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globalgrrrl
Joined: 10 Aug 2003
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 Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 11:16 am Post subject: English Education in Korea... |
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To anyone who can help me out... (I posted this on the other forum, but apparently people would rather talk about Korean women and celebity sitings) 
Can anyone shed some light on the English Education in Korea? Specifically, at the higher ed. level... are English language courses compulsory and if so, for how long? Feel free to add anything else re: higher ed. or English-language learning (higher ed) in Korea...
Plus, does anyone know of any stats re: the number of Koreans who study abroad? and what are the most popular destinations? I'm sure people have some ideas about this, but if you know of any statistical data... would greatly appreciate it.
I'm sure I'll have more q's later. Thanks ahead of time to those who can help me out... |
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harpo
Joined: 07 Nov 2003
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 1:18 pm Post subject: english lsat |
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Hey Everyone,
This is my first post and I don't have an answer but I'm coming to Korea in January and am considering writing the LSAT in Seoul in June. Has anyone ever written it in a foreign country, could you share your experiences? I know its an English exam but does anyone know if the instructions have to be given in English or can they be given in Korean??
Thanks for any info.
Harp |
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Gord
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 2:06 pm Post subject: |
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I do some work at a high school for students in their 10th to 12th years.
From what I have been told, students are required to learn English (both spoken and written) as well as another foreign language (spoken not required, just a degree of writing/reading ability) to a lesser level.
Historically, it was required that all students must learn to read and write English to some degree, and spoken English to any serious degree is a modern requirement. |
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Mr. Pink
Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Location: China
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 3:47 pm Post subject: |
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In highschool there is one compulsive course. Every highschool student in the country must take the same course, using the same boring book.
The English they learn is primarily to prepare them for the Korean SAT that occurs every November.
I am not sure about regular highschools, but at my highschool we have about 3 compulsive English courses. One is that gov't one, another is listening, and the other is reading.
This is because on the KSAT there is a listening part and reading part, and so they practice for that.
I can't help you about university or stats on how many Koreans study abroad. Not sure where those stats would be anyways. |
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wylde
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 5:16 pm Post subject: |
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the education system is upside down.
they really have no desire to learn how to converse, (as mr. pink said) all they wanna do is pass tests, mostly written comprehension and oral comprehension with multiple choice answers.. this drives me nuts...
with a high focus on grammar.. maybe they know a few grammar rules but they can't use them to save their own life.
mr pink... do people study listening or oral comprehension in your country? sry bro not having a stab. i understand in korea they study listening but what exactly does that mean?
english becomes compulsory in the 3rd year of elementry school and runs through until the end of high school... there is 1 compulsory lesson which includes everything with middle schools and high schools starting to incorporate conversation lessons |
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Mr. Pink
Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Location: China
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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| wylde wrote: |
mr pink... do people study listening or oral comprehension in your country? sry bro not having a stab. i understand in korea they study listening but what exactly does that mean?
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Well I am from English speaking Canada IE not Quebec.
When I took french, we did have to study listening and oral comprehension...that is because the purpose wasn't to pass some gov't multiple choice exam, but rather to use it in a day to day type way.
I think the listening they study here is scripts that are not exactly realistic. When I studied French after listening to understand, then we would be listening to repeat...to enhance our pronounciation. The system in Korea is set up so that the language is not REAL to them, it is just another step in their race to the top.
I see your point. If English was actually an offical second language here, things might change, but atm I'd venture to say MOST Koreans just don't need conversational English for what they want out of their lives.
I try my best and a few students DO learn quite a bit from me. What more can I ask for? One man can't change the Korean educational system...well unless his name is Jesus  |
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globalgrrrl
Joined: 10 Aug 2003
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| i understand in korea they study listening but what exactly does that mean? |
i'm not sure but i think this may be a recent development... i believe the korean SATs (or could it be another test?) have upped their listening portion to 20%, so again it boils down to a curriculum catered to testing even with listening. how that translates to reality is another story. people are probably reduced to understanding "what does the man mean when...?" even if that much
For those of you who are interested, here is the answer to the second part of my question re: the number of Korean students studying abroad and where. I was so excited to find it that I wanted to share it with everyone.
o Currently, numbers of Korean students study abroad are up to 154,219, which is about 25 times as many as those of foreign students studying in Korea. They are wide spread out to 71 countries. 53,888 Korean Students (35%) stay in Canada for study, 42,890 (28%) in the U.S., and 9,526 (6%) in Australia as of 1999. The statistics shows that most of Korean students stay in the countries, which use English. On the contrary, among all of 6,279 foreign students studying in our country, 1,684 foreign students (27%) are from Japan, 1,182 (19%) from China, 432 (7%) from Taiwan. Table 1 show these in detail.
Table. 1. Statistics on student exchange
Students send Students received
Year 1997 1999 1998 1999
Numbers of countries 69 71 106 108
Numbers of Students 133,249 154,219 5,329 6,279
I lifted it from this website http://www.unescobkk.org/education/aceid/higher-edu/Sixth-Session/South_Korea.htm |
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wylde
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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i mean to say... study listening? how to use your ears?
my listening is excellent however, i haven't a clue what is being said.
are we confusing this with oral comprehension? whats the point of listening well if ya don't understand what's being said?
First time "I heard i study listening" was by a korean student in australia.. that kinda baffled me, i understood what she meant but i felt it wasn't the right word to describe this... |
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Mr. Pink
Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Location: China
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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KSAT is made up for 400 points. English is 100 points of that so 1/4th.
In the English section there is a listening section. They call it listening, we call it oral comprehension. There is a reading section too.
I can get the exacts on it tomorrow when I goto work. |
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wylde
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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also, reading... is that not written comprehension... cuz i can read but i do not understand what the words mean...
i am just being a pain in the butt... but to be sure, i have wanted to ask these questions for ages.. |
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Mr. Pink
Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Location: China
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 11:09 pm Post subject: |
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| wylde wrote: |
also, reading... is that not written comprehension... cuz i can read but i do not understand what the words mean...
i am just being a pain in the butt... but to be sure, i have wanted to ask these questions for ages.. |
Ok since you want to be a smartass...here are some smartass answers:
You SEE yet do not READ.
You HEAR yet do not LISTEN.
Something like that |
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wylde
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 11:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Mr. Pink wrote: |
| wylde wrote: |
also, reading... is that not written comprehension... cuz i can read but i do not understand what the words mean...
i am just being a pain in the butt... but to be sure, i have wanted to ask these questions for ages.. |
Ok since you want to be a smartass...here are some smartass answers:
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wasn't being smart mate... don't get your knickers in a knot, just asking a simple question...
is listening the same as oral comprehension or is it different? if it is, what is the difference please? if it is not, why are we/you using korean konglish terms for those areas of english?
i read what ya said before but i'm kinda thinking they are the same thing, 1 must comprehend what is being said for 1 to be good at listening |
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iiicalypso
Joined: 13 Aug 2003
Location: is everything
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| Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2003 12:31 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
i mean to say... study listening? how to use your ears?
my listening is excellent however, i haven't a clue what is being said.
are we confusing this with oral comprehension? whats the point of listening well if ya don't understand what's being said? |
I taught listening for a couple of months, and it can be a very confusing subject. My students are all 12 or 13, and we are preparing them to take the TOEFL. The schedule is divided into four classes, one for each of the sections on the exam.
In effect we are not teaching them listening any more than the essay writing class teaches them to write. We are preparing them for the TOEFL, plain and simple. We listen to idiotic conversation snippets and then answer a question on them. I felt obliged to tell them that nobody in the US talks like this, lest they try it themselves and get the crap kicked out of them. Mostly we worked on idioms, since they understand the words but not the implications. |
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Kwangjuchicken
Joined: 01 Sep 2003
Location: I was abducted by aliens on my way to Korea and forced to be an EFL teacher on this crazy planet.
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| Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2003 2:24 am Post subject: Re: English Education in Korea... |
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| globalgrrrl wrote: |
| ... (I posted this on the other forum,....... |
The other forum??? Is that Konglish?    |
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