Road to being smart: an old story

There was Joseon Dinasty (a.k.a Chosun Dinasty) on the Korean peninsula for 512 years (1392-1910). It was a father-to-son monarchy, and its governing philosophy was Confucianism.
Based on that 'ism', there was a way to rate jobs. 'Sa-nong-gong-sang' is the term in Korean.
FIrst, 'sa' looks almost like 'white-collar workers'. They had to pass a national exam applying for a government officer. The exam was to test how deeply the applicants understand Confucianism. The exam takers made a poem as well as an essay about the subject. Students had to prepare the exam for 10 years on average--some genii used to shorten it, though.
'Nong' means agriculture. As it was before the industrial revolution, they knew how farming is important. So, they said 'Nong-ja-cheon-ha-ji-dae-bon', Farmers form the basis of all. However, farmers were still lower than 'white-collars'.
'Gong' says about industry. Craft workers were relatively considered less important. They had to show appropriate manners when meeting with, talking to the 'sa'.
'Sang' at the bottom is to merchants. Workers in commercial areas were considered low-born. They were often called as 'things' that it was normally natural for them to be treated bad.
Then, the order of status was 'office workers-farmers-craft workers-merchants'.
I'm not talking about 'discrimination' but giving you a background to understand what 'being smart' is like in Korea. Let me go on a bit later.

Not likely to love Japan

All Korean people might know they aren't likely to love Japan which is right next country to their's. However, almost the rest of the world might not.
As you know, Japan is one of the best-known Asian country to all round the world. Not merely I would rate Japan as 2nd ranker on the world ladder, but also many other Koreans would.
So, In public, it looks natural that they say Japan is leading this world in fact, Japan is showing a great performance in many areas it takes part in, and Japan will be on top otf the world, etc.
Though, a different thing happens in reality. Korean people have a tendency to pretend as they are cool seeing Japan's achievement. But they are really aggressive especially on things with Japan.
Japan has been seeking a 'gate' to get out of the island, because they wanted better living conditions like weather, fertility, and land stableness--earthquakes usually prefer Japan to Korea, China.
So, if Japan wanted 'a step to the land', the first one would always be on the Korean peninsula. Needlessly to research history, you will imagine how many bloody events had happened between Korea holding the the key to the land and Japan desiring it.
The historical atmosphere is like above in brief. Let me go on telling about Korea catching up Japan. What Koreans have deep in mind is to beat Japan up eventually. When it's time for a soccer game Korea vs. Japan, it becomes a nationally-serious event. Koreans lose other concentration than that to this game, the game winner is almost evething winner who holds the samile in the very next morning.
In the industry, If Sony is leading the world electronics market, Samsung quickly outruns. Japan used to be the no.1 in LCD(liquid crystal display) market, but it's not like that anymore thanks to Korea. Sometimes Japan is too busy competing with top 5s to worry about Korea way back there. But Korea would rather want to take the present no.1 Japan down to sit there.
Korean people take the fact that they are now in about 10th or lower, the while Japan is in 2nd or 3rd. But they don't lose the pride as if they're already no.1. They believe they are the smartest in the world. Next article will be about 'being smart' in Korea.

Standards

Before I start posting articles, I want to talk about some standards:

What I write is what I saw with my eyes, heard with my ears, smelled with my noses, tasted with my tongue, touched with my hands, and thought with my brain.

I said too long above, but actually it just means my 'opinion'.

Opinions can be right or wrong as you know.

When needed, I will try to inform that it is negotiable.

One more thing, if you are just a bit interested in the country named Korea, all I'm going to write will be FUN, I guarantee.

"To begin is a half."

There is a saying "To begin is a half." in Korea.

It means to begin is so hard that if you kick off something you already have done it a half.

What's going to happen here is that I will talk about the Republic of Korea and its people, Koreans as I observe day by day.

Hope those who are interested in my stories from now enjoy.