N. Korean Students Homestay in Canada?

The Donga Ilbo, quoting RFA (which in turn quotes a Canadian civic group), reports that North Korean students are going to Canada to study English.

In 1998, two North Korean professors went to the UK for a summer to learn English at the invitation of the British government, but this is the first time we’ve learned of North Korean students going.

English education up North is an elite thing primarily focused on provincial foreign language high schools and leading to university English lit departments. They teach English in North Korean middle schools, but the quality of instructors is low, as is student enthusiasm. With contact shut off to the English speaking nations of Great Britain and North America, with which North Korean shares hostile relations, only a handful of professors at elite English education bodies at places like Kim Il-sung University or Pyongyang Foreign Language University have experience studying in places like Tanzania and India. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, it’s stopped doing even that.

But while relations with the United States have worsened over the eight years of the Bush administration, the door to learning English has opened widely. North Korea has accepted since 2002 about 10 British English teachers through the British Council. These teachers went on one-year contracts, but are reportedly still there at the request of North Korea. In 2007, the two countries agreed to send additional teachers.

North Korea has also asked British and North American civic groups to send teachers, and in fact, US and Canadian civic groups have responded by sending bodies. One university professor who lived in the United States reportedly taught at Kim Il-sung University for over four years.

Expensive private language institutes are appearing in North Korea, too. North Korean defectors say there are even English tutors who charge 100,000 won for half-a-day’s work in a country where the average worker makes 20,000-30,000 won a month. Near the Chinese border, Chinese language tutors are all the rage. This is particularly the case with the children of high officials — if the kids go through an elite English course and the parents through their weight around some, the chances are higher their kids will get a good position as a diplomat or some other profession they can earn dollars at.

When he met with visiting British parliamentarians in February, Supreme People’s Assembly chairman Choi Tae-bok reportedly said his granddaughter was learning English from a British teacher, and asked for more instructors. Just saying you major in English at an elite university is a status thing in North Korea. Having a South Korean book will usually get you arrested in North Korea, but an exception is made with English dictionaries… as long as the word “Daehanminguk” (Republic of Korea) is erased.

The English boom shows the elite’s desire to interact with the outside world and their foresightedness to prepare for the future. It indirectly shows that the North Korean elite believe their children’s generation will definitely open up, and when they do, foreign language skills will be most important. Even if they can’t use it now, the elite believe that their monopoly on foreign language skills will earn them power and money in the near future.

Marmot’s Note: RFA also reports that North Korea has experienced a rise in drug crimes, so the authorities have declared their own war on drugs.

Hmm… an increase in English teachers and a rise in drug offenses.

Coincidence? I think not.

At any rate, our Canadian cousins might want to hold off on booking that flight to Pyongyang.