2006年VOA标准英语-South Korean 'Goose Dads' Face Sacrifice, Lonel

By Kurt Achin
Seoul
27 September 2006

For an increasing number of South Koreans, being a family man means seeing less of the family than ever before. Many South Korean fathers stay at home and work while they send their wife and children abroad - often for years at a time - for the sake of their children's education. The left-behind fathers have taken on a common nickname - and a common set of problems.

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Geum Hee-yeon loves his family. He says that is why for most of the past four years, he has lived more than 10,000 kilometers away from them. 
 

While he stays in South Korea and works, his two teenage children go to school in the United States. His wife takes care of them there.

Geum, the dean of political science at Seoul City University, says he wanted his children to have a U.S. education because he believes the rigidly¹ conformist South Korean school system is inadequate².

"The education they got was how to memorize. Not how to analyze³, how to describe, explain. They don't learn to solve a problem logically."

Many other South Korean fathers share Geum's disappointment with the education system here, or they want their children to study abroad to learn another language, particularly English. They have made the same decision to remain behind while they send their families abroad - for anywhere as long as 10 years. These fathers have earned the nickname - "kirogi appa," or "goose dads."

South Koreans say the name derives⁴ from the loyalty⁵ wild geese show to their mates. Figurines of geese are often given as a gift to couples here, to symbolize⁶ marital⁷ love and sacrifice.

Choi Yang-sook did post-doctoral research on goose dads at Seoul's Yonsei University. She says the practice is expanding.

She says there are no exact figures, but estimates there are between 30,000 and 50,000 goose dads in South Korea. She says, more important than the exact number is the psychological effect the goose dad trend has.

Geum has felt the psychological effects first hand. He says in Korea, families depend on a father as the hub of a household. But after his family had been in the U.S. for a while, Geum says he started to feel irrelevant⁸.

"My wife, my kids, were doing everything right - without me," he said. "So I thought, oh, I'm just kind of a small part. Just give them money. I kept thinking - do they need me, or not?"

Geum's daughter, Ji-won is a junior at a university in Ohio, but was in Seoul on break recently. She said when she was younger she did not realize the loneliness and worry her father was going through.

She says she often took her father's sacrifice for granted, because it had been her parents' decision to have her study in the United States. She adds, as her younger brother entered adolescence⁹, he began to grow apart from their father because of the distance.

Geum says about a year ago, the anxiety of being a goose dad began to take a physical toll¹⁰.

"I got sick. Terribly sick. Some kind of stressful panic disorder," he said. "And the doctor said the only way to cure my disease is to let them come back and join me."

Geum says many goose dads deal with the stress of being away from their families by drinking alcohol with each other, which his health problems prevent him from doing.

Instead, his family came back for several months and now that Geum is recovering, they plan to return to the United States soon.

Despite the hardship, goose dads have a better situation than the men Koreans refer to as "penguin¹¹ dads." As the nicknames imply, goose dads can fly, because they can afford the occasional plane ticket to visit their families. Penguin fathers, who work in lower income jobs, remain grounded - and often go for many years at a time without seeing their wives and children.

1 rigidly   

adv.刻板地，僵化地

参考例句：

• Life today is rigidly compartmentalized into work and leisure. 当今的生活被严格划分为工作和休闲两部分。
• The curriculum is rigidly prescribed from an early age. 自儿童时起即已开始有严格的课程设置。

2 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

3 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

4 derives   

v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• English derives in the main from the common Germanic stock. 英语主要源于日耳曼语系。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derives his income from freelance work. 他以自由职业获取收入。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

6 symbolize   

vt.作为...的象征，用符号代表

参考例句：

• Easter eggs symbolize the renewal of life.复活蛋象征新生。
• Dolphins symbolize the breath of life.海豚象征着生命的气息。

7 marital   

adj.婚姻的，夫妻的

参考例句：

• Her son had no marital problems.她的儿子没有婚姻问题。
• I regret getting involved with my daughter's marital problems;all its done is to bring trouble about my ears.我后悔干涉我女儿的婚姻问题, 现在我所做的一切将给我带来无穷的烦恼。

8 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

9 adolescence   

n.青春期，青少年

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。

10 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

11 penguin   

n.企鹅

参考例句：

• The penguin is a flightless bird.企鹅是一种不会飞的鸟。
• He walked with an awkward gait like a penguin.他走路的步子难看得就像企鹅。