By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
One out of five elementary school students have experienced there own dose of ``bullying'' simply because they are not as good at English as their friends, a poll revealed.
The survey conducted on 471 elementary school students also showed that nearly 18 percent feel stressed because of English and often worry about their language exams.
``Parents are worried too, often pressuring their children to learn proper English and the stress seems to be transferred to their children,'' said Lee Cheol-yong, CEO of Tong Class, a private English education institute which conducted the survey. ``And the stress or the obsession seems to cause problems between peers in class.''
Forty-seven percent of the students said the main motive to start learning English was the encouragement or enforcement by their parents. Despite the stress, 66 percent said they wanted to keep learning English and 51 percent said English is necessary to survive.
It seems that the obsession in learning English at early ages is largely attributed to worries by parents who do not want their children to lose a competition with their peers.
``Every parent struggles to let their kids have good English education and you can't help but joining them if you don't want to see your children lose a competition with others,'' Jang Kyung-mi, a mother of two children in Gyeonggi Province, said.
Her daughter and son have taken English classes at several private institutes, paying 300,000 won a month, but Jang said she is still worried that she may need to do something more for them.
Experts say English classes at elementary schools should first neutralize feelings of anxiety felt by parents and their children from being obsessed with English education. Currently, an elementary school offers one or two classes a week, which they find is insufficient.
``Poor school curriculum in English classes may be largely attributed to the worries that parents have,'' said Lee Won-key, professor of the English education department at Seoul National University of Education. ``More classes by properly trained teachers are the solution to ease the worries and stress of parents and children.''