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Overseas English training for school kids


KIM Seok-hyeon.   first upoaded: 2020-03-05.   last updated: 2020-12-31. 


A recent Korean newspaper article introduced an episode that some school kids who never skipped regular class hours seem to be made fun of by classmates because of their lack of overseas experiences, which result in their all-the-time presence in class. Full attendances at class used to be highly valued and so encouraged to do so. But now the episode says that the lack of overseas experiences and consequent full presences at class may be regarded as a symbol of poverty. This may reflect a dark side of Korea where any poverty-stricken signs can be stigma among school kids: for example, not living in spacious apartments with amenities (in Korea, apartments are regarded as a desirable norm of residence), lacking clothes of well-known brands, and so on.

Poverty is a relative concept and so it is hard to get rid of poverty in any means. But there are some ways to alleviate stresses from poverty or to level the ground for some aspects. Indeed, schooling itself is such a social institution to do that. Providing universal education for all is supposed to minimize the learning gap due to the variation of family incomes. But schooling may be another ground for discrimination or stigmatization because school keeps together all the kids from families of different incomes as seen in the aforementioned episode. So school has always faced this dialectic puzzle and has tried to get through it. For example, schools have tended to dispose of any individual expenses not only for tuition but also for additional preparations. And schools have extended their services to inexpensive or free lessons on customized hobbies or exercises which otherwise may be burdens on poor families and lack of which may leave behind their kids in cultural capital. For example, there are some schools that provide horse riding for their students, not only in Korea but elsewhere. Horse-riding may be a high-class sport, so most people may not have such a chance if the school does not provide it. Once kids happen to have a chance to access to high class activities, then it will help equip them with cultural capital.

Returning to the aforementioned episode, then why not import overseas experiences into school programs? A short-term overseas English study can be a double edged sword for Korean kids. English is a heavy burden on Koreans. Because of test-biased English education, in spite of many years of English education in school, Koreans tend to be scared at the situation of English communication. So they tend to spend a lot on English learning not only during but also after schooling. And there are gaps in English familiarity because while middle and upper class families may have more overseas experiences or letting native English speakers tutor their kids, common kids do not have such chances and so take English as a difficult study not as a casual experience. In order to overcome such gaps, they may begin with a limited number of kids who are unlikely to get overseas or casual English communication experiences otherwise. Kids from rural areas may be a priority because people in rural areas may have less chances in overseas travels and English communication. As the people appreciate the programs, tax-payers are willing to take the expenses, and overseas institutions and accommodation facilities are organized, then the programs can be extended to the whole students.

The followings are data relevant to overseas travels of Koreans. The Statistics Korea, as the government's statistical administration, surveys overseas travel expenses, as part of social life, biannually from 2009 to 2019. Koreans who have overseas travel experiences were just 13.6 percent ten years ago but have more than doubled to 30.6 percent (Figure 1). But there are income and regional disparities. Households of monthly income higher than four million Korean wons (a little less than four thousand US dollars) have more than 30 percent in positive reporting rates, with highest 51.9 percent at the highest income slot of six thousand Korean wons (Figure 1). And understandably, households of lower incomes have lower response rates than the national average. In particular, households with incomes less than 200 Korean wons have just response rates around 10's in percent. This statistics may shed light on the background aforementioned episode.

Figure 1. Overseas experiences by monthly household income Rate of reporting overseas experiences by household income Sources: The Statistics Korea, Social Survey, KOSIS.

In a regional perspective, people in many metropolitan areas have reached more than 30 percent response rates while those in provinces just 20s in percent (Table 1). In particular, Seoul, the capital city, has an outstanding high rate of 36.8 percent only second to Sejong metro's 38.1 percent. Sejong's size is still small but it is designed as a government administration capital and so culturally very much like Seoul. Even some metro areas surrounded by neighboring provinces have similar rates with each other. On the other hand, although Kyung-gi is officially a province, because it surrounds and shares with Seoul many metropolitan aspects, Kyung-gi has the third high response rate such as 33.9 percent.

Table 1. Overseas experiences by region Rate of reporting overseas experiences by region Sources: The Statistics Korea, Social Survey, KOSIS.


(*) This article is published in intelligence korea, Summer and Winter, 2020. The Korean version is available at intelligencekor.kr/periodical/article.html?bno=12.