For e.g., there is no point in speaking clipped, standard English, British Southern English or Standard American English to a (non-native) taxi-driver, if it alienates the speaker from the listener (linguistically).

It will take any hegemonic/homogenous society, with a strong (sometimes misplaced national identity), a long time before it comes to terms with its usage or mastery of the English language. The thing with Koreans in general, is the constant hang-up with what is ‘right’ (and not with what is meaningful in its context); or what is deemed to be a ‘prestigious accent to acquire’, with little sensitivity to grammar structure and its appropriate intonation when spoken.

The joy in (English) language learning seems lost, when all its subtlety of humor is traded for the acquisition of an ‘idealized’ standard of English.

The debate goes on, and I suspect, it will take more than one presidential term to steer English-learning towards an enlightened path. Singapore, where I was raised, took more than a hundred years, and we are still ‘working’ on it.
These links are worth a read:

#1. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/english.....ngeh2.html

#2. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/english.....eiburg.doc

I am a displaced 4th generation Chinese, once engaged to a Korean, and have trotted through much of the English-speaking countries on the 2 hemispheres; yet, I do not profess to speak or write with the fluency of a native English speaker/writer, haha.

It depends in Maylasia. All the Indians speak english in Maylasia. My best friends wife is an Indian Malay and grew up speaking english in the house, along with Hindi, Tamil and Portugese but english is the dominant tounge. The school systems there are split for the 3 main ethnic groups. Malays speak malay except in English classes along with the mathematics and science classes. Whereas the Indians and Chinese go to their prospective schools which are tought in whatever the school wants to teach it in. Most Indians speak english in all classes and the Chinese hold theirs in chinese except again in the math and sciences.

There is a significant English-speaking Chinese population in Malaysia and their income level is also significantly higher than the rest of the non-English speaking ones.

I wonder, though, whether the ability to speak English is a cause of, or a result of, their success.

Then there’s the private English, which is a consumer product, and which must compete for its share of the consumer’s discretionary spending. This product is much in demand in Korea.

The story about the Pakistani TV show is salient. So many countries have done pretty well at achieving a high level of English fluency with only the public system of delivery. Korea has failed utterly, over the course of decades, to provide a public English product that meets demand. In the face of this failure, it distorts the situation by refusing to allow its citizens reasonable access to quality private English. Foreign teachers are excluded by hostile immigration policies. Foreign schools are excluded by laws that require certification-granting institutions to be non-profit. English customers are berated by their own government.

It’s totally fucked. The demand for English is very high because it is seen as absolutely essential for getting a good job and earning a decent living. The public doesn’t see English as a luxury product; they see it as being equally crucial for personal advancement as literacy and numeracy. That is, they see it as a human right. Because it’s a right, like other rights, everyone must have equal access to that right. The public will not tolerate unequal distribution of rights. The government must take the lead in ensuring equal rights for all. But in the case of English – complete failure. In Reagan’s immortal words “Government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem.

And so we have private English, in a grotesquely distorted market. LMB’s $4billion will achieve nothing measurable during his time in office. Read my lips. NOTHING. Korea’s public English is too far behind, too completely messed up. The only hope is full market liberalization. That won’t happen. That means there’s no hope.

Teachers: raise your prices. Demand more money. You don’t have to subsidize this disaster by working for 2.5 mil. The best thing you can do to help Koreans learn English in the long term is to enrich yourselves now with huge wage demands and thereby force this current travesty to a quicker demise. It’s the right thing to do.

Korean’s spend trillions of Wan already on private English education despite any claim they will profit from the investment in anyway other than doing better on university enterance exams and the consequences there-after. Mal-aligned or not, the idea is to improve public school English education to decrease the burden of expensive private English education. One can hardly argue against the fact that it does need some overhauling, nor can one argue against the fact that too many Korean families are economically burdened with their attempts to make up for the short-comings of the public school English education program.

Even if the new plan works, what exactly will the cost benefit analysis reveal? There’s the 4 trillion Wan question. The 4 trillion Wan five year plan is a drop in the bucket compared to what parents will spend over the next 5 years privately, so “English worshipping” or not, it seems to have some basis for merit.