Education drives South Korea's growth
One of the keys to South Korea's economic miracle has been rising education levels. Korean school students are always among the top performers in international testing.
It is something the country is rightly proud of and in its Korean Educational Development Institute it has one of the leading think tanks in the world.
KEDI, the first stop on our second full day in Korea, is charged with developing educational policy following it establishment in the early 1970s. It has achieved its strong student results through things such as free textbooks and smaller class sizes.
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However, there is a feeling this emphasis on academic performance has come at the cost of students developing skills in critical thinking and creativity. Such is the pressure to do is that many kids will be doing private tutoring as late as 10pm.
Accordingly they are now shifting to a "happy education" philosophy to ensure students are more well-rounded. One of the novel approaches is having an exam-free semester in middle school to take the pressure on kids. Whether it works remains to be seen but experts are confident Koreans will be able to remain at the top of the education rankings.
After another massive meal, we head off to the Korean Food Foundation, a non-government body dedicated to promoting Korean cuisine globally. Korean restaurants have been a late starter in Australia (and other countries) compared to other Asian restaurants such as Thai, Indian, Japanese and of course Chinese.
We then visited Naver, the Korean equivalent of Google or Yahoo. They call their headquarters the Green Factory, which includes a library of art and design books given a forest feel and a funky cafe place of beanbags, Lego tables and teepee meeting rooms to encourage creativity.
Our final stop was Hyundai a Motor Corporation. Hyundai is the fourth biggest car seller in Australia and the company is keen to build on that, seeing an opportunity with the demise of local car making in Australia.
Andrew Tillett is in Korea for the Walkley Foundation as part of the 2014 Australian Journalists Exchange sponsored by the Australia Korea Foundation and the Korean Press Foundation.
