The Communal Society That Plagiarizes Together, Stays Together

When I was in college, I took a Science Fiction Literature class. The course was reading-heavy and the only grades you would receive were on pop quizzes based on the reading homework. Each student was given a black/blue pen to take the quiz and a red pen to correct it after. I did fairly well, but was always confused why my classmates got perfect scores. At the end of the semester, complaining about the B+ I earned fair and square, my roommate looked shocked to find out I hadn't realized her and everyone else in class had merely switched the inkwells in the pens and were writing down the answers as he gave them during correction time.

"You were stupid." Said one of my 5th grade students, YJ, when I shared that story today during a writing class on plagiarism.

"What do you mean I was stupid?" I ask him as he laughs his evil little boy laugh. "I was honest!"

"Everybody plagiarizes so it's just...whatever." Says SJ when the class material turned to talking about the lack of punishment for plagiarism in a fictionalized school created for the sake of their workbooks.

"What do you mean everyone?" I ask

"Well, we are 5th grade, right?" YJ confirms. "So you go on Naver, type in our class grade and class number...and we can find all of our textbook answers."

"All of them?"

"Yes!" All 8 of my "angels" cry.

"Do your teachers know about this?"

"Of course!"

"What do they do about it?"

"Nothing," SJ answers with a shrug. "It's good for us. We all have to have the same answers."

The final consensus was that they all had to be perfect in school, so plagiarism was the only option. You have to have the right answers in your textbook to study to get the right answers on the test? Just go online and download them. Summer vacation reading homework? The internet has that, too! Right on Kakao Story, a popular game app, my students show me how they can download all of the information on the books they have to read and the journals they have to write.

"Research papers, too. Just copy paste." YJ adds, talking about a friend who handed in a term paper of completely plagiarized work. No one checked and he was never caught. He "earned" that 100 he'd have to get or else his parents would beat him.

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I don't really know how to express my feelings after that conversation. Disappointed? Sad? Sanctioned plagiarism? Am I really living among a culture that cares SO MUCH for group-think and "we over I" that plagiarism is okay? Apparently so.

One of my biggest hurdles living in Korea is that people here are socially trained to always think of the group first. There is nothing worse than "embarrassment" or "loss of face" here. In juxtaposition to my own culture where individuality is encouraged, people are forced through their school years to fit into the same box for the rest of their lives.

It's not that I have a problem with communal culture. I find a lot of aspects of the culture I live in really great. Nothing makes me happier than when I see students pooling together their money between classes to buy a snack to share, or when two of my middle school boys will be sat in a hug with one sitting on the other and no one is worried they'll be called "gay" (as if that's an insult).

I have a problem with the paradoxical nature this lifestyle breeds. Everyone has to be the same so they all plagiarize off of someone who did the work who knows how long ago and posted on the internet. Okay. And then a teacher runs their paper through a scanning software and they get caught and punished for plagiarizing. Embarrassment is like being a leper here- what is more embarrassing than being caught not being able to do your own work so you copy?! I caught this particular class copying off of one student who did my homework and they were all instantly near tears when they knew that I knew they had done it.

I suppose it logically makes sense in a culture that puts such emphasis on the whole group people would turn to doing everything together. I see it in my first graders bouncing about my classroom making sure everyone found their words in the word search so no one is left embarrassed and frustrated. I see it in my elementary schoolers looking at their desk partner's book throughout class to fix their own answers. And I definitely see it in my middle schoolers who will wait until one student answers a question so the rest can all agree that they had the same answer. But at the same time, by the time they get into high school the lifestyle is to not share notes and do everything you can to get the highest score in class so you can get to college. Maybe this lack of cultural consistency is the reason myself and other foreigners have so much trouble in their workplaces. We ask for consistency with work, but they can't provide it because their culture isn't consistent.

Or maybe I'm horrible wrong and making no sense right now. Either way, it's wrong to plagiarize and you can bet my kids will get in trouble for doing it.