Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Happy Election Day

Today's Election Day and it's a national holiday here. The students get a day off school and the teachers get a day to go to the polls. The country will decide between Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in. Park represents the ruling Saenuri party and Moon's backed by the Democratic United Party. Also, there's a vote for Seoul Superintendent of Education.

Everything I've seen and heard points to this being an important day in Korean politics. I don't pretend to know many of the talking points, but today could mean a turning point for the country's policies on education, including the foreign English teachers living here. More on this later.

Both presidential candidates' campaigns have come to Wasu, though neither actually visited in person. Below you can see the Park Geun-hye campaign and the ajumma ladies between dances. Yes, dances. They like dancing to a style of Korean music called 7080, or as I call it, noraebang music.

Fun facts: The Korean president serves for 5 years and cannot be reelected.

Park Geun-hye is the daughter of the late president Park Chung-hee, the man largely responsible for the country's rapid economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s.

Let the best candidate win.

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