English Education (Cultural Negotiations: Part 2)

Koreans are crazy about English. That much is for sure. Everywhere you look in Seoul, there's an advertisement for an English institute. Or there's a person handing out a brochure for one.

One time I was sitting on a park bench reading a book when a man came up to me, said “bonjour,” and calmly put a brochure for an English institute on the empty spot next to me. (He must have had the delayed realization that I was reading an English—not French—novel because he later came back and tried to speak English with me.)

I don't understand this second-language obsession. I know English can be useful in business and travel and potentially other areas of life, but I still don't understand. With all of the intense competition that goes on here, it seems to me that English education is doing little but widening the social gap in Korea.

Students in Korea start learning English when they are in middle school. On average, most people study English for at least ten years of their life. But in recent years, the ways that they study English have changed. And children are starting to learn when they are younger and younger. I recently heard about an English-speaking kindergarten that costs $800/month in Seoul. And you know what's crazy? Many parents actually pay to send their children there.

One of the things that surprised me most is that there are no failed grades in Korea. No matter a child's academic ability, they never have to repeat a grade. So there's usually a wide range of students in one grade. But, nevertheless, 97% of them manage to graduate from high school. And I recently learned that the amount of Koreans who participate in higher education has soared. In 1960 there were 100,000 who studied at a university. By 1987 there were 1.3 million. Wow.

The emphasis on education continues to increase as competition to get a job increases. In a crowded place like this, there are more people than jobs, especially since many women have started working in the last 50 years, as well. So, to put it mildly, parents tend to freak out about their kids' futures.

In Korea, a diploma and high test scores are seemingly synonymous with the ability to work, so education is seen as a way (often the only way) to get a chance for a good job. Because of some of the problems in the public school system, most parents trust private institutes (hogwans) more than public schools, and it's become common for children to go to their regular school and then attend hogwans before and/or after. Lots of students go to school in the morning and don't come home until 10 o'clock at night. (Korean public schools also require attendance every other Saturday.)

Families sacrifice huge amounts of money to give their children these extra educational opportunities. Some parents have been known to spend up to 80% of their earnings on this kind of private education. And I've heard some people say that this is part of the reason that Korea's economy has grown so quickly. Other parents (the rich ones) send their children abroad to study in an English-speaking country. (But, of course, that can have cause some problems, too, especially when the kids come back and find themselves torn between two cultures.)

What astounds me is that Korea spends the highest amount of money on English education in all of Asia, yet they have some of the lowest English scores on international exams (i.e. TOEIC, TOEFL, etc.). It all just seems so bizarre. I'm not usually one to base a person's ability on a test score, but this just floors me.

And I struggle with this issue. What do you do if your parents are poor and can't afford hogwans? What do you do if you're a parent and feel constant pressure from other parents to send your kids there? Even though I teach adults, I feel like the social gap remains the same. And I reinforce the system, even though my hogwan is different from most hogwans.

Yes, I have unique opportunities to share with them. Yes, I learn a lot from them. Yes, I enjoy teaching adults who are eager to learn. However, I can't help but cringe when I think of how many of my students take the knowledge I give them with the simple notion that they'll apply it towards selfish ambitions, such as getting a better-paying job, a promotion, or a higher social status. Not everybody does that, but many do.

I want to challenge a system and way of thinking that seems flawed on so many levels, yet I am often unsure of how to do that. I want to tell them that English is a beautiful language that they can use to express themselves and talk to others and learn about people from all over the world. It's not just a tool for personal advancement. And quite frankly, why is it so important in a country where English isn't even the main language anyway? So I suppose this is Part 2 of my cultural negotiations. “Okay, Korean education system, let's have a chat...”