Korean Kids Learn English in Wrong Way

By Jon Huer
Korea Times Columnist

The news is bad on the English front, in reference to teaching and learning the language in Korea. The report says Korea is ``ranked bottom'' in the TOEFL speaking test. It also says about 90 percent of the Korean test-takers, the largest in the world, study English at hagwon; perhaps Korea spends more money on English learning than any other non-native English-speaking nation. This news is fairly consistent with previous test results; Koreans are just not very good with English communication. Something doesn't jibe with our common sense.

I have never taught English to Korean kids and would never wish to. From what I have heard and observed, it's like pulling teeth without anesthesia. I hate to be the bearer of bad new that everyone already knows: Most kids in Korea hate English classes! Contrary to parental wishes, official endorsements and a large measure of public myth in Korea, learning English is not one of the more popular things for kids to do. In fact, most Korean kids are not terribly interested in studying English, much less good English, because they see no reason to study it. Most Korean kids, who are sent to their grueling after-school English classes, see those classes as just another link in the long chain of extracurricular activities.

Children are constantly told by their parents and the rest of society that English mastery is good for the country, good for their careers, and is the future of world communication. English competence is the golden key to personal happiness and national prosperity, everybody says. But even if all this is true and is believed by these school children, it is still light years away from their life here and now. In their little childish minds, their main concern is wholly unrelated to future world communication or job hunting. They are just tired and exhausted from the day's endless chain of lessons and more lessons, and even the U.S. President has officially confirmed this miserable fact. English classes are just another after school course they are forced to take.

Human beings do things for one of the two things: necessity or fun. For Korean kids, English learning is neither. I have been told of this by a number of English teachers, and have witnessed some private classes taking place at American military bases in Korea. In years past, when Korea was relatively poor and America was a dream far away, the experience of learning English with American teachers might have been an exciting event in one's life. But, today, with the saturation of all things American on TV, in the movies and on the street, most Korean kids find no great novelty in being taught English by an American teacher. For the most part, they are tired and bored and just sit there waiting for the teacher to do something to stir them up; making them speak English in the classroom takes all the tricks and energies that the teacher can muster. I have also been told that this indifference, or even active disruption of class, occurs more commonly as the social standing of the pupils increases.

Those who teach Korean children describe quite credibly how exhausted and unmotivated these kids are and how difficult it is to arouse their interest in learning English. Many resort to song-and-dance routines, tricks and plays, bribing them with pizza and candies, storytelling and plain old horsing around, just to get their attention up for an hour. Some unscrupulous English teachers just get by without doing much teaching. Parents waste their money and kids go through another torture chamber. Teachers curse their fate, wondering why they are in Korea. The motivating rhetoric of the importance of English in the future world, in their nation's economy, in their future careers, or whatever, would be the last thing that would interest the kids.

For children who see nothing beyond their next fun and games, the stress of having to learn English poses an extra demand on their intelligence and endurance. Doing well in after-school English classes, and doing it with enthusiasm and passion, is the exception, rather than the rule. Good English mastery may pay off someday, but that's someday in the future, not now. For run-of-the-mill native English teachers, consequently, their daily routines consist mostly of nine-parts despair and hopelessness, and one-part bright spot brought on by the few ``good'' classes or rare enthusiastic students.

Public school classrooms command authority and punishment, real or threatened, for the slackers. Teachers can use physical punishment, verbal threats, rhetorical exhortations, and any variety of the arsenal at their disposal. Under these circumstances, a measure of law and order prevails and the day's routines are carried out. But after-school hagwon are a different story. They have none of the public school, or its official teachers', motivating authority or punishment. Even the most battle-tested and resourceful foreign teachers find it tough going to keep these exhausted youngsters motivated and interested in learning English.

In short, learning English has become an unmitigated nightmare for many involved, for the parents, for the teachers, and for the kids. Small wonder that test results are far from encouraging. Test after test, Koreans of all ages have little to show for their money, time and effort. The only way kids can be motivated to learn anything, outside their punishment-threatened routines, is through fun and games, mostly in the form of song, rhythm, rhyme, storytelling, play-acting, and so on. But this approach makes English learning just another hobby-like activity, not the serious, compelling, do-or-die enterprise on which Korea's future is thought to hang.

In Korea today, the conclusion is inevitable that learning English is a fad more than a practical need. Most of those who spend a great deal of their lives and lives' fortunes on studying English still remain English incompetent. Most of those who have managed to learn decent English rarely use it to any beneficial effect. Most of Korea's youngsters pressed into English learning care very little about it. This is a tough situation in which to find any daylight on the subject.

Korea should realize that its aspirations for English mastery can't be achieved without a major change in its mental habits and cultural thinking. In short, as has been said often, Korea cannot remain ``Korean'' in its mental-cultural ways and expect to master the most ``Western'' of all Western languages. But this is a subject for another day.

The writer can be reached at jonhuer@hotmail.com