Korea's Mess of Teaching and Employing English (Engrish)

2 Typo's in 2 words from a scene in SBS's drama, Athena

This post was inspired from a subtitle typo in a Korean drama called Athena, currently airing on Mondays and Tuesdays on SBS. It is nice that they were able to film scenes in places as beautiful as New Zealand, but the producers might want to get some editing staff who can actually edit English subtitles properly. In the above image, not only is the city of Auckland misspelled, New Zealand is written as NEWZEALAND, in all caps and without the spacing. So, if you are someone from SBS, please keep your nationally televised typos to a minimum.

It really grinds my gears and is kind of a national embarrassment considering all the money spent on English education here. And please don't get me started on all the spelling errors and grammatical mistakes I've seen at Korea's many national museums. For instance, while visiting the National Museum of Korea in Seoul a few years ago, I noticed that about three quarters of the English translations of all the pieces on exhibit had so many errors that it was hard to derive the meaning of what was being said. And this was the freaking so-called flagship museum of Korea for foreign tourists to visit!!! I joked with my family that the Museum should hire me to edit all the poor English translations. It was sad...not to mention embarrassing.

Let's face it, Koreans are obsessed with learning English in order to be able to compete for the top paying jobs in this little, congested country. Parents are spending insane amounts of their income to pay for extra English language instruction. But...what's the use if all that money is seemingly "wasted?" How much English do these students even retain from all that extra money spent? From my experiences as an English hagwon (after-school academy) teacher and personal tutor, I came to the conclusion that the amount of English they are able to retain is somewhat less than a quarter (this is my own opinion) of everything they should know, considering the money and time invested into their English education.

The Korean educational system has many problems much like any other nation's educational system. But the one thing the government needs to change is how English is taught and especially how it is tested. Most decent jobs in Korea require an above average TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) or TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) score. Last month, another Korean "educator" was caught up in a scandal over leaking real SAT questions without prior consent from the College Board. While I do fault this unscrupulous opportunist for acting dishonorably and shaming every Korean who ever wanted to boast of their well-earned high SAT scores, I blame the system that allowed this madness to happen. This man was just an opportunist. Historically, opportunists have been abundant in turbulent times and are like hyenas that smell easy prey (money). Why go the extra mile when teaching your students to excel on the SAT if you can just show them the actual questions they will be seeing? If one is being paid for results, and not for motivating or inspiring young minds, then helping students cheat is by far the most effective method of raising scores.

Teaching English


I have a big problem with how English is taught in Korea. The problem, is that a high level of English confers elite status and prestige for the rich few who can afford the best English education. The way the current system is set up, the best teachers and schools cost the most money to send your children to. That much is understandable in a capitalist nation. But when you start to examine whether Korea really is a truly capitalistic country, you are beginning to scratch at the surface of the problem. While I won't go into the Korean economy in this post, it doesn't take a genius to see that the system is set up to make the rich richer, and the poor poorer. I promise to go in-depth about the Korean economy in future posts because I have a lot to say on that topic.

So basically, the Korean economy makes it very hard for working class and middle-class people to afford the best English education. The going rate at a decent hagwon is about W680,000 (roughly $680 US) per month (click on the link if you don't believe me!). The more elite and prestigious the hagwon, the higher the rates, with some easily costing over $1000 per month. Keep in mind that many parents assign a personal English tutor on top of sending their kids to English hagwons. That is a huge chunk (at least 1/3) of the monthly salary of the average Korean office worker. Can you begin to see how grave the plight of the English education system is in Korea? Only the wealthiest can afford this kind of education. Then, when you figure in the other crucial subjects of Math and Korean language, you will get a clearer picture of how much the total educational cost is of raising a child that will be able to compete in the torrid vortex that is the Korean educational system (this is the main reason why Korean couples have just 1 or 2 kids, which in turn leads to gentrification and population shrinkage).

I guess I forgot to highlight one crucial fact: that English is only taught to students of public schools starting in the third grade of elementary. Any competent, self-respecting linguist will be able to tell you that young children pick up new languages better the younger they are. So, if you compare children whose parents were unable to afford after-school English education to those students whose wealthy parents were able to lavish every single form of English education on them, you would see a huge difference in English language ability among the two distinct groups of students. Further, the language barrier is hard to close once it is set in place because it is very difficult for students left behind to "catch up" to their superior (in terms of English ability) peers.

As a Korean who has met many different Korean-Americans in the US, I can testify as to the truthfulness of the aforementioned language acquisition fact. I can differentiate those Korean-Americans who some consider 1.5 generation (immigrated during their teens) from 1st generation Korean-Americans (immigrated as an adult), as well as those that are 2nd generation (those that were born in the US) from their very accent and use of English idioms and nuances. Sadly, 1st generation Korean-Americans will rarely, if ever, be able to speak English as well as 2nd generation or even 1.5 generation Korean-Americans. Korean-Americans of 1.5 generation will also never be able to speak English at the fluency level of a true 2nd generation Korean-American. The accent of a typical 1.5 generation might be much better than the average 1st generation, but their use of English idioms and their understanding of American culture is just not at the level of the typical 2nd generation. This is because you have to use language at an early age (before pre-school) in order to be able to fully and naturally speak it and use it.

I feel that is the reason why there are so few true bilingual or trilingual people in the world. Many people claim they are completely bilingual (especially here in Korea), but after you hear them speak or read their writing, more often than not, you will be disappointed at one of their claimed "fluent" languages.

Testing English

Then, what is the problem with how English is tested in Korea? This is the same problem that exists whenever school and education administrators- not to mention parents- focus on scores at the expense of actually trying to have the student learn the material they're being tested on. As long as there is intense competition, there will always be a system that encourages students to aim for the highest grades and scores to stand out among the rest. Now, the problem would not be as severe IF students receiving the highest grades and scores were the ones who are putting in the most effort (let's not consider the few geniuses who don't need much effort to score high). It would be only fair to these hard-working students to have the top scores. But people are always looking for shortcuts to glory, and that's how the aforementioned SAT teacher was able to make bank. He was selling them a shortcut "ticket" to a high SAT score without the hours of studying attached.

My humble suggestion to educators is this: change the way you assess a student's mastery of a subject, especially if it is a language. Yes, good speakers of English usually score higher on standardized tests of English such as the TOEIC and TOEFL; however, there are students who really can't speak a lick of English who may end up with perfect scores on these so-called tests of language ability. There are also good English speakers who score much lower than expected.

Among the many problems with standardized tests of language are costs, time, limited human resources, and ironically, of the tests being standardized. A lot of these problems with tests like the TOEIC is that the education industry either lacks the resources or the willingness to invest in a more accurate, performance-measuring way of testing a student's ability. For example, just like the TOEIC, the Korean college entrance exam [called Suneung (수능)], is a standardized, multiple choice exam.

To really test a student's English ability, it would be best to use performance-based assessments such as essay writing and speech & debate. Of course, the costs to administer these tests would increase compared to a standardized test, but it would be a far more accurate measurement of English ability. Try to imagine for a moment that in the future, that Olympic events are judged by computers and machines instead of a panel of human judges. These computers would be algorithmically correct every time with the score they gave to each participant, but to the human onlookers, the winner of that event may have just nailed the things that the machines score high for while sacrificing true artistry and form. Think of Kim Yu-Na losing in figure skating because although she obviously seemed like the best skater, she couldn't jump as high or spin as long as the eventual winner could.

It is outrageous. But that is exactly what standardized English testing is doing to Korea (and to the rest of the non-English speaking world). It is theoretically possible for a monkey to score a perfect 990 on the TOEIC because the monkey just needs to fill in a few pages of ovals with a pencil for the minuscule chance at guessing every single multiple-choice question correct. Does that mean that that one lucky monkey is proficient in international English communication because of its perfect score?

Finally, standardized English (but not limited to just English) testing allows students of lesser English ability to score higher than they should if they are drilled with sample questions and given "tips" on how to find the correct answer. This would be easily eliminated if every student tester has to write a few essays on general topics and give a short speech to a highly trained human audience of raters.

Although recently many Korean universities are emphasizing verbal English ability over grammar and English test scores, isn't it a little too late? College students are already adults, so teaching them how to speak English won't really help at that stage because they're already too old, not to mention the fact that once they leave college, they will rarely use English, which in turn leads to language loss.

Will the current English educational system in Korea ever change? Perhaps. When Korea starts to lag behind other advancing countries who adopt better educational systems, maybe then Korea's government will notice it's time to start climbing out of the quandary they're in. Until then, you have me to complain on Korea's behalf.

UPDATE: 14 FEB 2011
- I recently saw another major error while researching for one of my ongoing projects on Asian baseball. This time I found the mistake on an online article published by one of the biggest English newspapers in Korea. (I have embedded the link, so check it out for yourselves!)

Here's one simple mistake I found in this article:

"She started with the SK Wyverns in 2003 and has never moved to another team, which is a rather rarity in her profession."


To change the above sentence to be grammatically correct, you would have to swap the position of the two words "rather" and the "a" right before it. Then it would read "...which is rather a rarity..."

I know this article is almost a year old, but I promise to keep vigilant on English typos and grammatical mistakes found in major publications and media outlets in Korea, especially if they are claiming to be publications for the expat/foreign visitor to Korea.

UPDATE: 17 FEB 2011

I uncovered yet another typo on a major Korean English-related website. The culprit this time? The Korea Herald Translation Center, a sister company of The Korea Herald, which claims to be Korea's "No.1 English newspaper".

Snapshot taken from www.heraldtrans.com

Needless for me to point out, they have spelled "interpreting" as "interpretating", which is odd, given the fact that most word processors and even web browsers have built-in spell checkers.

I actually found out through www.heraldtrans.com that they were in fact, the company hired to translate for the National Museum of Korea. This...I suppose, is not surprising.

It would be nice if I actually got some flack from SBS, The Korea Herald, and the National Museum of History for pointing out their mistakes online. So far, I haven't heard anything from them, but I did notice that on SBS's Athena, they fixed the typo when spelling Auckland on the next episode.

Korea vs. Japan

Last night I had the unfortunate experience of witnessing yet another lamentable loss by the Korean national football team. The venue: AFC Asian Cup 2011 Semi-finals at Doha.

There are only a handful things more important to most South Koreans than beating Japan in a globally televised sporting event, including but not limited to, North Korea, comfort women, the Dokdo islets (Liancourt Rocks/Takeshima), and the naming of the East Sea (Sea of Japan), not in any particular order. While I hope to go into detail on the above topics in future posts, in this post, I want to focus on why every such sporting event is a "must-win" game for Korea.

First of all, the results. Japan defeated Korea 3-0 on penalties, 2-2 a.e.t. (after extra time). Korea struck the first goal after Park Ji-Sung earns a penalty for Ki Sung-Yueng in the 23rd minute. Japan is able to draw in the 36th minute, thanks to Maeda's goal. In the second half, Korea concedes a penalty to Honda in the 97th minute, who has his shot blocked by Korean keeper Jung Sung-Ryong, only to have Hosagai power in the easy rebound. Korea then stages a dramatic comeback at the last minute of the 2nd overtime with a frantic goal by Hwang Jae-Won. The match then proceeds to penalties.

Unfortunately, this is where things fall apart (Chinua Achebe, anyone?) for Korea. The Korean players either all miss their mark on their shots or have their shot saved by the Japanese keeper. On the flip side, Japan is able to find the net on three of their four chances, undoubtedly made easier from Korea missing their penalties. Korea is then left to once again consider whether they can honestly call themselves one of the best soccer teams in Asia.

More Koreans were probably angered by this loss than to the loss to Uruguay in the World Cup in South Africa 2010. Why? Simply because Korea can afford losing to Uruguay, despite it being the World Cup, the biggest and greatest sporting event in the world. Korea, however, cannot afford to lose to Japan. They are our quintessential rivals, from electronics, car manufacturing, and to sports. Many people were overjoyed yet disheartened to learn that Korea would jointly host the 2002 World Cup with Japan. Overjoyed because the World Cup would come to Korea, but disheartened that she would have to share the glory with its eternal rival.

If you ask the average Korean citizen why Korea cannot lose to Japan, they will most likely be unable to provide a solid, fact-based reason why Korea should win. Most of them will speak from their heart, and from what has been ingrained into their heads from an early age.

"Japan is Korea's enemy and rival, and that is the reason why Korea should win."

This is faulty logic. Yes, it is probably good to defeat your rival or enemy. However, one must first explain why Japan is Korea's enemy or rival to make the argument plausible.

So why do Koreans think of the Japanese as rivals (and in some cases, enemies)?

The answer can be found in the roots of history. While I won't go too much into the lengthy history between the two countries, I will point out two major historical events which will always affect Korean-Japanese relations.

1. The Japanese invasions of Korea between 1592-1598. The Japanese invasion left Korea in dire financial straits, with limited arable land, infrastructural damage, the destruction of Korea's main palaces, not to mention the loss of a significant portion of Korea's population as well as the loss of cultural and artistic artifacts.
2. The colonization or forced occupation of Korea by Japan from 1910-1945. If you have been attacked more than once by another country, you can bet that the country that attacked you will never be completely trusted again.

Because of these two historical events, many Koreans harbor an almost inborn tendency to distrust or even dislike Japan. I have found this to be true even among the young generations, who have never directly witnessed Japanese aggression as their forefathers once did. That is why I think it is in the blood of Koreans, even though I know this cannot be true. The expression that comes to mind is that the dislike of Japan is "in the air," meaning that the general atmosphere in the homes, workplaces, and schools is anti-Japan. 

The media plays a huge role in fostering this anti-Japanese sentiment. At least once a week, a news segment will have an update on the status of Dokdo, and these days it is not uncommon to see commercials that exploit the Korean's overzealous affinity for the aforementioned disputed islets. 

There is no sweeter victory than that of vanquishing an old foe who has crushed you in the past. That, is actually the gist of why Korea must defeat Japan in sports. Since it is highly implausible to exact revenge on Japan through sheer force and war, Korea must grasp the bittersweet victory that comes from defeating Japan in the next best acceptable method: sports (as well as economics: think Samsung vs. Sony). It is like saying, "you may have defeated me in the past, but now I stand victorious, no longer under your control. Look at me now." 

Why Korean Sports Fans Love Korean Star Players

18 January 2011

By Tim Lee

Seoul, Korea – “Park Chan-Ho is leaving the MLB???” “Choo Shin-Soo is staying with the Indians!?” For several weeks, this was all that could be heard by MLB (Major League Baseball) fans in Korea. Being in Korea, it is easy to overhear baseball fans (fanatics?) argue about which of their favorite Korean-born MLB players are doing great and which ones are making bad career moves.

My question is: why do Korean MLB fans seem only to support and follow teams that have a Korean-born player?

There are many great baseball players in the MLB- Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, and Miguel Cabrera to name a few- but most Korean sports news channels only have segments on how Korean players are doing in the MLB.

I guess this is very similar to what happens in professional soccer. Just like baseball, fans of foreign soccer leagues (such as the English Premier League) only want to talk about teams that have a famous Korean soccer player in their roster. We’ve all heard how every Premier League fan is a Manchester United FC supporter because of star midfielder Park Ji-Sung. When you’re in Korea you won’t see people wearing Wayne Rooney jerseys, or Paul Scholes jerseys, but you will almost always see a soccer fan wearing Park’s jersey.

I have to admit though; this Korean-centeredness is much more pronounced in soccer than in baseball. The crazy thing is that I can understand this phenomenon. Being Korean myself, I can’t help but feel some sense of pride and accomplishment when someone who is of Korean descent becomes world famous or wins gold at a global competition (think Kim Yu-Na winning Olympic gold for figure skating). This is knowing full well that I had nothing to do with that player’s achievements.

For many Koreans, living in such a tight, cramped country produces the somewhat curious desire to excel because of the stiff competition. You have to be the most special, the most colorful, the most decorated, the most educated, and the most fluent in foreign languages to be noticed in the churning cauldron that is the Korean economy. Korean moms are famous for overworking their children, even during school breaks. And according to a report by the International Institute for Management Development, Koreans work the longest hours among OECD nations.

All of this, of course, is not surprising. Korea’s economy could have only grown to its current state with all that extra hard work and dedication. You don’t just become a global economic entity just by speaking English and adopting the free market approach (look at how the Philippines remains a developing country despite having English as an official language and having a capitalistic economy). You need real grit and determination. And that is exactly what Koreans excels at.

Therefore, I see success- as defined by Koreans- as being distinguished among the huge masses. They have risen in the ranks to become top of the batch not just in Korea, but throughout the world. That is one of the main reasons we Koreans seem to glorify our fellow Koreans who have accomplished this herculean task. These star athletes are shining examples of how every Korean aspires to be successful in our country. So next time you ask yourself why Korean sports fans are so obsessed with Korean stars, now you know at least part of the answer.

Answering the Writer's Call

Greetings everyone.

First of all, thank you all for reading this. I really appreciate it.

I guess this will be my first post on my first blog. There is always a beginning; and for me, that beginning is now.

For a long time now, I've wanted to go into writing.

Haven't you always wondered how those great writers started out? Did they feel a sudden inspiration to start jotting down their thoughts? Or perhaps they saw some marvelous landmark or vacationed at a picturesque resort. Maybe a relative or acquaintance mentioned something, perhaps even just hinted at something.

"Honey, the lights really have a strange quality to them this time of year, don't they?"

Ring a bell? Supposedly, William Faulkner's wife's casual comment gave Faulkner an idea for a title for one of his novels. Whether this is fact or myth, we can't really tell, but it goes to show how a single idea can transform a person's very thoughts, and perhaps lead to a great work of art.

In my case, I really wanted to record my thoughts because I value my own thoughts. My thoughts are what matter to me because they are what defines me, at least the way I view it. My world-views, social and political leanings- to my innermost private views on life- my private thoughts are mine to own and mine to share with others. There will never be another human being who thinks the way I do about everything. I think that is why you must treasure your own thoughts, because they are unique and defines who you are. Your identity can be explained by inspecting your own thoughts (i.e. introspection).

I would argue that every good writer writes because they value themselves too much to deprive the world of their written material, whether that be a multi-million bestselling classic or the next trendy how-to manual. Of course, there will always be other factors to consider: finances (you got to earn money to live), prestige and influence (being a published author immediately gives you a mark of authority), or maybe even just writing simply out of boredom.

I hope this isn't sounding too arrogant or narcissistic. In the end, I just want to share my thoughts with the rest of the world, and there is no other better way than to write!!!