Good morning ladies and gentlemen from South Korea today I'm going to talk about Korean military and I'm going to talk about the full procedure of serving for the country how the system works these days and how the system used to be when I was in the military and also talk about why I think the government of so let's begin so every Korean man who is mentally and physically stable has to serve for the country for a certain amount of time now when a Korean guy turns 18 the government of Korea sends a mail saying that you have to go to the mental and physical exams so you go to the military administration you take exams like your eyesight your height your weight you know basic things like that see they see if you're missing a finger or missing a toe miss missing some tooth and also do mental tests as well and now in 2024 if you passed those tests you have to serve for the country for a year and six months in the army but you can choose to join the Navy or the Air Force and if you choose to join the Navy you have to serve for a year and eight months and if you choose to join the Air Force you have to serve for a year and nine months and when I was in the military so that was from January 3rd 2012 to October 2nd 2013 in the army and I have served for a year and nine months and at that time people who served in the Navy at that time they had to serve for a year and 11 months and in the Air Force two years in the Air Force so I had to serve for three more months than the people who are serving for the country right now and actually I have brought this card over here this card is a proof that says I have served for the made of metal and that has my military number on it I'm not sure if it's called a military number in English I don't know the vocabulary that are used in the military so I'm sure there is a word for that and I was trying to find the necklace but I couldn't it was more than 10 years ago it's it's somewhere at home but I don't know where it is but I could find this one yeah and for some reasons if you don't pass those tests or exams you don't have to go to the military but you still have to serve for the country and instead of going to the military you have to work at one of the public offices so some people go to some people work at schools some people work at a metro station some people work at like a post offices things like that and you have to do that for a year and nine months right now in 2024 but when I was in the military in 2012 they had to serve for two years in the in one of the public offices and that's how it works so when I first joined the army I had to do five weeks of basic training and then after that I was sent to my military base and then I had to stay there for a year and eight months and then I wasn't allowed to take my phones phones were not allowed at that time I could not leave my military base even on weekends I had to stay there for a year and nine months and of course I had holidays and I could go out during my holidays but yeah that was a case back in 2012 and 2013 and right now people can take their phones their smartphones but they they cannot film or take photos inside the military base and there is a system when you go in when you enter the military base the system blocks the cameras of the phone so you cannot take videos or photos but still you can take your phone inside and um you get three meals a day you get all the clothes and everything you need but still I wasn't really happy with the fact that I could not go outside the military base for a year and nine months except during my holidays and yep and now I'm going to talk about why I think the government of Korea is not treating the soldiers with respect so I have brought a table again so let's see the table I have brought two tables over here the table above is a table of monthly salary of soldiers since 2010 and the table below is a table of average monthly salary of Koreans since 2010 now let's take a look at how much a private soldier used to earn in a month in 2010 a private soldier used to earn approximately $53 a month in 2010 now you might think I have made a mistake over here but this is not a mistake this is a table of monthly of soldiers not weekly nor daily now let's take a look at the average monthly salary of Koreans in 2010 average Koreans used to earn $1,689 per month in 2010 so that means a private soldier used to earn only 3% of what an average Korean person used to earn in 2010 now let's take a look at how much a sergeant earned in a month in 2023 which is last year a sergeant used to earn $726 a month last year now let's take a look at how much an average Korean person earned last year an average Korean person earned $2,641 last year which means a sergeant earned 27% of what an average Korean person earned last year now let's take a look at those two boxes that I have colored in red those are how much I used to earn when I was in the army when I first joined the army in 2012 as a private soldier I earned approximately $60 a month and at the end of my service in 2013 I earned $94 as a sergeant per month the table I have brought only shows from private to sergeant because you serve for your country from private until sergeant unless you choose to become a soldier and take that as a job and what do you think about the salary of soldiers here in Korea guys and I think that is pretty low actually very low actually and compared to the average Korean people average workers and some people say but you know when you join the military you get three meals a day you know you get your clothes you have a place to sleep so you don't really need money and you're not gonna spend money while you are in the military but in my opinion you don't only eat three meals a day you know you need some snacks you eat some snacks you like to drink like sometimes and people who smoke they gotta buy cigarettes and things like that you know and also nowadays people can take their phones to the military base but when I was in the army I wasn't allowed to take phones so I had to use the phones in the military base and I had to pay to use the phones so I mean I really had no money for snacks or anything else and all the soldiers at that time called their parents and told them can you please send me some money can you please send me some money and there was a very usual very common back in 2012 and 2013 but the government of Korea is really trying hard to increase the salary of soldiers since a couple years ago and I respect that they are doing the right thing I think and one of the reasons why I could live in this decent house you know I drive a decent car I eat three meals a day I do YouTube I watch TV and things like that pretty much everything that I do and all soldiers protecting this country so we should all really thank them respect them only not the government of Korea but all citizens should really respect the soldiers and so what do you guys think about this topic today I hope you like this topic as well and thank you again for watching my video see you next time bye bye