Israel and English

Its been an interesting day in my second day about in Tel Aviv, Israel. Today I had to pick up my visa for the "Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan." According to my Lonely Planet guidebook, it takes a few hours to get a visa at the embassy. It took me less than 30 minutes. Take that bureacracy and guidebooks.

Besides the fantastic weather (70 degrees in Israel vs. 0 degrees in South Korea, you know which one I'm loving), today was a nice walk about the city. Its nice to observe people and their lifestyles here. Like I mentioned in my previous blog, Israelis are a very animated people. Its in their blood.

I had a nice conversation with a taxi driver from Morocco. A Moroccan Jew, this guy and I talked a mouthful about our lives and current situations around the world. His English was very good. See, I can hardly speak a lick of Hebrew, and why should I? I'm not going to live here. Its good to have a phrasebook and practice, but phrasebooks don't have the luxury of teaching you the actual language.

I think its interesting how certain countries speak excellent English and some are really poor at it. I think knowing English has alot of benefits in our world today. Its a lingua franca, or a language that is fairly known throughout a given area.

For example, back in Roman times, people would converse with one another in a tongue coinae Greek. It was a language of exchange and medium of conversation for two people from two different areas of the Empire.

In the Soviet era, a Hungarian and a Lithuanian could conversate in Russian because their native tongues are too different (I'm not condoning the Soviet era). In East Asia, Chinese characters, even though not spoken, were fairly understood between countries like China, Korea, and Japan.

Thinking about my time in Korea and the mission I was given to do (to help improve English conversation), and just getting around Tel Aviv with basic Hebrew, but mostly using English to ask for help, I was wondering how Koreans could really improve their language skills. I heard about 80% of Jews can understand decent English even though its not their first language.

So why not Koreans, especially with the drive to learn it? Not beating a dead horse, I already explained why in my past blogs why its so difficult for them to learn English in a system of education that promotes memorizing facts rather than disseminating them and putting it together. But, being in this country for only a few days I noticed some things about learning a language that this country does not REALLY need to survive, but they learn it anyway:

1. Tourism. Do you want to promote your country? Learn English. Many Europeans know English as well. Many Africans know English. More increasingly, Latinos from Latino America are also studying English. Koreans would do well to help other countries' know about the mighty power of small Korea...and I'm not kidding, Korea is powerful. Even the taxi driver admitted how good Korean cars are.

2. Political situation. Israel is surrounded by Arab nations. I'm not sure how mutually intelligible Arabic is with Hebrew, but it would certainly help to learn English as a medium of communication. Same with Korea, China, and Japan. Learning each other's language and English is a good combination for clear dialog.

3. Learning a foreign language does not threaten a country's culture. I think one underlying "beef" that Korea has with learning English is that it is consuming so much of Korean students' time and effort studying it that it threatens their native culture. You got Konglish, or Korean and English mixed, for example. Also, students don't naturally want to speak it because they get sneered for knowing something above the crowd (group think). There is also an atmosphere of "English is weird." Trust me, its hard to explain. But, I remember one of my teachers in the office using the OMG swear loudly, and everyone was like, "OHHHHHH! He used English." When speaking English in public, sometimes I get stared at for being different.

Here in Israel, its not a big deal to use a language outside their culture. Two girls helped me today when I was lost. It wasn't like, "Oh crap, here's a non-Israeli, what do we do?" In fact, the girl beckoned me when I was lost. That was nice of her. It didn't kill them to use it. They went back to speaking Hebrew after I left. It came natural to them as all Israeli kids learn English in school to a certain degree. You don't have to be perfect. Heck, my Korean is horrible and I even managed to help some Koreans with buses! (My aunt was shocked how much of the bus system I knew, and she has lived in Incheon more than I have)

4. If the language is too hard...work backwards. My biggest teaching philosophy about teaching English during my time in Korea is to use their native langauge and work it into mine. I don't believe in "English Only," anymore. No, I'm not talking about using Korean the whole time. Basically, I would handle communication like I would if I were in a foreign country (and I am living in a foreign country): use the most I could to bridge gaps. Make an effort to get something back. Sometimes, Koreans are so enthused and passionate about learning this language they forget how to introduce it slowly for a student and make it practical. Now, for a teacher who doesn't speak a lick of Korean, the biggest advice I would give is to take it slow and speak slow. For the Israeli's, I doubt there are hardly any similarities between English and Hebrew, or for Arabic in that matter. Its all about communicating backwards.

5. Have fun with it. I always wanted to make sure my students understood it was a way of life, rather than something to be grasped for survival. My friend Jason wisely pointed out as Christians none of our degrees or skills will be valuable before God on judgment day. So, with the situation we are given, like Korean students who pour themselves into self-study over verbs, nouns, expressions, and awkward pronunciations...just have fun with it. You never know who you going to meet.

Back to Israeli time, I'm off to the City of God tomorrow. I'm excited to see the differences between metropolitan Tel Aviv and switch it for the religious and history city of Zion. I will be there for a longer period of five days.

Praise be to God through whom all blessings flow.

Mark