Comments on: Dreams vs. realities in English

By: MB24

MB24 — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 05:22:00 +0000

Congratulations on your book. You story is inspiring. Thank you for telling it in your post. The post also offers such a great insight into how to go about debunking a monolithic perspective on global English. It is sure to offer inspiration to others considering similar work. Do you have further work along similar lines?

By: Meera Panthee

Meera Panthee — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 09:34:00 +0000

I still remember those days when I was in grade 5. I was enrolled into a government school where only on e subject is taught in English and communication in English is very rare. I got so fascinated with English when I heard my English teacher teach, speak and write in English. It got so intense as English fever and gradually turned into my dream. I had an opportunity to be a teacher back in my country for about 7 years through which I actually realised how difficult it is to teach the learners of English as second language. Personally, learning English entails much fun anyway.

By: MonyCRole

MonyCRole — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 09:59:00 +0000

Cannot agree more! Being an interpreter means much more than one could ever expect. It was also challenging for me to get into interpreting classes as I was once commented as an interpreting student with serious translationese and insufficient professional knowledge and terms in various fields. Indeed, I have learnt that an English interpreter must be proficient in his/her home language in the first place, competent in English language and at least slightly familiar with all known languages in the world just in case that the speaker might use any of them. Beside languages, interpreters must gain sufficient knowledge in a variety of professional areas. I can remember once we did interpreting practice of an interview to a basketball player. But for lack of relevant terms, such as defense, point guard and buzzer-beaters, I rarely understood any sentence the interviewer had produced. As quoted from my graduation thesis advisor, interpreters are experts in languages and know-it-all in other aspects. He truly gets that!

By: Xi Yang

Xi Yang — Sun, 05 Nov 2017 06:40:00 +0000

Congratulation on fulfill your childhood dream! It is a great accomplishment! I think China shares a similar case as Korea, where the ‘English fever’ is still widespread. However, the reality is that to become an English teacher or to find any occupations that are related to English is relatively challenging for Chinese. As the demand of learning English are still rising rapidly in China, the requirements for an English teacher become higher and higher. Some so-called prestigious school are now only accept native English speakers as their teachers, in order to attract more students. Therefore, English teachers need to have a very high level of English proficiency now in China.

By: Min Wu KIM

Min Wu KIM — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 01:52:00 +0000

As a Korean, I agree on the idea that there is a gap between the promises and realities of English in Korea. As mentioned in the article, English has been viewed as a key driver for a class mobility in several decades due to the influence of relationship between Korea and USA. As English has been widely used all over the world, English proficiency can be an important competence for a future career, so the intense English learning practices from the young age can be thoughted to be understandable, in my opinion. However, the problem is that English learners do not have many opportunities to speak in English since English is not a medium of conversation in any corner of the country, even in English classes. This lack of a chance to speak results in a number of Korean English learners who disproportionately achieve a high level of receptive skills but can not use it in a productive way. In order for the English learning practices to meet the expectation of the English learners in Korea, they should deal with productive skills in class as well as on the exam of English proficiency.

By: V.ca

V.ca — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 01:38:00 +0000

The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that you had the childhood dream of becoming a writer something I, too, wanted to become. However just like you, I was not in the best place to pursue this. The Philippines does indeed use English frequently, however it was never observed to be something that was a need. Publishing stories and books was something was something that was a “hit or miss” or so I have been told growing up. Despite being told to have the talent of writing at a very young age, I gave up the pursuit of this in university when we did not have any courses specifically for this, and I had to go with something else which was related to it: English Language and Literature studies.

By: Kaniz Rahman

Kaniz Rahman — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 16:34:00 +0000

Childhood dream! This makes me remind how I wanted to be pizza maker, a dancer, a writer, president, scientist and what not! And with time many of us just go with the flow and decide to do what soudns rational to everyone. That's when life happens! Coming to the impotances in English, I believe English is globalised rightly so. As the world has become smaller we all need to communicate and what easier than English just with 26 letters! In my country English is taught from kindi. So it becomes easier for them to pick the language. However I cant agree with the fact that prestige comes with just the knowledge of English rather prestige comes with any knowledge, it can any language knowledge or any knowledge from any field.

By: Hayu Austina

Hayu Austina — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 22:20:00 +0000

Thank you for posting this article and congratulations on achieving your childhood dream to be a writer. It is very interesting to talk about English language ideologies and I can relate this to my English language teaching context in Indonesia. I used to teach in a language center at an Indonesian university and my students were first and second year students. The university’s ambition is that students graduate from the university with at least 450 score of TOEFL score (the old version of TOEFL with 3 sections: Grammar Structure, Reading Comprehension, and Listening Comprehension). The score is considered as a promising ticket to get a better job, but in fact the teaching is very exam-based. Therefore, students are not prepared to use English for real communication in the context that they will face in the future.

By: Khalid

Khalid — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 12:27:00 +0000

The great status of English in many countries pushes people to learn English. “learning a new language” is always connected with English, and indeed I think it is essential to learn English as we can see its impacts everywhere! However, learning other languages is also interesting, every language has its own world and stories. English fever is almost found in every country, and for me there was no way to “think” about learning other language than English since it was the language of dream!

By: Yeji LEE

Yeji LEE — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 00:24:00 +0000

I totally agree with the point of this article. Actually, I was in the beginning of ‘English fever’ generation, so I started to learn English fairly earlier. From my elementary to university period, English had been one of the major subject and its importance had continuously increased. And now as an English teacher, English is still one of the major subject in Korea. Sometimes, students ask me why they have to study English or why English is so important. I was also thinking of those questions but could not find clear answers. I think this book can help me find proper answers for that. Thank you for introducing interesting book!

By: DIEU PHUONG THAO NGO

DIEU PHUONG THAO NGO — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 00:21:00 +0000

In my home country- Vietnam, English is entering its “golden” era, extremely similar to what you’re describing in the articles. Everybody is learning English. The starting age has been getting younger and younger. I started around grade 5, while my boyfriend’s little brother started in grade 3 and my niece got engaged with English since kindergarten. Most Vietnamese Millennials’ sentences include at least an English word. The English craze sparked by the promise of better career opportunities and international integration has caused a tremendous increase in English learning demands and numerous teaching centers have emerged to fill that need. My concern is what awaits my dear country after this period. Nobody can be sure of the future. However, stories of pioneering countries such as South Korea’s are extremely valuable to Vietnam. Thank you so much for this insightful article about an interesting book!

By: Language on the Move

Language on the Move — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 09:48:00 +0000

In reply to Nadiah Aziz.

Thanks, Nadiah! Your post reminded me of a poll at Zayed University in the UAE a while ago where students were asked which languages (other than Arabic and English) they wanted to study; in the end, Korean beat French 🙂 (see http://languageonthemove.com/korean-beats-french/)

By: Mustaqim Haniru

Mustaqim Haniru — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 08:45:00 +0000

Thanks for sharing your story, it is very fascinating and i can relate to this, especially the phenomenon of ‘English fever’. Although i am not from Korea (I am Indonesian precisely), I grow up in a small town in Indonesia, where not many people speak English and having English proficiency was regarded ‘cool’ and ‘prestigious’. I still could recall how much I adore people who speak English and how much i enjoy English movies and music, and how much i believe that having adequate English proficiency could grant a promising job. This has driven my interest to learn English and my decision to pursue bachelor degree in English Literature. However, as English exposure was gradually changing (people are widely exposed to English now) and witnessing the real-life expectation in the present workplace, i finally realize that my past expectation/imagination is not entirely true, at least for the present reality. Hence, I am currently studying at Master of Applied linguistics and TESOL, expecting that I could develop not only better English competence, but also theoretical foundation of Applied linguistics field, its practical-level insight, and ready-used expertise in academic and professional setting.

By: Nadiah Aziz

Nadiah Aziz — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 03:30:00 +0000

Hello there Jinhyun Cho,

The study that you have carried out and the focus questions addressed are very significant in our current multilingual and multicultural society. In Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, there are many areas that are being labelled as “Korean village” – areas that are well established by Korean society who migrated in the early 90’s. As a result, Koreans can be considered as a fairly big community in our country as they have come up with Korean churches, bakeries, grocery stores, kindergarten, and English language centres for Koreans.

In Malaysia, Korean language and culture started to gain attention of the locals since the late 90’s when almost everybody I know started watching the Korean series- Full House and then later, K-Pop fever which became even more famous after Gagnam Style became viral on local radio and other social platforms; clubs, pubs, bistros or restaurants, even shopping malls.

I personally think that it is also essential for English to have a ‘special’ place in Korean society in order to spread Korean language to other parts of the world- for example, English can be used as the medium of language to teach or learn Korean. I remember the singer of Gagnam Style was invited on Ellen De Generes talk show in the States and he seems to have a fairly high level of proficiency in English when he was explaining about the song- this was when I found out that Gagnam is actually a name of a place in Korea. English is also important for the Korean society in order to converse with Malaysians as we only quite recently have students coming back after graduating from Korean universities, perhaps less than 10 years ago, as Malaysians would usually further study in Australia/ Ireland/ France/ India/ China or Japan.

By the way, it has always been my dream to be a professional interpreter ^_^ but I ended up being a French lecturer to engineering students, helping them to reach intermediate level before going to French universities. I have had my one time opportunity to interpret the speech by The president of The Republique of Guinea in Kuala Lumpur from French to Malay and I have to say it was rather challenging but fun! ^_^ All the best !

By: vy ha

vy ha — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 08:24:00 +0000

It seems that “English fever” is taking hold of many Asian countries, including Vietnam. I figure English playing a role in strengthening the political, economic relations with the U.S giving its prestige view is also what has taking place in many Asian countries. I’d like to add another point which related to the cultural factor. Specifically, Holywood, and the movie industry in general, is a powerful channel in transferring the status of prestige and contribute a significant portion in establishing the imperialism of English in Asian countries. Watching these movies gives people a glimpse into the Western culture, the way of living, and in many ways, can be viewed this Western culture can be viewed as better or more prestigious than that of their own.

By: GlobalMikeW

GlobalMikeW — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 05:20:00 +0000

This article reminds me of the phrase “be careful of what you wish for” which infers that what we want may not be as ideal as we imagine. I’d be curious to know what exactly constitutes the gap between the author’s pre-held dream of being an interpreter and her reality. I would have thought that, like most professions, there’s a sliding scale of prestige in translating jobs. Some, such as working with famous people visiting from abroad are extremely glamorous, whilst those that are business or community driven may be more mundane. But if one enters the profession with the sole intent of living a life of glamour, then I could see why there would be disappointment (having wanted to be an actor in my 20’s, I completely understand the impulse). Or it could be that translating was seen as an easy job which simply involved repeating what one person said into a direct translation. In theory this sounds great, but having had experience living abroad, I know that translation very rarely works that cleanly.

Or perhaps I am way off base with both these ideas and am projecting my own uneducated perception onto a career with so many more layers than I could ever envisage. Continuing with the comparison to actors who must constantly take on new identities, maybe shifting between not just languages, but world views, cultural norms and identities results in a state of existence which is nothing like what was previously imagined in the dream. Interestingly, another article in Language on the Move asks whether bilinguals have two souls, and the internal conflict to which the author alludes may be anchored in a constant oscillating between two languages day in, day out. I can only guess at how demanding it must be having to not just match the visible words on the surface, but the vast array of subtexts, conjugations and ill-fitting concepts between languages. It’s not something I’ve ever considered and so this article is a good reminder that what we perceive is not usually the way it actually is.