I can get the great score in English test! But I can't speak!

I was always avoiding foreigners when they asked me something in Korea.

I have studied English for a long time under the Korean English Education. As most people know Korea is an EFL (English Foreign Language) country like Japan and China so I and also other students have mostly focused on studying English. Recently, all students, even though some children are under 6 years of age are studying an evitable English subject due to their parents, their future like getting more satisfactory jobs and entering the high level of university even if they are not interested in studying English. However, with this stern reality, I and many students have perceived that the English we have learned is not practical. I am wondering about why do I think about it or why do I think that it is not suitable English teaching and learning method so then I would like to talk about my learning English experiences and some problems in Korean English education system.

When I was a primary school student

, I did not learn English at all, moreover, English was not important in the educational context so I used to study mathematic or Korean language because I did not have a chance to learn English and did not know about English. Most people did not recognize the importance of the English subject at that time.

However when I entered the middle school,

surprisingly English became a very important. It is the reason why I had to study English and also memorize a lot of vocabularies. I took the vocabulary test every English class I began to feel English class was very hard and boring and also was to be burdensome on me. Also, I tried to just solve English questions like multiple choice and grammar translation. I did not have a chance to speak English even though I was in the English class. When my English teacher taught English strictly, we had to read an English textbook and keep silent in the class. English class was constituted mainly of reading, writing or translation. Moreover, the worst case was that there were approximately 50 students in one classroom. At that time, in this class, we were not expected to speak English as we just needed to answer the questions English.

English class in high school

was also as unsatisfactory as the middle school English class. I thought that English class in middle school was maybe a little bit better in terms of the spoken English part or the colloquial English. Although I studied a higher level of English in high school, it was far from communicative English and it was just a method of getting a high mark on from the English test. I had the most important test which was the university entrance test. This test did not assess the student’s speaking English ability and I did not need to be able to speak English well. When I recall my English study, unfortunately I think that I have not learned practical communicative English. I have lamented my poor English when I have had a conversation with a foreigner. Occasionally, I have avoided the foreigners for this reason. So why did I have to study this English and what is the reason why English class focus mainly on English exams. I think the type of English education is reflected in Korean society especially work place. International English exams like TOEIC (Test Of English for International Communication), TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language) has become a standard English evaluation so most of students and also businessmen study these exams for getting jobs and their promotion. Such an unsuitable English situation have root Korean, and it could influence English education. The reason why I criticize about Korean English education strongly is that English can not be speaking English. Of course, there is a different gap between Korean students but I have met many Korean people who regret their English ability because of Korean English classes. Moreover, I sometimes read articles that state many Korean children go to English countries for studying English because many parents could not satisfy the style of Korean English education.

In my experience, when I visited my aunt’s house, I conversed with the aunt’s children about their English classes. They said that they could speak English better than other students. I wanted to know their English ability so I asked them some vocabulary, they did not pronounce the words but spelled the words and meaning for example House- ‘H O U S E’ and ‘집

’ (it is a Korean word and the same meaning). They did not answer like ‘háus’. They regarded the memorization of spelling as the most important skill in terms of learning English. I thought this situation was to be problematic.

Slow change

; recently, many parents have high education so they can recognize which teaching English method is more helpful for their children. Under the serious English education in Korean classes, many students are still just reading the English textbooks and translating English to Korean so it can encourage going abroad for studying English. However, fortunately, this unreal English education has gradually changed little by little to be close to speaking English in elementary school so some English teacher has tried to make more actual speaking English class. In addition, the writer of English textbook also has tried to make more “real life”. Although I did not learn this English education, from now, other children have to learn more useful English so they should not avoid foreigners when some foreigner ask them the way and should say that we can answer the English questions! And also we can speak English!

Postscript-Major Essay

I am going to develop this essay through putting social aspects and global conception. It means that why Korean education taught the poor English to students and now how the global world can effect Korean education.