By Bernard Rowan
I am a student of Korea. Thanks to my friendship with a fellow graduate student from South Korea, I began a journey to Korea in 1998 that has meant everything for my lifelong learning, professional development and personal fulfillment.
One regret, despite having tried in earnest over years, is that I never mastered the Korean language. I can read and speak and understand a bit ― but only just. I've worked hard in English to learn more about Korean politics, society and culture. I share that knowledge with others, including through this column. But I can't do so in Korean.
With the pride Koreans show in their language, culture, customs, and practices, I've marveled over how South Korea encourages the study and use of the English language. It's more than a result of English's current status. Children learn English, hagwons abound, and entire curricula in universities occur in English. This all hastens the advance of South Korea today.
Today there is software to help to learn and use plain English more effectively. Some examples are Grammarly and Editor.
I also want to encourage the work of another colleague. Jung Ku-jong, a Korean expatriate living in Australia, has published a work entitled Native English. This compiled guide to English is suitable for a wide variety of English-learning and English-speaking audiences. It's a compendium of useful and practical English and interpretation for Korean native language speakers who've begun to learn English. The work is published on Amazon.com in paperback and as an eBook.
The number of Koreans studying overseas peaked several years ago. The Korean Ministry of Education has banned teaching English in first and second grades. My thinking about these developments is not about any "retreat from English", though I don't for the moment think English will forever remain the international language of choice.
It's expensive to study abroad, and many Koreans worry about unemployment for young adults at home. As for schoolchildren, I don't think it's clearly better to learn two languages at once early on. I've heard arguments and experts on both sides. Bilingual curricula impact hiring and costs of instruction in any country. Nonetheless, compared with perhaps most countries on earth, South Korean students from elementary grades onward learn English.
South Korea's embrace of English isn't unlike its embrace of Chinese and Japanese languages in days gone by. Of course, I'm not speaking about the evils of Japanese colonization. I'm speaking to what I've noticed and commented on as the syncretism of Korean culture. Korea has survived and thrived by "taking on" internationalist habits in a thoroughgoing way. It's been a part of Korean history for centuries. It's a strength and a disposition to copy. And it's too simplistic and inexact to name it a token of the country's "small size" or relative power as primary explanations.
I will make one critical comment. I'd like to encourage Koreans not to act in a condescending way to native English speakers learning their language. I've experienced one or two good people tell me flatly, "You'll never be Korean." I never wanted to be and don't, but we need to value those who learn our languages and to celebrate and encourage their learning. Native English speakers should bear with those whose speed of pronunciation, inflections, and accents make it harder to understand. I've always taken pride in being able to understand my English-speaking Korean friends and act positively and diplomatically in conversation.
I admire people who can read, write, and work in more than one language. Even more so, I admire societies that encourage bilingual education as a pillar of their society. That description fits South Korea to a great extent. South Koreans believe in and practice bilingual education, in Korean and English. That adds to the posterity and happiness of Koreans as citizens of an increasingly connected global society and humanity.
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com)is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.
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One regret, despite having tried in earnest over years, is that I never mastered the Korean language. I can read and speak and understand a bit ― but only just. I've worked hard in English to learn more about Korean politics, society and culture. I share that knowledge with others, including through this column. But I can't do so in Korean.
With the pride Koreans show in their language, culture, customs, and practices, I've marveled over how South Korea encourages the study and use of the English language. It's more than a result of English's current status. Children learn English, hagwons abound, and entire curricula in universities occur in English. This all hastens the advance of South Korea today.
Today there is software to help to learn and use plain English more effectively. Some examples are Grammarly and Editor.
I also want to encourage the work of another colleague. Jung Ku-jong, a Korean expatriate living in Australia, has published a work entitled Native English. This compiled guide to English is suitable for a wide variety of English-learning and English-speaking audiences. It's a compendium of useful and practical English and interpretation for Korean native language speakers who've begun to learn English. The work is published on Amazon.com in paperback and as an eBook.
The number of Koreans studying overseas peaked several years ago. The Korean Ministry of Education has banned teaching English in first and second grades. My thinking about these developments is not about any "retreat from English", though I don't for the moment think English will forever remain the international language of choice.
It's expensive to study abroad, and many Koreans worry about unemployment for young adults at home. As for schoolchildren, I don't think it's clearly better to learn two languages at once early on. I've heard arguments and experts on both sides. Bilingual curricula impact hiring and costs of instruction in any country. Nonetheless, compared with perhaps most countries on earth, South Korean students from elementary grades onward learn English.
South Korea's embrace of English isn't unlike its embrace of Chinese and Japanese languages in days gone by. Of course, I'm not speaking about the evils of Japanese colonization. I'm speaking to what I've noticed and commented on as the syncretism of Korean culture. Korea has survived and thrived by "taking on" internationalist habits in a thoroughgoing way. It's been a part of Korean history for centuries. It's a strength and a disposition to copy. And it's too simplistic and inexact to name it a token of the country's "small size" or relative power as primary explanations.
I will make one critical comment. I'd like to encourage Koreans not to act in a condescending way to native English speakers learning their language. I've experienced one or two good people tell me flatly, "You'll never be Korean." I never wanted to be and don't, but we need to value those who learn our languages and to celebrate and encourage their learning. Native English speakers should bear with those whose speed of pronunciation, inflections, and accents make it harder to understand. I've always taken pride in being able to understand my English-speaking Korean friends and act positively and diplomatically in conversation.
I admire people who can read, write, and work in more than one language. Even more so, I admire societies that encourage bilingual education as a pillar of their society. That description fits South Korea to a great extent. South Koreans believe in and practice bilingual education, in Korean and English. That adds to the posterity and happiness of Koreans as citizens of an increasingly connected global society and humanity.
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com)is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.
