When Kim attended school in Finland, she was taken aback by how serious everyone – teachers and students alike – seemed about learning. At one point, she sat with two other female students in the lobby of the school during a free period. The two Finnish girls texted during class time and went to parties, but in talking with them, Kim was surprised to learn how hard they had studied for midterms the year before. "Why do you guys care so much?" she asked them. "Both girls looked baffled, as if Kim had just asked them why they insisted on breathing so much," Ripley wrote. "'It's school,' one of them said finally. 'How else will I graduate and go to university and get a good job?'"
Reuters
