In this essay, I am going to talk about the suicide problem, which is very common and serious problem in South Korea. According to the First WHO report on suicide prevention, suicide in South Korea is the country with the third-highest estimated suicide rate for 2012 globally. The rates of suicide in South Korea increase steadily, especially with the highest rates among the elderly. Moreover, suicide also the No.1 cause of death of young people in South Korea. Besides, celebrities suicide is also a high rate in South Korea. I am going to explain the reasons why South Korea has the highest suicide rates from different aspects.
To begin with, let me explain why there are high rates of suicide in South Korea among the elderly. One of the reasons for suicide among the elderly is high in South Korea is due to the amount of common poverty among the elderly in South Korea, with nearly half of the elderly living below the poverty level. The elderly people do not have any income because they have been retired so they just live to depend on the pension. However, the pension is very low in South Korea and it totally can’t support their daily life. Besides, the youngest does not take care of their elderly parents because they think that the country has already given their parents enough pension and their parents can live on their own but it is not. Some elderly people may get depression caused by poverty. They don’t know how to live and think that they will be an encumbrance to others like their child. Because of it, they may choose to end up their life, that’s why the suicide occurred.
Secondly, suicide also the No.1 cause of death of young people in South Korea. In South Korea the academic competition is intense. South Korean students want to go to some well-known university to get a degree. It is because having a degree can benefit them to find a well-paid job. In order to have the qualification to go to university, they need to have good results in their exams. Teachers and parents force them to work hard in the exam but it has a negative effect. It will make students feel stressful. Parents may compare their child to other. If their child’s result is not going or higher than others’, parents will blame them.
Also, South Korean teacher like to put student’s academic result on the board so everyone can know their result especially the poor ones. It makes students have a big pressure because they do not want to be the poor ones and tease by other students. Some students can not afford this kind of pressure so they choose to suicide.Moreover, except for the study pressure that caused young people in South Korea to suicide, other big reasons that cause the student to suicide is bullying. In South Korea, bullying is very common in schools.
Students bully-victims without any reason, they just think that it is fun so they do it. They do not know it hurts people who get bully. The teacher can’t even control and stop this kind of thing happen so they just turn a blind eye when bullying behaviors are happening. It makes students who being bully feel helpless. They endure the insult from the bullier. In the end, some of them can’t bear this situation and they choose to suicide due to they don’t want to keep being bully.Furthermore, celebrities’ suicide is also high rates in South Korea. The Idol in South Korea always needs to face bad comments from haters which is mean and rude. The comments consist of personal attacks, even though it is just in social media. Some idol is vulnerable about the hate comments. Put Sulli as an example, who is a solo artist and former member of Korean famous girl group F(x), but suicide recently. Sulli has serious depression since she was young. However, even people know she has serious depression, they still said bad comments in Sulli’s social media such as Instagram. She had been facing those hate comments for many years.
From the case of Sulli, we know that the consequence of saying hate comments is serious because it can force a person to die. Haters may think that words can’t hurt the person physically. However, it hurts the person mentally.In conclusion, suicide is a serious problem in South Korea. As I mentioned, factors that cause suicide like poverty, education and social media. Besides, there still a lot of reasons that cause people to suicide. Not only South Korea but also the world should aware of the suicide problems.