<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Plight of the wild geese families
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>As the won's value plummets against the Singdollar, many Korean families in Singapore are packing up and heading home. Elizabeth Soh and Cassandra Chew report </TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->The financial crisis has forced hundreds of South Korean students to give up their dream of a Singapore education and return home. Their hopes have been dashed by an ailing Korean economy and the weakening of the won by over a third, which has made the cost of living in Singapore too high for them.
According to recruitment agent estimates and the Korean Embassy, there are about 3,600 Korean students in Singapore. Last year, news reports had the number at 4,000 to 5,000.
Four international schools, including the International Community School and the Chinese International School, reported that about 20 Korean students pulled out because their parents could no longer afford a private education abroad.
Even a local school popular with the Korean community, Zhonghua Primary School, has seen nine of its 70 Korean students return home since the crisis took hold in October last year.
Professor Kang Yoonhee, a sociologist at the National University of Singapore who does research on Korean migrant families, disclosed that around 10,000 Koreans were in Singapore as of early last year. Many have left or are preparing to leave because of the economic hardship, she said.
Most South Koreans, who come here from age seven to 16 for their primary, secondary and tertiary education, are often accompanied by their mothers - known as kirogi or 'Wild Geese' mums.
Male geese, in Korean culture, are known for their familial devotion, travelling great distances to bring back food for their young.
In such families, the fathers remain in South Korea to work while the mothers take the children to countries like Singapore, the United States and Australia for a more rounded, less stressful education.
Prof Kang said: 'Back home, these children would be spending their entire day in 'cram schools' preparing for intensely competitive entrance exams and missing out on growing up.'
Korean Ambassador Kim Joong Keun believes a key part of Singapore's attraction for students lies in the chance to learn both English and Mandarin, safety, and shared Confucian values.
Hence, the Korean community here has been growing exponentially since 2006, with many congregating in Bukit Timah, Bukit Batok and, more recently, Paya Lebar, where the Singapore Korean School is located.
But the push factor of late for most returning Wild Geese families is the unfavourable Singapore dollar-won exchange rate. In March last year, the rate was 700 won to one Singdollar. Now it is 960 won - an effective 37 per cent jump in the cost of living here in won terms.
Mr Gregory Lye, a student recruitment agent who specialises in South Korean students, said: 'If they leave, it's usually either because their fathers in South Korea lost their jobs or their weakened currency has made it too expensive to live here.'
Korean Buddhist Association chairman Kim Tolani said the temple has lost more than half of its 50 regulars. Similarly, the 800-strong congregation of the Korean Church In Singapore in Barker Road, Singapore's largest and oldest, is dwindling.
Pastor Kim Kee Yong said: 'Up to 80 families have left since the recession, of which 90 per cent are kirogi families.'
At the 100-strong Jeja Community Church in Upper Bukit Timah, a church with a predominantly kirogi congregation, the story is the same. Up to 20 members have already packed up and left.
A congregation member who wanted to be known only as Mrs Park, 43, said: 'These are the worst times I have seen since I came here four years ago.' She and her two sons, aged eight and 16, get about $5,000 a month from her lawyer husband in Korea. Two years ago, they bought a condominium in Choa Chu Kang, hoping to stay here for good. With the slumping won, however, the monthly payments have become a huge burden.
'Paying for the house these days takes up almost half the money I receive every month,' she said.
Phone calls from distressed kirogi mothers have increased at the Korean counselling service, Singapore Lifeline.
According to counsellor Jasmine Yoon, 42, it does not help that the number of counsellors, most of them kirogi themselves, is diminishing. Since October, 10 of the 26 'counselling mums' have returned to Korea.
Still, they remain optimistic. Mrs Yoon said: 'I believe they will still come because education is extremely important to Korean parents.'
Indeed, kirogi mum Kim Young Ran, 46, says that despite the extra $2,000 her Korea-based husband must now remit monthly, she is determined to hang on until both their sons graduate from high school at the United World College South East Asia next year.
She says: ' We have no choice because, as parents, it is our responsibility.'
[email protected] [email protected]
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>As the won's value plummets against the Singdollar, many Korean families in Singapore are packing up and heading home. Elizabeth Soh and Cassandra Chew report </TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->The financial crisis has forced hundreds of South Korean students to give up their dream of a Singapore education and return home. Their hopes have been dashed by an ailing Korean economy and the weakening of the won by over a third, which has made the cost of living in Singapore too high for them.
According to recruitment agent estimates and the Korean Embassy, there are about 3,600 Korean students in Singapore. Last year, news reports had the number at 4,000 to 5,000.
Four international schools, including the International Community School and the Chinese International School, reported that about 20 Korean students pulled out because their parents could no longer afford a private education abroad.
Even a local school popular with the Korean community, Zhonghua Primary School, has seen nine of its 70 Korean students return home since the crisis took hold in October last year.
Professor Kang Yoonhee, a sociologist at the National University of Singapore who does research on Korean migrant families, disclosed that around 10,000 Koreans were in Singapore as of early last year. Many have left or are preparing to leave because of the economic hardship, she said.
Most South Koreans, who come here from age seven to 16 for their primary, secondary and tertiary education, are often accompanied by their mothers - known as kirogi or 'Wild Geese' mums.
Male geese, in Korean culture, are known for their familial devotion, travelling great distances to bring back food for their young.
In such families, the fathers remain in South Korea to work while the mothers take the children to countries like Singapore, the United States and Australia for a more rounded, less stressful education.
Prof Kang said: 'Back home, these children would be spending their entire day in 'cram schools' preparing for intensely competitive entrance exams and missing out on growing up.'
Korean Ambassador Kim Joong Keun believes a key part of Singapore's attraction for students lies in the chance to learn both English and Mandarin, safety, and shared Confucian values.
Hence, the Korean community here has been growing exponentially since 2006, with many congregating in Bukit Timah, Bukit Batok and, more recently, Paya Lebar, where the Singapore Korean School is located.
But the push factor of late for most returning Wild Geese families is the unfavourable Singapore dollar-won exchange rate. In March last year, the rate was 700 won to one Singdollar. Now it is 960 won - an effective 37 per cent jump in the cost of living here in won terms.
Mr Gregory Lye, a student recruitment agent who specialises in South Korean students, said: 'If they leave, it's usually either because their fathers in South Korea lost their jobs or their weakened currency has made it too expensive to live here.'
Korean Buddhist Association chairman Kim Tolani said the temple has lost more than half of its 50 regulars. Similarly, the 800-strong congregation of the Korean Church In Singapore in Barker Road, Singapore's largest and oldest, is dwindling.
Pastor Kim Kee Yong said: 'Up to 80 families have left since the recession, of which 90 per cent are kirogi families.'
At the 100-strong Jeja Community Church in Upper Bukit Timah, a church with a predominantly kirogi congregation, the story is the same. Up to 20 members have already packed up and left.
A congregation member who wanted to be known only as Mrs Park, 43, said: 'These are the worst times I have seen since I came here four years ago.' She and her two sons, aged eight and 16, get about $5,000 a month from her lawyer husband in Korea. Two years ago, they bought a condominium in Choa Chu Kang, hoping to stay here for good. With the slumping won, however, the monthly payments have become a huge burden.
'Paying for the house these days takes up almost half the money I receive every month,' she said.
Phone calls from distressed kirogi mothers have increased at the Korean counselling service, Singapore Lifeline.
According to counsellor Jasmine Yoon, 42, it does not help that the number of counsellors, most of them kirogi themselves, is diminishing. Since October, 10 of the 26 'counselling mums' have returned to Korea.
Still, they remain optimistic. Mrs Yoon said: 'I believe they will still come because education is extremely important to Korean parents.'
Indeed, kirogi mum Kim Young Ran, 46, says that despite the extra $2,000 her Korea-based husband must now remit monthly, she is determined to hang on until both their sons graduate from high school at the United World College South East Asia next year.
She says: ' We have no choice because, as parents, it is our responsibility.'
[email protected] [email protected]
