M:Mayan Flower asks S:How does Korea view teenage pregnancy? Are any teenage moms and dads in Korea that you’ve seen?
In North America and central America (I’m Guatemalan) there tend to be a lot of teenage parents
M:Hm… S:Hm… M:This is a pretty awkward topic
Probably because we’re not South Korean teenage girls… M:Yeah… S:Though…
Also we didn’t grow up in South Korea. We’ve really only have been here for about five years
So in those five years we haven’t actually seen any teenage pregnancy and the reason why might be because according to Wikipedia statistics.
Because Wikipedia is so reliable. Amongst developed countries US has the highest teenage pregnancy rate and South Korea has the lowest.
I think it’s like two pregnancies in like a thousand.
M:South Korea and Japan are down there, right? S: yeah, South Korea and Japan are really low there
And this kind of goes hand in hand with our experience because I was a high school teacher at an all-girls high school for three years
And in those three years I did not witness any teenage pregnancy nor heard any rumors of these things happening
In my middle school I didn’t see any pregnancy either. BUT back when we were high school teachers and high school students in Canada
We did notice a whole lot of teenage pregnancy
I think you might have noticed that more than me because I think that I only knew one girl in all of my high school career
That was pregnant S:really? M:Yeah S: I taught one class in which three girls were pregnant.
M:Really? S:One class. M:And when you were a high school student? S: Lots of girls were pregnant M:really!?
M:Perhaps it depends on the area where you grow up in S:Pickering represent~
Ok, so we can’t tell you exactly why teenage pregnancy is so low here.
That’s not really to answer because I’m sure that there are a whole lot of factors that play into there being very low pregnancy rates here in Korea
The number one factor being that teenagers in the west have been poisoned by the devil and God has turned his back on them
And now as a result he has bestowed his grace upon South Korea and is not letting to get pregnant a lot of teenagers
But seriously… As to why there might be a low pregnancy rate in Korea, but this is just our kind of educated discussing guess
There are a whole bunch of factors and we just gonna talk about a couple that we might think are relevant
I think the first and easiest factor is that Korean teens don’t really have the time to date or have sex
I don’t even think that Korean teenagers have time to eat anything.
They go to school from like 7AM to like midnight a lot of the time.
Where do you have time in there to make a boom boom jiggity jiggity?
Where do you have time to have a boyfriend or girlfriend? You don’t even have time for part-time jobs, so I feel like
If you’re constantly in school going one school, to a study school after program and then you’re getting on a bus and going straight home
When do you have time for anything?
Back when I was a high school student I was finishing school at 3PM and I had the rest of the day totally to myself
And also a lot of things that I could do there like… Play chess.
M:Chess is a good one S:Yep M:we could join after-school clubs that were not at all unsavory.
S:Or join an orgy. M: Ok, well. I hope that didn’t happen. S:Pickering represent M:Alright…
And even when people are in school for that long you might thing “well I’m sure they can sneak out and do things..”
But honestly, the teachers keep a really close watch on them S:Oh yes
They will call the parents and report if the girls are putting on make-up in the washroom. So for example.. S:No joke
“Your girl is putting make-up on. I think she’s planning on skipping her after school study class and meeting up with a boy”
The hagwon teachers will check to see who’s checking in and if they’re late or not…
So there is kind of a community… S:Big brother is watching you M:Yes.
The second thing that we think is important Is that even if you find time somehow to make boom boom jiggidy jiggidy
You can’t find a place to do so.
So in North America you tend to have houses and you have like a lot of space. Like you might be able to hang out in the back yard
Or like have a pool party or people have house parties.
I had an entire basement to myself when I was in high school for example. So I had that level of privacy.
But when it comes to like apartments in South Korea, because a lot of people do live in apartments,
It’s not really like you have that much privacy in there.
And there aren’t really house properties with like fenced off properties S:barely, unless you’re ballin
M: exactly unless you’re BALLING.
Yeah so most people really do live in apartments or they live in smaller houses where you can hear your neighbors and everyone’s around.
And you might even be living in a house with your grandmother and grandparents. It’s very family oriented, so…
The point is that if you can find a way to sneak in your boyfriend or girlfriend then… then what are you gonna do?
Where you gonna go? Like your family is there. There is no privacy like… you not gonna put on a performance… unless that’s your thing
But I really doubt that as a high school student you really wanna be doing this in front of your family
So where are you going to do it? In a 24-hour coffee shop? I don’t think so.
Well there are some places. There are like love motels that you can go to and there are DVD rooms
In which people don’t actually watch DVDs… M: We do.
Well now that we found out what people do and with all the juices that might be going around and
M: Argh… S: I don’t actually go to DVD rooms anymore but the whole point is that M: I thought that stickiness was from coke! *sobs*
S: The whole point M:I thought it was minty chocolate *sobs* S:It’s… It’s possible. You can find room
It’s just that it’s not that easy. You don’t have as much privacy in South Korea as you do like in North America.
So basically two factors: #1 you have no time, #2 you have no space to actually do it as a teenager in Korea
As a result it’s kind of difficult to get pregnant if you don’t have any place to actually do it.
Now this last point: I don’t really think it has completely to do with teenage pregnancy, but it’s something that’s really socially different than what we’ve experienced in North America
S: Right. M: Sex education isn’t really a thing here. You know that awkward class in like high school where like the boys and girls are separated
The poor gym teachers drawing a picture of like a womb that looks like a sproose moose
S:Dodge Ram M:The w…what? The Dodge Ram? S:If you looked at the Dodge Ram logo it looks like the… M:the ovaries and stuff S:Ovaries yeah
M:the brovaries S:Never look at Dodge Ram the same way again
So like they don’t have that awkward sex ed class where they talk about different forms of contraception or like how to be safe
Or talk about STDs. While we were in the university in North America, they had a lot of stuff about like sex education
Like posters about going to get tested or if you’re dating someone that you guys should get tested or like different contraception
Or like birth control. Well they are always telling people like “Be careful”
While in like South Korean Universities from the people that we’ve spoken with, they haven’t actually seen any of that stuff on campus
So the whole point of this is that we’re not necessarily sure if there is low visibility when it comes to sex ed because there is low frequency of it
Or because Korea is very conservative and that’s why it’s so very taboo to talk about but we think it’s kind of relevant to talk about at least
M: Yeah. I feel like it’s a combo of both of them. Because even if you look at Korean media like movies or Korean dramas or even in kpop
You don’t really see a huge amount of sexuality happening like you see how they kiss S:I’d like to see the Korean version of Game of Thrones
M: Oh my God, can you imagine? Whoa~ S:That ain’t making on air M:there’s no HBO Equivalent in that work in Korea S: No…
Now all these factors combined isn’t to say that South Korea doesn’t experience any teenage pregnancy. It does
We just haven’t actually seen it ourselves
But when teenage pregnancy does happen in Korea, Suzy told us that there was a documentary on teenage pregnancy in Korea
And the issues they go through but we’re gonna talk about that on our blog post.
So make sure you check that out.
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