Spending on overseas training has risen by 30 to 40 percent on average, every year since 2002, when the Korean economy began recovering from the crisis. But the upward trend slowed for the first time, hovering at 16.3 percent during the first half of 2007. The rate then turned downward in the first half of this year.

The falling figures are due primarily to worsening financial conditions, including a weaker local currency and a slowing economy, although some attribute this phenomenon to Koreans' reduced preference for overseas studying and language training.

An official with Woori Bank's Overseas Study Center said, "Parents are finding their children's overseas study bear increasingly heavy financial burdens, due to the weakening won against the Canadian dollar last year and against the U.S. dollar in the first half of this year. Amid the worsening economic environment, some students are returning home early before finishing their study programs."

Some people cite a structural reason for this phenomenon, including a passing peak in overseas education at an early age. Yang Jae-ryong, chief of the BOK's balance of international payments statistics team, said, "It seems parents are less inclined to school their children overseas, hoping the domestic English education system to be galvanized. They've realized it's difficult to care for their children if they’re overseas."

The owner of an overseas study agency in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, said, "It seems parents have lower expectations about educating their children overseas or from an earlier age than before as they learn more about the situation. Maybe because of the slowing economy, we handled about two-thirds of the annual average number of applications for counseling on overseas study programs this summer."

(englishnews@chosun.com )