Nowadays competition seems to be a key word in Korean people’s life. Especially the present government with its firm belief in neo-liberalist creeds seems to raise a high banner of competition, introducing the free market principle into every area. Many people maintain that competition has a positive value. They argue that competition among corporations would provide consumers with better services and better products. They also claim that constant competition between students would enhance their scholastic abilities and prepare them for the better future. However, we must have in mind competition, like everything else in human affairs, necessarily has two faces. Let’s take a look at some examples. There was a Taekwondo academy in my district. The teacher tried his best to teach good skills to the children. Another institute nearby offered children candies and let them play freely instead of focusing on teaching martial skills. The former lost the competition and went out of business. The children lost a good place to learn. There also was a dentist who spent two hours for one patient to give a perfect care. After some time, he had to move to some other place to pay cheaper rent. After he moved away, the new dentist alloted only ten minutes to one patient and he is thriving. Competition does not necessarily guarantee the best quality. The most serious problem, however, is that the society based on competition becomes a battlefield for everybody. Because of the fierce competition in schools, Korean students study the longest hours and felt most unhappy among students of OECD countries. To win the competition, people have to trample over other people and fight a ferocious battle with everybody else. Since only a few people can be winners, our society becomes a jungle in which “winner takes all” or “survival of the fittest” becomes a prevalent motto and most people become losers. In this kind of society, university students also spend most of the time preparing for “specs” to win the competition for getting a good job. However, the most important thing is that we also have to think about some alternative society in which so-called losers also can live a stable and happy life and in which people are evaluated by their own unique talents instead of uniform standards such as test scores. This may sound unrealistic. However, when we look at the examples of the education system in Finland that provides the best opportunity for every student without competition, we realize that it is not such an impossible goal. We must not forget that we have better values than competition and success--such values as care and respect for other human beings and an effort to live together in harmony and peace.