ACROSS South Korea, "English Villages", where pupils check in to a hotel, shop, take cooking lessons and make music videos all in English, are sprouting up. Ten are already operating, with more on the way. They represent the latest big push in South Korean parents' multibillion-dollar-a-year campaign to give their children a leg up in conquering English skills, reports International Herald Tribune.
Educational experts say South Korea has been embracing English training with aggressiveness and creativity. The language is taught from the third year of school. Outside the school system, parents are paying an estimated 10 trillion won (US$ 8 billion) a year to help their children learn English at home or abroad.
"It's funny because Koreans know English," said Jeffrey Jones, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in South Korea. "They spend a lot of time learning English. They can read, probably better than I can. But they have trouble speaking." Jones said that when many Koreans see a Westerner coming their way on the street, they detour or run away.
Many college graduates falter in chats with native speakers. South Korean officials are often accused of grouping together in international conferences, afraid to mix with native English speakers. Linguists say that is a result of a national school system that traditionally stresses reading and rote memorization of English grammar and vocabulary at the expense of conversation.
Most Koreans tend to speak Korean culture even when they speak English, according to The Korea Times. This is a major stumbling block in their effort to carry out meaningful and productive English conversations with English-speaking foreigners. Neither of the parties can enjoy the conversations, and the Koreans are more likely to pay a heavy price than their counterparts. The price Koreans pay often comes in the form of communication breakdowns while giving their counterparts a mistaken idea about Korea.
Speaking English with a native accent has become such a status symbol that some parents reportedly put their children through the clinically questionable surgery of snipping the thin tissue under the tongue to make it longer, helping the children to pronounce the "R" sound better.
According to International Herald Tribune, the public sector in this highly competitive society is racing to address the problem. The country is building a US$15 billion international economic free zone on the coast west of Seoul, where English will be a common language. The southern port city of Busan is planning a town where English is an official language.
