'Let's cut spending on English lessons'

[unreal.livejournal.com]

To cut spending on private English studies, a civic group has launched a campaign by publishing a booklet underlining the inefficacy of learning English at language institutes.

The World Without Worries About Private Education (WWWPE), an educational civic group, publicized the booklet, titled “What a Waste! Private English Education,” which provides alternative methods to learn English without relying on expensive private institutes, on Sept. 28.

The group will begin distributing 2 million copies of the booklet to citizens.

“We’ve launched a campaign to give parents proper information about private English education, since this takes up a major portion of private tuition costs. We want to help them reduce unnecessary spending on educating their children,” said Kim Seung-hyun, a policy division chief at the WWWPE.


“Parents don’t have enough channels from which they can access relevant information. They mainly rely on what they are told by the private academies but the information they get from these institutes is, most of the time, exaggerated and distorted.”

The purpose is to spread a proper understanding of English education.

“Our organization was created in June 2008 and we have been preparing booklets ever since. This is a sequel to the first one we published,” said Kim.

The booklet discusses 12 misconceptions about English education and gives alternative solutions to each of the problems.

Discussions, research, and seminars were held 36 times over the last three years to prepare the booklet. Participating authors include college professors, teachers, private academy instructors, doctors and journalists.

Not early, but right time

The 26 participating authors each give different advice.

“Providing English education at the ‘right’ time is more important than starting ‘early,’” said Lee Byung-min, a professor at the Department of English Education at Seoul National University.

Lee says starting English education at an earlier age is not a rule of thumb.

According to the booklet, the temporal lobe that controls language ability develops from age six.

The consequences of early English learning are also serious, the booklet says.

“Those who come back from their studies abroad at an early age often have difficulties catching up with Korean education,” says Um Tae-hyun, a consultant for study abroad programs.

Instead of spending more on ineffective English education, properly learning their mother tongue and reading books in their own language rather helps to improve a child’s cognitive thinking skills more, the booklet says.

“If they build background knowledge through reading in Korean, they adapt very quickly to English books. This speeds up their English reading comprehension,” says Han Mee-hyun, a participating author and a mother with five years of English teaching experience.

For quality conversations, background knowledge and attitude are more important, says Kim Hye-young, a professor at the department of English education at Chung-Ang University. “Pronunciation is a subordinate matter,” she says.

Parents with young children welcome the organization’s movement.

“I have a wife who majored in early childhood education in college and she says that it’s bad for the child to feel much stress about learning at such a young age,” said Joo Beom-soo, a parent with an eight year-old.

“My child is in the first grade of elementary school and he hasn’t received any private English education yet. I’m a little worried, but I do think private education isn’t so necessary if only there are many other ways to encounter English.”

The 36 page booklet will be distributed to schools, consumers’ cooperatives, religious organizations, libraries and the media.

Source: koreatimes

Comments

[kawaiiairbender.livejournal.com]

“Those who come back from their studies abroad at an early age often have difficulties catching up with Korean education,” says Um Tae-hyun, a consultant for study abroad programs.
this is a worry for people that go to immersion schools but I was reading even though they are behind for a while they generally catch up and surpass their peers.

Also, I'm going to assume that being behind has much more to do with the educational system of the foreign country vs. the korean one. Even if you are fluent in Korean I'd imagine that it would be hard to catch up in SK's educational system if you have been studying in the US.


“If they build background knowledge through reading in Korean, they adapt very quickly to English books. This speeds up their English reading comprehension,”
I'm not really understanding what they are trying to say at all here. It doesn't make sense.


I think if you are going to go abroad to still speak the language at home.
Learning a language while young imo is the best way to go but there are always different schools of thought.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

tbh all those private education lessons & what not are worth nothing if the child isnt interested in it

[annhh.livejournal.com]

yeah. that's 'waste' not the education itself

[jaded-skys.livejournal.com]

Exactly, and that's most of the problem because parents are forcing them into classes they don't want, which makes them worse at it in their actual classes.

[akiryu.livejournal.com]

Most of the time, the kids end up in school for around 12 hours or so out of the day. There's only so much you can learn in one day. It's just too much. The kids just end up stressed out and don't do many things other than study. It's kinda sad.

[tibara.livejournal.com]

This is so true. I was forced to learn French in school because I am canadian and I hated it and forgot half of what I learned. I took Japanese in University and loved it and maintain my knowledge of it. Same with the Korean I am teaching myself through books etc. If you don`t WANT to learn, you WON`T.

[stormsandsins.livejournal.com]

Well said.

I taught myself English from movies, tv, music, etc. plus I grew up in a very bilingual neighbourhood so tbh, no, you don't necessarily NEED private education, but if you're not a good solo learner and/or don't have the same kind of immersion that I had then you might need the private lessons. It really depends on many elements and I hate that they're just brushing off the private language schools. I don't believe in private education (for) myself but I'm not so snooty as to think that no one ever learns from those classes.

[akaich0u.livejournal.com]

You're exactly like me. I also moved to the US when I was four, and learned to speak/read/write both English and my mother tongue at the same time and am now fluent and literate in both. It's very possible.

[annhh.livejournal.com]

Normally it shouldn't be that difficult to manage both languages (at learning age)

I did meet a girl once who was lacking in every language, she had a messy language background both home and school (culture clash or something). And I think she didn't get any tutoring that she should've had. well not my business I don't know her :D

[stormsandsins.livejournal.com]

Heh. Ever since I became fluent enough in English my (spoken) French has kind of taken a hit. I'm slower than I used to be, and I tend to use a lot of Frenglish, and my co-workers sometimes accuse me of being assimilated, but DAMN RIGHT my written French is miles and miles better than theirs!

And for that, I really have to thank my mother, because she dedicated herself to making sure my sisters and I wrote right (and sometimes better than our teachers; I can't stress enough how scary it is to tell your teacher "my mom made me look in the dictionary"). She's an editor/translator, btw ;)

[stormsandsins.livejournal.com]

Yeah she's trilingual (French/English/Spanish) and even learned a bit of German in school as part of her program :)

I think she gave us a love of languages as well. I know the three of us all thought at some point during our studies that we could go in a teaching or linguistics direction. We all headed in different fields, although I've applied to teach in SK next year 8D

[mo-chan-tf.livejournal.com]

Putting young children to learn early won't help them.

it depends on what you want them to learn, how they're taught, and so many other things... when it comes to really small kids, full sentences, lots of vocabulary, turning them into small translators, that's not what should be expected from them (though that's what most parents think, they know their kids have English classes and ask them how to say this and that...). but when they're young, even 2 year olds, they learn the pronunciation easily, some simple vocabulary which they can apply meaning to without necessarily translating it to their language. of course it won't work for all kids, just like your friend's case doesn't mean it'll be hard for all kids.

[o-o-mai-o-o.livejournal.com]

I personally think we should be learning other languages at an earlier age. Take the United States, for instance, the majority of Americans don't know a second language and are not exposed to learning one until late middle school/early high school, and after 4 years of taking a language class, we are still not even close to being fluent or even at conversational level (unless you had some amazing teacher and used the language constantly).

"If they build background knowledge through reading in Korean, they adapt very quickly to English books. This speeds up their English reading comprehension."
I don't think this is true though.

[o-o-mai-o-o.livejournal.com]

I interpreted as saying that if you read a lot of Korean books when you're young, reading and comprehending an English book when you're older would be easier.

I do agree with what you're saying though, reading a translated book like that would help.

[evanelric.livejournal.com]

The majority of them would have to start by learning proper English before they started on a foreign language, though. n__n

[o-o-mai-o-o.livejournal.com]

Actually, not really, you can learn both at the same time. Look at the Phillipines, the majority of them are bilingual because they started learning both languages from the beginning.

[soundczech.livejournal.com]

reading comprehension isn't the problem for most people anyway, a lot of learners read english a hell of a lot better than they can speak it. i don't know about kids needing private lessons, but they will definitely struggle to learn english properly without getting the opportunity to converse with fluent speakers. the ability to read a book in english is almost useless for most people's purposes - ie, when they grow up and have to do business negotiations in english.

[royalantares.livejournal.com]

There's a learning curve for languages that starkly and exponentially decline after a certain age. It's 14, iirc. It's better that children be exposed and learn a language at a younger age. Studies have shown children who are bilingual/multilingual do better in school and grasp abstract and arbitrary concepts better than their monolingual peers. That being said, Korean children have enough on their plates, what with the hagwons and extracurricular activities. It's best if they are put in an immersion program or if someone close to them, like a parent or sitter, speaks to them solely in that other language. I know some Korean people who went to international school and their grammar is perfect and their accent has no hint of Korean. One girl straight up spoke with an uppercrust accent and she lived in Korea all but 4 years (she went to college in the states).

/Yay linguistics major.

[anconeous.livejournal.com]

Here in the Philippines, we're all pretty bilingual. Once they can talk, children learn our native language the same time they're learning English. Bilingualism very early on. The official language of instruction in the country is English, so at the very least, everyone can understand basic English.

It's kind of a problem here how less children are being taught to speak properly in our native language because parents keep teaching them in English. That's why my parents really made it a point to speak in our native language at home, even until now that we're all college age and older, since we pretty much speak English all day, everyday in school and work anyway.

[fate-otaku.livejournal.com]

This is the same as in Brunei. Most of the kids are exposed to both Malay and English at the same time, so we become bilingual right from the start.

Your second point I agree with as well. It's he parents believing English will get you farther in life, but they don't realise it's making them lose their root culture and heritage.

[laeryn.livejournal.com]

Mte.

[taylorniw.livejournal.com]

It does become harder to learn a language once you get older, though.


At any rate, the biggest issue seems to be less of when they should learn it, and the quality of the education. It could just be me, but most of the Koreans who have moved here that I've met tell me that they've been learning English for years, and even the ones who seem eager to learn don't always have a lot to show for it.

[wind-master1.livejournal.com]

I was sent to live with my grandparents when I was two for two years. I remember when I moved back to the US when I was 4, I could only speak Chinese and couldn't speak any English. After a few months and I was completely fluent in English and forgot all my Chinese :P I'm 17 and have been trying to relearn Chinese for three years already...

Main point? Learning a language when you're younger is forever easier. So yes learning another language at a young age is MUCH more effective if you really want to master a language.

[ur-a-funny-1.livejournal.com]

“Those who come back from their studies abroad at an early age often have difficulties catching up with Korean education,” says Um Tae-hyun, a consultant for study abroad programs.

“If they build background knowledge through reading in Korean, they adapt very quickly to English books. This speeds up their English reading comprehension,” says Han Mee-hyun, a participating author and a mother with five years of English teaching experience.

This is incorrect, but IF this were true you should be able to swap the "Korean" and "English" in that second quote - "If they build background knowledge through reading in English, they adapt very quickly to Korean books. This speeds up their Korean reading comprehension" - which would solve the 'problem' addressed in the first quote.

[laeryn.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I've completely understood what they're tried to say here..., but talking from personal experience, I think the sooner you start, the better.

I started studying English when I was 6/7 through private education, while the school didn't give us English lessons until we were 8, and that difference has always been noticeable when it comes to me versus basically everybody that has been learning English through school instead of private education. Though, I gotta accept, Spanish educational system is so fucked up and the English level people has once they leave high school is RIDICULOUS, so that's probably a big part of it.

Still, starting soon helped me A LOT. Learning English was basically a game at the beginning, so it was fun and I learned the basics quickly and well, and by the time we moved on to more difficult things, it was quite easy for me to learn basically everything.

& if that example doesn't count, I'm bilingual since I was a kid since I talked Spanish with my dad and Catalan with my mom, and I never got any difficulties with learning two languages ever since I was a kid.

(ofc, if a kid gives no shit on what (s)he's learning... well, that's another story.)

[jaded-skys.livejournal.com]

I think they chose a good time to start teaching French in my school back in Canada. I was in grade 2 (so like, around 7-ish I think) and that was when everyone kinda got into the idea of another language. Unfortunately I didn't really care for it after a few years, and switched to Spanish in high school. I got quite proficient because I adored it, but then lost it in uni due to a lack of practice. The I started Korean, loved it, and living here in Korea I'm forced to use it all the time so I don't really go down in level and want to learn more.

It's partial when you start, but also to let the child find what they like and if they don't like it, then it shouldn't be forced into it. I think taking French helped me get a feel for learning another language, but it took me time to find the one I liked.

[evanelric.livejournal.com]

This is my favourite part:

For quality conversations, background knowledge and attitude are more important, says Kim Hye-young, a professor at the department of English education at Chung-Ang University. “Pronunciation is a subordinate matter,” she says.

Because it doesn't matter if people can understand you as long as you know what you're talking about. n__n

[kellygreen.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I feel like this is such a prevailing attitude over here. So much emphasis is put on writing skills and reading comprehension, which are both incredibly important, but the same emphasis is not put on conversation skills, so we end up with a bunch of kids who can write beautiful essays but don't know how to tell me what they did on the weekend using proper grammar (even though they use it properly while they write). It makes no sense!

[cherrypop.livejournal.com]

Middle school is an ideal age to start learning another language. But from my experience, most Koreans I met who started learning English from an earlier age speak REALLY really well, almost perfectly without any accent, despite never having been abroad. That's a testament to the fact that for some students, if they're compelled enough, they will definitely benefit from early learning. So while I agree with most of this, don't cut back entirely.

[lil-rach-angel.livejournal.com]

....I'm really questioning the credentials of these various educators and experts who support this. It just sounds like the general anti-English nonsense that gets slung around.

[prpldrkrse.livejournal.com]

I kinda disagree about the saying that we shouldn't learn new language early in this article.

My mom taught me english since I was 2 years old, then I learned some other languages since junior high school (japan for 5 years, french 3 years) and now I'm majoring in korean studies. I'm not fluent at all in the other languages except english, seriously. >_

[hanhajin08.livejournal.com]

They should learn it as early as possible tbh. I guess since I live in the Philippines, I don't have a problem speaking English. Considering the fact that children learn it since Kindergarten or even before that. My brother only speaks English before because of the influence of cartoons.

And me, myself, couldn't even speak the native language (Filipino) here fluently and also the dialect so I have to be stuck to speaking in English. It sucks that everytime I get a wrongly constructed sentence, my friends make fun of me.

[cher-ex3.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. I was better at speaking english back when I was young, so kids made fun of me and thought I was a snob for only speaking english.

[hanhajin08.livejournal.com]

oh yes. That's what other people think of me and my younger siblings. And I speak in an American accent so my every time I'd participate in class discussions, my classmates would mock me.

[strawberry-efeu.livejournal.com]

imo, they already start teaching English at an early age in Korea, the kids don't really need to start any earlier. Plus then it's more difficult for the teachers because everyone in the class is at different levels >.<

Re: The issue is the curriculum style, not the school type, not the kid's age, not the school fees!!

[stormsandsins.livejournal.com]

Definitely. A+

Re: The issue is the curriculum style, not the school type, not the kid's age, not the school fees!!

[kellygreen.livejournal.com]

Good GOD, this.

[mrckdexter.livejournal.com]

At first I thought, "Well, Koreans do spend a terrible amount of time and energy learning a foreign language ineffectively," and then I actually read the article and realized what they're saying is idiocy.

[iheartmango.livejournal.com]

i don't really agree w/ this. starting early REALLY helps. before we moved aboard, i spent one year in elementary school learning mandarin. now like 11 years later, i can still understand and converse in mandarin and read some basic chinese characters.

[jetaime-pyon.livejournal.com]

starting language early is of course the best. because it's important to start pre-pubescent, from the linguistic stand point. it is important for pronounciation and of course easier to remember and memorize when you are young.

hakwon is useless for some reasons, i think because we can study and memorize all we want, but still cannot speak. because no one to practice with, many teachers are not native speakers and their pronounciation and phrases are not natural imo.

that said, i couldn't speak english well until i had someone to practice speaking with. my friend is still scared to speak english because he doesn't want to make mistakes and thinks people laugh at him. even though he has attended hakwon since middle school.

[embroideredkiss.livejournal.com]

I think I disagree with this article, tho it's really weirdly written so it's hard to tell. I really think you need to start learning as young as possible, and I think it's ridiculous to imagine that a child's Korean would suffer because of it.

In my classes you can really tell the kids that have learnt from very young and go to hagwons, cos they can actually hold a conversation rather than just repeat rote phrases.

[stormsandsins.livejournal.com]

To be fair, my spoken French took a small hit when I became fluent enough in English and started attending post-secondary English institutions, but my written French is still intact. I think in an ideal multi-lingual world the child should speak/read/write 50% mother tongue and 50% other language, but that's perhaps aiming a little too high.

That said, YES, it's really best to learn a second/foreign language early on.

[stormsandsins.livejournal.com]

Here's one article that states the benefits of learning a second language early on (http://www.early-advantage.com/articles/topten.aspx). To be honest, there are SO MANY others floating around on the internet, both of academical provenance and not, so really, these anti-English idiots aren't looking past their own noses.

The benefits, as per previously-mentioned article:
1. Higher test scores... (aren't high test scores Korea's sole goal in life? I rest my case.)
2. Better and more advanced reading skills
3. Greater confidence
4. Gives brains a boost
5. Natural-sounding, native-like accent
6. Greater opportunity for colleges and career
7. Bigger view of the world
8. Greater grasp on one's first language - including a bigger, richer vocabulary
9. Building and keeping cultural connections
10. An all-family activity.

I have to concur with all of these points. My mother tongue is French and I vividly remember this one job interview a couple years ago where the employer, an acquaintance of my dad's, who does have a distinct accent when he speaks English but otherwise has very good vocabulary, told me that if he didn't know my dad he would have thought he was talking with a Torontoer. That thrilled me so much!

If I didn't learn English early on, I wouldn't have been able to communicate on livejournal with people from all over the world. If I didn't learn English early on, I wouldn't have been able to study at and graduate from post-secondary English institutions. I wouldn't have been able to appreciate different cultures.

But more importantly where Korea is concerned, I wouldn't stand a chance in hell to go and teach English there next year. Yeah, because I might go there next February. How's that for shooting down multilingualism, Korea?

I think it's despicable when diehard French Quebeckers try to make bilinguals feel like dogshit for being "assimilated" by the English. I'm sick and tired of being burned at work for being "the anglophone". Hell, unlike them, I can work ANY-fucking-WHERE, pretty much. How's that, assholes? So, seriously, Korea, please try to see past your kimchi.

/butthurt Sorry, I'm actually celebrating the fact that I'm being laid off next month not through any fault of mine. I won't see those fucktards again. Good riddance.

[kellygreen.livejournal.com]

Great comment! I wish these anti-English groups would stop, really...their "facts" are bullshit and the moms who get sucked in by them are going to be doing a disservice to their kids. I agree that Korea needs to cut spending on English lessons. Hagwons are outrageously expensive and only a fraction of that money goes to the teachers who work their asses off to educate these kids, but to stop English lessons completely would be stupid.