paternity leave, computer, arabic, company choice

1-1. Men on paternity leave on steady rise, working hours down in 2016[Koreaherald]More South Korean men are taking paternity leave nowadays, but their number still pales in comparison to that of women, data showed Friday. The data compiled by Statistics Korea showed that the number of male employees getting paternity leave came to 7,616 in 2016, up from 4,872 in 2015, 3,412 in 2014 and 1,402 in 2011. In comparison, the number of female workers that took maternity leave to care for their children stood at 82,179 in 2016, slightly down from 82,467 in 2015 but up from 73,412 in 2014 and 56,735 in 2011. The move illustrated the widespread perception in South Korea that women should take care of children. South Korea has been encouraging paternity leave, including turning the unpaid leave into paid leave in 2001, as part of its efforts to boost South Korea's low birthrate and ease the burden of child care. Childbirths in South Korea dropped to a record low last year despite decade-long efforts to tackle the country's chronically low birthrate. The number of babies born in 2016 reached 406,300, down 7.3 percent, or 32,100, from a year earlier, according to the data. The ratio has been on the rise as South Korea has pushed to bring stay-at-home moms back to work in recent years. The statistics office said 46.3 percent of more than 5.51 million married women quit their jobs in 2016 due mainly to marriages, pregnancy and childbirth. South Korea's female labor participation is among the lowest in the world as many women leave work to take care of kids. The data showed that male employees worked an average 45.4 hours a week last year, down 36 minutes from a year earlier, with the corresponding figure for female workers being 39.7 hours, also down 42 minutes.Q1) How long of a paternity/maternity leave do you think is appropriate?Q2) Would you give a 'paid' paternity/maternity leave if you were a business owner? 1-2.  Apple has released its most expensive computer: iMac Pro. [CNN]The new high-end desktop computer, which was first unveiled at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, arrived in stores worldwide on Thursday. The company is calling the product its fastest and most powerful Mac to date. Starting at $4999, it's also the priciest offering in its computer lineup. The speediest configuration with all the available upgrades costs more than $13,000. The 27-inch matte gray computer comes with either an 8-core, 10-core or 18-core Xeon processor, and it has up to 22 teraflops of graphics power.  Unlike the Mac Pro, Apple's cyclinder-shaped desktop computer for professionals ($2,999) that comes without a display, iMac Pro is an all-in-one system with a 5K display. The iMac Pro is Apple's latest effort to appease its professional users, who have to wait extended periods of time between Mac Pro updates. The new computer is powerful enough for real-time 3D rendering, video editing and virtual reality content design.  Although the Mac Pro hasn't been updated since 2013, its next iteration will be available in 2018. The iMac Pro is Apple's solution in the interim. Microsoft (MSFT) has also been upping its appeal for professional users. Last year, the company announced the Surface Studio ($2,999) desktop PC, aimed at designers. Users can position it upright to sketch, paint or edit photos, or lay it flat to draw.  In October, the company unveiled the new Surface Book 2, a laptop aimed at professionals that competes with the Apple's MacBook Pro. The Surface Book 2's signature feature is a screen that can detach and act as a tablet.Apple's iMac Pro isn't for everyone, but it's a powerful option for the developers, designers and other professionals who can afford it. In the words of Tim Cook at WWDC: "That iMac Pro really is bad ass."Q1) Are you savvy with computers? How is your computer-using skill?Q2) How will you save money when you have to buy a new computer? What things on computer specifications, such as CPU speed or RAM capacity, will you consider? 2-1. Why Arabic is so popular among South Korean students[Koreaherald] More than seven out of 10 Suneung test-takers chose Arabic as a second foreign language this year, a surprisingly high number given that the language is rarely taught in schools here. According to the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Eval‎uation, 73.5 percent, or 51,882, of students who sat for the second foreign language test in the annual multi-subject college entrance exam, chose Arabic among nine foreign languages available. The eight others are German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Vietnamese and Classical Chinese.  A second foreign language is one of the five subjects of Suneung, which is equivalent to the US’ SAT. Although it is not mandatory, some top tier universities require applicants to submit test scores in the subject. The number of students choosing Arabic has been growing sharply since 2005 when the language was first introduced to the Suneung. In 2005, 531 students took the Arabic test, but the number rose sharply to 37,526, over half of the whole second language test-takers, in 2016 and finally over 51,800 this year.  The popularity of Arabic, however, is unlikely a reflection of the young generation’s genuine interest in the language or the region. Rather, it is a strategic decision for students to score high and get an upper hand over other test-takers, experts say. “Students have found a way of cutting corners in the current assessment system of (relative grading),” Lim Sung-ho, head of Jongro Academy, one of the biggest hagwon chains here, told The Korea Herald. Since test scores are relatively determined by that of competitors, it incentivizes students to choose a less popular language in which there aren‘t many high performers as is in the case of more commonly taught languages such as Chinese and Japanese.  Arabic is taught in just six high schools nationwide. “In Arabic, even those poorly-prepared students easily get levels 4 or 5 (in a 1-9 scale). If they put in just a little more effort, they are more likely to score well,” Lim said. Educations authorities are well aware of this. The Education Ministry announced in August a plan to revise the Suneung rules to adopt absolute grading in second foreign language tests. Q1) Do you want to study Arabic? What could be the motivation of those who study Arabic?Q2) What other foreign languages are popular in Korea? Why?  2-2. SK Incheon Petrochem forecasts another record-breaking year[Koreaherald] SK Incheon Petrochem, the petrochemicals unit of the nation‘s top refiner SK Innovation, is expected to post record-high operating profits this year, largely backed by swift sales of the company’s paraxylene products used to produce polyester textiles and plastic bottles. SK Incheon Petrochem expects to log operating profit that could surpass the record number achieved last year, the company‘s officials said. The petrochemicals unit of SK innovation last year logged an annual operating profit of 374.5 billion won ($344.2 million).  As of the third quarter this year, SK Incheon Petrochem’s operating profit reached 256.1 billion won, down from 315.4 billion won during the same period last year. Given the recently increased margins of PX products and the company‘s recent petrochemicals sales record, industry sources expect this year’s final operating profit to outstrip that of 2016. SK Incheon Petrochem’s earnings from PX products are forecast to continue next year if the margin continues to pick up or at least stay on the same level. According to the industry, the PX margin started to pick up significantly in July this year, largely due to short supply. The petrochemical industry also expects the better margin to continue in the following year. SK Incheon Petrochem annually produces some 1.3 million tons of PX at its condensate-based plants in Incheon. Of the PX products, 95 percent are exported to China, with the remaining going elsewhere in Asia. The company’s PX products sales accounted for some 20 percent of its combined sales as of the third quarter this year.Q1) What is the most important standard you consider when you choose a company you want to work for?Q2) Which company would you choose, if you are admitted, between SK Incheon Petrochem and Samsung electronics?Q3) Which choice would your parents support between entering SK Incheon Petrochem and being a grade-9 public officer?