The "Sleepers"

Hi ya'll. This week has been a fun mess. This week I had to conduct oral English exams for many of the 1st level students that I teach. The goal is to accurately assess their ability to understand and respond to a series of questions in English and give them a proper score. I finished doing the 1st level students this week, and next week is a group of 2nd level students (juniors), whom I have not met or taught. Their scores go into their academic record, which could be useful when their teachers want to know their ability when it comes to English.

One of the most shocking aspects of this exam was the fact that I got to meet many "sleepers," or students whom I teach but had no clue that their English fluency was beyond what they look like. For example, there was one student from class 1-13, who always looks clueless and seems never to care what I say, reveals to me that he lived in New Zealand for 4 years and our 'oral test' turns into just a long conversation about his life in Kiwi-Land. What made me laugh about this cat was he had a New Zealand accent. It was awesome.

Other students throughout the examinations included boys who lived abroad, or at least had a grand aptitude towards language learning. Doing the exam with them was easy and fun because I did not give them the usual questions like "where are you from," but to even more interesting questions like "what do you think is wrong with the Korean education system." Some kids gave me some thoughtful answers and insights on how they perceive education in Korea. Having conversations with these kids was actually like talking to Westerners, because the level was so high. I was shocked.

Another surprising element of these tests was that the kids from class 1-13, who are notoriously ill-behaved kids (but not malciously), produced some of the best English speakers. But most of the time, these kids are always yakking in my class without a care in the world, and the reason is because of their teacher Ms. Lee, the young one. She's an awesome teacher, but she's so young so the kids think of her as their friend. And then there's me, I'm young, so these kids don't give a hoot about us because they think we can pal with them. But the crop of English-speaking peoples from this crew was amazing, and I actually lectured each one of them about the fact that they need to start performing better in class and stop misbehaving.

Unfortunately, the reason I never knew about these "sleepers" was because of the Korean classroom system, which many native English teachers and Korean teachers alike acknowledge is not adequate for language learning. Each Korean classroom at all levels has an average of 40 kids. In a college-like classroom setup, the teacher can only lecture and hope that the students absorb the information.

However, when it comes to foreign languages, a classroom setup like this is bound to fail. No one, especially the kids who do have experience and have a high level, can get individual attention or at least even feel comfortable to try because they will get teased for trying. And in this country where everyone has the same characteristics and uniforms, teasing is a major problem in the classroom. The most futile thing to do at times in a classroom size like this is to ask: "What do you think?" Teachers never ask their students what they think about a certain topic, there is no mutual learning.

With foreign languages, a students must apply what they learned readily or the material goes to waste. Unlike subjects such as history, math, and science, which can memorized and analyzed, language learning is a "trial and error" process. Take it from me, whom I have learned four languages in my lifetime (English, Spanish, Russian, and now Korean). Languages takes time, effort, joy, and depression. You must break through barriers, which means now and then you have to suck up your pride when a person corrects your speech or grammar. That's why I have a passion for languages, because I get joy when I can communicate with someone outside my culture and when I can break into a new level of communication via new grammar points, vocabulary, and sentence build-up.

But in Korea, people have this concept of "face," which I believe is a major barrier to language learning. "Face," or "kibbun" in Korean, is the concept of maintaining your dignity and integrity in front of your peers and other peoples. For example, a student must not ever outshine his teacher if he or she knows more than the teacher does when it comes to knowledge. Or, if I intricately correct an older teacher's pronunciation of English, I made him lose "face" in front of others because I, the young man, made him seem dumb in front of his peers. Its an unwritten code that is still followed by many Koreans in this society. The examples are endless.

So from this tangent, I come back to the Korean classroom. Any student who does speak out in class, especially in foreign language class and outshines his peers makes them lose face, and he also loses face for not conforming to the pack. I'm not necessarily saying that Koreans are pack-oriented, but they do have an emphasis on group unity. Kids who do speak good sentences, answer my questions, and do well get my approval, but then the other kids turn around and say, "ooooooooooooooooooohhh, he spoke good English, FREE TALKING!"

My point is that a Korean classroom setup is not well designed to cultivate language learners. Many kids are filled with grammar points, vocabulary words (some words that are even SAT Level), and sentence structure, but they cannot built a sentence on their own! So, as I did these oral exams this week, I felt joy and frustration for these students: it was awesome that I got meet and practice some higher level conversation with some talented students, but frustrated that they spend their days in a monotonous classroom regime that does not allow them to try to expand on their knowledge and experience.

Even as I learn Korean now, its humbling when your Korean friend or relative can make out what you say or understand you, but I look back in hindsight and really see it as growth. For me, its a problem because pride is such a big issue for me. But, the more humbler I get as God helps on that path, the easier I can learn anything in life. I am proud that after 2 years of learning this language, that I did learn so much, and even though I am not my goal of decent fluency in my mother tongue, I realize what I need to improve: which is a humble heart, no self-pressure (which I mistakenly did my first few months in South Korea), and diligence. I will learn this language.

As for my students, I liked how one student, Min-hwan from class 1-15, one of my fave students, talked about how in his middle school they had a "free talking club." All students who had lived abroad gathered at lunch time and they spoke only in English, no Korean. Its initiatives like this, and like my English Club at my school, that make it more joyful to work with these kids and improve their skills.

"With God, all things are possible..."