Arabic still a popular choice on Korea's college entrance exam.

The Korea Herald tells us today what we've read before:

A higher-than-ever number of students chose Arabic in the second language section of this year's college entrance exam, making many wonder why they chose the language, which no high schools teach.

A total of 51,141 students, or 42.3 percent, chose the language in the optional section of the College Scholastic Ability Test, administered on Nov. 12.

The figure is up from 29.4 percent recorded last year. It has continuously increased in recent years from 2,184 in 2005 to 5,072 in 2006, 13,588 in 2007 and 29,278 last year.

Many students said they chose Arabic as they are more likely to get higher "standard scores" than when they choose other languages. The standard score system was introduced in the 2005 academic year to address disadvantages stemming from differing difficulty levels among the tests.

This part caught my eye:

Critics have said that the standard score system has failed to level the playing field for students choosing different exam subjects.

This year, students with a perfect score of 50 points in Arabic received 100 points in standard scores. However, students who chose German, French, Japanese or Chinese characters received 69 even if they got all the answers right.

The total number of students who got a perfect standard score in the Arabic test was 649.

Regarding calls to abolish the Arabic portion,

"But as the language is included in the official curriculum, we cannot abolish it," said Kim Jeong-ho, senior research fellow at the state-run Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation.

In April we looked at languages offered in high schools in Seoul. The Korea Times said 90% of high schools in Seoul offered Japanese, making it the second most-studied foreign language behind English:

Chinese came next with 189 schools, followed by French with 52 and German with 47. A growing number of high school students are selecting Japanese and Chinese as their second foreign language.

As for Spanish, only four schools are offering the language course and two foreign language high schools are teaching Russian.

However, no schools are running Arabic language classes, which some 300 million people in the world use. Ironically, Arabic was the most selected language by Korean students for the college admission test last year.

With this trend, many German and French teachers have given up teaching their majors and are teaching other subjects such as Korean literature and English.

Accordingly, universities are reducing admission quotas for German, French and other unpopular language departments.

Here's what was in the Herald in the spring on the issue:

Of the nearly 100,000 students who took the optional second foreign language section in last year's College Scholastic Ability Test, 29.4 percent chose Arabic. Many students believe it is possible to get high standard scores in Arabic without studying much because no high school teaches the language.

Only 33 universities across the country require scores in this section, where students pick one from the six foreign languages -- German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Arabic -- or Chinese characters. Arabic was added to the list of elective CSAT subjects in 2005.

I must be dull because I don't get why a perfect score on the Arabic portion would be awarded more points than a perfect score in other languages. It may be part of the curriculum, but if no schools are teaching the course it's not fair to give students who attempt it an advantage.

A further example of how tests shape Korean education, because students who take Arabic in this portion---or students who attempt any European languages---are doing so not because of any interest in the language or culture, but because of an interest in a high score. The same thing drives English education here, where the subject is divorced from the language and the culture(s) of its speakers. The divide seems even more pronounced in Arabic's case, though, because the unfair advantage given students who ace it pretty much guarantees it's a test subject, not a language.

In 2007 the Korea Times looked at the increasing "popularity" of Arabic here, noting an increase in the number of students taking it on the CSAT, though it didn't cite the scoring advantage. However, for students genuinely interested in the language or in a career in foreign service, Arabic does have its advantages.

``Since the 9/11 attack, a growing number of Koreans have paid keen attention to Arabic,'' said Lee In-seop, a professor at the graduate school of interpretation and translation (GSIT) of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. ``As economic cooperation between Korea and countries using Arabic as their mother tongue expands, more companies and organizations here are looking for individuals who can speak the language fluently.''

Quite a few of the brighter students I've taught have said they wanted to become diplomats---though, invariably it's been because they want to make Korea more powerful, not for personal ambitions---and were interested in studying Japanese, French, and Arabic as well as English.

You can view this year's college entrance examination (2010학년 대학수학능력시험) here, from Yonhap. Scrolling to the last period of the day you can view the German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, and Hanja portions as .pdf or .jpg files. As we saw in this November post, the English portion is especially difficult, but other languages are considerably easier and more commensurate with a high school student's ability. And as commenter This Is Me Posting says, the first question in the French section brings up Korea's four seasons: Nous avons quatre saisons en Corée.