When we were in Las Vegas we happened to see a family from South Korea playing in the pool, and I decided to say hello. The family had a boy of around five years of age, and I was immediately impressed with how good his English was: he was able to answer a few of my questions and even make a joke, saying his family was from North Korea, which got his father quite flustered. The boy knew English because he’d been studying ESL, but I was amazed all the the same. Japanese children study ESL, too, often from a very young age, but something about Japan — its conservative and xenophobic island-nation mind-set, perhaps — keeps most students from actually, you know, learning the language. What was South Korea doing differently that enabled children to actually interact using English? Japan should study what programs its Asian neighbors are getting results with and make changes to its curriculum, although as long as I’m wishing, I could also use a pony.
What are the South Koreans doing to learn English that Japan isn’t?
