AUCKLAND, New Zealand — On a sunny afternoon recently, half a dozen South Korean mothers came to pick up their children at the Remuera Primary School here, greeting one another warmly in a schoolyard filled with New Zealanders.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/world/asia/08geese.html?ex=1213675200&en=bc5859d06a170c78&ei=5070&emc=eta1
This article shows well how a lot of Koreans are obsessed with having good abilities in English. It
is talking about one of the booming trends; that is going to English speaking country to study in early ages. Sending young children to other country alone makes parents always anxious about them so this problem in the end lead to one of the parents ( most of cases, mothers go together with their children)follow their children and live separated. It is true that exposing a language in early age is much more efficient to absorb language naturally. However, to get a valued asset, many fathers who mostly support financially in reverse feel isolated, lonely. Moreover, by living apart, the relationship between the couple become estranged and even worse, it bring the result of divorce, family disorganization. In my opinion, the main charge of this tragedy is to lacking quality of English education in Korea. Even though, Korean learn English in their regular education more than ten years, unfortunately, it is really hart to find person who is fluent in English. If the people became fluent in English from only public education, many parents would not consider to send their children to the other country seriously. As new government declare English education in Korea needs to undergo innovative changes of the way of educating Korean students.
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3 comments:
I agree with your point of view. It is hard situation for the family to stay apart just for the sake of the children's english. However, I do not think the publich education do much about it more than now. It is know that all of the public schools currently have a native speaker as a teacher. Thus, I believe that the government is doing the best what they can do with the limited amount of budget and labor.
I believe that to proove english it is not neccesary to go abroad and learn english. I have many friends who are relatively fluent in speaking in english who never gone abroad. In fact, korea has better resources and institutions that can help the students to learn english as much they can study abroad. Thus, I think if one say that he or she is not fluent enough in speaking english because he does not have an experience of living abroad is just an excuse. If you study hard and dig in for it you can conquer any language without going abroad.
Great post! I often wonder about this when I meet students who are here with their children but their spouse (usually the husband) is back at home. I think they must be very lonely at times and it is hard to go to school and raise a family by yourself so I really admire these people when I meet them (like Sky!).
I am not sure I entirely agree with Minchung, though (and this is not because I teach at ALI, believe me!) I was really good in French before I moved to France because I was really lucky to have great teachers (some native). However, moving to France made a HUGE difference in my ability to speak, because it is not just words that make you "fluent," it is also the subtle understanding of nuance, some slang and an ability to sound/act native. Now, that said, some people will never sound like native speakers no matter how hard they try or how long they have been here. Take my grandmother, for instance. She lived in the US for over 60 years and she spoke terrible English. I used to translate her "Italianish" for my friends. That was an odd experience.
So, I'm kind of divided on the subject, It is a HUGE sacrifice for these families, and yet a very precious thing to give one's children another language and culture. I know that any children I have will be taught several languages- but I think I will send them to their cousins when they are older!
It's almost about my story. I know this topic is very controversial. But different from their expectation, actually I don't spend hard time in America. It's a vacation for me. Anyway, my children had studied English in Korea. My son had for 5 years, my daughter had for 1 year through private institutes. In fact, it costed lots of money and efforts, and also it gave me much stress to check homework and push them to study everyday. Nevertheless, my daughter couldn't speak a word at first and my son could say just a few words but couln't understand what his teacher said. In conclusion, compared with studying English in korea, it's less effors and greater achievement in America. My daughter has been here only for 5 months, but now she has no difficulty to communicate with native friends and beautiful pronunciation. I admit the result may be different according to the person. However, if she were in Korea, it would take a long time and effors, to say nothing of money. If I particularly point a disadvantage of studying here, I feel a little sorry for my husband.
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