Twisty-turny story

Kim Eun-jung Thu May 29 2008, 05:00

Written by Jung Ji-Eun, Kim Sun-Young, Son Mi-Jin, Hwang Yun-Kyoung, Joo Un-Jin, Kim Ji-Young

Hi! It's the year 2015. I'm a Korean student and I have just graduated from high school. I really have to say that I feel very proud of and confident in my English proficiency! I'm not a special student. I'm average. But almost all "average" students in Korea these days like English and can use it well. That's because English education in Korea public schools is very different now compared to 10 years ago...

First, no one speaks Korean in the classroom. Of course, teacher speaks only English and teaches English through English. And students are allowed to speak only English in the classroom. When this system started at first, lots of students complained about this. They told they couldn't understand and felt frustrated in the class. But teachers never gave up. They were always kind to us when we had questions and helped us so much! As time went by, We could adapt to this situation and gradually we felt comfortable using only English. It is a fantastic change, I think.

Another interesting change in English education is that each one of us has our own recorded files of our production. It is so called "conversation Box." It is also the name of special online chatting program.

In addition, in my school, there are some special supporting groups which help the students who have trouble using English. The groups provide students in trouble with some extra English classes. Of course, according to their proficiency, they can choose the class and also they are given some chances to talk about their language learning problems. They also have mento-mentee system, in which a fluent student helps a student who is not good at speaking the target language.

Nowadays, we use internet a lot when we study English. Many teachers run their own internet forum and they use it very well. We upload our essays and give feedback to each other. On the uploaded video news, we summarize it and write our opinion and prediction. We do a lot of writing and talking in the class but it seems like online forum is more popular. I think it's because we are accustomed to using internet when we communicate.

Nowadays, we have so many native speakers in my school. In the past, there used to be 1 or 2 native teachers. But now we have over 5 in a school. In addition to language skills, we learn culture from them. Actually Korean teachers teaching English are fluent in speaking English, but we can learn subtle nuance of words, cultural difference and other things from native speakers. It is so interesting to discuss the politics and economy with native speakers, too.

Also, we have English debate classes. In those classes, we learn how to express our opinions logically and persuade others to agree with mine. We can learn many useful strategies to get others' attention and their agreement, so I believe these classes are very helpful to me when I get myself ready and prepared for my future dream, which is to work for UN or be an international lawyer.