The proficiency of Koreans in their mother tongue seems to have declined in recent years as many take Korean-language education for granted and an obsession with learning English has seized the country.
The Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation carried out a study of the results of the scholastic achievement tests of 20,945 third-year middle school students nationwide between 2004 and 2006. It shows that the percentage of students who received good or excellent marks in Korean fell from 14.1 percent in 2004 to 11 percent in 2006. On the other hand, those who received good or excellent grades in English rose from 18.6 to 20.5 percent over the period. The proportion who missed the minimum standard in Korean expected from a third-year middle school student increased from 4.4 percent in 2005 to 7.4 percent in 2006.
In 2001, the Korean Education Development Institute released a report on Korean adults’ reading comprehension and compared it with that of other OECD member countries. Korean adults scored 237.5 out of 500 points when tested on their ability to understand various documents such as those containing maps and charts, coming 18th out of 22 countries. Sweden came first with 305.6 points. Korea was also in the middle to lower ranks in comprehending newspaper editorials, poems and novels.
In November last year, a survey of 330 human resources managers in Korean firms, conducted by employment website JobKorea, revealed that 59.7 percent were unhappy with the level of Korean proficiency of new employees, with 49.4 percent saying they are “not satisfied” and 10.3 percent saying “very unsatisfied.”
Experts say neglect of Chinese characters education in the school curriculum is one of the major reasons behind this. Because 70 percent of Korean vocabulary is made of the combination of Chinese characters, they claim the study of Chinese characters is essential for middle and high school education. However, as English loomed ever larger and Chinese characters began to be branded as arcane, its importance in school curricula dwindled. Prof. Lee Jong-mook of the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Seoul National University said, “The fundamental remedy would be to strengthen Chinese characters education in the school curriculum, and to help children develop reading skills by studying the classics from adolescence.”
Lack of time committed to reading also contributes to dwindling Korean proficiency. According to statistics on Koreans’ reading habits released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism last year, adults managed to read only one book per month, and one in four did not read books at all.
It's an intersting article, but I don't think I care for the first paragraph, which makes it seem like increased emphasis on English education is a factor in decreased native-language skills. It looks like other factors are at play, rather than just a slight increase in English-proficiency. The part about inadequate knowledge of Chinese characters called to mind a survey from 2007, which showed that a staggering number of incoming freshman at a prominent Seoul university couldn't read or write. Twenty percent couldn't write their names in Hanja, for example, and 99% couldn't read the word "compromise." Wikipedia has a little more on the decline of the use of Hanja, so take it for what it's worth:
Opinion surveys show that the South Korean public do not consider hanja literacy essential, a situation attributed to the fact that hanja education in South Korea does not begin until the seventh year of schooling. Hanja terms are also expressed through hangul, the standard script in the Korean language. Some studies suggest that hanja use appears to be in decline. In 1956, one study found mixed-script Korean text (in which Sino-Korean nouns are written using hanja, and other words using hangul) were read faster than texts written purely in hangul; however, by 1977, the situation had reversed. In 1988, 80% of one sample of people without a college education "evinced no reading comprehension of any but the simplest, most common hanja" when reading mixed-script passages.
The Chosun Ilbo article is a little ambiguous, though, and I don't know if I'd necessarily highlight the decrease in Korean proficiency, but would rather call attention to poor reading comprehension and interpretation skills.
Earlier articles on education looked at Korea's low TOEFL scores relative to other countries and languages, and a June report that 57% of teenagers don't know when the Korean War broke out.
* Update: Otto Silver makes a good point:
Why don’t we hear anyone complain about how the system is screwing itself? Oh, because it is the way things work in Korea. It is Korean style. Well, skattebol, Korean Style comes with Korean Style results.
Not too long ago I looked at the news that Korea was quote-unquote the hardest working country, and that may be of some interest here.
4 comments:
I haven't read any of the links sorry, but I find Korean educators' attachment to chinese characters much like their European counterparts' one to Latin and Greek a generation earlier. Certainly hanja helps us non-natives to understand and memorize Korean vocabulary, just like knowing the meaning of often Latin or Greek-derived prefixes and suffixes would do the same for learners of European languages.
But as far as I can tell, my English is pretty good despite never having studied those formally, and I seriously doubt if hanja would be of more than minimal use in Korean proficiency to native speakers. And for all the lavish (but justified) praise of hangul as a "scientific" writing system by Koreans, educators still seem to have an inordinate and unjustified attachment to hanja, a very outdated, cumbersome, and confusing writing system that favors memorization rather than actual reading and writing.
Hell, if it's still going to be taught, at least use the simplified characters used in China now to make it more helpful to learn Chinese?
I could go on about all this being evidence of Koreans' still very real "cultural cringe" towards China, but I won't.
' ... 99% couldn't read the word "compromise." '
How ironic. lol
I agree... The article was very interesting but you can't blame their decreasing literacy of their language on English. Also, I would like to pick apart that statement and point out that there is a LOT of room for Koreans to grow and improve as a whole in English, while improvements in one's native language are less easily gained...AND tests are becoming harder and harder these days, reflecting the toughening University Entrance Exams.
I also read the article about the inability of adults to understand complex writing about new technology. And I think the study itself is flawed in the sense that the gap of NEED of such technology is far wider in Korea than it is other western countries, where our grandmothers do not still tend fields of rice by hand at the age 80. The article specifically referenced "ADULTS". I think there would be a much different result if they did the survey with youth.
I will totally go to bat on lack of reading harming education though. Also, lack of WRITING. Students NEVER practice writing ANYTHING in the Korean education system...so they're never going to use and practice any fancy new words they may come across in their textbook studies.
They also are not used to engaging their teachers in open discussion or whatnot, so there's really not many chances for them to get to broaden their vocabulary.
This article REALLY explains to me why Koreans can NEVER teach me their own language. I often try to practice new words I learn by first making some written sentences on the board to make sure I got the usages right... and then I have koreans come in an correct the sentence.
Kids (highschoolers) will stand around arguing forever about my grammatical errors and which way it SHOULD be.
And THEN after they've decided, and class is about to start, the TEACHER comes in and comepltely changes everything the students did...which prompts a class-wide arguement for 5 minutes about however my sentence should be changed.
Well, the pedantic fixation on grammar kills me, but that's a whole 'nother issue. You've got teachers who can't even communicate basic ideas in English trying to debate complex grammar with me, arguing against my answers because their textbook says "Jumping rope is a health habit" is right.
I recall your thread on waygook.org about wrong test questions . . . man, at one of my schools a teacher asked me to look at a question and see if there were any mistakes, since a student said that there were two possible answers. And every answer had a grammatical or usage error. This stubborness is a major obstacle toward not only becoming reasonably decent in the language---because they feel their national pride is at stake---but having a healthy relationship toward it.
And I hear you about Korean teachers of Korean. I have yet to find a Korean in person who can explain parts of their language to me. THere are a few users of galbijim.com and other websites who do it pretty well, though, but I've taken some Korean classes this semester and Christ they were brutal. What kills me most is the fixation on pronunciation . . . I'm trying to read a passage aloud and the guy's stopping me every three words to drill some consonant or other into my head. My pronunciation is pretty good for a white man, and moreover, maybe he should worry about his English pronunciation---he's an English teacher after all and has been studying English for 30 years---before harping on me. Even the teachers at my workshop will go on and on about grammar but won't make the slightest effort to work on pronunciation. Sorry, but it's not good if you can't pronounced 1/3 of our consonants. They avoid any problems, though, by teaching all their classes entirely in Korean. But pronunciation is a rant for another time. ajfoj30984jowaiej4q90uweauei.
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