In Korea, English-language education begins even before children are born: one online service for prenatal English education has gathered more than 50,000 subscribers over the last two years. English children's book collections priced at more than W100,000 (US$1=W931) are selling like hot cakes, and there are more than 20 companies marketing them.

First-graders sit in an English class run by the Seocho-gu District Office in Seoul.

Chung, who lives in the satellite town of Bundang in Gyeonggi Province, sends her 24-month-old daughter to an English-language playschool that costs W750,000 a month. "Even public kindergartens, which are not allowed to teach English by regulations, offer English classes due to strong demands from mothers,” she says. “I won’t send my children to private institutes for arts and physical education unless they have programs taught by native English speakers."

Some Korean mothers just take their preschoolers to the U.S. and enroll them in kindergarten there. Kang Chae-sook (34) stayed in the U.S. for two months with her child last year to do just that. Now, about a dozen parents who heard about this asked to go there together with Kang this summer. "Parents are paying together to go to America. It costs W14 million per month via a broker."

Koreans spend huge amounts of money on private English-language education. The Samsung Economic Research Institute estimates the amount at an annual average of W15 trillion, three times more than in Japan. And that does not include the money spent on overseas education. The number of schoolchildren who head overseas for study has risen by 40,000 over the last five years, from 150,000 in 2001 to 190,000 in 2006. Between 2004 and 2005, Koreans took up 19 percent of the number of total applicants for the TOEFL, and more than W700 billion are spent on TOEFL and TOEIC tests.

Students throng an English language learning district in Jongro, Seoul.

But experts say the results are doubtful. According to a report released in 2003 by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy in Hong Kong, which provides information on the management environment in East Asia, Korea ranked the lowest among 12 Asian countries when it comes to communication in English. From 2004 to 2005, the TOEFL scores of Korean applicants ranked 93rd among 147 nations. And last September, when a speaking section replaced the grammar component in the TOEFL exams, Korea’s rank dropped to 111th. In the speaking section, Korea ranked almost rock bottom, at 134th.

This is mainly because there are few places where children can use the language outside the classroom, even if the emphasis is placed on conversation. Koreans learn English from elementary school through university as well as in private institutes, for more than five hours a week. In Denmark and Sweden, by contrast, where more than 70 percent of people can communicate in English without much difficulty, English classes at school take up less than three hours a week. If Koreans lag behind, it is because English is rarely used in everyday life. "It’s a problem that Koreans see English as a subject for study, without having an opportunity to learn practical usage,” Prof. Han Hak-sung of Kyung Hee University says. Experts say it is crucial to secure teachers who can teach in English." The Ministry of Education and Human Resources plans to carry out intensive training courses for 1,000 teacher from this year. The ministry also plans to evaluate English essay-writing and interview skills in administering the national test for would-be English teachers from 2009.

But the ministry's plan is full of holes. Schools look for Korean-American teachers who lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years to teach English, but there aren't many applicants for the job because the ministry's scheme has not been widely promoted in the Korean communities in the U.S. Lack of a terrestrial TV network which gives the public easy access to an English-language service isn't helpful, either, experts added.

(englishnews@chosun.com )