Part of my "duties" at Chonnam is to "teach" 2 teacher training classes for the other 10 English Teachers. I use quotation marks to mark the implication of what it entails--as over the course of the semester it dwindled. In the beginning, we were watching and discussing "Waiting for Superman" twice each Thursday (not all teachers can make it at the same time), or watching the 5minute summary on BBC. It has become 1 teacher, 1 class, 40 minutes, and usually we are talking about her favorite music (complete with pictures of the Korean rock group who "played at Warped Tour" last year) or she's helping me with my Korean homework.
I need not be offended--these women work twice the hours I do, and have families--the last thing they have time for is practicing English really. And a lot of times, it leaves for a good amount of practice for the one who does come. This was one such week.
"I just came from a funeral," she said, sitting down.
"Oh no! I'm sorry, who died?"
"My university professor."
"I'm really sorry."
"He was vedy sick for three years. Something in his brain; I don't know English word. It nice though--his family came back from America for the funeral."
"Oh, there for school. Sad. Were they surprised then?"
"No. Sick for three years."
"Right, but they didn't come back until now?"
"Children married or in graduate school. No come back often. Been there probably ten years with they mother. Professor just send money."
"Really? Like, the mother didn't come back once the children were done with university?"
To help explain (albeit from Wiki):
English education
English is taught as a required subject from the third year of elementary school up to high school, including most universities, with the goal of performing well on the TEPS, TOEIC and TOEFL, which are tests of reading, listening and grammar-based English. For students who achieve high scores, there is also a speaking evaluation.
Because of large class sizes and other factors in public schools, many parents pay to send their children to private English-language schools in the afternoon or evening. Usually different private English-language schools specialize in teaching elementary school students or in middle and high school students. The most ambitious parents send their children to kindergartens that utilize English exclusively in the classroom. Many children also live abroad for anywhere from a few months to several years to learn English. Sometimes, a Korean mother and her children will move to an English-speaking country for an extended period of time to enhance the children's English ability. In these cases, the father left in Korea is known as a gireogi appa (Korean: 기러기 아빠), literally a "goose dad" who must migrate to see his family.[3]
There are more than 100,000 Korean students in the U.S. The increase of 10 percent every year helped Korea remain the top student-sending country in the U.S. for a second year, ahead of India and China. Korean students at Harvard University are the third most after Canadian and Chinese.
Due to recent curriculum changes, the education system in Korea is now placing a greater emphasis on English verbal abilities rather than grammatical skills. Universities require all first year students to take an English conversation class in their first year and some universities require students to take conversational English classes throughout the entirety of their university life.[citation needed] According to a 2003 survey conducted by the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, despite being one of the countries in Asia that spends the most money on English-language education, South Korea ranks the lowest among 12 Asian countries in English ability.
Looking at this subjectively, it can be seen as crazy--as if splitting up the family can possibly be worth the lessons learned. Objectively, it is and isn't. Some parents of Korean students don't like the high stress of the system here (especially the amazingly high level of competition for the top few universities in the country); most just want their children to have the opportunities widened, which comes along with the U.S. stamped university degree. And of course, the English speaking abilities.
Studying abroad comes in many forms from Korea--some send their children at young ages for one or two years (US, Canada, Australia mostly); some send them for a year of high school; most are sent for university; and only sometimes does the mother go.
Is this the right thing? Who is to say? A large percentage of the time, the results culminate in the changing of the childrens' belief systems and lack of desire to ever return to Korea. Even so, many grow into very successful, prosperous adults. The cost however, can sometimes be loss of tradition and culture, depression, and even suicide, or broken families.
It's really gotten me thinking about cultural differences--the idea of "home" and sacrificing for the next generation. I don't think I know one person in the western world would see this cost as worth the wavering outcome.
"Oh no. She probably come last year one time," she says, shying away. "Maybe new boyfriend too. They had to have a four day funeral because she couldn't get on right flight."
If further interested, a few things:
http://youtu.be/RS5qQj7UrLU
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=1585a9d19045a34b8d1de6b0794735fb
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