Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ytuque]

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2008/12/22/2008122261029.html

An interesting article about S. Korea and English language education.

[skeeterses]

[ytuque]

[Captain Corea]

[skeeterses]

I agree that a lot of the teaching methods and textbooks used are not exactly efficient ways to learn English. However, before there can be any talk about English fluency on a large scale, there must be some limits set in place.

For starters, there must be a strict limit on the amount of time the kids are spending in the classroom. 1 or 2 classes after school is reasonable. Staying at a hagwon past dinner time is not. With many hagwons operating up to midnight, it should be obvious that the last thing Korean children need is more English classes. The kids need 8 hours of sleep as well as some time to play outside and be kids.

Second of all, Koreans need to seriously rethink about the need for every Korean schoolchild to learn English. Sure, some occupations like the Education profession and Chaebols need some English speakers. But other occupations like Taxi Driving and Construction don't. What business does the Government have telling all the children that they have to learn English?

I don't expect too many English teachers to question the need for so many Korean schoolchildren to attend ESL hagwons. And the reason is that ESL is big business in Korea. As Jon Huer said, this is one business where fortunes are made and lost. Native English teachers, Korean English teachers, Hagwon owners, textbook publishers, they're making money off the ESL horse. Why should they question the whole rationale behind the ESL Industry? After all, all the students are going to grow up, get good TOEIC scores, and then land a job at a Chaebol and live happily ever after.

[Juregen]

[moosehead]

[skeeterses]

[Juregen]

[Jane]

To answer your question, OP, there is enough education.

The truth is: Koreans just aren't interested in anything outside of Korea. They don't care about non-Korean stuff, and this translates into their English learning.

I've said this before, there is nothing wrong with English teaching in Korea (except for the horrible public school curriculum, riddled with errors, being taught by non-English speakers), there is something wrong with the learners.

Where there is an obligation (to teach English), there is a responsibility (to learn it).

[Captain Corea]

[Robot_Teacher]

Since you can't really use English functionally outside of school for communication, students often lack understanding why they're put to the task of studying English. If there were a robust tourism industry involving Westerners, then many more Koreans would speak English like common for other non-English countries seeing significant tourism. Learning something hard has to carry percieved benefits for it to really manifest within a population on a local and national level. To put the English learning in Korea into analogy. It's like trying to learn uni level biology and chemistry, which are very hard science courses, just so you can graduate college. Since most people know very little about high science and you don't go talking all that jargon and know you aren't going to work with that knowledge, it makes being interested in it and learning it very difficult at best. Naturally, some people pick it up easily even if they don't use a specific knowledge in their line of work as some Koreans speak English very well, but rarily use it as Korean is the only thing spoken in every day life. Korea needs English speakers in jobs that work directly with the public to encourage communication in English and to really open up to the world by accommodating foreigners and students practicing their English in real life situations such as in a shop.

[Robot_Teacher]

Since you can't really use English functionally outside of school for communication, students often lack understanding why they're put to the task of studying English. If there were a robust tourism industry involving Westerners, then many more Koreans would speak English like common for other non-English countries seeing significant tourism. Learning something hard has to carry percieved benefits for it to really manifest within a population on a local and national level. To put the English learning in Korea into analogy. It's like trying to learn uni level biology and chemistry, which are very hard science courses, just so you can graduate college. Since most people know very little about high science and you don't go talking all that jargon and know you aren't going to work with that knowledge, it makes being interested in it and learning it very difficult at best. Naturally, some people pick it up easily even if they don't use a specific knowledge in their line of work as some Koreans speak English very well, but rarily use it as Korean is the only thing spoken in every day life. Korea needs English speakers in jobs that work directly with the public to encourage communication in English and to really open up to the world by accommodating foreigners and students practicing their English in real life situations such as in a shop.

[Zantetsuken]

[Jane]