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SOUTH KOREA
Mad rush to school Korean kids in
English
Parents are forking out exorbitant amounts to enrol their
pre-schoolers in English-medium kindergartens, in preparation for the Internet
age
Seoul:
With the dawn of the Internet age and the trend towards globalisation,
Koreans see proficiency in English as a crucial skill for survival. And parents
are pinning all their hopes on their pre-school children.
In posh southern Seoul and the satellite cities of Kyonggi Province, English
language kindergartens are in vogue. Officials at the Office of Education in
Seoul and Kyonggi Province estimate that there are more than 100 such
kindergartens in those areas and about 300 nationwide.
Children between the age of four and six are taught basic reading, writing,
grammar and conversation by native English speakers. Parents cough up about
600,000 won (S$900) a month for these schools and a one-time l50,000 won
entrance fee, both of which are roughly three times more than the cost of
ordinary kindergartens.
One kindergarten in Southern Seoul, started only three years ago, has already
turned a big enough profit to renovate its classrooms and build separate blocks
for elementary and pre-school classes.
The owner charges between 800,000 to 1 million won per head for each of the
over 1,000 enrolled students…
“Now English has become a key to all industries, like
finance high-tech and banking in Korea. Now it’s a matter of life and death.”
The importance of English was emphasized last week by President Kim Dae
Jung, who was asked at a press conference if there was any chance it might
become an official language in South Korea.
The North Koreans on average ranked l6th, still two places ahead of he 100,453
students who took the test in Japan…
(Straits Times, Saturday ,January 13, 2001)
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S.Koreans go all out to learn it - (By Don Kirk –
International Herald Tribune)
Seoul:
In a country where everyone studies English from primary school through high
school, Koreans are awakening to a disturbing reality: No one can speak it
without private language lessons, and the ability to use it has become a
requirement for everything from college to the workplace.
Seoul National University plans to begin interviewing prospective students in
English in two or three years; companies are demanding proficiency in both
recruitment and promotions; and government agencies in three years will require
all applicants to pass TOEFL – Test of English as a Foreign Language – drawn up
by the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey……
Quote: The main concern among the critics was that ‘Korean children may lose
their cultural and historical identity as Koreans.”
(Straits Times, February 3, 2000)
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Speak better with a snip of
the tongue
Children go under the knife just to speak English well
Quote: SPEAK EASY: 10 – minute op
The simple procedure is known as frenectomy, and doctors say its popularity has
soared along with the boom in English instruction.
The procedure consists of just a snip in a membrane and the tongue is supposedly
longer, more flexible and– South Koreans believe - better able to pronounce
English words like “ rice “ without it sounding like “ lice “.The operation
lasts about 10 minutes and is done with local anesthetic.
It costs between US$ 230 to US$ 400/-
It is said to help pronunciation of both English and Korean if the Procedure is
performed on a child younger than five and if the patient has a tongue that is
genuinely too short or inflexible.
Seoul:
In a swank neighborhood renowned for designer boutiques and plastic surgery
clinics, anxious parents drag frightened toddlers into Dr. Nam Il Woo’s office
and demand that he operate on the children’s tongues.
It is a simple procedure; just snip in a membrane and the tongue is supposedly
longer, more flexible and – some South Koreans believe – better able to
pronounce such notorious English tongue-teasers as ‘rice’ without it sounding
like ‘lice’.
“Parents are eager to have their children speak English, and so they want them
to get the operation,” said Dr. Nam, who performs about 10 procedures a month,
almost all on children younger than five, in his well-appointed offices in a
Apkujong district here.
“ It is not cosmetic surgery. In some cases, it really is essential to speak
English properly,” he said.
In this competitive and education-obsessed society, fluent and unaccented
English is the top goal of language study and is pursued with fervor...
A study published two years ago of 37 children who had undergone the operation
was inconclusive because young people usually cannot pronounce words properly
until about age nine, according to Dr. Koh Joong Wha, a throat specialist who
wrote the study. ( Courtesy – Los Angeles Times)
(Straits Times, Singapore)
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