Dominance of ‘American’ English
English has been a subject of envy and a means of social advancement in Korea since it opened its doors to Western powers in the early 1900s.
It gained cachet when U.S. troops entered Korea after the Japanese colonial rule ended in 1945.
Kang Jun-man, media professor at Chonbuk National University, portrayed English as “the most powerful survival tool under the new occupation of the U.S. forces” in his recent publication “Koreans and English.”
In his book, released this month, Kang offers social, cultural and political explanations behind Koreans’ passion for English learning.
After U.S. troops took control of South Korea, being able to speak English and communicate with Americans became a “symbol of authority,” Kang wrote.
The first president of the Republic of Korea, Syngman Rhee, was one of the first Koreans to have studied English at the country’s first secondary school, founded by an American missionary.
English was a matter of survival in the ’60s and ’70s, when the country focused its energy on economic development through exports.
Companies encouraged employees to learn English and private language institutions flourished.
In a Chosun Ilbo column published on Oct. 22, 1961, the author wrote, “It seems like if you don’t know English, you can’t live confidently in this society.” Another article dated Feb. 5, 1970, reported on Korea’s English study boom. “Officials at The Ministry of Commerce take English classes at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. The class starts with ‘Are you a student? Yes, I am.’”
Measure of social status
It was in the ’70s when the Korean government started to officially discuss English education for all children. In the ’80s, the debate emerged on whether children should learn English at an early age. English officially became a subject in elementary school after Korea hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
Under the globalization movement in the ’90s, English proficiency became an important indicator of the level of globalization realized at a national and a personal level. Parents who could afford to send their children overseas had their children study in English-speaking countries. Others willingly spent large amounts of their household budget on private English education.
The amount spent on private English tutoring reached 600 billion won ($578 million) in 1996. The number of children aged between 6 and 10 leaving the country to study English soared from 35,000 in 1993 to 60,000 in 1995, according to data from the immigration office at Gimpo International Airport.
While a child’s English fluency was more determined by his or her family’s economic status, a new social divide emerged, causing a tragic incident in 1999.
The 1999 tragedy and thereafter
In July, 1999, two men in their 20s beat a 19-year-old college student to death. The attackers said they were annoyed by the student, who had been talking to his friend in English. The student, who died of a concussion, was reported to have been practicing English with his classmate on a subway platform in Seoul.
While English has been an important part of the lives of Koreans for many years, the use of the language in Koreans’ daily lives is limited. The use of English is usually limited to textbooks, business letters and meetings.
“Koreans don’t really get to speak the language in everyday life. The situations the language are broadly used in are official ones like business presentations and official conferences. And this created the false perception that the language should be spoken formally without grammatical errors,” explained Lee Byung-min, English education professor of Seoul National University, in an email interview.
Lee attributed the phenomenon to the test-driven education system.
“Koreans whose English has been evaluated through standardized testing develop a fear or hatred of the language. They think all the sentences coming out of their mouth have to be grammatically correct. But it’s impossible to be fluent in the language without making mistakes.”
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