By Yoon Seong-hoon
After reading the Feb. 5 Korea Times article, ``Secrets of European English Teaching Method,'' I totally agreed with the ideal European English education model, and was shocked by the international score sheets of the TOEFL test.
There are hundreds of private English institutes in Korea, and many of them are highly focused on preparing for TOEIC or TOEFL tests. However Korea ranked 107th out of 143 countries in terms of TOEFL scores, needless to say much below those of European countries, where English is mostly taught in school.
Most Korean people might agree with President-elect Lee Myung-bak in that we need to transform our English education in Korea. But the problems and the main issues reside in how we are going to do that.
Here are really efficient European models that also fit Korea, and I strongly argue that Korea can use our resources to make a global standard English education program such as that operated by Europeans.
I want to ask a question to the Presidential Transition Committee: Why do you look to Korean Americans when we have a great number of Korean students who have a real desire to be English teachers here in Korea?
You might know a significant number of Korean college students who go abroad to improve their English in the United States, England or other English-speaking countries. You also know a huge amount of money is spent by ``goose families'' abroad.
Korean students go to English-speaking countries to learn English more efficiently as many European students do. While staying there, they learn not only how to speak English but also how to survive in a foreign country and its culture. They learn all of these things that are useful to know in this global society.
Korean ``goose fathers'' send their children to English-speaking countries because they want their children to learn English early in life.
They are in some ways smart parents, and you do not need to worry about them so much. What you need to worry about is the setting-up of more acceptable and high standard education programs for learning English here in Korea.
Nowadays Korean college students have more opportunities to go abroad through exchange programs, working holidays and volunteer programs ― organized by world organizations such as UNESCO ― or traveling.
You should take into account that these Korean college students are quite globalized and many of them are quite good English speakers, and I am sure that there are many English education majors, who entered college with dreams of becoming English teachers.
I think those college students have more of a global mindset, with much more experience abroad than the Korean teachers in the system at the moment.
The reason that many of the graduates go to institutes to teach English, rather than to schools, or choose to work for a company with their fluent English speaking skills lies in the nation's highly competitive teacher certification exams.
I am sure if you plan to hire more of these people rather than Korean Americans, a great number of Korean students from English education departments will be willing to take on the job.
When it comes to English education in school, we are desperate for more English-speaking teachers for better quality language classes. Why don't you give this opportunity to the large number of English education majors from Korea who can teach English in English?
We have plenty of Koreans who have been trained abroad or have worked hard to achieve a proficient level of English here in Korea, so we do not need to import more from abroad.
Yoon Seong-hoon is studying business administration at Korea University in Seoul. He can be reached at okjacky@empal.com.