Today is the last lass of our June four class set. We will start class with a casual conversation. Our reading this week is about Sweden and our listening is an about the Samsung SAT. We will review irregular verbs today. I have provided a list. If you want extra practice- I suggest copying the list on a separate piece of paper.
Click HERE for the reading
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
High-stakes tests are common across the globe for students who want to get into college. In South Korea, thousands of college grads filled test centers over the weekend, hoping to get a job at the country's best-known company. Here's NPR's Elise Hu.
ELISE HU, BYLINE: At Korean cram schools known as Hogwans, college grads who'd already taken plenty of tests in their lives found themselves cramming for yet another, the Samsung SAT.
DAEWON KIM: Sometimes I feel a little bit nervous. But now I'm OK.
HU: Daewon Kim said he studied about nine hours a day in the lead-up to Samsung's two-hour-long, 160-question entrance exam. It covers a range of subjects - math, science, logic, history, literature.
GEOFFREY CAIN: In South Korea, there's always another test. It never ends until you have your cushy, corporate job.
HU: That's Geoffrey Cain, who's writing a book on Samsung due next spring. Samsung is Korea's largest conglomerate and considered the premier place to work. Cain estimates that each year, only about 5 percent of the nearly 100,000 Samsung SAT takers move on to the next stage of the hiring process. The test helps winnow the field.
CAIN: It's something that really goes back to Confucian ideals. And, especially in Korea, it's been used by companies to not just recruit the best and brightest, but to put them in a system that breaks down their ego and puts them into a team.
HU: The notion of team is especially key when Samsung's Korean workforce numbers 200,000 and is steeped in tradition, dynastic leadership, demanding work hours and a devotion to the company culture.
CAIN: Samsung is like a regimented military. And they look for people who, you know, can wake up in the morning and can do the march, sing the company song, go to work. So the role of this exam - it's really the first step in standardizing what every employee goes through.
HU: A form of acculturation into the Samsung system.
CAIN: This system of the emperor up top - and they are the civil servants.
HU: Samsung won't specify what the exam is looking for. But the company emphasizes the test is only one part of the hiring process for entry-level employees. Experienced hires are spared the SAT.
BOMI LIM: Just like other global companies, we have a number of ways to consider people coming from a diverse range of backgrounds.
HU: Samsung spokesperson Bomi Lim.
LIM: The aptitude test is just one of several steps we use to ensure fair opportunities.
HU: Just getting the opportunity to try for a job at Samsung carries a certain weight for test takers like Daewon Kim.
KIM: I think this is only the way to be successful.
HU: He's not exaggerating. Working for Samsung is a status symbol in South Korea. Geoffrey Cain.
CAIN: Every parent in Korea wants their kid to be a Samsung man, as they call it, when they grow up. And it's something that gives you stability, prestige, money. And you can find, you know, a good apartment, a good wife if you're a Samsung man. It really has that connotation of living in, like, 1950s America.
HU: But if applicants fall short of Samsung's standards, there are other Korean corporations.
CAIN: If they don't get through Samsung, then they can go take LG's tests. Or they can go take Hyundai's tests.
HU: Samsung's may be the most well known. But in this country, almost every coveted corporate job comes with a test. Elise Hu, NPR News, Seoul.