hankyoreh

Amid major interest in audition shows like “Star Audition: The Great Birth” and “Opera Star,” department store culture centers are reporting a sharp increase in people attending singing classes.
Hyundai Department Store announced Sunday that it had a 75 percent application receipt rate for its summer semester culture center singing class since applications opened in late April. “This is a full 23 percentage points higher than the average culture center receipt rate of 52 percent,” the store said.
Shinsegae Department Store’s Shinsegae Academy also saw a 35 percent increase in vocal class applications from last year’s summer semester. A singing class is being newly offered by the culture center at Lotte Department Store’s Yeongdeungpo branch, with more than one hundred students attending.
Previously, more than 90 percent of students had been women in their 40s and older, but recently there has been a sharp increase in students in their 20s and 30s. In the case of the specialized “vocal training” summer semester class at the Hyundai Department Store culture center, fifty percent of students are students in their teens and 20s and working individuals in their 30s.
　
Smartphone divide is severe in S.Korea
South Korean users of smartphones are found to be mostly whitecolor male in 20s and 30s with high income and high education career living in large city apartments.
The latest report entitled “An Analysis of the Socio-demographic Gap in IT Usage in Korea,” released Sunday by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) showed a big gap in smartphone use between the haves and have-nots.
According to a 2010 survey of some 800 people between the ages of 15 and 49, 40 percent of those with a master’s degree or higher own smartphones compared to 17.9 percent of high school graduates.
“We learned that educational background as well as other factors such gender, age, occupation, income and regions generated different patterns in smartphone use,” the NIPA said in the report.

K.J. Choi wins The Players Championship in playoff 　　
South Korean golfer Choi Kyoung-ju won The Players Championship in the U.S. state of Florida on Sunday after nudging American David Toms in a playoff, becoming the first Asian to win one of the biggest PGA events, his agent in Seoul said Monday.
The win marked Choi’s first PGA tour win in three years.
The South Korean player, also known as K.J. Choi, sank a three-foot par putt on the first playoff hole to grab the title after tying at 13-under par 275 with Toms in the fourth and final round of The Players Championship held in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
Choi, who turns 41 on Thursday, captured $1.71 million in prize money for his eighth career PGA victory at the $9.5 million event, also the first crown he’s won in the three years since the 2008 Sony Open.
(Yonhap News)　
　
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