The English Teacher and The Big Picture - Part One of Many - The Sad Side

Many Korean moms are homemakers. Their kids mean more to them than anything in the world. They worry endlessly about their kids’ future.

A certain level of English proficiency is seen as essential to anyone seeking a professional career in Korea, regardless of whether or not they travel abroad or interact with foreigners in the workplace.

The standards for competency in English in Korea are vague and constantly changing. There is a standard test called the TOEIC. For Korean students, their score on this test plays a huge part in determining their future.

The test is usually held on Sunday mornings in huge gymnasiums. It costs about $40 to give it a go and if they’re not happy with their score, they can take it over and over. It goes to page one of their resumes.

Public schools have admitted they are lacking in the methods and means to properly fulfill the educational requirements to prepare Korean children with the English ability they need to enter the local workforce.

Private English Academies (called “hagwons”) have capitalized on public school inadequacy and parental fears and concerns by providing supplementary English lessons which feature contact with a foreigner who speaks English as a first language.

Most of the teachers are untrained and are given ridiculous roles to play that cover the full spectrum of possibilities. At one extreme, teaching 8 contact hours per day without lesson plans. At the other end, the teacher could be just a poster boy/girl – the white face in the lobby that sells the program and corrects the spelling tests.

For this the schools charge exorbitant amounts which have essentially become an “English Tax” that all parents feel they must pay. It could be equivalent to a monthly mortgage payment.

I was reading in the news that some 60% of Koreans near the age of retirement cannot afford to retire and have no plan for retirement. The main reason they cited for this was the investments they’ve made in private education for their children and grandchildren – the predominant one being English lessons.

The status of this situation is not constantly improving, but rather constantly deteriorating.

Ultimately, the victims are the kids – who bear the burden of unrealistic expectations they’re too young to understand, yet they sacrifice their childhood to meet such demands.

I have students who study 9am to 9pm, six days per week. I teach elementary school. They come to school with Bacchus (Korean Red Bull) which can be bought over the counter at a pharmacy. And others are addicted to coffee. They carry bookbags that weigh more than they do.

Rather than a long summer break from school, like ours in Canada, they have a month off in August and another month off in January.

During their “break”, the kids are enrolled in private study “camps”. The most popular of these are English camps. There are other summer classes such as: music, cooking, traditional culture, building robots and dance.

Since they don’t have the demands of their regular public school classes, parents ask for a heavier load of homework.

For private language schools, this is make-it-or-break-it time. The Hagwons can earn enough money in these two months to keep the school afloat throughout the six months to follow, where enrollment fluctuates.

So vacation for a public school teacher is an English teacher’s busiest season. Working hours double. This is not even mentioned in most employment contracts.

At some point, Koreans will have to accept the English language, be it a secondary language, as THEIR OWN – regardless of how badly they feel about their pronunciation, and, in turn, reduce their dependence on foreigners for wisdom on matters of colloquialism, which are essentially irrelevant to life in Korea. This progression should not be instituted at the government level, but rather “formed” and “felt” at the community level.

The powers of globalization have instituted the necessity of English competency in Asia. However unreasonable these expectations may seem, rejection is not the solution. For now, it seems the only answer is to invest the family savings in opportunities and institutions that provide minimal results.

And so the money grab continues.