Korean Job Discussion Forums

conrad2 · Joined: 05 Nov 2009

I have been telling this to Korean moms. My parents didnt teach me to read before grade 1, so when I started school I was put in the slowest reading group. I didnt even know the whole alphabet. By the end of second grade I was in the highest reading group( the top eight readers out of 80 kids in the first grade at my school.) It may make moms proud to say "look my 4 year old can read" but in the end it doesnt really matter.

Khenan · Joined: 25 Dec 2007

Is it normal to learn to read at 7? Good god, no offense, but what are the parents doing for 7 years? My parents tell me I could read at 3. My nephew-in-law, who is a native Korean, not to mention 2 years old, knows the English alphabet, and can read/spell things like LOTTE. Damndest part of it is that no one taught him the alphabet. TV, I'm sure.

Fox · Joined: 04 Mar 2009

I think learning it 2 years sooner is an advantage in and of itself, as it leaves time to focus on learning other things later.

Moldy Rutabaga · Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Location: Ansan, Korea

ED209 · Joined: 17 Oct 2006

If I have kids they can wait to read. Far more important to master the choke slam and a good bitch slap. It would add motor-neuron development too, which is just as important at that age.

JMO · Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Location: Daegu

If the opposite was found, then idiots everywhere would be saying " Why did they spend money on this, when the answer is obvious!!!".

UknowsI · Joined: 16 Apr 2009

I was a little slow at learning to read and couldn't really read properly before the age of 8, but none of my friends have done any better academically. To be honest I'm starting to believe that studying is highly overrated as common sense and real life experience seems to trump studying most of the time. Of course a certain level of studying is necessary, but there seem to often be a diminishing rate of return and often what you've done before uni will even itself out in a year or two anyway.

EDIT: When I come to think of it, the first book I ever read was The Lord of the Rings which I read when I was 9-10, so I guess it's possible to catch up rather fast.

ChopChaeJoe · Joined: 05 Mar 2006 Location: Seoul

Reading is fun. It's in my top 5 of things to do. I'm not sure how useful this research is. Science has to test one variable at a time, but reading is tied up with much more complex cultural issues. Sure, there's no need to stress a 5 year old out trying to follow the adventures of Dick and Jane, but it seems to me that fostering an enjoyment of reading could result in a lifelong love of learning.

peppermint · Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 2:51 am Post subject:

Learning to read late might not have any academic ill effects, but I think perhaps it has other, less measurable ones. So much of learning depends on reading as a fundamental skill. I'm sure the posters who said they were late readers in the thread so far were bright kids and all and were brilliant at things like math that I am terrible with, but I'd imagine they have a very different relationship to books, school and learning for it's own sake than I do, as someone who was reading storybooks at 3. How could they not, if they went through the first few years of formal education struggling with one of the fundamental skills?

I don't know that it's fair to blame the parents for their kids having trouble either. I learned to read very early, but my younger sister struggled with it for years. She was diagnosed with dyslexia just before graduating high school.

Draz · Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Location: Land of Morning Clam

riverboy · Joined: 03 Jun 2003 Location: Incheon

The only boy I remember knowing how to read when I was in grade 1, now has his PHD in English Literature.

Not to brag, but my eldest son has been reading since he was two. He is four and a half and can read at a grade four level. I never really taught him; just read a lot to him and introduced him to this website:
www.starfall.com.

Now he loves to read. I don't think it hurt him, and I am sure it will help him finish his homework faster in the future.

DosEquisXX · Joined: 04 Nov 2009

Definitely. When you learn to read does not correlate with how well you can read in the future.

I was reading the newspaper when I was 2 years old.

While my reading ability is better than the average person, it is not really good. It's about keeping yourself in a reading environment and continuing to read.

peppermint · Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 4:44 am Post subject:

itaewonguy · Joined: 25 Mar 2003

learning to read is not rocket science..

learning from 5 or 7 or 11 doesnt matter really. it all depends on what you plan to do with the reading skills..

if you learned to read at age 11 and dedicated yourself to books for the next 4 years.. by the time you were 15 you probably read better than a kid who learned to read at 5 and was not that into reading...

anyway, tell a korean mum that there is no advantage to johhny learning to read at age 3! she will just say.. PALLI PALLI!!!