Why are many Koreans so obsessed with English?

I was born and raised in Korea. I have been growing up with so many people learning English and pouring a lot of money into it. I was once talking with my friend over dinner at a restaurant, hearing someone speaking English. I felt kind of weird. I got a glimpse of them. They were definitely Koreans. I had a sudden urge to ask them why they were having a conversation in a foreign language.

 

So many Koreans are obsessed with English

 

Summary

• Introduction 
• Survival 
• Competition 
• Education 
• Awareness
• A unique culture 
• A personal thought 

 

 

At the end of their drinking bout, I gently told them that their English fluency was really amazing and asked them where they came from, albeit a little blatant. They said they were trying their English skills, believing it was one of the best ways to practice and improve English proficiency. They also added that they needed to level up their English because small companies or large businesses in Korea required their potential employees to speak more than their native language.

 

It was not my first experience though. It was easy to see quite a few Korean young adults practicing English at a small get-together although they already knew it would be a long journey to master another language. It takes quite a while to get to the advanced level of another language. English is no exception. The only fact that English is really important in order to land a job cannot explain why so many Koreans, including students, are obsessed with English.   

It’s survival in Korean society that Koreans are obsessed with English. At the end of the Japanese colonization era and in the middle of the Korean war, the US came to help us as a liberator and a savior. Korea was in ruins where Koreans were left desperate and hopeless at the time. The US was the leading force in the world, which became the role model for Koreans.

 

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The US was a dream country, a symbol of success and prosperity for many Koreans. It was sort of a catalyst for change in which so many Koreans decided to immigrate to other countries to make their dream come true and strived for a better life, expecting a language barrier to get in the way of them trying to settle down and get used to a new culture. 

There was a bitter realization that their isolation to protect themselves from outer influence took a heavy toll on national well-being, which consequently motivated Koreans to jump on the bandwagon and started learning English. They had gotten their hopes up about learning about the outer world and living a better life. The influences streamed down over the generations.

 

They still believe they could get a lot of benefits depending on their English fluency. Granted that younger generations don’t see the US as a paradise any more, survival is still one of the most important parts of Korean lives. Learning English keeps playing a significant role in this regard. Koreans feel that English fluency would help them live anywhere in the world.

The competition in Korean society is another part of the obsession with English as well. As I mentioned earlier Koreans need to improve their English fluency to get a good job. They make a great effort to get a good score on a certain kind of standardized test, since some large businesses still request that job seekers prove themselves with a verification test result.

 

The incident, witnessed on several occasions, was a reminder of how fluency in English is considered a yardstick in one’s ability in studies, work and life. While many companies say they look past academic credentials when hiring new employees, most of them still require certified English scores with their applications.

 

To my surprise, when many young South Koreans are asked why they need to study English, they'll respond that they need it to find a good job. They won't mention specifically how it could be useful to their potential careers, such as for business emails, international sales calls or for online research.

Even people who are already secure in their jobs are required to study English in order to move up the company ladder. So they spend a lot of money and time on English until they measure up to the standard set up by where they want to apply to. The truth, though, is that many seem to struggle to take themselves to an appropriate level of expressing what to say in English in a proper way, let alone working out whatever it takes so as to speak English fluently before they realize they burn too much vitality into it.

 

Ironical as it may seem, Koreans think they can sound native speakers if they make it a rule to practice speaking English on a daily basis, albeit almost impossible. Without doubt, excellent English skills are vital for a portion of the Korean workforce and will benefit any young worker entering the workforce.

 

But to expect all prospective rookie workers to go beyond English training provided during school and essentially force them to seek private education and certification seems to be costing young Koreans and their families much more than they anticipated.

 

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Korean students mostly begin to learn English when they are in 4th grade in terms of education. They learn a foreign language in a confined environment, where they feel that English is one of the subjects they must learn. For Korean students English is just another compulsory thing so that they might go to a fine university. They see English not as something like a language they enjoy sharing their thoughts with, but instead something they need to gain by competing against someone.

 

As a result, parents feel they must enroll their children in English-language preschools to keep up with other children in the district, even though some education professors discourage them from sending their children to a kind of a private English language institute.

 

It can be argued that current standard and compulsory English education from elementary level education through university is adequate for the reading comprehension skills needed for the vast majority of jobs in Korea. Yet many young Koreans and their families continue to invest tens of thousands of dollars for additional English education for a skill that will never be fully utilized.

 

The tendency to equate one’s English ability to one’s intellectual competence appears to derive mostly from the fact that English is often treated as an academic field that one must master, rather than a linguistic capacity as a tool, according to observers. English education in Korea can be traced back as far as the late 19th century, and has remained one of the key subjects since Seoul National University established English and English education majors in 1946.

 

The Korean curriculum’s extreme emphasis on the language is what many Koreans perceive as one of key demonstrations of the country’s obsession with English. Confucianism is just another fuel to put Koreans in love with English. Students are forced to learn it because their parents tell them to 

It is assumed that a fluent English speaker in school would often mean ‘good student,’ as only the top students get to be any good in English. Students who excel in English would often stand out in class, even more so than students who did well in other subjects because it was seen as a rarer talent.

 

Some experts say a deeply rooted inferiority complex, admiration for English-speaking societies and the fixation on continuing the country’s industrialization with globalization may be factors behind the English craze. It is very rare to see good English speakers in Korea nonetheless. The obsession over English and the consequent social expectations have led to English being a coveted trait, especially among those in the higher positions.

What is unique about Korean culture clearly leads to the long-lasting trend of a huge love for English learning. Koreans live for the most part in an apartment complex, which literally means Korea is densely populated. The zeal for children's education in Korea is also quite high. So parents are apparently concerned about what kind of Hagwon students in the apartment or top-ranked students attend as they want to make sure that they would not allow their children to fall behind in the competition.

 

Despite the fact that most Korean parents do not know how to learn English properly, they expect their children to sound a native speaker with the help of hagwons. They stick to the myth that only people who speak English well are the elite as well as the belief that their children could speak English in just a couple of years.      

English is just a language, which means that it should be a means, rather than a goal in itself. But in many cases here in Korea, English competence is a reflection of one’s social status. I’m not saying that learning English is not necessary. English is a great tool as a lingua franca. Yet it’s sad to see Koreans obsessed with learning it when they need it the least at work or during a trip overseas.

 

I don’t think it is healthy to spend too much energy improving English. Greed brings no good. Extreme love for English is not equivalent to true love for the language. Koreans from students to adults should reflect on what they did in the past, do at present, or will do in the future to make the right decision to learn English.