 Six “new settlers” are currently studying English at the British Council in Seoul, with the support of the British Embassy and the council. / Courtesy of British Council |
By Kim Se-jeong
Yu Woo-sung, 30, a North Korean defector, is an English language student at the British Council in Seoul.
He defected to South Korea from Cheongjin, North Korea in 2004.
A former medical student in North Korea, Yu is now studying Chinese language at Yonsei University. In a sense, he is one of the fortunate defectors.
But even for him, without help from the British Embassy, a free lesson at the council would have been inconceivable, as many defectors depend heavily on a small amount of assistance from the government.
Starting May this year, the British Embassy, the British Council and the Asia Foundation launched a program that assists North Korean defectors to learn English in Seoul.
“As part of our corporate social responsibility programs this year, the British Embassy and the British Council piloted an English language social integration program for new-settlers... English language ability can be a real barrier for new-settlers who strive to access the higher education opportunities that South Korea has to offer,” Martin Uden, the British ambassador to Korea, said in a speech at the British-Korea Society annual dinner earlier this year.
Yu, who refused to give out his real name for the article, said he couldn’t agree with the ambassador more.
Coming from a society where English as a foreign language isn’t encouraged at all, he said, the widespread use of English in speaking and writing in the South came as a shock and remains as a big challenge for him.
“The regime doesn’t want ordinary students to do well in English. Plus, there’s no need to learn English. You don’t see any English on TV, whereas some Chinese or Russian is heard and seen,” he said.
Six defectors in their 20s and 30s — three men and three women — are now receiving the free English lessons.
The British Embassy funds their class fees. One student is enrolled in a listening and speaking course, whereas the other five are in a general English course.
Yu said the quality of the education exceeds that in other private institutes that he had tried before.
The pioneering project by the British Embassy speaks volumes for South Korea.
The political climate on the Korean Peninsula in the aftermath of the Nov. 23 attack on Yeonpyeong Island is at its lowest point since the Korean War, meanwhile the number of North Korean defectors entering the South keeps going up, adding pressure on the government. This year, the total number of defectors reached 20,000.
Hyun In-taek, unification minister, hailed the program for promoting “an important mark in the path toward integration and, ultimately, unification of the two Koreas in the future.”
Not quite the same, but similar projects have sprung up.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Wooyang Foundation, a local NGO, together with the Pagoda Academy, one of the largest language education companies in Korea, offers defector students a 70-percent discount on fees.
The embassy is preparing to launch its project formally next January and to raise funds for the sustainable expansion of the project.
“We want to build upon this success and make the program both bigger and more sustainable,” said Uden.
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