Things Koreans Believe About Learning English That Aren't True

Well it is the elephant in the room in Korea that this country spends more on English education than anywhere else on earth and yet very, very few people speak it with much fluency. There are a few things against them becoming fluent, the most obvious is that the two languages, Korean and English, are just so much different. However there are several ideas ingrained in to Korean education that simply do not work in language acquisition. Here are a few of my favourites-



Your accent matters-

Koreans are adamant that they want U.S English. I get it to a point as Korea's largest trading partner is the U.S, the U.S/ROK defence treaty is a part of every Koreans life and the number of overseas Koreans in the U.S. exceeds all other nations combined. However, the accent of your teacher has zero effect on your ability to learn U.S English. My accent is a west coast North American one, it always will be. I may pick up British slang if I live in the U.K but I won't be saying "maths" or dropping my "R's" unless I am trying too hard, and no one seems to hate that more than the Brits. I will never be able to pull off being British and I would be stupid to try. Along those same lines Koreans will always have a Korean accent. No one will mistake them for a native English speaker, ever. Even if they speak with fluency there will always be Koreanised English. Koreans talk about their health as a condition, saying "my condition is poor." That sounds odd to native speakers of every country and I am sure they didn't learn that from us (it makes us sound like a broken car). The way they mix up popular and famous is a uniquely Korean take on English as well ("this restaurant is very famous in Daegu."). There is no academic or even observational evidence that my "North American" accent (cause of course Alabama, Nova Scotia, New England, Chicago and Vancouver all have the same accent....) makes me a better English teacher. I tend to think doing my MA in linguistics makes me a better teacher, but here that actual qualification goes second in priority to my coveted accent. In the job market accent (along with gender and age) seem to get more priority at many schools than actual qualifications. "Oh you are 45 with a Master's degree in Linguistics and a teacher certificate? Oh sorry, you are from Bristol. We are going to hire this 22 year old girl from New York with a degree in music instead." Now if you want to teach American spelling to keep it simple for the kids that makes sense. But us Canadians write like Brits, yet we are coveted for our accents. This blog is set to "English-United Kingdom". When in class I drop the 'u' in colour. I am sure that most British and Australian citizens can master this feat of intellect and spell "theatre" as "theater."

Living overseas matters-

It can. If a Korean moves to Toronto and hangs out with Canadians they will improve their English immensely. But often as not they hang out with a Korean expat community. I remember back at SEI we had a teacher who went to University of Toronto for four years. She had come back and thought she was hot shit. Our boss and another teacher, neither of whom had spent much time outside of Daegu, both had English that was much better. This girl constantly mixed up plurals, couldn't distinguish 'r' from 'l', would mix up 'bye', 'by' and 'buy' etc. Well a quick chat confirmed that she had dated a bi-lingual Korean-Canadian, spent all her time in Toronto's Korea-town eating Korean food and drinking soju. Most importantly, she only ever spoke Korean. Well por years rater she is happy por beings back home in Kolea. Immersion work, going to another country doesn't. The sheer number of ESL teachers and migrant workers here who can't speak Korean should make that obvious.

Your English is a social status-

Some Koreans may believe this but few westerners do. I may complement someone who speaks English well, but I would compliment them just as much if they did something else well. Speaking English allows you to communicate with around 60% of the world (who speak it as a first or second language). You can go anywhere using English and get by without any hassle. It does not make you a better or more intelligent person.

Grammar-translation/Audio-linguistics and testing = fluency-

Students across Korea study vocabulary for tests. They do this at school and at hagwon. They must learn 200 words a week. Complete waste of time. Without context they are just words. I can study the same Korean word 10 times and not remember it. Use it once in the context of a sentence or my life, I'll remember it. I may remember a few words that I study but I can't tell you how many students take these tests, then I quiz them by using the word in a sentence within 30 minutes of the test and they have completely forgotten it. Your ability to pass an English test does not equate to your ability to use the language. I can read a lot of French, a leftover from a Canadian public school education. Can't speak a word of it (in fact it often comes out in Korean when I try). I met a wonderful French family in the Philippines last spring. I could not communicate with any except the bilingual mom but could navigate their i-pad to show their kids pictures of Canada and Korea without them translating for me. I was taught using Audio-lingual and Grammar-translation methods. The only test that matters in language acquisition is whether or not you can chat with a native speaker fluently. Asking me where I am prom 50 times does not count.

In India they hire professional educators. Indians speak 2-3 languages fluently. In Europe they do the same and how many Europeans speak 3-4 languages fluently. I met a Dutch guy in Thailand who spoke Dutch, English and French fluently and spoke a respectable amount of Thai as well.