The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    Discussions on raising age for free subway rides gain momentum

  • 3

    Families of Itaewon crowd stampede victims clash with police over installation of memorial altar

  • 5

    US reaffirms nuclear security assurances to South Korea

  • 7

    Families of Itaewon victims on collision course with Seoul City

  • 9

    William Franklin Sands' diplomatic and undiplomatic views of late Joseon

  • 11

    Will KT, POSCO replace CEOs as Shinhan, Woori did?

  • 13

    Korea as sublime, strange, and familiar

  • 15

    TXT, Le Sserafim top Oricon album and singles chart

  • 17

    Chinese spy balloon 'transits' Latin America after first craft flies over US

  • 19

    Blinken scraps rare China trip over alleged spy balloon

  • 2

    INTERVIEWTati Gabrielle, actress of Korean, African-American descent, feels proud of her heritage

  • 4

    2-year work experience prerequisite lifted for foreign shipyard welders

  • 6

    China expresses 'strong dissatisfaction' over US shooting down balloon

  • 8

    Opposition party takes to streets to protest prosecution probes into leader

  • 10

    Korean American Rep. Young Kim named chair of House Indo-Pacific subcommittee

  • 12

    US remains committed to using full range of capabilities to defend S. Korea: Blinken

  • 14

    US shoots down suspected Chinese spy balloon with a single missile

  • 16

    Wang Yi urges US to 'avoid misjudgment' over balloon controversy

  • 18

    President Yoon at odds with politician who helped him win election

  • 20

    Musk didn't defraud investors with 2018 Tesla tweets

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
Opinion
  • Yun Byung-se
  • Kim Won-soo
  • Ahn Ho-young
  • Kim Sang-woo
  • Lee Kyung-hwa
  • Mitch Shin
  • Peter S. Kim
  • Daniel Shin
  • Jeon Su-mi
  • Jang Daul
  • Song Kyung-jin
  • Park Jung-won
  • Cho Hee-kyoung
  • Park Chong-hoon
  • Kim Sung-woo
  • Donald Kirk
  • John Burton
  • Robert D. Atkinson
  • Mark Peterson
  • Eugene Lee
  • Rushan Ziatdinov
  • Lee Jong-eun
  • Chyung Eun-ju and Joel Cho
  • Bernhard J. Seliger
  • Imran Khalid
  • Troy Stangarone
  • Jason Lim
  • Casey Lartigue, Jr.
  • Bernard Rowan
  • Steven L. Shields
  • Deauwand Myers
  • John J. Metzler
  • Andrew Hammond
  • Sandip Kumar Mishra
Mon, February 6, 2023 | 21:04
John Burton
Learning English the Nordic way
Posted : 2022-09-27 14:51
Updated : 2022-09-27 14:51
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link

By John Burton

Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon's ambition to turn his city into a center of English-speaking Koreans is a laudable one, but it will also be difficult to achieve, at least in the short term.

No one doubts that English is the lingua franca of the global economy and its widespread use will help attract foreign investment to Busan and elsewhere in Korea.

I have lived in several countries which were essentially bilingual in terms of English and the local language ― Sweden, the Netherlands and Singapore. All of them offer lessons to Korea in its quest to achieve English fluency, but I like to focus on Sweden and the rest of the Nordic region.

Swedes, together with Norwegians and Danes, are considered the world's best non-native speakers of English. Rarely during my six years in Sweden did I meet anyone who did not speak fluent English.

One advantage that these Scandinavian speakers may have is that their native languages are all part of the Germanic language family and are closely related to English, another Germanic language, in terms of both grammar and words.

But this does not explain the proficiency of English among the next-door Finns, whose language belongs to the Uralic language family and may be distantly related to Korean. Both, for example, are agglutinating languages, meaning various grammatical modifiers of a word are affixed at the end. This probably means that Finnish speakers do not find it any easier to learn English than Koreans.

So why does Finland rank ninth in the world in terms of English proficiency, while Korea ranks 37th out of a total of 112 countries, according to the 2021 EF English Proficiency Index?

The main reason is that English is taught early in primary schools. Once a student has mastered reading and writing in their native language, which is around seven or eight years of age, they will begin their formal English language education. By 10 years of age, almost all the children in the Nordic region are learning English.

One advantage that these countries have, which Korea does not, is that all of their teachers are fluent in English, which makes it easy to promote English education in all the schools.

The importance of starting early in learning a second language is crucial as anyone who brought up children in a bilingual household, as I have, knows. By age three, my daughter, for example, was speaking both English and Korean and she has never stopped since then.

Knowledge of English is reinforced in the Nordic region by television. Since these countries lack the financial resources to produce all their own programming, shows imported from the U.S. and the U.K. are shown. Instead of being dubbed, they are subtitled so that most viewers become familiar with the sound of English.

In contrast, any foreign content on Korean television is dubbed. But this is becoming less of a handicap since English-language content on YouTube and Netflix can be viewed with subtitles. This is emerging as a key learning tool.

Another benefit that Scandinavians enjoy is their close proximity to the U.K., which offers the opportunity to practice the language. English has also become the common language among Europeans just as Latin once did. This is particularly true among European countries with a very high English proficiency, including the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Portugal and Croatia.

There is thus a strong practical reason to learn English and plenty of opportunities to use it. In contrast, Korea is far from countries that normally use English, the closest being parts of Southeast Asia such as Singapore and Malaysia.

The bottom line is that cultural immersion, often on a daily basis, explains why Swedes and many other Europeans speak such excellent English. It is a challenge that Korea still needs to overcome.

Korea has tried to address this issue by, for example, setting up so-called "English villages" where visitors meet native speakers to practice their English. But such attempts have an air of artificiality about them and are not applied in a consistent manner.

Meanwhile, Mayor Park is facing a backlash from some nationalist groups who claim his promotion of English is undermining the use of Korean and creating a divide with those who are unable to speak English.

But again the experience of the Nordic region proves instructive. English has not undermined the status of the 27 million people who speak one of the Nordic tongues. In Iceland, a country of only 365,000 people, a conscious effort is made to preserve Icelandic by banning loan words from other languages even as Icelanders are proficient English speakers.

Korean is less under threat since an estimated 75 million people ― about three times the Nordic population ― regard it as their native language.


John Burton (johnburtonft@yahoo.com), a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and consultant.




 
Top 10 Stories
12-year work experience prerequisite lifted for foreign shipyard welders 2-year work experience prerequisite lifted for foreign shipyard welders
2Families of Itaewon victims on collision course with Seoul City Families of Itaewon victims on collision course with Seoul City
3President Yoon at odds with politician who helped him win election President Yoon at odds with politician who helped him win election
49 fishermen, including 2 Vietnamese, missing in boat incident 9 fishermen, including 2 Vietnamese, missing in boat incident
5LG publishes Korea's first group-level net zero report LG publishes Korea's first group-level net zero report
6Conflict reignites over relocation of POSCO Holdings to Pohang Conflict reignites over relocation of POSCO Holdings to Pohang
7FSC approves security token transactions in Korea FSC approves security token transactions in Korea
8[VIDEO] Filipina K-pop idol and K-drama actress react to stereotypes about the Philippines VIDEOFilipina K-pop idol and K-drama actress react to stereotypes about the Philippines
9Hyundai Motor's technology helps team become WTCR double champion Hyundai Motor's technology helps team become WTCR double champion
10Tasks lie ahead for Woori's next chairman nominee picked amid controversy Tasks lie ahead for Woori's next chairman nominee picked amid controversy
Top 5 Entertainment News
1[INTERVIEW] Tati Gabrielle, actress of Korean, African-American descent, feels proud of her heritage INTERVIEWTati Gabrielle, actress of Korean, African-American descent, feels proud of her heritage
2TXT, Le Sserafim top Oricon album and singles chart TXT, Le Sserafim top Oricon album and singles chart
3Reclusive fashion icon Martin Margiela makes comeback as artist with eerie wonderland of human bodies Reclusive fashion icon Martin Margiela makes comeback as artist with eerie wonderland of human bodies
4Decoding success factors of NewJeans: How is it different? Decoding success factors of NewJeans: How is it different?
5The Boyz member Hyunjae apologizes for wearing hat with Rising Sun flag design The Boyz member Hyunjae apologizes for wearing hat with Rising Sun flag design
DARKROOM
  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

  • World Cup 2022 France vs Morocco

    World Cup 2022 France vs Morocco

CEO & Publisher : Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email : webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel : 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No : 서울,아52844
Date of registration : 2020.02.05
Masthead : The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group