Important English in Korea
English is very important in Korea. In truth, some babies learn English as soon as they are born by using the sounds or videos, etc. And they knuckle down to it when they go to the kindergarten 4-5 years old. Actually they can’t speak Korean well, however they sometimes speak English well. They talk to their foreign teachers and are improving the English skills. Trully, it is not strange what they speak and learn English. Maybe it should be done to them. They start learning it from babies and they are doing until they are grown up, sometimes dies.
Look at the university students. They go to abroad quite rightly even though they’ve learn it continuously because it is not enough. They want to be a native speaker and the society and the company want these people, so that’s why they go there though it cost a lot. We know there are some advantages to learn it. It helps to get the more competition in the global world. However there are also many problems or disadvantages. Thus I hope we know why we and our children should learn it.
3 thoughts on “Important English in Korea”
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I totally agree with you. I hate that little kids study too much. They have to play with their friends. My 4 years old nephew also studies English at the kindergarten, but I don’t think it is helpful for her. She will study anyway when they go to the school. I think the most important thing for the kids is playing.
I agree with you, Kyung-Hoon. In fact, when I have children, if I can afford it, I won’t send them to school. I don’t think playing is the only important thing, but when children have time to play, they also have time to think and learn out of their own natural curiosity. And with all that time, they can develop an identity and confidence and even a critical mind. Theywon’t be forced to sit in a room with strangers — some of those strangers dangerous or nasty people — for 12 years of their lives and repeat their teachers’ answers, while their childhood disappears. After all, if you think of this system — which is a very new one in human history — it’s very unnatural, isn’t it?
Scientific studies in the USA show that a person can learn everything that you learn in the 12 years of schooling in only 100 hours if you are free to study it when you are interested and in a more logical way than is taught in school. Imagine that: all the math, history, science, literature, reading, writing… you can learn all of it in about 100 hours of study.
It makes you wonder what the real purpose of schools is. If you’re curious about one opinion — one I think is sensible — read John Taylor Gatto’s book Dumbing Us Down.
Not sending children to school isn’t just a foreign idea. Alternative schooling and home-schooling are getting popular in Korea, too. Maybe they’re worth considering.
As for English, Youngae, I wonder… does English really benefit Korea? Korea needs some people who speak English, of course, but how many? I don’t think most people need it any more than most of France needs to speak English, or most of Germany. I’d much rather see those kids spent hours studying science, engineering, poetry, or even swimming than studying English that most kids never end up using when they grow up… except for TOEIC tests.
Also, most of the world doesn’t believe that everyone should be a native speaker. I think some of this is related to Korean competitive culture. North Americans are often not native speakers — they’re Chinese, or Arabs, or people from Cote d’Ivoire, or from Uzbekistan, and English is a second or third language for them. They have an accent, but everyone understands that this is natural. I think the pressure to become a native speaker is harmful to people trying to learn English, to be honest… it’s too stressful, too much pressure.
I agree with you. I think it is not good for kids but also harmful for them. Kids can learn many things when they play. They can be creative & sociable and think about something. Actually, sometimes I can’t understand why I should study English to be like native speakers. Now it’s a big problem in Korea. It is just from competition.