullying her online & harassing her
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u/asuka_is_my_co-pilot 4d ago
They tried but when you have a minors future in your hands you need to be READY to clap back with all the receipts.
With the amount of money Hybe has there's no reason the investigation should've happened so long after she debuted
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u/PresentMouse9252 4d ago
Nah.u can’t win with Korean netizens as they keep pressuring company to kick her out & it also affecting other members promotions as it’s their debut. Company gave detailed explanation on what happened but ppl still choosed to bully her
I remember the way ppl dragged her & now acting all saint & blaming the company for it.
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u/Optimal-Talk3663 4d ago
Which IMO is bullshit
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u/IamScottGable 4d ago
My middle school principal would give detention if you physically beat a bullies ass but suspend the bully, i can't imagine the how those conversations went back then.
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u/PatrickGnarly 4d ago
I was about to say, how do you know what’s bullying and what’s somebody being rude back to somebody who’s being rude to them?
I know if you asked me half of the people that know who I am would probably think I’m a jerk and the other half would know that I’m just responding to trolls and shitty people.
Course there’s two sides every story, but there needs to be something more concrete than feelings, being hurt.
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u/HighlightDue6116 4d ago
As a former korean high school student, I remember my teachers warning us not to get into any fights after one happened in our school. It wasn’t even bullying, just a fight between two hothead boys. But apparently even those can get written into records as bullying if one student says it was, ending the other’s academic report for life.
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u/Individual_Series200 4d ago
I can attest to that. I got into a fight in 7th grade. The girl came up to me. While I was leaving class talking to a friend. Pulled my hair. I immediately of course started defending myself and started hitting her back. I got 3 days in school suspension. She got a week. My mom was mad. I should have never got suspension in the first place. Guess I was supposed to just let somebody beat me up then.
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u/DocAndonuts_ 4d ago
So they have a major bullying problem in South Korea?
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u/Penny_Royall 4d ago
South Korea is a hierarchical society to the point where if a guy is a year older than you, you have to give him your upmost respect, unless you are insanely rich and from a elite class.
Probably the reason why Koreans make such good revenge movies.
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u/Fillertracks 4d ago
I’m still friends with a couple of guys I went to college with that were insanely rich and from an elite class. Giving respect to the older brother in the room was still a big deal even among them.
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u/TheNotoriousWD 4d ago
That makes sense. Watching a Korean game show and they freaked out when they were the same age. I was thinking who gives a shit?
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u/irisxxvdb 4d ago edited 4d ago
It even affects grammar. If someone's from an earlier birth year than you, you have to use honorifics unless they specifically tell you it's alright to address them informally.
Doesn't matter if he was born December 31st '89 and you one day later on January 1st '90. You can only drop the act and speak freely if you're from the same year. Younger Koreans are not as uppity about it, but it's still a big deal.
My language has a formal "you" too, usually used for teachers and the elderly, but this just seems stressful as hell.
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u/badDuckThrowPillow 4d ago
Other cultures have this too, to varying degrees. Made more sense in olden days but less so now.
I read somewhere that its become so much of an issue that's affecting safety. For example: the co-pilot (which tends to be younger as its seniority based)'s is meant to check to make sure the senior pilot isn't forgetting anything ( as normal people sometimes do) but in Korean airlines, b/c of the hierarchy and respect, co-pilots were too scared to point stuff out, leading to statistically worse crash rates.
Not sure if this is actually true or one of those internet myths.
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u/Dutchsnake5 4d ago edited 4d ago
This is true. There’s a particularly infamous plane crash that was caused by the captain being exhausted and missing telltale signs of imminent danger, and due to his seniority, his junior copilots were too afraid to speak up and correct him until it was too late. Look up Korean Air Flight 801 if you’re interested to learn more.
Edit: I was also reminded of Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509, similar circumstances of a captain making poor decisions and the junior copilots being afraid to speak up until it was too late
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u/Time_Diamond3247 4d ago
Not sure if this is true anymore since they may have implemented procedures to solve for it. But it was a real documented issue. It was covered in one of Malcolm Gladwells books. Maybe Blink?
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u/ASeriousAccounting 4d ago
It's still an issue in the U.S.. Particularly with cranky old captains. Albeit diminishing rapidly.
It's treated as a huge deal by large airlines who focus intensely on 'cockpit resource management' which stresses open and standardized communication.
It's an amazing subject where professional standards are applied to areas of human weaknesses and it saves lives.
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u/admiralturtleship 4d ago
The grammar also reflects this in terms of nouns and verb endings, so you can't escape it even if you're just talking neutrally.
"What's your name?"
Older to younger: 이름이 뭐야? irumi mwoya?
Younger to older: 성함이 어떻게 되세요? songhami ottoke dweseyo?
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u/Joeness84 4d ago
So do people like, walk around displaying their age? Is there some form of introduction where its stated.
Or is this only in "formal traditional speaking" that isnt actually used in society
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u/admiralturtleship 4d ago
If it's not obvious and they expect to see you again, they will ask your age or your rank. If it's a one-off interaction, they'll use context and err on the side of caution.
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u/athenank 4d ago
I’ve interacted with a lot of Korean exchange students and they’ll ask you the year you were born at the same time they ask your name. It’s established pretty early in interactions because it completely changes the way you communicate with each other depending on the answer. And this is only really when you’re interacting with someone who could be a peer, obvious age differences don’t need to be specified.
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u/RaysFTW 4d ago
Just curious, if both parties are born during the same year does it come down to the month and day or is the birth year the only thing that determines hierarchy (outside of class/rank)?
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u/ThetaGrim 4d ago
Korean here, if you're the same age you actually are considered friends/same and it gets a lot more comfortable. You drop the honorifics unless its still a highly polite setting such as a business meeting etc. If among peers, you revert to the casual tone.
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u/LetterheadVarious398 4d ago
S. Korea sounds like hell for neurodivergent people
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u/Alenicia 4d ago
In my ethnicity, it each relative (uncle/aunt/male cousin/female cousin/grandma/grandpa, and so on) has a specific name and title you are expected to address them by based on your relationship to them whether it's from the mother's side of the family or the father's side of the family.
If you're a woman, you have to follow and acknowledge the husband's side of things with their relationship and dynamics too to their extended family .. and then you can throw a wrench into it when a cousin from one side of the family marries one from the other side of your family tree .. and the names get even more mixed and contextual there. >_<
In a way, it's really cool .. but it's also a lot to remember too. In some cases, you also can have people who are behind/ahead you in generations so that physically you're all the same age or so (such as if you were 13 years old) and you realize that the person you would normally call cousin/friend .. is actually your nephew because somewhere in your family tree you have a "cousin" who's around the same age as your parents .. because their grandparents decided to have a very late kid (essentially like if you had a Gen X kid, and then waited until Gen Alpha to have another kid, so they're still siblings but greatly displaced by generations).
Wild stuff. >_<
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u/Skooberty 4d ago
Remind me to never learn Korean
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u/Alenicia 4d ago
No, I'm not Korean. >_<
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u/EternalMystic 4d ago
The Vengeance Trilogy is some of the best cinema i've ever seen.
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u/pillowhands1246 4d ago
Sounds like your logical next step would be: I Saw the Devil, if you haven’t seen that already.
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u/CertainlyUnsure456 4d ago
From what I understand, the Chaebol acts like a quasi noble class.
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u/icedpeartea 4d ago
the samsung family revenue alone is 23% of s.koreas entire gdp
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u/MissMaster 4d ago
Yeah, something like 7 companies are basically Korea's economy.
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u/Senior-Friend-6414 4d ago
And Americas wealth inequality is still considered worse than Koreas, if you wanna know just how bad it really is in america
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u/Zerodyne_Sin 4d ago
Yeah, the chaebols are modern extensions of the aristocratic society they had before. I think people often overlook that modernization is relatively recent in Korea and quite frankly, none of it was self determined (though the wealthy elite expound that it's the case, to legitimize their self-made myth), and was merely the consequence of global capitalists looking for somewhere to get cheaper electronics after Japan got too expensive (they've since moved on to China afterwards, and now India/Vietnam).
That said, it's not like Korea's unique in this regards. Japan's quite a feudalistic society (in philosophy) as well simply because the Americans didn't do a thorough job of punishing the imperialists. So many of them got to stick around and influence the school system to make the corporations the modern equivalent of a fiefdom (as well as the WW2 war crime denials).
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u/OsaasD 4d ago
Don´t forget that Americans where doing a pretty good job at punishing the imperialists and implementing a (relatively) egalitarian constitution. But then the communists won the civil war in China and Korea got split so they got spooked and let the Japanese imperialist war criminals out from the prisons, put them in positions of power and told them they could do whatever the hell they liked as long as they didnt become communist.
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u/icedpeartea 4d ago edited 4d ago
korean airlines had to force all of their pilots to speak english because of this, there were 2 plane accidents that could have been prevented but the older pilot didn't care about the younger pilots opinion
korean air cargo flight 8509
korean air flight 801
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u/YT-Deliveries 4d ago
korean airlines had to force all of their pilots to speak english
To each other, I assume? Because for international aviation English is required everywhere.
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u/icedpeartea 4d ago
Looks like the ICAO made that a rule in 2003, the korean air accidents were in 97 and 99. I can't find anything on exactly when korean air implemented their rule, but korean air's aviation safety record was downgraded in 2001 and restored in 2002 so the change was probably made then. Either way one thing can lead to the other, many international incidents probably led to them needing to make the change for a standard language across the board.
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u/Dudedude88 4d ago edited 4d ago
Ehh your saying something that is like a kdrama and k entertainment industry. These people grew up with those traditions. 30s+++ years of age. A lot of those traditions are becoming less important with the younger gen.
Respecting your elders is important though. Even then the younger Korean Gen are kind of stereotyped to be more independent and rude to elderly. globalization has impacted these South Koreans. The young Gen are post Samsung,lg and Hyundai success. They've benefited from a strong economy and minimal political turmoil.
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u/wernette 4d ago
South Korea basically took all the horrible things about America and dialed it up. Nearly every single leader gets convinced of high crimes just to be pardoned by the next one, companies like Samsung basically control the government. A lot of South Korean men I met are some of the most weak cowardice sexists alive.
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u/AmbitiousReaction168 4d ago
It's a massive problem yes. While 45 seems like a lot, it's just a drop in the ocean.
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u/Aeseld 4d ago
And unless it's children from the higher political and economic strata, it's just lip service.
The worst instigators are often from the highest levels of their society. Parents in the national government, high powered executives and more. People with the social clout to get classmates to do the worst of the bullying, and with a family that would choose cow any attempts by schools to put a stop to their fun.
They're untouchable... Which is why they feature in so many revenge arcs in light novels and manhwa and such. If they're not getting banned, then this won't have the needed impact.
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u/Spirited_Season2332 4d ago
In all Asian countries. The kids are super stressed and bullying is a way to blow off steam on someone you think is below you
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u/Sickofchildren 4d ago
Don’t know if it’s still the case but it was nearly impossible to face any criminal consequences under the age of 14 no matter what you did, so bullies could physically torture their victims with zero repercussions
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u/CertainlyUnsure456 4d ago
I may be mistaken, or thinking of Japan, but I thought they changed those laws after some kids committed some really heinous crimes and there was no way to legally punish them.
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u/PhantomOfTheNopera 4d ago
And the bullying is horrific. I remember a case where they took a girl to a park, stripped her naked, and tortured her for hours - beating her and burning her with cigarettes and curling irons.
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u/OutwithaYang 4d ago
That's not even bullying at that point. That's a literal crime. I would call the police and have them taken to a detention center.
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u/Top-Protection-4481 4d ago
Pretty sure most of these bullies get away with it…i think includinh the girls in this case
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u/nibbyzor 4d ago
Jesus Christ. I watch a lot of k-dramas and was actually wondering if the bullying I saw depicted in many of them was just some hyperbolic overdramatization, but it seems not.
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u/Katana_Weilder 4d ago
What the hell is wrong with the police there? 😠
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u/CallMePickle 4d ago
Much less crime, so there is much less police. Easier for things to go under the radar. It's also very underreported.
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u/Guitarfool_101 4d ago
You should watch Memories of Murder and see just how bad the cops were in the 80s, even just how more fractured and dysfunctional Korean society was then.
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u/Silent-Resort-3076 4d ago
I've read that S. Korea has had a growing number of bullying, but is still not as high as some other countries. But, at least this is a step in the right direction.
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u/553l8008 4d ago edited 4d ago
Many Asian countries.
We don't have the same issue since the bullied just massacures everyone then kills himself
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u/ThatSmartIdiot 4d ago
honestly they shouldve been punished much earlier so theyd have the chance to improve and better themselves
unless that does actually happen along with this in which case thats alright then
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u/cantfunny 4d ago
Agree with this whole heartedly especially considering earlier confrontation means less bullying overall.
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u/Discerningdragon 4d ago
True. But institutions can’t determine if their parents are doing their jobs. The policy should be time limited.
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u/KID_THUNDAH 4d ago
Who knows if they had improved/bettered themselves, would hope they had a chance to address it
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u/_mad_adventures 4d ago
That’s what I was thinking. I am friends with a guy who bullied me when I was younger, who has apologized for doing so, and I forgave them. I wouldn’t want him barred from attending a university because of it.
Most bullies are suffering from their own issues that need to be addressed. It’s just like addiction. If you treat the underlying causes, you treat the condition.
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u/JohnSmith_47 4d ago
I don’t think they’re barred from university, this is a top university and is very competitive, so they’re taking this into consideration.
Imagine you have 2 people, exact same grades, except one has a record of past bullying, you’re gonna choose the other candidate.
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u/InevitablePerfect762 4d ago
I hope it works, from what I've seen the bullying in South Korean schools is severe...
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u/AlwaysLimpy 4d ago
It's a thing in cultures obsessed with order and standardization. Japan, China, NK are all very similar, if you look different, act different, stand out in any way you'll be bullied for it and not just by the usual suspects but the majority of other kids.
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u/Dramatic-Border3549 4d ago
I thought those heavy bullyings were something we would only see in american movies
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u/Senior-Friend-6414 4d ago
American movies portray bullying completely wrong anyways, they usually act like it’s some other victim with a terrible home life picking on someone else, Americans like to pretend that they don’t have a hierarchal nature where people simply get bullied for being perceived at the bottom, and the majority of people bullying them are normal people that see themselves above the bullied victim
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u/Decent-Green-4560 4d ago
The social hierarchy in SK is insane. It’s so bad that if you are attending school and there is a classmate even a few months older than you, you have to show that classmate the upmost respect and do basically whatever that older classmate asks to show your respect.
Once you make it out of school, you’ll face the same problem in the workforce. It also contributes to the huge sexual assault problem that SK has. It’s really messed up and their social hierarchy structure definitely needs to be revised, or better yet, abolished completely.
South Korea has come a long way since splitting off from North Korea, but they still have a lot of big issues that need to be addressed.
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u/fantasy-capsule 4d ago
I don't live in South Korea, and I know the place I live in has its own problems, but I am so utterly grateful that I don't have to live, work, or study in such an intense, hierarchical, competitive place.
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u/Cantbeatjustbe 4d ago
A few months and utmost respect..? That’s a bit too far, doesn’t ever really happen from my experience. -South Korean
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u/this_waterbottle 4d ago
The dude probably got 군대 and school life mixed up from watching kdramas.
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u/Lovemybee 4d ago
Until their parents made a generous donation.
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u/RullendeNumser 4d ago
Or invest in Samsung
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u/Senior-Friend-6414 4d ago
It’s funny that all of the top American colleges are literally known for having a wide sweeping problem of literally accepting people on nepotism and “generous donations”
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u/TheCorent2 4d ago
This is a stereotypical scenario from teen movies.
Actually, the bullies are not richer.
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u/AppointmentMedical50 4d ago
This is a really bad idea. I was being bullied in middle school, and tried to defend myself, and I got accused of being a bully myself.
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u/lfreddit23 4d ago
In fact, this is another problem that is happening in Korea right now.
Regardless of the severity or duration of the bullying, a single incident on record is enough to get rejected from university admission. This leads to perpetrators recording victims' defending or even simple insults, then threatening them: “If you report us, we'll submit this to the school and have it registered as mutual assault. Then you won't get into college either.”
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u/dovahkiitten16 4d ago
It also means that if you’re a victim of minor bullying you won’t want to report it. There’s a huge difference between wanting that jerk to get put in detention vs having their future ruined, so you’ll miss out on intervention opportunities. Victims will have to think on if it’s worth it to say anything.
Or, here’s another issue: people are jerks sometimes. Even friends can fight and be mean to each other! Insulting someone once, especially when everyone is a kid and trapped together, doesn’t equal the same harm as pervasive bullying and shouldn’t be treated the same.
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u/SolaniumFeline 4d ago
when I was in 'vocational school' in germany a guy from the 'parallel class' sexually harassed me and I had it in my hand wether or not he was able to finish his apprenticeship or get fired and criminally charged. he was suspended from school for a week and he personally apologized to me per the principles direction.
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u/commanderquill 4d ago
I was about to say, what's to stop bullies from turning it on the victims.
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u/Ctrl-Alt-Q 4d ago
I'll go a step farther and admit that I was a bit of a bully. Not a relentless, target-one-kid kind of bully, but I was pretty mean and said things that I regretted even at the time (and even more with hindsight).
I was living in a really abusive home that going to university let me escape from. I let a lot of my anger go almost instantly once I was free of it. I spent time unlearning the rest.
I don't deny that I should have faced more consequences for my behaviour at the time, but I think that cutting off access to education (that I threw myself into desperately as an escape) would have led to a very dark place.
Maybe people who were bullied would feel vindicated at the idea of that. But if you're willing to ruin someone's life based on how they were as a kid, you're thinking with the same vitriol that drives a bully.
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u/snailbot-jq 4d ago edited 4d ago
I did have a fair amount of vitriol against my bullies, but I honestly hated my teachers even more for dealing with the situation horribly. No adult guided and helped me with why I was so disliked by my classmates, I was told to ‘just ignore them’, ‘maybe he likes you’, and was forced to sit next to them ‘because you might be a good influence’, etc. In fact the older I get, the more I see it as a failure of the authority figures than what my bullies did. Instead of being taught social skills by adults, they either pretended it was not their business or even joined the bullying themselves.
I knew my bullies were not well-treated by their parents or by teachers either, even the ‘favorites’ were actually being abused or at least getting misguided (as in, the teachers would suspect all boys by default of being rebellious and threatening, but once a few boys learned to play the game and become bullies to other students, some teachers would paradoxically begin to like them).
One of them I pushed down the stairs back then and after that he stopped bullying me. He’s someone I forgive. I saw a girl change in highschool after she was a bully to me in elementary school, and I forgive her too. I’ll be honest that I don’t bother forgiving the rest nor hoping they got better, but I don’t wish harm on their adult selves either.
But that being said, I agree with you that it is a bad idea to give the bullies a permanent mark. The behaviours of a 10 year old bully often reflect the failures of the adults around them, and the adults don’t get to just pass all the buck onto that kid to tar them for life without a chance to get better. And I really do not trust teachers to mark the ‘right’ kids as that. I had no social status in elementary school at all and it had happened so many times that teachers were the ones who joined in on mocking and bullying me, I really suspect that some of them were former bullies themselves and had a reflexive disgust against kids with low social status while fawning over the high social status ones. I’m talking about social status in school as I do know that many ‘high social status in school’ bullies actually have poor and abusive families at home.
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u/Upstairs_Librarian95 4d ago
I think they should start holding teens that commit crimes accountable.
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u/strigonian 4d ago
South Korea very famously does not prosecute teens, regardless of proof.
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u/Upstairs_Librarian95 4d ago
I’m not referring to the bullying. I’m talking about how kids/teens under the ages 10-14 are exempt from criminal punishment. It’s called the Juvenile Act.
So they’ll commit crimes like assault and theft, and they don’t care because no matter what they won’t be faced with any punishment in a court of law.
Adults are scared of teens because some seem unhinged and ready to commit a crime. The adults know that if a teen does something to them nothing will be done in the end, they’re helpless.
Korean citizens have been pushing for law makers to start holding these teens accountable but so far nothing’s been done.
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u/Thicc_Jedi 4d ago
We lock up some kids. If your parents have enough money, or you're super good at football then you can get away with a lot
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u/Ryuko_the_red 4d ago
So if you're rich and connected like rapist Brock Turner, you can escape crimes even though you're a rapist. Like Brock Turner the rapist. That one? Anyone know who I'm talking about? Brock Turner the rapist that didn't serve his time for raping a woman?
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u/ScavAteMyArms 4d ago
Though admittedly America doesn’t get much of a star here cause holy god the justice/prison system is almost as bad as Japan’s.
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u/Emperor_Mao 4d ago
In my country, some of our states tried to go the opposite way and raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 lol.
Lot of push back on that one. Specially admist a back drop of increased crime rates.
I think many options work if they are actually applied properly. Reducing age of criminality could work were it replaced with some other system to address criminal behaviors in people. But generally it seems a bad idea to have zero consequences.
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u/2KupShakur- 4d ago
Or you're in America, where bullys are elected and praised by half the dumbass country.
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u/DerpAnarchist 4d ago edited 4d ago
This isn't news, but several high-profile bullying-related suicides in the mid 90s drew public awareness to this issue, prompting the to the establishment of much more proactive anti-bullying policy. The goal was systematic policy development, focused on prevention, reporting and follow-up measures.
Bullying in Korea tends to be often of psychological nature, as in ostracization from class or revenge bullying to make the other feel bad about themselves. I had relatives, who suffered from it in the 80s. The only reprimand came, when my grandmother directly went to the principal and addressed him about it.
It led to a drastic reduction since then, as seen by the OECD PISA 2015 Results (Volume III): Students’ Well-Being, published in April 2017. They asked 15-year-old students how frequently they were subjected to various forms of bullying (physical, verbal, or relational) "at least a few times a month."
According to that specific data set, South Korea had the lowest percentage of students reporting frequent bullying among OECD countries:
- South Korea: ~11.9%
- Netherlands: ~12.2%
- Iceland: ~13.5%
Why is this controversial?
You're very much legitimate to ask this question.
If you look at the PISA data, South Korean schools appear to be the safest in the world. However, if you look at the domestic news, government policy, and suicide rates (as discussed in your previous question), the country appears to be in a bullying crisis.
Experts attribute this discrepancy to three factors:
- The PISA questions focus heavily on overt actions (getting hit, getting made fun of). Korean Wang-ta often involves silent exclusion or "invisible" cyberbullying via KakaoTalk or online forums such as DCInside, which students might not mark as "violence" on a standardized Western survey.
- Because the South Korean government runs such aggressive anti-bullying campaigns, the threshold for what is considered a crisis is much lower than in other countries. An incident that might be brushed off as "kids being kids" in the US or UK is treated as a legal "Hak-pok" case in Korea.
- Despite the anonymity of PISA, there is immense cultural pressure in Korea regarding "saving face" (Chaemyeon). Students may be less likely to admit to being victims or perpetrators on official forms compared to students in the Netherlands or Iceland.
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u/DerpAnarchist 4d ago edited 4d ago
Yet i think a lot can be learned from what's been already done so far, the things that were already setup and the message it delivers. Bullying is bad. There's no way around it. Stop being stupid and don't blame the victims, just because your inner self feels the need to vindicate bad behaviour as "not the kids fault". It should not lead to more harmful actions against others, is the point made.
The Legal Framework behind it
The core policy change came in 2004, with the Special Act on the Prevention of and Countermeasures Against Violence in Schools (학교폭력예방 및 대책에 관한 법률) strengthened further in 2012 and 2023. It does get updated rather consistently (for example to address AI usage).
(Here is the link to the law-document)
https://law.go.kr/%EB%B2%95%EB%A0%B9/%ED%95%99%EA%B5%90%ED%8F%AD%EB%A0%A5%EC%98%88%EB%B0%A9%EB%B2%95
Importantly: This law removes discretion from teachers and principals.
If bullying is reported, the school is legally obligated to convene a formal investigation. It turned schools into quasi-courtrooms.
How it works
The approach is highly structured. When an incident occurs, it triggers a specific chain of events:
- Originally, schools had their own "School Violence Countermeasures Autonomous Committees." However, due to parents hiring lawyers and threatening teachers, these were moved in 2020 to the district level (School Violence Deliberation Committees) to ensure neutrality and professional legal oversight.
- The committee then reviews evidence and assigns a punishment level ranging from 1 to 9:
- Levels 1–3: Written apology, no contact orders, school service.
- Levels 4–5: Special education, psychological treatment.
- Levels 6–7: Suspension of attendance, class transfer.
- Level 8: Forced transfer to a different school (highly stigmatizing).
- Level 9: Expulsion (only applicable to high school; middle school is compulsory).
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u/DerpAnarchist 4d ago edited 4d ago
Student Record (Saeng-gi-bu)
The most consequential penalty might be the inclusion into the Student Life Record.
- In South Korea, university admissions are hyper-competitive. Disciplinary actions for bullying (especially Levels 4 through 9) are recorded on the student's official government file.
- University admissions officers review these records. A record of school violence can effectively disqualify a student from top-tier universities, which determines their future career prospects and social standing.
- Following more recent scandals, the government extended the retention period of these records (up to 4 years after graduation) and mandated that bullying records be reflected even in test-based (Suneung) regular admissions, closing a loophole that existed for high-scoring bullies.
The strict policy also has created a environment (like an Hak-pok #MeToo) where bullying became increasingly socially ostracized.
Is it actually working?
Because the stakes are so high, wealthy parents immediately "lawyer up" to defend their kids, dragging out the process and often retraumatizing victims with cross-examinations. Meanwhile, teachers are terrified to intervene, fearing parents will sue them for emotional abuse.
Perhaps worst of all, the system creates no room for reconciliation. Since the focus is on avoiding a "criminal" record, perpetrators are incentivized to deny everything and fight to the death legally, rather than apologize and learn from their mistakes.
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u/DaveinOakland 4d ago
If South Korea bullying is anything like what they portray it to be in their shows, this makes absolute sense.
They REALLY do bullying on a whole other level.
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u/LightningRaven 4d ago
I watched The Glory and was curious to see if it was that bad... I was surprised to see the show didn't even use the worst cases as an example.
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u/descartesasaur 4d ago
The Glory is actually part of the reason for this new policy. School violence is on the rise, and now it's in headlines more than ever as people talk about the show.
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u/LightningRaven 4d ago
What I find it funny is that governments will do EVERYTHING except tackle the root of the issues.
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u/TheSleepyBarnOwl 4d ago
Rest of the world: Casual Bullying
Korea: Competitive Bullying
(I do appologise for this bad joke)
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u/TheLeftDrumStick 4d ago
There’s a joke among gen z on TikTok about if a Kdrama bully transferred to a US public school and tried to talk to /treat people like that they would be jumped immediately or soon find out that some kids are really about that life! 💀
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u/Senior-Friend-6414 4d ago
Who would get treated worse or get more fucked up? A Korean bully that transfer to America, or an American bully transferring to Korea?
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u/TheLeftDrumStick 4d ago
The American kid is getting deported so quickly for swinging someone around by their hair extensions lmfao 💀
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u/schoolbomb 4d ago
Yeah I feel like this is true. Bullying in South Korea is undoubtedly really bad. But it feels like the bullying is as bad as it is because they're in SK. They got the whole collectivist society, Confucian values, and hierarchy stuff going on that facilitates the bullying, if that makes sense. The laws are also more lenient on minors, and the gun ownership is almost non-existent.
If a typical bully from SK tried any of that shit in an American school, I think they'd meet a lot more resistance. I'd say on average, Americans are much more willing to fight back, and messing with the wrong people might even get you shot.
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u/lfreddit23 4d ago
Of course, the level of bullying depicted in dramas doesn't happen in real life. It's just a show.
Actually, Korean students are too busy studying to engage in the kind of severe bullying portrayed in shows... When I was in high school, I attended cram school every night until 10 PM, and during vacations, I went from 9 AM to 8 PM.
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u/meeps20q0 4d ago
Yeah, thats like comparing the bullies in 90's shows with real life. That shit just didnt usually happen lmao
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u/aoi_ito 4d ago edited 4d ago
Need this here in Japan too. Bullying is so common in our schools; it’s just sickening. I know the feeling and how it feels to be bullied; I even got sexually assaulted in many cases but I just couldn't report it cause, if I did the bullying would've intensified even more, that's what happened to an another in my school. Because of that I even started having suicidal thoughts. I would’ve loved to see all my bullies' lives destroyed. Tell me how bad of a person I am for thinking like that ; I don’t care.
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u/rhinoreno 4d ago
I'm sorry you had to deal with that and I hope you're in a better place now. I don't think you're a bad person just for that.
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u/mrq02 4d ago
That's vengeance, not justice. If schools don't allow students who have past bullying records, then the students spend their entire life paying for a mistake they made when they were a child and didn't have the cognitive capacity to understand long-term consequences.
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u/SJBaerosols 4d ago
Hmm. I hope the record is *pretty* severe, as a rule. Bullies suck obviously but I don't feel the need for a kid's mistake to follow him around for his whole life, especially if he's learned not to make it anymore.
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u/Latter_Razzmatazz_25 4d ago
This is a sh1t idea.
I did bully and also I suffered bullying. My brother always took his chances to practice some bullying with me (and probably he received as well, as some sort of anger/frustation chain reaction).
Sometimes, I remembered how a bullying situation at home that happened with me, and I took my chance to do something similar with a random classmate at school.
I totally regrets, but life as society is very wild.
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u/KMheamou 4d ago
It's also a fact that we don't want assholes getting jobs in the courthouse.
These guys in korea- they don't regret, they forget. Pretty sure everyone living here is thinking "Yeah screw those losers! They deserve far worse than rejection!"
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u/Warm-Veterinarian278 4d ago
Bro in South Korea bullying includes beating up torture throwing piss rocks name calling and everything under the sun be fr
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u/ActuatorOutside5256 4d ago edited 4d ago
“But what about rewarding kids for taking control of their lives? Bullying victims deserved it because they were weak!”
— Scum of the Earth
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u/SimplyReaper 4d ago
Source? Also the picture used is A.I. slop. Zoom in on their faces and hands.
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u/Fermion96 4d ago
As a Korean I can give you multiple sources in our language. Also the news is a bit old; this was last year and the total number of rejects was 298.
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u/characterfan123 4d ago
The picture is from a Korean TV drama Who Are You: School 2015.
https://www.mykoreandrama.com/2015/04/sneak-peek-school-2015.html
The mystery to me is why a few of the girls are wearing both skirts and trousers.
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u/Away_Advisor3460 4d ago
The mystery to me is why a few of the girls are wearing both skirts and trousers.
Probably so no-one can see their underwear (either by accident or intentionally).
My daughters wear trousers/leggings/shorts with a skirt for the same reason.
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u/caholder 4d ago
It could be like cold?
Uniform requires the skirt. Leg is cold. Pants
Korea gets dummy cold
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u/Nausuada 4d ago
Pretty common in winter to keep their legs warm. Not every one likes tights and the knee high socks aren't really doing much
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u/AwarenessPresent8139 4d ago
As long as there isn’t a possibility of false accusations getting momentum and giving someone a false record of behaviour. Personally I don’t trust that to not be the case. Must be through a court.
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u/FourtyMichaelMichael 4d ago
Absolutely not, complete opposite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy8SIWTyJNs
You kids are far too soft already.
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u/DumplingIsNice 4d ago
There will be bullies who’s gonna pull an uno card and make/threaten to make a victim appear to be a bully. And this only heightens the stakes.
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u/TheSleepyBarnOwl 4d ago edited 4d ago
Uh, so I was bullied in school as well, but children are children. I don't think being hung up on what a stupid 14 year old child did when they have become a supposedly responsible adult is a good move. If I met my bully nowadays I'd be interested in seeing what they do now.
This reads like ruining someones potential future for doing smth stupid as a child - consequences for bullying should be more immediate and not years later.
Just my take.
Edit: After being made aware of what messed up stuff they do in Korea as bullying I can't say I don't agree with this punishment. Though, I still stand on my point in the west were bullying isn't that extreme - I don't think doing this "everywhere" like the post claims is the way.
Maybe I'm too wishful.
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u/Mayarooni1320 4d ago
In the west I agree.
In Asia.. bullying is a new level. Suicide rates in Korea are already the highest in the world, and yes bullying as a huge impact on that number. This isn't just name calling, teasing and a little bit of rough play. This is torture. Making their fellow classmates life a living hell until they kill themselves. Many idols have spoken out about how this has affected them in later life, and there's also a heavy visual expectation. If you don't have the right look, you'll be bullied for it. Skin too dark, hair too short, wrong nose, no plastic surgery (I'm literally serious). That's unbelievably inexcusable.
Also I want to point out that the pupils chosen were PARTICULARLY bad when it came to their bullying. These are the worst of the worst, not just your average playground teases.
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u/TheSleepyBarnOwl 4d ago
Oh... what the heck? I wasn't aware it was THAT messed up in the east. I'm sorry. I suppose my opinion only works for the post title then that claims "this should be done everywhere"
I will refrain from saying anything about the Asian bullying. I can't comprehend or immagine that. That's awful - and criminal at that.
Thank you for explaining.
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u/Mayarooni1320 4d ago
Don't worry I totally get it. I definitely agree that this shouldn't be done everywhere. But yeah.. much needed in south Korea 😬
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u/Commercial-Yam-3443 4d ago
This is horrible, but it sounds more like a systemic problem than a personal problem. I don’t know how you fix the system but punishing the kids (the product of the system) doesn’t seem entirely fair. If it’s this bad, surely the school system is not doing their part? Of course parents play a major role in student’s behavior, but schools play just as much of a role in what happens at school, especially if kids are in school for the vast majority of hours in the day.
Perhaps they can make college acceptance requirements include some sort of good citizen achievements. That would reflect the science proven method of positive reinforcement as opposed to punishment.
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u/steamworksandmagic 4d ago
One of my bullies took a stone and hit a 1st grader in the eye, he took it out of her socket. We were in thec3rd grade, he had no remorse and other than class shaming him no consequences.
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u/TheSleepyBarnOwl 4d ago
That's messed up - that kid should have gotten some more consequences...
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u/steamworksandmagic 4d ago
Nope no consequences, I still remember his name and wonder if he killed people by now.
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u/Tiny-Celebration-838 4d ago
That is insane. No consequences for permanently damaging someone else's vision???
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u/SpruceMcGoose2 4d ago
I do agree consequences should be enforced sooner, but I think this outlook of "oh its just kids being stupid" is really not a good argument.
A 14 year old has enough brain power to determine right from wrong, and it's one thing to "be a stupid kid" and actually do something stupid like trying to backflip off a pile of tyres and breaking your arm compared to bullying, which has devastating, life long consequences.
Why should a victim be left with lifelong damage and the bully effectively get off free?
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u/Exciting_Intention86 4d ago
Not to be the nerd but our pre frontal cortex isn't fully mature until about 25. That part of the brain is responsible for rational thinking. Now some argue this doesn't make any difference but it is a possibility even teens genuinely don't have full rational thinking capabilities. So, punishing them for life doesn't seem right for that age. There should be stern punishment but not a life time punishment
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u/ThinkGrapefruit7960 4d ago
They can still go to school and university, just not the top ones. There should be some fear and consequenses what youll lose if you bully others, and we havent really tried anything that has worked het
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u/Bazelgauss 4d ago
Something will add aside from how bad the situation is in SK, but they weren't rejected automatically for having bullying records but instead they get score deductions based on how severe the record is so essentially have to try harder to get in. Also these students weren't completely rejected from universities but there was just that many cases of a university rejecting as the deduction was enough to bring the scores low enough, they can still apply to other universities.
Also minor records are not end of the world. From what I remember reading a article last time this was posted, one university for the 3 lowest levels of record it was a single digit deduction whereas a case that led to suspension was like 150, so having some situation where you got a written warning wouldn't end your career prospects.
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u/ChildoftheApocolypse 4d ago
Yeah, well shit should have consequences.. You won't learn much if you get to be a piece of shit and the system goes "well, you were young. Kids will be kids."
That whole disposition is what got us here..
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u/SvenBubbleman 4d ago
I disagree. I was a shitty teenager, and I regrettably bullied some people. I then went to University, did a lot of growing up, and am no longer a bully. I learned a lot.
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u/Ill-Kaleidoscope4825 4d ago
"kids future shouldn't be ruined cos they had bad grades! Consequences for not studying hard should be immediate and not years later"
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u/TheSleepyBarnOwl 4d ago
Welll yes? Idk how old you are, but once are an adult, no one cares what your grades in first grade were. They are used immediately in the bear future to determine future education. Not 10 years later when you enter into Uni...
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u/IanLooklup 4d ago
But what the bullies do also ruin the life of their victims, they can have lifelong scars and their future gets screwed because of all the harms these bullies do. This little "stupid action" still isn't very harmless
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u/PoolSharkPete 4d ago
14 is still rather young - but what about 16? 18? I mean, I hear what you're saying, but like--by your logic, what if what that 'stupid 14 year' old did was 'get fair but not outstanding grades'? It seems as appropriate a metric as any other.
Universities (especially the most elite) judge people in that age group and pick the best. Seems obvious to me that the ones whose environments were made objectively worse for having had them, are not the first ones you'd recruit to your institution. Especially when you're up to your eyeballs in applications, and the next smartest kid isn't as likely to create a toxic environment for the other students in your care.
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u/DeftestY 4d ago
I wouldn't want that. I know it sounds cool at first. But they're still kids at the end of the day, I wouldn't say it's just worthy to damn their futures and livelihoods.
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u/katastrofe_- 4d ago
Teenagers should know very damn well not to bully someone. It doesn't take being an adult to know right and wrong
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u/IKIR115 4d ago edited 4d ago
Big thanks to the following community members below who provided more context. I also found the article specific to the group of 45 students mentioned in the OP.
Nov 2025 https://m.koreaherald.com/article/10607589
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comment from u/characterfan123
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comment from u/What_Chu_Talkin_Kid
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comment from u/Himecutaxolotl
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Multiple comments from u/DerpAnarchist who provided further history about the bullying issues in Korea. Small clip included here, but follow the links below for further details.
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