South Koreans Have ‘moderate’ English-language Skills

[uledy.livejournal.com]

South Korea ranked 21st among 54 countries in the English proficiency index, indicating its people’s English-language skills are “moderate,” a global survey showed.

EF Englishtown, an education company, released its second survey for the year 2012, which asked 1.7 m people over three years in 54 countries to take a free online test.

The respondents were more urban and younger than the general population, the survey noted.

English proficiency was graded on five levels -- very high, high, moderate, low and very low.

Sweden topped the global list with 68.9 out of 100, followed by Denmark with 67.9 and the Netherlands with 66.3. The top 10 countries were all in Europe.

Among twelve Asian countries, Singapore scored the highest index with 58.6 and Malaysia came in second with 57.9 -- the two countries both have English as an official language.


South Korea ranked highest among Asian countries where English is not an official language. It scored 55.3, closely followed by Japan with 55.1. China ranked 36th overall with 49, with its people’s English proficiency classed as “low.”

By gender, South Korean women scored the highest, 56.4, among their counterparts in Japan, China and the rest of Asia, while Japanese men scored the highest with 54.5, followed by South Korean men with 54.1 and Chinese men with 47.5.

Within South Korea, North Gyeongsang Province showed the highest proficiency with 58.7, while North Jeolla and South Gyeongsang Province had the lowest scores with 53.3 and 52.6, respectively. Seoul’s index was moderate with 57.1.

The EF’s report noted that South Korea and Japan lack efficiency in English education despite a strong desire for high English-language skills.

The report attributed the two countries’ English education failure to robotic memorization, lack of exposure to foreigners and rare dialogue practices resulting from hierarchical relations between teachers and students.

[Written by Kim Yoon-mi)



Source: thekoreaherald

Can we turn this into a cute/funny idol English moments post? My contribution:

  

Comments

[pamuya.livejournal.com]

everybody say SUGUR SHURRUP

[in-noctem.livejournal.com]

LOL what is even going on

[sandra-hall.livejournal.com]

Do the UK and US appear on these polls? Cos countries like Denmark and the Netherlands would trounce the hell out of us.

[illustratedd.livejournal.com]

omg I had to call both countries for work and their English was impeccable. Plus they were so polite.

[thrift.livejournal.com]

Can we turn this into a cute/funny idol English moments post?

[chunsakuma.livejournal.com]

Awwwh, "Super Junior Full House" English~♥

[cagallisakura.livejournal.com]

[ukwonn.livejournal.com]

hahahhhahahahahha omg yuri bb

[cagallisakura.livejournal.com]

[a-cheshire-grin.livejournal.com]

Where is the second gif from? I need to hear Yuri say this! XDD

"Full House" was just epic all over.

[anconeous.livejournal.com]

Re: "Full House" was just epic all over.

[simplyobessed.livejournal.com]

it really was..I feel like watching it again. I love when they went to the English village.

[chunsakuma.livejournal.com]

A modern-day classic (for ages, my ringtone has been a 30 second loop of the "AYO WHAT UP KREASE? AYO WUSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP" part; I apologise for nothing~)




Ga-in telling a guy that she wants to kiss him and take a dump on his chest (:42)




And Kwon... missing the mark with a certain English word

[shintotchi.livejournal.com]

Jokwon is an endless supply of good engrish. You can never go wrong with him. GaIn's dump on the chest one was hilarious though. Even though I think GaIn was a beard, I kind of wish I watched those to on WGM. They looked really cute playing together. XD

And who can ever forget this one?

[anconeous.livejournal.com]

Re: And who can ever forget this one?

[kris-kt.livejournal.com]

i will forever LOL at this :D

[yingmoon26.livejournal.com]

[cairistiona.livejournal.com]

Tao's "are you...mwo mwo mwo mwo...good time?" was ADORABLE.

What is Baro EVEN SAYING???

[in-noctem.livejournal.com]

Lbr this is the best

[sandra-hall.livejournal.com]

oh mir, i cry.

Idols what can speak proper english

[sandra-hall.livejournal.com]

I legit don't even know where to start with horrific english cos well, it's pretty much omnipresent in kpop all the way down from advertising, song writing and the idols themselves so can we have honourary a commendable english post?

Setting aside Tiffany, Jessica, Nicole etc. Native english speaking Idols, who do you think has aquired good use of the Language

Sandara
Thunder
Key
Onew
idk whether or not to include CL cos I still don't understand her background

Re: Idols what can speak proper english

[kris-kt.livejournal.com]

Siwon

[tag-traumer.livejournal.com]

Among twelve Asian countries, Singapore scored the highest index with 58.6 and Malaysia came in second with 57.9 -- the two countries both have English as an official language.

South Korea ranked highest among Asian countries where English is not an official language.

No. English is not Malaysia's official language. It's Malay Language. So South Korea shouldn't be ranked highest among Asian countries where English is not an official language, no? This survey...

[aneeleniffum.livejournal.com]

Actually English IS Malaysia's official language. Both Malay and English are since we use it often for transactions and stuff. You might have mistaken it for NATIONAL language. That one is only Malay language. This is from my understanding from my Sociolinguistics classes :)

One for the history books

[anconeous.livejournal.com]

Re: One for the history books

[boba-holic.livejournal.com]

Classic

[supplanter.livejournal.com]

I have to wonder if all the english loanwords (that often neither sound nor mean anything like what they do in english) are an impediment to their picking up the language....

[chunsakuma.livejournal.com]

If anything, I think it helps with picking up the language. Konglish words absolutely sound like their English equivalents, just slightly different, and when the meanings change, it's not by that much.

[aneeleniffum.livejournal.com]

Can I just stop by to say how proud I am to see my country as one of the best countries in Asia in relation to English-language proficiency? :'D I'm so happy :) Malaysia still has a long way to go but it's good to know we're doing quite well :)

[ninyafreak.livejournal.com]

Why hello there fellow Malaysian ヽ（　＾＾）人（＾＾　）ノ
I was pleasantly surprised too seeing Malaysia's in the list XD

[charlotterhys.livejournal.com]

I wanna know the story behind the differences in Gyeongsangbuk-do and Gyeongsangnam-do, because I thought the north was quite poor as well?

[odd-fish-stick.livejournal.com]

[illustratedd.livejournal.com]

She can do no wrong. "WELCOME TO HELL!"

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

This one is embarrassing. Also he wants two cocks.

[twinkystar16.livejournal.com]

lol yonghwa..i think he can actually speak english decently if he tried
his pronunciation is quite good

[lysblack.livejournal.com]

[illustratedd.livejournal.com]

I need to know where HK stands on that list. No hate but my friends have the funniest Chinglish.

[hisjulliet.livejournal.com]

I thought China would be the number 1

[hisjulliet.livejournal.com]

not overall but higher than South Korea and Japan atleast

[lysblack.livejournal.com]

[sandra-hall.livejournal.com]

LOL

[chewmi.livejournal.com]

i speak spanglish tbh

[lysblack.livejournal.com]

posting the link so the vidoe will be in the right mark:

http://youtu.be/E_9TTA19n6s?t=1m21s

but this one if funny not because of bad english, but because of everyone's reaction when gina and min started to talk in english.

[in-noctem.livejournal.com]

Lol the bathroom talk was funny

[doovlynsidhe.livejournal.com]

[boba-holic.livejournal.com]

/Crying from how adorable they are