Final-term essay : The English Private Education In South Korea: astonishing state, Defects and Solutions.

Because English is the language of America, which was acknowledged as one of the superpowers in the world, people in South Korea are deeply interested in English. Now, 21th century, it is highly hard to survive through competition among other people, if people can speak the second foreign language, especially English. In this reality, it is within bounds to say that English is the second mother tongue, followed by Korean. Naturally, the concern for English have been increasing in Korean society. As a result, the market of English private education has extremely expanded. The scale of domestic market is about 2 trillion won, and if the cost of studying abroad and training is combined, it is estimated about 10 trillion won (Min yong seok, 2005). Although it is the statics that was searched 10 years ago, it is astonishing numerical value. Of course, the figure is constantly increasing, and this can be one of the social problems. Also, the English private education has influence on all ages from children to adults. Even my niece is attending a English kindergarten, although she can’t speak Korean well actually. So, i am aware of the seriousness of the English private education, surprising state, problems and lastly i will find the solutions about the problem.

 

First of all, I will introduce about the real condition of English private education of middle school and high school students. The objects of investigation were 990 middle and high school students in Seoul. Among them, 68.7% of students said they couldn’t be satisfied with the school English class and 97.9% of high school students said they took the English private education (Jeong yu kyeong & Cha kyeong hwan, 2014). Actually, the materials show that public education has many problems. In sequence, let’s check up on the result of research for elementary students. In 2008, 62.7% of elementary students had experiences to take the private lesson, spending 80,000 won (Statics Korea, 2009). We can understand the percentage of middle and high school students who have a passion for studying, but among elementary school students, the number is enough to astonish us. Actually, most of them don’t know the reason why they are studying English. The parents of them force them to take the private lesson. The private lesson use rate of university students is low, comparing to middle and high school students, but it is higher than that of many other countries.

(Lee, Hye Ri & Song, Hyeob Suk, 2013)

 

In earnest, let us find out the reason why the market of the private lesson is growing. Above all, particularly heavy academic factionalism in South Korea is one of the causes. In the past, from the imperial examination of the Joseon dynasty, people must study hard to succeed in this country. Also, in the modern society, most of the high ranking officials graduated from prestigious universities. This reality let the students devoted to the private lesson. In the second, I want to point out the education which has concentrated on the entrance examination, CSAT. The students in South Korea can’t never enjoy studying. As referred to earlier, the biggest reason why the students study English is to enter into the better universities, in the long term, to get the better jobs. In the aspects, because the entrance examination is greatly important factor in the life of students, it is natural that the Korean education system focuses on the examination education. Eventually, comparing to the public education which made the course for 3 years, the private education which is relatively unconstrained have kept pace with the tendency. So, the parents of the students can’t help turn away their eyes to the market of private education.

Then, what is the problem that the English private education made? To make the students get a better grade, the private teachers have taught them mainly grammar and vocabulary. So, in the situation when they must speak in English, actually they can’t. Even if the students got the good grade in CSAT, they can’t have a conversation with the foreigners who speak in English. In other words,      the intrinsic parts of English are not being taught. This is the essential problem of the private English education. Also, there are problems in social aspects. The parents invest too much money to the private education. Finally, people who have more money make their children take more and better private lessons and people who don’t have enough money can’t support their children with

(Song Hyeon Suk, 2013)

the private lesson. As a result, the educational gap between rich and poor occurs, and this can cause the students the feeling of relative deprivation.

 

To resolve these problems, many people in many fields do their best. First of all, because the fundamental reason of the private education is in the academic factionalism society, at country level, the government must try to break down the perception and it is important to make social climate that focuses on the individual abilities. This change of the climate eventually will cause the incredulity of the private education. Also, it can help the country to nurture truly highfliers. The next thing is that the government must train many splendid English teachers in public education. One of the reasons that most students select the private education is that they mistrust the level of public education. Actually, there are many students who have the bias that the private teachers are better than them of public education. So, as the government order the competent teachers to teach, it must try to eliminate the bias. The last solution is to transform the system of university entrance examination. Of course, it is not a simple and very sensitive problem. But if we can transform the existing system to another system that requires the thinking skills and creativity of the students, the stereotyped private education will disappear.

I investigated the real state, problems and solutions of Korean private English education. Surely, the solutions that I suggested are limited as some parts of many solutions. Such a social problem can’t be revised in the short term and by one or two solutions. Throughout establishing long term policies, we must continually improve the fundamental problems. I think that education is the future of the country. To nurture the competent people who will lead this society, all the people should be concerned and try to settle the problems. I expect that English education will be improved on better ways in the future.

Citations

Media

Arirang News.  (2014). Korean parents spend more than twice as much on private English education. Retrieved December 18, 2015 from https://youtu.be/KkXmZbUb4EM

Arirang News. (2015). Koreans′ spending on private education dips amid sluggish economy. Retrieved December 18, 2015 from https://youtu.be/_hzQC4uLjEU

JTBC Entertainment. (2013). English is the status and power in the society. Retrieved December 18, 2015 from https://youtu.be/ZmXwLR4dHQ8

Lee Hye Ri & Song Hyeon Suk. (2013). The real state of private edcution. Retrieved December 18, 2015 from http://imgnews.naver.net/image/032/2013/07/23/l_2013072401003570500276213_59_20130724012604.jpg?type=w540

Song Hyeon Suk. (2013). Last year, the rate of money spent in English private education was highest. Retrieved December 18, 2015 from http://imgnews.naver.net/image/032/2013/07/23/l_2013072401003570500276213_59_20130724012604.jpg?type=w540

Bibliography

Jeong, Y. K. & Cha, K. H. (2014). The research of the English private education in middle and high school students.

Nam, M. S. (2010). The real state of the English private education in elementary school students and the decision factor of private education cost: focusing on the perception of parents. Studies in English education.

Park, E. S. (2013). A study of university students’ private English learning and their perceptions toward learning experience: with the special reference to Busan and Kyungnam regions. Korean Association for Learner-centered Curriculum and Instruction.

Lee, K. E. (2013). The real state of the English private education, “the gap is serious”. Retrieved December 18, 2015 from http://www.ibsnews.kr/news/19529

Jo, M. I. (2015). The English capacity assessment in Asia, South Korea 27^th, the country that has no effectiveness. Retrieved December 18, 2015 from http://m.media.daum.net/m/media/society/newsview/20151104112921400

week 15 : songdo (문찬우, 이예광)

We agree with that the global campus of  Ghent university will fail in Korea. There are many problems that can not be solved. First of all, money is a serious problem. Ghent university’s tuition is 20million won per year. It is tripple of the tuition of Hankuk univerisity of foreign studies. Most students excepting having rich parent can not afford the tuition. Secondly, there are only three majors in this university. It is nature that the university has only 95 students. If Ghent university want to succeed in Korea, they must make more majors that Korean students will be interested in. Lastly, Ghent will be hard to break the hierarchy of Korea universities. In Korea, the name of unversities is really important for the students to get a job. Ghent must make the students think that if they enter this school, they can compete with other students who graduate from top 10 unversities in Korea.

week 15 : KAIST (문찬우, 이예광)

Actually, we are totally on the same page.  If South Korea exports a Korean educational system, Korea must not expect aspect of money. It means there are no huge profits directly. However, exporting to Kenya can make indirect and potential profits which make Kenya and Korea more closed. It can be helpful because if the project succeed,  South Korea can make another emerging markets in South Africa. Korea can influence on not only Kenya, but also the other countries in South Africa which have the Korean education service.

week 14 : Kenya (문찬우, 유승환)

We agree with the exporting university to Kenya. First of all, Korean university markets are shirinking, so the universities need to find new ways for themselves. And Kenya is relatively one of the proper countries to export our educational system in Africa. the citizens of Kenya use English as their first language and already we continued to interact with Kenya. Also, the main point is that population of young people is growing in contrast to Korea. So it is a good chance to experiment the Korean education system.

There are also benefits for us. We can find what the problems are by exporting our unversity system. After finding the problems, we can try to correct it. In the course, the shirinking university system of south korea can be developed. Also, we can use our exporting universities to make more ties with Kenya. Kenya is one of the developing countries that have better environment than others. For the future, making more ties will be  advantageous for both South Korea and Kenya.

week 13 : Marketing critique

They suggested exporting ‘Makgeolli’, Korean traditional raw rice wine, to Maxico. The reason why they targeted Mexico is that they are in spanish cultural area so they enjoy alchol heavily. This is good point for them to choose Mexico. One of their strengths is to export Korean tradition to specific country. It means that they have low possibility of failure and also it can improve the image of Korea.

However, Weaker point is that they overlooked the aspect of cost. They planned to launch the Makgolli festival in Mexico city, but it will take a lot of money and need many people to help the festival. Also, Makgeolli is not sort of wines that Mexican used to enjoy. It means there can be differences between Makgeolli and the western alchol. Before launching the festival and exporting the wine, they have to understand the tasty of local.

First criteria of succeful festival is that 70~80% Makgeolli which we prepared is sold. If this standard is achieved, we can judge the project of advertisement as success. And also we will get evaluation papers from the participants. So we can notice what problems are and what should we do after the fetival. If more than 50% participants say that it was tasty or some positive words, then it will be a successful project.

 

Week 11 : soft power

I’m really interested in the global positioning of the Korean soft power, culter. K-pop becomes the one of the powerful culture of Korea. While i am really pleased to the situation, i take issue with the comercialization of music. The comercialization of music have made standardized artists and singers. This belief is based on the situation of the internet music pages. While there are a lot of sigers who are called “idol”, i think that there are no sigers who are singing sincerely. This is not the problem only for the music, but also for another fields of culture. 

week 10 : subway solution .(문찬우, 이예광)

The underlying cause of the subway problem is comming from the lack of understanding of citizens for pregnant women. Nowadays, people, especially the elderly, have wrong perceptions for priority seats. They think these seats are only for the elderly, not for the pregnant women. So the problem can’t be solved by low hanging solutions. The government should try to remedy the wrong perception of citizens. One of the long term solutions to revise this problem is using broadcasting systems or social network service by making some videos that we must protect the pregnant women in the subway. The solution can make the mood that most people take it for granted that the prengnant women have the right to require the seats in the subway.

Week 10 : subway rebuttal

While i agree with the majority of your points, there is the part that is different with me. Your point is that the problem can’t be resolved by low hanging solution. But i think that the policy of the government can remedy the problem. For example, by removing all the priority seats, there can be more rooms for the pregnant women and also some ideas about the heavy priority of the elderly can be removed . Because people on the subway also acknowledge that the pregnant women must be protected, they will give seats for the women. In that case, they must have a courage to say that they are the pregnant women.

week 9 : subway seats

Actually, i have never seen the people who are similiar in this article and just heard about them. The government made seats for pregnant women, but the seats are actually dominated by other people. And even when the pregnant women sit on the priority seats, they also feel anxious because of the elderly. In the article, the solution that the government suggested is to wear the name tag. But actually the solution don’t consider the pregnant women, because they don’t want to wear it. And i agree with another solution about removing all the priority seats even for the elderly. In many cases, although there are seats for the elderly in subway, they don’t use the seats. Then, is there any reason to make priority seats? Also, i think the most important thing is to revise the idea of the elderly. The pregnant women are more weaker than the elderly, but they think that the women must make seats for the elderly.

Mid-term Essay : Errant Provocations From North Korea: about the affair and for the lives that made scarifce for our country.

On 2015, August 4th, a short time ago, North Korea executed errant provocation once again. After the current regime of president Park caught the state authority, because the relationship between South and North was strained, the affair was enough to cause the anxiety about the war. Continuously, it was on the main news and made the headlines of newspaper. Due to the characteristic of the divided nation, it is the fact that we must always have feeling of anxiety about war. After a few months, It will also be removed in the memory of people. However, in my opinion, people who live in Korea should not forget the incidents, only because of soldiers who sacrifice themselves to prevent us from North Korea. Although there have been a lot of errant provocations for North Korea, I would like to introduce three incidents, the battle of Yeonpyeong, the bombardment of Yeonpyeong and the affair of DMZ mines that have broken out after I was born.

The battle of Yeonpyeong that i introduce first was made for famous movie. Six men in Korean navy passed away, and there are also many injured men. Actually, before this battle, North Korea invaded NLL several times(Naver encyclopedia of knowledge. (N.A). The battle of Yeonpyeong. Retrieved September 19, 2015 from http://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=572097&cid=46628&categoryId=46628). In 2002, when the third-place match of Korean-Japan World cup was held, one middle and one large size ships intruded Western NLL and came south. In response to the provocation, high-speed boat 253 formation mobilized but North Korea launched a preemptive attack. The range of cannons that we had is longer than the cannon of North Korea, so, if we fired artillery as soon as they cross the NLL, we could finish the incident without any harms. But High ranking officials give an order that “Don’t shot, before we figure out their intentions. Accomplish the blocking movement.” As a result, they could be close in our boats and shoot. Only after that, we could counterattack and defeated one of them completely, and one of ours sank. Except the heroes in 2002 World cup, we must not forget the heroes who protected our western sea.

The affair that I will introduce secondly is the bombardment of Yeonpyeong. Doing joint South Korea-U.S military exercises, we were given the warning about shelling on their territorial waters. But we continued the training. Strictly speaking, though we fired on our territorial waters, because of the difference between the range of NLL that international society acknowledged and that North Korea has insisted, they shelled undiscriminatingly. About 100 cannonballs are fired on marin corps base in Yeonpyeong and inhabited area. As a result two marines died and 16 was injured, also two civilian died and 10 injured (박문각. (N.A). The bombardment affair in Yeonpeyong. Retrieved September 19, 2015 from http://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=928193&cid=43667&categoryId=43667). Although they fired against civilian, we counteracted timidly. Even they didn’t well compensate civilians who are damaged. So some enterprises helped them voluntarily. After that, the government decided to reinforce troops and let them counteract firmly when people are attacked.

The last is that the mines that North Korea had laid in DMZ exploded. It is the latest provocation of North Korea. Two mines exploded and two soldiers were wounded seriously. One lost both legs and the other lost his right ankle. It is doubted that the some soldiers of North Korea crossed the boundary and plated them on South side(장정미. (2015). Mine explosion in DMZ. Retrieved September 19, 2015 from http://www.newsmaker.or.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=17841). The action they took is a clearly intentional provocation. This was against the ceasefire agreement, so we counteracted squarely. Also the government of South Korea commended to restart propaganda broadcast beamed at North Korea that had affected to people who had defected to South Korea. In response to the broadcast, they shelled three cannonballs and warned that if we don’t stop broadcasting, they will go through with military action. But unflinchingly we counterattacked and insisted that North Korea should take all the responsibilities. And the minister of the National Defense said that the government will take care of the soldiers who were harmed in this incident(박수찬 reporter. (2015). the soldiers who are damaged during the plan, the government takes care of them. Retrieved October 23, 2015 from http://www.segye.com/content/html/2015/10/20/20151020001167.html?OutUrl=naver).I think that the action that our government took in the affair was the best.

That is to say, the affairs written in this essay are limited to provocations that happened after 1996. Except those, there are numerous incidents and a lot of people including Korean soldiers was damaged in various aspects. Although i am a one of people who want a peaceful unification, i think that we must react firmly against the provocation of them. It is thanks to them that we can live doing our own things. While all of the incidents can’t be remembered, if we try to remember only the incidents that were issues, no their efforts will be vain.

Citations

ItsNEWKorea. (2015). the battle of Yoenpyeong, the main trailer. Retrieved October 23, 2015 from https://youtu.be/2gCZwFSa6nE

newiron77. (2013). The battle of Yeonpyeong. Retrieved September 19, 2015 from https://youtu.be/YxwZIPOxM_o

윤태현 reporter. (2014). the damage that remained after 4 years from the incident. Retrieved October 23, 2015 from http://imgnews.naver.net/image/001/2014/11/20/PYH2014111913110006500_P2_99_20141120143412.jpg?type=w540

Money Today. (2015). what is the PMD series mines that North Korea laid in DMZ?. Retrieved October 23, 2015 from http://imgnews.naver.net/image/008/2015/08/10/2015081015142748425_3_99_20150810182404.jpg?type=w540

김영석 reporter. (2015). the second battle of Yeonpeyong. 6 soldiers’ the joint boundaries of a grave. Retrieved October 24, 2015 from http://imgnews.naver.net/image/005/2015/09/17/201509170850_61110009866010_1_99_20150917085104.jpg?type=w540

Bibliography

Wikipedia. (2015). 2015, the Mines affair in DMZ. Retrieved October 23, 2015 from https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015%EB%85%84_DMZ_%EC%A7%80%EB%A2%B0%ED%8F%AD%EB%B0%9C%EC%82%AC%EA%B1%B4

Current affairs dictionary. (N.A). Second Battle of Yeonpyeong. Retrieved October 23, 2015 from http://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=1833293&cid=43667&categoryId=43667

Nanto, Dick K. (2013). North Korea: Chronology of Provocations, 1950 – 2003. Chronology: 1950 – 2000

Center for free enterprise. (2011). Provocation examples from North Korea after 6. 25. Retrieved October 23, 2015 from http://www.cfe.org/20110606_127470

Wikipedia. (2015). The bombardment of Yeonpyeong. Retrieved October 23, 2015 from http://www.cfe.org/20110606_127470