Korean Job Discussion Forums

[in_seoul_2003]

Yea, I'm taking a bit of a perverse pleasure in this already well known news. When will Koreans realize that fetishizing a language is not quite the same as learning it? $15 billion???

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/06/117_25279.html

Korean English Fever Betrayed by Test Scores

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

Koreans spend a lot of energy and money on studying English but their efforts seem futile as they always remain at the bottom of tests measuring English capability compared with other countries.

The Korean private English education market is estimated at as much as 15 trillion won ($15 billion). On top of students, office workers are bent on studying the language.

About seven in 10 office workers are showing signs of ``English addition syndrome'' where they feel uneasy if they are not studying it, according to YBM Sisa.
The leading language institute surveyed 1,837 office workers and more than 40 percent of respondents said they spend over 100,000 won ($100) per month on English education. More than half of those surveyed answered that they are currently studying the language.

Asked whether they feel the need for English studying, nearly 97 percent said, ``yes.''

Mired at Rock Bottom

Despite this frenzy, Koreans are showing no marked improvement in international scores on English tests.

The British Council announced Tuesday that Korea ranked 19th on the general training module of the IELTS among 20 countries ― Korean applicants averaged 5.21 out of a full score of 9.

IELTS is short for International English Language Testing System. Run by the British Council, University of Cambridge and Australian IDP Education, IELTS has two types of tests: a general training module for emigrant hopefuls and an academic module for students applying to overseas schools. It is on a par with TOEFL in terms of the number of test applicants.

Korean applicants especially showed weakness in writing and speaking tests, the British Council said. South Africa, which has adopted English as a business language, ranked top with an average score of 7.46. Singapore came next with 7.01, followed by Malaysia with 6.9, and Brazil with 6.43. China ranked 13th with 5.77 and Japan was placed 16th with 5.52.

In the case of the academic module, Korea scored 5.71 ranking 15th. Germany topped the test module with 7.16 followed by Malaysia with 6.65, the Philippines with 6.58 and Russia, 6.48.

IELTS test organizers said Korea has to adopt a new system for English education.

``Although Korea spends more money on English education and Koreans are trying to study English at an earlier age the test scores have remained the same,'' the British Council said.

[email protected]

[in_seoul_2003]

edit: oops, just realized that real reality already got to it.

[Young FRANKenstein]

[ernie]

while my week long vacation doesn't qualify as an exhaustive study, i'm pretty confident in saying that english ability in korea is MUCH better than in japan...

[Bibbitybop]

Not speaking the language outside of the classroom is one huge reason no one can speak English.

[Young FRANKenstein]

[Adventurer]

[pkang0202]

[ernie]

i'm comparing major korean cities like seoul, busan, daegu and daejon to my few days in tokyo and osaka... most store workers under 30 here can carry a basic conversation, whereas in japan i was reduced to pointing and grunting 90% of the time!

[Julius]

[xtchr]

Julius seems to have hit the nail on the head. Excellent post.

[visitorq]

[skeeterses]

I've been to Japan a few times and can say for certain that Japan is one of those places where knowing a few survival phrases in the local langauge is essential for getting around.

While Japan is a larger country, they have had a low birthrate for quite some time now, which would explain why there seems to be a relatively high proportion of senior citizens. Fewer children translates to fewer schoolteachers.

I don't have any solid statistics to say how the Japanese are actually doing on their English tests. One difference between Japan and Korea though is that the Japanese are not going to point fingers at foreigners or run up to a foreigner to show off some English to their friends. In Korea, it's pretty easy for a foreigner to humble any of the show-offs.

[Privateer]

[skeeterses]

The thing about not paying attention inside the classroom is also something. Outside the classroom, the many kids seem to have no problem going up to foreigners on the street at times and repeating the same repetitive phrases. But it doesn't occur to them that the foreigners are actually being paid to teach English inside the classroom, and that a lot of foreigners actually want to learn Korean outside the hagwon.