Koreans have a strange and tortured relationship with the English language. Many of them feel inferior and inadequate for not speaking it well. They desperately want to learn it and they spend inordinate amounts of time and energy to that end. They judge each other on how well they speak English but none are taught it very well in school.
As a nation, Koreans spend billions of dollars and millions of man hours trying to master the English language but so few ever really get good at it. Why?
For one, Korean is just so different from the English language. Try to imagine a language where the grammar is so different that all the sentences seem like they are in completely reverse order. In Korean, the “to be” verb is at the end of the sentence. As a result, Koreans structure their thinking and logic very differently from English speakers and they end up having enormous difficulty deciphering even slightly complex sentences in the English language.
For Koreans, English sounds are very alien. This is difficult for me to say but the Korean accent has its own uniquely “fobby” sound and Koreans are self-conscious of this fact. What’s more, even with a lot of strenuous effort, many Koreans cannot fully shake their accent.
For Koreans, it takes PhD-like, herculean efforts to master the English language. Even after years of intense study, many are still not good at it.
Korea (and Japan) are the only countries in the world where the intelligentsia cannot speak English well. You’ll never hear the President of Korea speaking English- because he can’t.
The educated classes in many other countries know English either due to the legacy of colonialism (e.g., India, the Phillippines) or due to their own language’s proximity to English (e.g., all the Indo-European languages).
The perception in Korea is that Koreans must learn English in order to survive in the global economy. How true is this?
There is merit to this sentiment since the global economy is obviously dominated by the use of English. However, Koreans might want to remember that South Korea is the 13th largest economy in the world today, an accomplishment they achieved without ever learning to speak English very well.
Also, 98% of Koreans will live out their entire lives on the Korean peninsula where Korean is spoken 98% of the time. Given this, is English really THAT necessary to the average Korean? It’s certainly not worth all the stress and anxiety that they put themselves through.
Lurking underneath this intense drive to learn English is still an underlying nationalistic resentment for having to learn English at all. When I taught English at a language institute in Korea in the early 1990s, I always had one or two students who I could tell would never learn English well because they were so culturally rigid and narrow-minded. Their resentment at having to learn this alien language was palpable.
Koreans learn English by rote and not as the breathing, living language that it is. They learn the grammar and memorize words, resulting in a lot of people who can read and maybe write basic English, but can’t speak or really understand it.
Besides getting the Korean government to reform the way English is taught in Korea, I would tell Koreans who want to learn English to keep in mind and do the following:
1) Language is intimately intertwined with culture. It reflects the values, customs and sentiments of a people. If you really want to learn English, make friends with native English speakers and engage them in conversation. If you have the opportunity, live in America for a while and don’t hang around other Koreans when you’re there. Be prepared for a lot of culture shock and living with a lot of “cultural and linguistic ambiguity.”
2) Language is also functional. Think of the ways and context in which you will use English and tailor your language learning around those things first. For example, if you plan to become a nurse or something in the U.S. learn the English you’ll need to do that (e.g., medical terms, conversing with patients) and tailor your English learning around that first.
3) Know the animal you’re up against. You will have to expend A LOT more energy and effort than a European person learning English or if you were learning Japanese, which has a grammar structure similar to Korean.
4) Be ready to swallow your pride big time. You have to have thick skin when you learn a language because you will make many mistakes and embarrass yourself. Lots of Koreans are unwilling to let go of their egos and then they never get better at English.
5) Don’t make language learning so loaded. Keep a healthy sense of self and perspective on this. Americans who learn Korean should theoretically have as many difficulties as Koreans who learn English but they don’t because there isn’t as much at stake for them, economically or psychologically.
Geopolitical realities that favor Americans aren’t going to change anytime soon but in the meantime, you can maintain a healthy and reasonable sense of Korean pride and identity while you’re learning English. It will make the process of learning English easier and you might even learn it faster.
