KoreaToday English Fever Reaches Koreans Overseas
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
PAJU, Gyeonggi Province ― It is 2:30 p.m. All regular classes are already over at Geumhyang Elementary School in Paju City, Gyeonggi Province. However, students start to gather one by one in the school's English language lab with textbooks in their hands.
Andrew Kim, the school's first-ever English native speaker, is waiting for all students attending his class. In 15 minutes, Kim begins to call the roll class. Some students didn't make it on time.
After warning late students not to be late again, Kim opens the book and starts the lesson. He speaks out ``How tall are you? I am 135 centimeters tall. Who is the tallest in the class? One more time, one more time, who is the best chess player, Sandy is the best chess player.''
All students repeat after him. Some rules are seen on the board: 1. Speak English Only 2. Respect each other 3. Have fun 4. Put your stickers in the book 5. Follow the teacher's directions.
``I love this class because I have many chances to speak in English with my teacher,'' said Kim Young-jin, a fifth grade student.
It is an after-school program, ``Teach and Learn in Korea (TaLK)'' organized by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. For the program, the ministry recruited last July a total of 380 native English speakers from five countries ― the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. They mainly consist of ethnic Koreans from the countries who completed a month-long teacher-training program in August and have been sent to underprivileged elementary schools across the country.
The state-run program is free ― the only thing the students need is a textbook. Kim, 21, one of the TaLK program teachers, has three classes everyday from Monday through Friday; a 1:00 p.m. - 1:40 p.m. class for 1st and 2nd grade students, 1:50 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. class for 3rd and 4th grade; and 2:40 p.m. - 3:20 p.m. for 5th and 6th grade.
Kim is a junior student majoring in economics at Cornell University in the United States. ``I am Korean American. I am not 100 percent Korean and nor am I 100 percent American. I am always curious about my heritage and wanted to find my identity,'' Kim said.
``That's why I jumped at this chance, teaching English and visiting Korea for free. So not only am I here to help but also learn about myself,'' he added. Kim will stay here until the end of the year.
All TaLK teachers receive a round-trip airfare 1.5 million won ($ 1,500) per month and a monthly accommodation allowance of 400,000 won.
Kim's class allows only a limited number of students, 30, so all the school's students cannot have the opportunity to study English with the Ivy League student. The school has selected 90 children out of a total of 1,000 through a lottery. The selected students can study with the native speaker until the end of October and the school will choose another 90 students for the second session from November through to the end of the year.
``Almost 500 students applied for the program. We are sorry that only few students can benefit from it. However, it is better even for a few children to mingle with a native English speaker,'' said Park Sung-ho, the school principal.
``In the long run, we hope we can have a permanent native English teacher,'' he added.
More than half of the class students are studying at private English schools. One of the students, Chae Sung-keun said the class was rather boring and easy. In contrast, another student who doesn't attend any private English classes, Lee Hwa-hyun said it was difficult for her to catch up.
Hence, the gap in English ability among the program participants is one of the problems that the school has to overcome.
``In my class, some students are so smart and complain it is too easy, whereas some are not good at English at all,'' Kim said. ``I wish I could pay more attention and have more time with those lagging behind but I am a teacher for 30 students, so I have to treat all students equally and fairly.''