National Museum of Korea Tops Visitor Numbers in Asia

The National Museum of Korea has recorded the largest attendance numbers in Asia and ranked 10th in the world for 2009 with 2.7 million visitors.

The numbers were released in the April edition of The Art Newspaper, a British publication that has surveyed art museum attendance figures for the past 15 years.
The institution's ``Egypt: the Great Civilization'' (April 28-August 30 in 2009) was the second most viewed exhibition a day in the ancient civilization exhibition category and its special ``100th Anniversary of Korean Museums'' came in 7th in the Asian exhibition category.
The museum is the flagship for Korean history, culture and art with some 150,000 pieces in its permanent collection.
It was first established in 1945 and was relocated to Yongsan Family Park in 2005. It is the sixth largest museum in the world.
The Louvre in Paris topped the art museum attendance numbers in the world for 2009, with 8.5 million visitors, while the British Museum in London came in second with around 5.6 million and the Metropolitan Museum of Art placed third with 4.9 million.
Among museums in Asia, the Taiwan Palace Museum came in 12th with 2.57 million visitors and the Tokyo National Museum ranked 14th with 2.27 million

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2010/04/135_63664.html

Korean Student in US Gets Perfect SAT Scores

If yesterday's news was about Koreans being poor in TOEFL speaking today's news might be a different one. A Korean named Lee Ye-dam, a high school junior in Connecticut, received 2,400 points from the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), which she took last month not to mention that it was her first try.
"A student can sit on the SAT multiple times to improve scores." So I guess I don't have to mention why getting a perfect score for SAT is a big news not only Korea. Accordng to the article, approximately 1,000,000 students take the SAT each year and on average, only 20 of them get a perfect score.

Full Story:

Korean Student in US Gets Perfect SAT Scores

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/04/113_63579.html

Koreans Poor in TOEFL Speaking

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/04/117_63548.html

Korea’s Income Gap by Gender Largest in OECD

An interetsing news for the day. Korean men are still paid more than Korean women as compared to other rich countries in the world. Among the 22 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries surveyed, Korea is at the bottom list when it comes to the gap in income between men and women.

"On average full-time female employees get paid 38 percent less than their male counterparts on the basis of statistics from 2003 to 2006. The gap is more than double the OECD average of 17.6 percent."

The report also stated that European nations showed their women workers were enjoying relatively better pay. , One reason given is the sharing of the burden of child rearing, through active use of "paternity" leave aside from the maternity leave.

"As long as women rather than men take time off work to provide care for children, there will always be employers who perceive women as less committed to their career than men..."

The Ministry of Labor encourage companies to provide in-office childcare centers for working moms and stressed out that it is mandated by law that workplaces, which have more than 500 employees, should establish childcare centers for workers.

For full story:

Korea’s Income Gap by Gender Largest in OECD

Kim Jae-won (shosta@koreatimes.co.kr )

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2010/04/123_63553.html

H-2 (ethnic Koreans) working visas to zero this year while E-9 (foreign workers) increased

Due to several reasons, Korea has decided to slash the quota of H-2 working visas (which is for ethnic Koreans) to zero this year, affecting ethinic Koreans from China and Russia.

However, the number of E-9 visa woking permits increased.

"the Ministry of Labor decided to open the quota of E-9 foreign workers to 24,000, up 7,000 from the last year's 17,000. About 19,000 are allocated for the manufacturing industry; 2,000 in the cattle-farming and agricultural fields; and the rest in construction and others. But the number of H-2 visas will fall to zero from 17,000."

The main reason is "domestic employment market's demands." The original reason of permitting workers from abroad was originally intended as a substitute for domestic workers who are not interested in hard labor type of jobs.

"...most E-9 workers are engaged in the manufacturing and agricultural fields, which are not favored by Koreans. H-2 workers mostly work at construction sites or in the services sectors such as restaurants that are considered relatively prestigious."

The minstry added that with the domestic unemployment rate hitting its highest rate ever, it is time to secure more positions for domestic workers.

For the main article:

Seoul Slams Doors Shut for Ethnic Korean Workers

By Bae Ji-sook (bjs@koreatimes.co.kr )

Nothing So Secret About 'Secret River'

A young woman becomes romantically involved with identical twin brothers, and begins to doubt the rules of fortuity, chance and coincidence when it comes to love.

The premise seemed simple enough, with plenty of room to explore some classic themes. But confusion does not equal mystery. With its convoluted sequence of events and open-ended finale, Ryu Hoon’s star-studded film, “The Secret River,” feels more hollow than enigmatic. The movie tried to be hauntingly mysterious but ended up more like a messy, tangled up ball of yarn rather than a clever Rubik’s cube.

Jin-wu (Yoo Ji-tae) falls into a coma just two months after getting married. His devastated wife (Yoon Jin-seo) does her best to take care of him, but it isn’t easy; Yeon-i’s already missing deadlines and neglecting her work, and she only has footage from their wedding video to keep her spirits up. Hope and faith gradually seem like alien concepts to her....for the full article just access the link below ^^

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2010/04/135_63433.html

by Lee Hyo-won (hyowlee@koreatimes.co.kr )