Speaking with transition team officials today, President-elect Lee Myung-bak dropped a head-scratcher, saying it was “wrong for the English public education issue to become politically contentious.”
Well, OK, but when you push English education reform as a “Second Cheonggyecheon,” with (albeit backtracked) talk of even English immersion programs, wouldn’t you expect a little controversy? Just a weeny bit?
For what it’s worth, I agree with Lee that English classes should be conducted in English… as Chinese classes should be conducted in Chinese, Japanese classes in Japanese, etc. I also agree that English education policy shouldn’t be a major political controversy, but then again, it wouldn’t be if it weren’t a major policy… which the president-elect has made it.
Anyway, Korea’s soon-to-be CEO-in-Chief also explained, “How well you speak English determines whether you can get a good job, and creates gaps in personal income… Among non-English speaking nations, the nations where the majority of people can speak English well are much better off than those where the people cannot speak English.”
I go to Wikipedia and take a look at the state of the Anglosphere, and this is what I find:
That light blue isn’t exactly a who’s who of global success stories. If you want it broken down:
In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Namibia, Nigeria, Northern Mariana Islands, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (”South African English”). English is also an important language in several former colonies or current dependent territories of the United Kingdom and the United States, such as in Hong Kong and Mauritius.
Hmm… Liberia, Kenya, Pakistan, Papau New Guinea, Rwanda (OK, really a French-speaking nation), Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe… right.
Wikipedia also includes a list in order of total English speakers (including first and second language speakers). Leaving out Anglo North America, the EU and Australia/New Zealand, the order goes:
1. India
2. China
4. Nigeria
6. Philippines
10. Pakistan
13. South Africa
17. Turkey
18. Cameroon
19. Malaysia
20. Russia
22. Zimbabwe
25. Sierra Leone
26. Mexico
28. Tanzania
33. Bangladesh
34. Papua New Guinea
Don’t let all the low per capita GDPs and national basketcases distract you, though, because within a decade, Korea’s will be the best English-speaking country in Asia! And at the low, low cost of just 4 trillion won over the next five years!
26 Comments
“Leaving out Anglo North America, the EU and Australia/New Zealand” … what has Western civilization done for us lately?
Query: If a majority of the people in a nation can speak English well, does that not, by definition, make that nation an English-speaking nation? Or does LMB have some sort of magic wand smuggled up his arse that allows him to banish logical paradoxes?
The caption under the map says, “Countries where English is a majority language are dark blue.”
Is that the same as Lee’s statement: “the nations where the majority of people can speak English…” ??? I don’t think so.
I think Lee is making an empirical observation that the well-to-do in the world can communicate with foreigners — in English, usually.
Also, communicating in English in Korea takes on a whole different meaning than, say, when EU nations do so. In Korea, speaking English well usually means adapting oneself to a different kind of logic — specifically Aristotelian logic — which tends to be open to new and different possibilities than Korean.
So whether Mr. Korean so-and-so will never meet a foreigner, is not the point, I’d say. If he is capable of speaking and thinking in English then he can think otherwise than the traditionally rather inward perspective of Korea’s past.
The question is then whether Koreans will lose something of their own “Korean-ness” in the process. Lee doesn’t seem to think that would be the case.
#1 is onto something. The title of the list of “Leaving out the countries that speak English the best and also happen to be among the most economically successful…”
Anyway, that list is crap. Did you check the sources of the data? The top two are from a speech by Gordon Brown… There are many different sources for the other numbers, and surely the standard of what deems one an “English speaker” is quite different for each.
I doubt that the 300,000,000 Chinese “English speakers’” (one quarter of China) English ability compares too well with the roughly similar number of USA English speakers, yet China is ranked ahead of the USA.
I am quite confident that if my coworkers (who are an intelligent bunch, but whose English abilities aren’t too great) were better with English, as 2MB promises will be the case in the future, it would help my coworkers’ career and more importantly my company. And that would help the economy and 2MB would achieve his goal.
I say GIVE CHANGE A CHANCE™!
(and hey, I’ll patent that tagline so you guys can pay me bucktons in royalties
They really think that they can achieve their goal as in “Best English speaking Asian Nation” in 10 years?
IMO, an average 5th grader from India and Singapore are better the most of the Koreans with English degrees. They read Classical English Literature at age 10. Comparing that with Korean undergrad syllabus, Korea needs atleast a century to get to that level.
The guy is forgetting that some Asian Countries were British colonies for hundreds of years and have a deep and long history with the language.
Man, I would LOVE it if the 20 to 30 year old girls here could all speak better English.
Can’t generally patent a tagline, seeing as patents are for inventions. Generally, all you can do with a tagline like that is try to trademark it, and act like a total douche when someone uses it outside of a business context (or in a business context for a business you’re not even in), despite the fact that they have every right to do so. See, e.g.: Donald Trump, Paris Hilton… But hey, at least your lawyer gets rich, eh?
Lee has a point. He just didn’t express it very well. I believe he was simply acknowledging that English the language of business and in well-off countries, people who speak English run the show. Germany is a good example. Everyone who is anyone speaks English.
#8,
I’ll be my own lawyer, then I can get to be a total douchebag and be filthy rich!
First off, Lee’s statement referred to “non-English speaking nations,” so naturally, the US, UK, Australia, etc. shouldn’t be on the list. If you want to argue about leaving off non-English speaking EU members off the list, that’s another issue. Secondly, sure, the numbers might be off, but do you really think they’re that off?
I’m sure there are many people in Korea whose careers would be bettered by learning English (actually, a lot, given the incomprehensible importance placed on English in university entrance and job promotion). I’m also sure that in the United States, there are many people whose careers would be bettered by learning Chinese. That does NOT mean, however, that the White House should then spend millions (or in the US case, billions) of dollars on a nationwide education project so that little Timmy in Iowa can speak perfect Mandarin. The majority of Koreans hardly use English, if at all, and the money, personnel and political capital would be best spent elsewhere, while students and workers would be better off taking the time, money and stress currently spent on learning English and getting good TOEIC marks and spending it on learning stuff that they actually need to learn.
“Second Cheonggyecheon”
I really wish he’d stop tooting his won horn about that damned river. Did you know that it was HIS consruction company that covered it over in the first place? So really, all he did was undo his own mistake — 40 years later.
#7. A most salient point.
4 Trillion Won! I’m looking forward to a chunk of that!
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’m sure there are many people in Korea whose careers would be bettered by learning English … I’m also sure that in the United States, there are many people whose careers would be bettered by learning Chinese.”
I agree, but I think the point is that English is as close to a “common” language as you’ll find in the world, whether it’s business, travel, or academia. Here’s another way to look at it…
Check out this list…
http://www.vistawide.com/langu.....guages.htm
…and look at two things: the overall number of speakers, and the percentage of them who are non-native. I found this interesting:
87% of people who speak Chinese live in two countries: China and Singapore.
67% of people who speak English live in the 60 or 70 countries where it is official. This means that some 33% of English speakers speak it elsewhere.
I know stats can be misleading, but to me it’s pretty self-evident that English is the fallback language of the world.
They make some good points:
Korea Times: “Groups Call for Scrapping of ‘English Worshipping’”
Random observation about Pakistani who are Koreans now in Gimhae:
Sometimes I drop by in a pub running by Koreans (Pakistani) early evening. Around 7 pm without customers they are watching their (Pakistan) news channels on a huge screen. The political debates in Pakistan are sometimes half in English half in Urdu. One of the saff explained to me that they have English education from the first grade. And they can talk in English. As adults. I got the feeling they are more fluent then the average German could be.
Grant it, the majority of Koreans current don’t use English (perhaps some because they can’t) the idea of education is to prepare for the (uncertain)future. Education is suppose to give students knowledge, skills and the ability to think well and be creative. I certainly can’t say that much of what I learned in public schools is of tangable use to me today.
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.
There are two Englishes; one public, one private. The public English is provided by the government as a public service along with the rest of one’s education in math, science, history, etc. This English is seen as an entitlement, a right. Citizens see it as a government’s duty to provide this English, along with basic health care, policing, utilities, and so on.
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.
The average Finn speaks better English than many South Africans (or, for that matter, some Americans). The average Chinese person doesn’t speak English. The 90%-percentile English-speaking Finn has the fluency of a well-educated Brit or American (or Aussie, New Zealander, Canadian). The 90%-percentile English-speaking Chinese (this is out of all of all Chinese who’ve “learned” English) is probably on the level of an elementary- or middle-schooler from one of these countries.
I wonder, though, whether the ability to speak English is a cause of, or a result of, their success.
The average Finn happens to be the biggest redneck in Europe. Despite being right next door to Norway and Sweden, Finnland is not populated by cosmopolitan euroweeny sophisticates but rather the equivalent of cousin Jethro who is infatuated with the monster truck rally.
Zonath,
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.
I can rest assure you that the Koreans living in the English speaking country that is the US don’t really care about learning English.
If Korea had been part of the British Empire, this wouldn’t be a problem today. It’s all Japan’s fault.
From a non-native speaker point-of-view, English (and its sub-varieties), as it is spoken/written, should ideally be a language that is ‘alive’ and it needs to evolve with the context in which it is used - for the purpose of effective communication.
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.