For my grandmother's 70th birthday，my family and I visited South Korea.While there，I was attentive to Korean high schools and students.

I was surprised by how different Korea's public high schools are from America's.Korean high schools can be allgirls，allboys or coed (男女同校的) unlike our standard coed high schools.There are three grades：“go 1(10th)”，“go 2(11th)” and “go 3(12th)”．“Go” is the first syllable of the word “godeunghakkyo”，which，simply translated，is “high school”．

In America，unless you want to go to a private school，you don't have to take an entrance exam.In Korea，however，students must take a test to get in because of the many choices of schools.

Another difference I couldn't help but notice was the students' appearance.With very few exceptions，all wear uniforms.A name tag (标牌) with the student's name，grade and homeroom number must also be worn.Girl's skirts can't be above the upper part of the knee，and it is forbidden to dye(染) your hair or wear accessories (装饰品) except small earrings.There are strict regulations for appearance to achieve neatness，and it seems the only freedom students have is with their choices of hair style，socks and shoes.

The final difference was the setup of the classes.There may be 40 students in a classroom，but the number can be less or even more，depending on the population of the town or city.Although there are many students per classroom，they are very close，which I think is a result of not changing classrooms for different subjects.There are no levels in the subjects and the teachers are the ones who switch classrooms.They just have tenminute breaks between subjects.In each class，students are ranked by their grades.This causes strict competition，and Korean students do a lot of studying.To help them，all schools have extra study classes after school.One other fact that helped me appreciate living in America is that Koreans have school on Saturdays.Although it's only a half day，I think I speak for most Americans when I say we could never imagine ourselves in school on a Saturday.

Korea's public high schools are clearly different from America's.I had imagined them to be just like our schools，but now I have a clear picture of how different they are.