Day: April 15, 2008

There is a social phenomenon in Korean culture that has been receiving some press recently, which goes by the name "orphan fathers."   It's the situation that arises when upper middle class and wealthy Korean families decide to give up on the Korean education system completely, and buy a second home abroad (almost always in an English-speaking country, such as Canada, the U.S., etc.), for the sole purpose of having their kids live there and attend schools in that country.

The fathers (it's inevitably the fathers) keep their well-paying jobs in Korea, and the mother and the kids move to the second home abroad, and he supports them.  Visas are less problematic since they're not actually working in the host country – they're just there pumping Korean-earned money into the economy, so host countries welcome the phenomenon.

But of course, it has led to more than one family break up, and the parents receive a lot of curiosity and sympathy:  the fathers working impossible hours and sending all their money abroad; the mothers in a foreign land, often without their own level of linguistic competence and socially isolated.  Lots of heart-wrenching documentaries on the topic. 

OK, we've covered the background.  What I'm really going to post here is a small little essay one of my students wrote.  Amy is a 5th grader, in the intermediate-to-advanced elementary cohort (we call it ER1).  She was asked to discuss her opinions on Korea's education system.  I post what she wrote, verbatim (errors and all), because it's remarkably apropos my own post of yesterday, and further, provides an example of the extent to which the students themselves, even at a fairly young age and with limited language skills, are conscious of Korea's ESL education shortcomings. Of course, I also like it because she agrees with me about the need for English-only classrooms (I think, if I understand her thoughts correctly).

Korean english study system is very old.  Because many students study abroad english.  They learn english and leave there homes.  There is left the father.  The father named orphan father.  Orphan father is only lives in home.  Orphan father is social problem.  The solution is Korea english system change.  Teacher and student speak english in school.  The textbook is variety level needs.