1. The Internet.  There are online English courses, online advice and lessons in English, video and audio in English (Youtube, radio stations, mp3’s, podcasts), explanations (dictionaries, thesaurus, wikipedia), social networking websites (facebook, twitter) and much more!
2. Movies & Music.  Check out your local video store and see if there are movies in English.  As mentioned above, you can also get probably a lot off the Internet.
3. Read titles in English.  Use your library to see if there are titles in English, if you can, obtain ebooks and pdfs of books online or at book websites, and find as many books as you can that interest you in English.
4. Read out loud.  Take the reading one step further and actually read out loud.  Practice the sounds of the words that you read silently.  One of the reasons why we trip up so often when speaking is because we never use the words out loud.  It’s like exercising.  You need to run a few kilometers so that when you finally do have to run a long distance, you don’t want to die.
5. Take it a step even further.  Record yourself when you speak English. After you are finished recording, play it back and see what you sound like. If you are not clear, then you can simply try again. This is a great way to see how others hear you.
6. Try to surround yourself with as many English materials as possible. Not just books, movies, and CDs, but magazines and any products that you can find in the store that may have English written on them. Some major brands service many countries and have multiple languages written on their packaging.  Food, machines, even online gaming!
7. Practice with a friend(s).  Two brains are better than one.  The more, the better.  Do the activities above like reading out loud or recording yourselves or watching the movies together and quiz each other.  Busan Nat’l University and Pukyeong University have English only cafes.
8. If you hear a word and you don’t know what it is, write it down and do research on what it means. In your research you’ll encounter many more English words for you to ponder over.
9. Keep a diary in English. The things you write can be as simple as what day it is and what the weather is like outside.  Since we have the Internet, you can blog or keep track ofthoughts in English online.
10. Listen to English radio.  befm.or.kr is the website for a local station in Busan.  It’s at 90.5 FM, if you get a chance to listen to it.
11. Socialize in English.  Make friends who’s native language is English.  They need your help in navigating around Korea.  You need their help in learning English.  Exchange your languages.  Many Koreans I run into who are decent at English tell me their best form of learning English was through social activity with foreigner friends.  Where do you find them?   Clubs, bars, chamber of commerce, online (facebook, skype), and sometimes at your university.
12. Take notes vigorously.  If you can believe it, taking notes of programs like the news, other audio or video can really reinforce your ability to learn the language you are focusing on.
13. Travel & live in English environments.  Of course, living in an English speaking country would tremendously help, but even a little travel in those countries can do wonders.  Putting yourself in the English environment will significantly help your English learning.
14. Take responsibility in learning the language.  You will NOT learn if you do not want to.  You will also NOT learn if you do not diligently study and consistently practice what you are trying to learn.  Plan out your learnings and keep track of all your learnings and what you want to learn.  Write down words on your cell phone or PDA’s and don’t forget to look them up and practice them.  Write many sentences with new words you are learning and see if someone else will check it for you.
15. Sing songs in English.  Sing more titles at the Karoke rooms in English.  Memorize lines from movies and t.v. shows in English.  Language is about patterns and the more you memorize, the more patterns will stick in your head.
16. Debate in English.  A good argument can really get the blood pumping and sometimes can help you speak a language more passionately because at least you’re very interested in the topic that may be in dispute.
17. Join an English learning club.  I know there’s a few of them in Busan.  Many English club members motivate one another to constantly improve.
18. Volunteer to help in English.  There are many organizations who need volunteers, but sometimes they don’t have enough people to support them.  Look for organizations that may need help and need you to speak and use English in order to help them.  It will help you do something you wanted to do initially, but also help you practice your English skills.
19. Join a religious organization that has many people who speak English.  Churches are great places where people believe the same thing, but sometimes speak different languages.
20. Toastmasters.  A club that practices speaking does it in English.  Not only can you help yourself get more confident speaking in public, but you can also force yourself to also practice the language you might not feel good about either.  If you don’t want to join the official club, you can create your own and do basically what was identified in the aforementioned, but on a smaller scale.

Great articles & websites on learning a language online:

20+ Ways to Learn a Language Online

Learn English by the British Council

English newspapers in Korea
JoongAng Daily
Korea Herald
Korea Times

English radio stations in Korea
Busan eFM
Arirang

In 1995, Kim Dae-kyun began teaching English reading classes in Shillim-dong in southern Seoul to earn money for studying abroad.

His decision to temporarily dabble in English education however, changed his life, and he is now regarded as one of the top TOEIC instructors in Korea.

“Since the introduction in 2006 of New TOEIC, questions have become more difficult, so students should arm themselves with real competence to get a high score,” Kim said.

Korea is the biggest TOEIC market in the world. Thousands of private English education institutes offer a variety of TOEIC courses, and publishers are churning out all sorts of reference titles each year.

The popularity of TOEIC, or the Test of English for International Communication, is a result of most Korean companies putting a high emphasis on TOEIC scores when hiring employees.

Kim, who earned a master’s degree at Korea University, said there is no alternative yet for TOEIC when it comes to the standardized English proficiency test for general purposes.

Although the Korean government is currently preparing to launch a new national English test system, existing tests such as TOEIC are expected to maintain a significant share in the local market.

Kim said college students, who have to deal with TOEIC to get a job, should think constructively about the test.

“Instead of focusing on scores, students should make efforts to find ways to use the expressions they learn from TOEIC,” Kim said.

TOEIC is largely composed of two sections: listening and reading. When preparing for the exam, Kim said students should bear in mind that what they encounter in listening can be used for speaking in real situations, and the same can be said about the reading section in relation to writing.

“Those who have not secured a solid foundation cannot get a satisfactory result even when they go abroad to learn English,” Kim said. “Even when students go abroad for language courses, they should work hard to strengthen their competence in Korea.”

Kim, who is teaching at the YBM e4u Language Institute in Jongno, downtown Seoul, said that test takers should start with one TOEIC reference book and a vocabulary practice title tailored for TOEIC.

“I recommend going through the basic reference book several times and taking the actual exam whenever possible,” Kim said, adding that those in the beginner’s level have to get a feel for the test before advancing to a higher level.

Students whose scores are in the intermediate level are advised to form a study group.

“These days, a lot of students organize study groups to share information and encourage each other to study harder. And a growing number of private English institutes are helping students get study partners,” Kim said.

Dictation is also effective for improving listening skills for TOEIC and other purposes, Kim said. Since dictating a long passage is time-consuming, he recommended students dictate short sample sentences in TOEIC Part I and II for about 10 minutes a day.

Kim also encouraged students at an advanced level, or those who get more than 900 out of 990, to use an English-English dictionary.

“There are questions asking for subtle nuances of usage, which can be very confusing. Many students are baffled about the difference between ‘for’ and ‘during’ or between ‘assure’ and ‘ensure.’

“To learn how these words are used in a real context, students should refer to English-English dictionaries,” Kim said.

In addition to English-English dictionaries, Kim said Korean students should strike a balance by reviewing reference titles related to grammar and usage, such as “Grammar in Use” and “Practical English Usage.”

Kim, who is hosting a daily TOEIC program on EBS radio and teaching nine hours a day, still squeezes the TOEC test into his schedule each month to offer up-to-date information about the test.

“Memorizing questions from the past TOEIC tests is now ineffective because the test organizers changed their format in favor of totally new questions. Therefore, it’s important for students to analyze why they have missed particular questions, while trying to improve their overall English competence,” Kim said.

By Yang Sung-jin

(insight@heraldm.com)

2009.04.30

Korean learners and educators prefer American English, including its accent and idiomatic expressions. The evidence: Korean textbooks on the subject are mostly if not entirely based on American English.

Lee Chan-seung, CEO of NeungYule Education, said such dependence on the single variation of English is passι, as other countries are increasingly adopting a policy in favor of what is called “World English.”

The idea behind World English is the use of English as a lingua franca. English, after all, is widely used outside of United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and other English-speaking countries.

“The fundamental issue is that Korea is stuck with the past practices while global English education paradigm is fast shifting from English as a foreign language to English as an international language,” Lee said.

Lee, a famous author of English reference titles and head of a major publishing company specializing in English education, said Korean policymakers should reconfigure the current standards in favor of English as a global language.

“Korean students tend to think they are not good at English, particularly concerning accent, largely because they aim to pick up American English,” Lee said. “Although an American accent is natural and effective in the United States, it does not play well in Asia, where people have drastically different accent patterns.”

Idiomatic expressions affiliated with regional or national culture should be removed from the formal curriculum, Lee said. Once idioms and slang words are excluded, students might be able to learn English at a faster pace because the amount of work is reduced dramatically.

“We don’t have to learn a very difficult expression or usage. Why should we use the ‘it is’ pattern for describing weather when we can simply say that ‘the weather is fine’? And culture-specific expressions are not essential, either,” Lee said.

Lee travels extensively throughout the world, participating in major academic conferences related to English education. His impression is that a growing number of countries are adopting a set of policies toward English as a global language, which have proven more practical and effective.

“We don’t have to apply the American standard to our English education. Instead, we should respect regional varieties of English, including the Korean variety of English, under the broader concept of World English,” Lee said.

The concept of a native speaker of English is misleading, as well, Lee said. Given that English goes beyond regional and cultural barriers, “fluent speakers” should replace “native speakers.” Instead of using nationality as a standard for measuring the competence of English, how fluently one speaks the language should be a new yardstick, Lee said.

Lee also brushed aside concerns about decreased intelligibility due to the increasing varieties of English throughout the world.

“Intelligibility will be maintained because central forces – English used at the U.N., schools and TV programs – keep regional varieties from getting out of control,” he said.

The reality is that Korean education policymakers are reluctant to change the current system. Lee suggested that at least textbooks should be revised in a way that reflects the trend.

“We should include British, Australian and Indian varieties of English in school textbooks, perhaps one chapter for each country,” Lee said.

“What’s important is whether we can train our students to obtain multilingual competence, and what I mean is that Korean speakers of English should be able to understand Indian English and Chinese English,” Lee said.

Lee’s underlying argument is that Korea puts much emphasis on accuracy in learning English at the cost of undercutting intelligibility. One way to fix the problem is that fluent bilingual speakers instead of native speakers should become a new model for Korean students, he said.

When it comes to strategies for Korean learners of English, Lee said content and language learning should go hand in hand.

“The amount of exposure to English is very small for most Korean learners, so it’s almost impossible to gain competence if we separate what we do in the workplace and what we learn,” Lee said.

For instance, a Korean worker interested in business management should read a foreign MBA journal or related business magazine to get the latest information about the field in question. Such content-based approach will naturally lead to a higher proficiency in the target language, Lee said.

“What we really need is not those who are fluent in English only, but those who specialize in specific content while being able to speak English,” Lee said.

By Yang Sung-jin

(insight@heraldm.com)

2009.05.14

English education in Korea is a huge industry. Hundreds, if not thousands, of English study books are being published every year and a growing number of parents are sending their kids to English-only kindergartens.

But the majority of Korean learners struggle, something often attributed to the methods they use and ineffective education policies.

Benjamin Kalt, professor of TESOL Graduate School at Dankook University, says that Korea’s English education system is “broken” and parties involved should admit that there are problems to be fixed.

Kalt, who earned a master’s degree in TESOL at Columbia University, encourages Korean learners to seek more effective strategies in a departure from the traditional concept of “No pain, no gain.”

Kalt also shares his perspective on other related topics such as age factor in learning a new language, online materials, accent training and standardized English tests.

The following is an excerpt of an email interview.

Korea Herald: In your perspective, what are the most pressing issues or problems for Korea’s English education?

Kalt: No country in the world spends more time, energy or money on English education than Korea. Total 2008 spending was near 15 trillion won ($ 12 billion) and yet Korea ranked 19th out of 20 countries on the IELTS and 136th out of 161 nations on the TOEFL speaking section.

The country’s English education system is broken. Despite the numbers, many students, parents, and teachers still truly believe in the system or believe only minor changes are called for. They hear stories of Koreans habitually studying English to exhaustion and getting accepted to Harvard or Yale and believe all that is needed is more hard work and more hours at “elite” academies when what is needed is much more fundamental change.

The biggest problem is denying there is a problem. Until government, teachers, parents and students can dispassionately reflect, respect one another and admit there are problems and decide to work together to address them, parents will continue to spend, students will continue to suffer psychologically and test scores will not go up.

KH: What steps or methods do you recommend for Korean students to improve their English proficiency?

Kalt: The difference between good language learners and bad language learners is not IQ or a special language ability but “love of learning” and study methods. Many students sincerely believe that English is extremely difficult so they dutifully accept the pain and tedium of memorization and “study” as a simple fact of life, almost like paying penance. The pain is unnecessary and much of the time is wasted.

I recommend students follow their own interests and try to enjoy themselves. Watch English-language movies, TV shows, read Harry Potter or children’s books, read online fashion, sports, celebrity magazines, listen to music, Google “funny commercials” or “fun English” and just start looking around at any English language sites that interest you.

Once you’ve found things you like, do them regularly, create goals based on what you do and write them on a calendar, and track your progress, repeat words and phrases you hear, pay close attention to context and try to understand the main idea not the details and most importantly relax and have fun.

Many students may feel this is more like playing than studying but it is actually a more effective way to study. Be patient and in a few months you will see real improvement. “No pain, no gain” needs to be replaced with “work smarter, not harder.”

KH: What should Korean parents know when it comes to bilingual education for their kids?

Kalt: My advice to parents is to do your research. Talk to parents, talk to kids (in English if you can, if they answer you in English that is a great sign) and see if they enjoy learning and then observe actual classes and look for student-teacher interaction and active, spontaneously speaking students as opposed to diligent students doing written work.

The clearest advantage of starting young is native-like pronunciation, so kindergartens that focus on speaking skills give you more bang for your buck. All-English kindergartens also have a major social and psychological impact on children. I recommend having a mature discussion before sending your child to an all-English kindergarten explaining why they are being thrown into an English environment.

KH: What is the latest trend or research on the limitation set by age in learning a foreign language, and what’s your advice for adult learners?

Kalt: Most research shows that language learning abilities gradually decline over time, but, more importantly, studies also show that it is possible to learn a language at almost any age if you have time, motivation and study appropriately.

I am an adult learner trying to learn Korean right now and I read Korean-language Aesop fables and any story books I can find that are at my level. I have found, for improving proficiency, reading many easy books is much more effective than reading a few difficult books.

KH: Korean learners often struggle with their accent. What should be done to improve their accent and pronunciation?

Kalt: Many Korean learners feel that a good accent is a talent that some people are born with and others are not. This is not only discouraging for many but also largely inaccurate. Pronunciation of individual sounds is relatively amenable to instruction, stress and intonation are more difficult but can be dramatically improved as well, but you need teachers with “good” accents and teaching know-how.

Disillusioned Korean adults who believe they will always have a bad accent might be happy to learn that, globally, outsourcing of corporate call centers, especially to India, has spawned an “accent reduction” industry that has proven quite effective in reducing or eliminating heavy Indian adults’ accents in order to communicate with North American customers. Basically, with focused study anyone can improve their accent.

KH: What is an effective strategy to take full advantage of English newspaper, magazine and other media materials for learning English?

Kalt: Quickly reading an article from start to finish has minimal effect on learning. The most important thing when reading is to read actively, reading with a pen is a good start.

First, you have to find articles that are of particular interest to you and not too difficult for your proficiency level. Then pause frequently in your reading and summarize what you’ve read in your own words, try to guess the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary from the context, write reflective or analytical questions in the margins, circle new words, phrases and expressions and repeat them to yourself and keep a notebook of all the sentences (not just the individual words or phrases) that contain something you want to remember.

If you can’t figure something out, Google it in English and keep searching until you understand and then write it in your notebook. Review your notebook regularly and try to integrate what you’ve learned into your actual speech.

KH: What are the most memorable episodes in your teaching experience in Korea that you want to share with our readers?

Kalt: I once tutored a 17-year-old high school student hoping to study at a North American university. He talked regularly of his visits with his psychiatrist to treat depression.

He had spent four years in New Zealand without his family and was badly traumatized by the experience and still struggling to speak English fluently. He also told me that if he was not a millionaire by age 30 he would kill himself. As a teacher trainer, his case is a constant reminder to me that what we do as parents and teachers has a profound impact on young peoples’ lives and that there are things that are more important than English language proficiency and material wealth.

Prof. Benjamin Kalt can be reached at bek2109@columbia.edu.

By Yang Sung-jin

(insight@heraldm.com)

2009.05.28

Lee Keun-chull does not believe in perfection when it comes to learning English. After all, trying to obtain a high level of English proficiency in every field is not only impossible, but fatally discouraging.

“The most important thing is to have a purpose-based approach,” Lee said. “If I want to sell clothes at Dongdaemun market, I will focus on certain expressions, and if I want to become a reporter for an English newspaper, I will focus on writing.”

Lee said the frustrations facing Korean learners stem from their misguided desire to “master” general-purpose English proficiency, an aim that is unobtainable and, just as importantly, impractical.

Lee has gained a reputation as a celebrated English teacher here, thanks especially to his job as the host of Good Morning Pops, a long-running English learning program on state-run KBS. He has also published a dozen books including “Try Again,” a blockbuster hit that sold more than 500,000 copies here.

For all his success, Lee stressed that his English proficiency works in only select fields and he never attempts to do what he cannot. For instance, he does not believe he has an edge in interpretation from Korean to English, compared with others who have lived for many years in English speaking countries.

Many Korean learners of English despair about their lack of experience in those countries, but Lee said that such a negative attitude will not help.

“Even Korean speakers find it very difficult to host a party or conduct a business meeting in professional Korean, which means those who have foreign experiences tend to be poor in the Korean language,” Lee said. “We don’t have to be perfect in every field, and things get tough when we get trapped in an obsession, which is also true for learning English.”

Lee, otherwise known as “Jake” among his foreign friends, recently published “How to Revive Your Dead English,” an everyday expression title, together with Park Soo-hong, a comedian and radio show host. The new book is part of Lee’s efforts to help Korean learners implement self-study programs based on a daily schedule.

“This book is centered on a concept that one useful English pattern, if properly learned, can pave the way for other practical expressions in everyday conversations,” Lee said. From the wake-up call to bed time, essential English sentence patterns such as “Time to get up” are presented along with comic illustrations so that learners can practice while following their daily schedule.

“For beginners, less is more,” Lee said, adding that instead of trying to memorize a lot of expressions at a time, practicing one good expression or pattern again and again is much more effective.

“If you really know how to use ‘Time to’ pattern, you can apply it to other situations, such as ‘Time to hit the road” and so forth. This pattern is very simple, but you have to imagine that you are using it in real situations, and I recommend that you practice it whenever possible for about a week,” Lee said.

Lee said that once learners recite the key pattern for more than 30 times over a period of a week, they are now ready to use the pattern accurately and appropriately. “Using a mirror while practicing such key pattern is also recommended because you can self-correct your own accent,” Lee said.

Lee also encourages intermediate and advanced learners to use purpose-driven approach to English multimedia content. Many Korean learners watch English-language TV series and movies, but passive watching is a waste of time, he said.

“You have to divide, for instance, an American TV drama into five-minute segments, and study them separately,” Lee said. At first, learners should watch the five-minute clip without any script or caption. On a second viewing, Korean caption should be turned on so that learners can grasp what the characters in the drama are talking about. On a third viewing, English captions should be turned on, this time for checking what has been missed.

“Did I miss the pronunciation of a word, or did I miss a situation here? You should ask questions about what you don’t understand and you should take enough time to identify what you don’t know in that five-minute clip, and only then can you make real progress,” Lee said.

Watching a single episode just once is not enough, Lee said. “Watch the episode again and again, if possible, more than 10 times, because you practice a lot to internalize what you have learned through the five-minute sessions,” he said.

Dictation is another good form of practice for improving listening comprehension, but Lee said learners should narrow down the subject for dictation materials according to their own interest.

“Almost every topic is now available in English on the internet, a dramatically positive development for Korean learners, but the explosive growth of online content in English means that learners should make efforts to locate where the information they want is located,” Lee said.

Lee started teaching English on a cable network in October 1995 and took up the host position for Good Morning Pops radio show in June 2007.

“I’m an English teacher, but I make mistakes occasionally when I use English. After all, nobody is perfect and my Korean isn’t perfect, even though I’m Korean, so don’t get obsessed with the idea that you have to master everything,” Lee said.

By Yang Sung-jin

(insight@heraldm.com)

2009.06.04

By Yang Sung-jin

Stephen van Vlack, professor of the Graduate School of TESOL at Sookmyung Women’s University, said Korean parents should help their children develop in both Korean and English, particularly concerning literacy skills.

With expertise in theoretical and applied linguistics, van Vlack also said that authentic reading is a “doable” strategy for most Korean learners, while providing detailed steps as well, depending on proficiency levels.

He said those who want to become English teachers should ultimately try to become designers and evaluators who can provide useful and effective feedback in a caring, noncompetitive environment.

He said he has seen “dramatic transformations” in many Korean students and teacher candidates when they are pushed to perform in a caring environment with appropriate context and feedback.

The professor received a Ph.D. in applied linguistics from the University of Dublin — Trinity College in Ireland, and has been teaching for 15 years in Korea, Germany, and Singapore.

The following is an excerpt from an e-mail interview.

Korea Herald: In your teaching experience in Korea, one of the key issues for Korea’s English education?

Stephen van Vlack: By far the most important issue for English education in Korea is that of goals. Clearly defined and realistic goals need to be established at all educational levels including the post-tertiary level and these goals at different levels must relate to each other. Goals provide the basic mapping system for the entire learning experience. It is from the consideration of goals that we develop assessment tools, create and define materials, and decide approaches and techniques are going to be used in the classroom. Without clearly defined goals both students and teachers are lost. It’s like swimming in circles and if one spends their whole time swimming in circles they’re eventually going to get tired and sink.

KH: What strategy do you recommend for Korean students want to improve their English proficiency in general?

SV: One simple strategy which is doable in Korea and has a great potential is that of simply reading. Many study English but they don’t actually read. Taking the language out of context makes it very difficult to learn it well. Since Koreans are highly literate and there is a virtually unlimited amount of authentic texts available to Koreans, then reading is something which is certainly possible. The idea is that people should read as much as they can from various types of sources. The most important is not the length but the authenticity of the reading texts. Through reading one can learn structural aspects of grammar in a meaningful interesting way, provided when they have chosen their own reading texts. We read ultimately to get information, to be entertained. If we can combine this type of entertainment with language learning through reading then one may end up learning a lot.

KH: Would you elaborate on learning strategies for students depending on the proficiency level?

SV: The most important thing for beginners is vocabulary. In order to be able to get themselves to the next stage in the developmental process, beginning level students need a large number of vocabulary items in their mental lexicon. There’s a fundamental distinction between being able to recognize a word and being able to use a word, and beginning level students need to focus on both.

Intermediate level learners tend to have difficulty controlling their language. The area that they need to focus on is that of accurately producing and recognizing larger strings of linguistic code. Rather than just focusing on words they need to focus on phrases and clauses. Intermediate learners also need to develop a feel for how the target language patterns itself. Becoming familiar with these patterns allows people to not only listen to longer texts but also allows these learners to be able to produce longer and more complex texts.

Advanced level learners need to focus on the different functions for which languages are used and how each language deals with the specific functions. An example of a function would be something like making a formal complaint. Once one gets to the advanced level they are expected to perform with language and all linguistic performance is organized around functions.

KH: What advice would you want to give the green parents who want to raise their children as bilingual speakers here?

SV: It is generally claimed that a child in a simultaneous bilingual development type of situation needs a minimum of 40 percent of their input to be in one language in order to develop as a bilingual. This is a lot of input. It is also important to realize that this 40 percent needs to be continuous. Children forget faster than they learn, so taking Korean children overseas for a certain period of time and then bringing them back to Korea without much English input will not have an enduring effect for bilingual development.

The most important thing is to try to keep up the child’s English development. This means that a child needs continuous and continuously changing input. It’s important that children are asked to do different things in both of their languages and that new responsibilities (tasks) are given to them. This may be difficult to do in Korea for the English language but an inventive parent will find ways of immersing their child in English. Don’t seesaw back and forth from one language to the other. Both languages need to be continually developed and this relates specifically to literacy skills. Literacy development is a large milestone on the path to bilinguality. It is important to make sure that the child achieves a high degree of functional literacy in both languages.

KH: What should English teachers or teacher candidates here due to better help train students improve their English proficiency?

SV: The most important thing for a teacher is to create environments where students need to do things using the target language (English). Having done this, the teacher needs to make sure that she or he guides the students through the process of using language by providing carefully regulated feedback in a caring, noncompetitive environment.

Teachers can’t make students learn a language. The teacher’s job is to create scenarios and to regulate these scenarios for optimal potential learning. Feedback is absolutely essential when we are trying to get students to produce language. Without feedback students will not know how well they perform the task and what they did well (which they can do again) and what they didn’t do so well (which they won’t do it again). Teachers should ultimately be designers and evaluators with a valuation focusing not on scoring but on providing useful and effective feedback so the students can move forward in their learning.

KH: What are the most memorable episodes in your teaching experience in Korea?

SV: One thing that never ceases to surprise me is just how important our experiences with the language may be. As a general trend my students tend to be disappointed with her overseas experiences. They either did not learn as much as they hoped to learn or they actually came back with bad feelings about the target language country, at least in some aspects. As a result of this, I’m left with the impression that we have not prepared our students well for the rigors of using language in authentic international situations. To function in such situations one needs to not only be flexible but needs to be systematically flexible according to context and in the decontextualized situations in which we often teach in Korea such skills do not develop well.

On the other hand, it is always rewarding to see how quickly and effectively students are able to adapt to new situations when they are created in the classroom. I have seen dramatic transformations over short periods of time when students are pushed to perform in a caring environment with appropriate context and feedback. There are things that we can do in this Korean setting which they can’t get overseas and in a full immersion type of setting.

The professor can be reached at his homepage (http://udveksling.com).

(insight@heraldm.com)

2009.06.11

By Yang Sung-jin

Lee Soh-hee, professor of Seoul University of Foreign Studies, said graduate students majoring in interpretation and translation are deeply anxious to improve their English competence during summer vacation, but hard work would pay off more than short cuts.

“I totally understand my students who want to move to a next level as fast as possible, especially during the summer break, but whatever they do, they have to devote plenty of time and energy, which cannot be possibly done in just two months,” Lee said.

Lee, who is teaching at the university’s Korean-English Interpretation and Translation Department, said the outcome might be smaller than one expects, but that’s the way interpretation works.

“People are talking about 10,000 hours of training to become an expert in a specific field, and I agree that we need to invest an enormous amount of time to sharpen our skills to stay ahead in the competition, which is getting tougher for interpreters in recent years,” Lee said.

A growing number of people fluent in English are working in various fields, using their professional knowledge, and full-time interpreters are finding it hard to catch up with the trends unless they arm themselves with latest information and necessary background knowledge to mediate between two different languages.

“There are now many fluent speakers of English here, and graduate students studying interpretation or those who want to enter the interpretation graduate school should consider the fact that they might fall behind quickly unless they truly excel in what they do,” Lee said.

Lee said she does not consider herself as “foreign-educated interpreter.” Born in Korea, she briefly lived in Britain when she was an elementary school student, but the experience did not give her what others call “native speaker” status.

For instance, when she was in the United States as an exchange student, she could not speak English very much, even failing to answer about where she would have lunch. “My roommate later told me that she thought I was unable to speak English at all,” Lee said.

Her career started when she was a senior at college, getting a part-time job at a domestic consulting firm in Seoul. After graduation, she worked as an interpreter for the consulting company, an experience that boosted her competence and changed her life once and for all.

“For about one year, I was given a chance to speak both English and Korean as much as I could, and this turned out to be a valuable training for me to step up as an interpreter,” Lee said.

Lee belatedly noticed her aptitude in interpretation and enrolled in an interpretation graduation school to get more systematic training.

“When I was attending classes at the graduate school, I found it very exciting to learn about interpretation techniques, because many of the tips were directly related to what I did as a novice interpreter,” Lee said.

Lee, who is also working as a conference interpreter besides her duty as a professor, said interpretation students should be aware that what they do is to deliver other people’s message effectively.

“Interpreters have the privilege to engage deeply in what other people talk about because they have to understand not only the gist but also all the details at a deeper level than other audience,” Lee said.

Lee stressed that students should make efforts to understand that interpretation belongs to the broader category of storytelling. “A speaker can throw in countless details and facts, but if an interpreter gets the broader picture, or the key idea behind storytelling, other details naturally fall into place. Figures and small details, therefore, are secondary and you have to capture storytelling,” Lee said.

The question is how to improve one’s ability to grasp the ideas in the context of storytelling. Lee said the answer lies in extensive reading. “Our direct experiences are limited, but we can go beyond the limit by reading a lot, I mean, reading everything you encounter, including even an advertisement banner on the street,” Lee said.

Those who want to improve English in general could use training methods practiced at the interpretation graduate school, she said. Sight translation is a case in point. “Pick an office document or a newspaper article, and translate sentences into English in simple and concise sentences,” Lee said.

The key technique in sight translation is to produce short English sentences, instead of complicated and long ones. “The more you practice turning Korean sentences into short English sentences, the faster you can do it, and it is very important to get faster,” she said.

Lee also recommended interview articles in English newspapers and magazines. “Interview articles are based on what people actually say, so it’s effective to train one’s speaking ability using the scripts, and interview articles are more interesting than other straight news,” she said.

(insight@heraldm.com)

2009.07.02

This is the eighth installment of a series of interviews with experts in English education aimed at offering tips, trends and information related to English learning and teaching in Korea. – Ed.

By Yang Sung-jin

Bae Yu-chung’s career defies quick classification. She is widely known as a stage actress who took various roles for high-profile dramas. She also joins many press conferences or international conferences as a seasoned master of ceremonies, thanks to her masterful use of Korean language that easily outsmarts even professional TV anchors.

Less known is her professional identity as a simultaneous interpreter. Back in 1993, she was the main interpreter for foreign journalists at the press conferences of former President Kim Young-sam. And the number of her services as interpreter stands at some 950, covering a wide range of areas including IT, business, arts and politics.

Bae, who majored in psychology at Yonsei University, sharpened her expertise in interpretation at a graduate school of interpretation and translation. But that was not the end of her academic pursuit. Her desire to become a theatrical actress resulted in another bachelor’s degree in drama at Hanyang University.

Bae, professor at the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation at Ewha Womans University, said many of her students are struggling with inferiority complexes. As all the students at the graduate school exhibit a fairly high level of English proficiency, they often get disheartened about their relatively poorer performances compared with other classmates.

“Students at interpretation schools, most of whom were called a ‘walking dictionary’ or ‘master of foreign language,’ are going through an unprecedented phase in their lives because, once they begin to take classes, they realize their English competence is not that high,” Bae said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

“That is why I stress the importance of character training,” Bae said. “When you compare your proficiency with your classmates, you are bound to feel frustrated even to the point that you are stuck with a sense of betrayal about yourself.”

Her advice is straightforward: Never fall into the trap of comparison. And composure is not only crucial for students but also for professional conference interpreters, she said. “When we do consecutive interpretation, focus is everything. If you lose your focus even for a couple of seconds, you could lose the overall flow, which means you fail to do your job,” she said.

Those who want to become simultaneous interpreters tend to be perfectionist, a trait that does not help their performance in real conferences or press conferences, Bae said. “What matters most is whether we can mediate communications effectively, not delivering every detail in English or Korean. So I tell my students to try to deliver just 80 percent while getting across the gist to the audiences,” she said.

Bae said interpretation essentially involves a high level of communicative ability as well as extensive background knowledge – both of which are hard to obtain in a short period of time.

“Most of the tasks interpreters do are concerned with highly technical, academic or specialized fields, so if you do not understand the content in question, you never deliver it properly,” she said.

In what becomes an “agonizing experience,” however, many students manage to achieve a dramatic upgrade after struggling hard to improve their English proficiency and broaden background knowledge.

“Of course, you never reach a satisfactory point by studying hard at the graduate school for just two years, but I believe the harsh training certainly gives students a foothold to compete professionally once they go out to the interpretation market,” she said.

Bae also suggested that interpreter wannabes should be selective in picking English reference material. “I ask my students to read The Korea Herald, not the Economist, because the latter has too many stylized or literary sentences that are almost impossible to use for real interpretation situations,” she said.

The idea is that interpretation centers upon communication, not showing off beautiful sentences or expressions, Bae said, recommending plain English sentences in daily newspapers rather than highbrow magazines.

What’s tricky for Korean learners of English, Bae said, is the fact that English is not widely used for general purposes. Her tip for students is to think in English whenever possible. “Since I learned English here in Korea, I know that working in English-related fields is as difficult as living as a woman in Asia,” she said. “So when I’m at home, I talk to myself in English, in an elevator, or in my car. It may sound crazy, but there’s no other way to bolster my English proficiency,” Bae said.

Bae also called on Korean learners to study English grammar more extensively, an area that is being ignored in recent years. “I think true competence is primarily based on your level of knowledge about English grammar,” she said.

Bae, meanwhile, never stops expanding her career horizon. Her current focus is the translation of a book. “I’m working on a translation of a self-help book, and my interest in translations began two years ago when I got a chance to translate a book about cats into Korean,” she said. She is now raising six cats, a small detail that has made her also known as “a cat lover.”

(insight@heraldm.com)