Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Adventurer]

When someone posts such rankings, it would make sense to have some empirical backing for it. Where is the empirical backing to suggest such rankings are valid? We can speculate all we want about how each country is doing, but there is nothing like hard, cold facts.

[I'm no Picasso]

[pest2]

Well, when it comes to government commitment to English, I would definitely challenge the study. Korean govt surely spends more on it than the TW government. Taiwan has nothing like the EPIK program; only the best schools get a native teacher, and they dont usually put native teachers in elementary schools. Furthermore, Taiwanese dont weight English as heavily in their university entrance exams.

When I lived in Taiwan, there were some people who spoke English, and even fewer who spoke it very very well. Everyone else had about zero English. In Korea, almost everyone knows ABC, Hi how are you im fine thankyou, and 1,2,3 etc., but similar to Taiwan, very few people speak English very well. In Korea, many many more people have had at least some exposure to English, but about the same number can actually communicate using English. (this would imply that Korea wastes alot of money on it, IMHO, since the amount the average joe here knows isn't going to be very useful in any real life applications).

Aside from govt commitment, English just isnt as big of a commodity in Taiwan; evidenced by the far fewer and poorer job opportunities there. There are a few after school hakwons (called buxibans), etc, but nothing like what you see in Korea. Maybe Taiwan (and China, both) have more adult learning places, though...

For public schools in China, I know its more or less the same deal. The good schools get a native English teacher, but the vast majority of schools in the countryside, etc, dont get one at all.

Japan, of course, has the JET program, etc...

HongKong is almost in a special category from the onset since they were a British territory for so long. Of course they are going to be higher on English in most ways.

It's obvious that Koreans have trouble attempting to understand other cultures -- both systematically and attitudinally. So no big surprise there.

Also, traditional Korean education and government for hundreds of years has always relied on "exams" as a means of measuring success, promotions, government jobs, whatever... stupid confucian thing, right? So no surprise there.

Finally, I believe its harder to go from learning Korean to English or visa versa than it is to go from learning mandarin to English and visa versa. The latter has syntax and grammar more similar to English, etc.

[hedonizm]

i'll just say that i taught in japan, and the level of english here, at least at my school is higher, as is the level of motivation. i am surprised that i can actually have a conversation with my kindy students. also, excellent reading and comprehension from my older students.

[jkelly80]

Mandarin syntax is much much closer to English than Korean or Japanese syntax. That could have something to do with the PRC and Tawainese doing better at English.

[ManintheMiddle]

pest2 and jkelly80:

Yes, the similarity in syntax between Chinese and English does ease the language learning for Chinese students but it doesn't explain most of the difference in academic performance.

Even when I had Chinese students who really were lackadaisical about learning English, they weren't as resistant as many of my former Korean students. Again, attitudes toward the target language play heavily into learner motivation. This is well documented in the field of SLA.

Chinese and Japanese students are arguably more curious about the cultures of English-speaking countries, too, which enhances motivation.

[Juregen]

I would love to read the research on those topics.