EVER heard of a “TOEFL tour”? If you’re a South Korean in dire need of the test, you may find demand for the test outstripping supply in your own country. You have to sign yourself up for a tour that includes test preparation courses, a guaranteed TOEFL slot along with a few days of sightseeing in a neighboring country.
According to the International Herald Tribune, what has many South Koreans in an uproar these days is the “TOEFL crisis”. South Koreans have been hunting for possible test sites from Japan to Southeast Asia, even Australia. As a result, travel agencies have begun offering “TOEFL tours”. One test preparation school in South Korea estimates that about 500 Koreans a month travel to other countries to take the test.
The TOEFL crisis began with the introduction of the Internet-based TOEFL in 2006 and a concurrent reduction in the number of times the test would be offered partly in an effort to tighten security and discourage cheating.
From September to December 2006, only about 20,000 South Koreans could take the test. ETS had initially expected that it would be able to allocate 64,000 test slots for South Korea in all of 2007. This was well below demand.
There were about 93,000 South Korean students studying in the United States in 2006, according to the US immigration authorities. American colleges and graduate schools typically require foreign students to submit TOEFL scores with their applications.
In recent years, TOEFL scores have also become a necessity even for South Koreans with no intention of studying abroad. Many people, from teenagers applying to selective secondary schools to adults applying for jobs, must submit TOEFL scores. Dozens of universities in South Korea require TOEFL for graduation. Governmental offices and quasi-governmental agencies such as city councils and jails ask applicants for scores.
“I think English ability is a basic criterion now,” said Kim Jae Yoon, the human resources director of Chongga Kimchi, a major producer of the traditional Korean condiment. The company had recently hired an accountant and an operational manager after factoring in their TOEFL results.
It is this disparity between supply and demand that sends so many South Koreans abroad. Agencies say that these tours, which typically cost about $850 to $1,000, are almost fully booked for the next few months.
Moreover, the shortage of seats has attracted scalpers who register for the test and then resell the slots for far more than the $170 registration fee. Stories of would-be test-takers cheated out of their money are common.21ST
