Kim Hyo Jin, a shy junior high school student, stood before her American teacher. The smiling teacher held up a green pepper and asked in clear English: “What is this?”
“Peemang!” answered the South Korean teenager, who then covered her mouth with a hand as if to stop — too late — the Korean word that had left her mouth.
Embarrassed, she tried again. Without looking the teacher in the eye, she held both her hands out and asked, this time in English: “May I have green pepper?”
Kim took the vegetable with a bow, and ran back to her classmates, feeling relieved that she had successfully taken a small first step toward overcoming what South Koreans consider one of their biggest weaknesses in global competitiveness: the fear of speaking in English to westerners.
Kim was among 300 junior high school students going through a weeklong training in this new “English Village.” The complex looks like a mini-town transplanted from a European country to this South Korean countryside. It has its own immigration office, city hall, bookstore, cafeteria, gym, a main street with Western storefronts, police officers and a live-in population of 160 native English speakers. All signs are in English, the only language allowed.
Here, on a six-day course that charges each student 80,000 won, or $82, pupils check in to a hotel, shop, take cooking lessons and make music videos — all in English. There are language policemen around, punishing students speaking Korean with a fine in the village currency or red dots on their village passports.
South Korea has become one of the most aggressive countries in Asia at teaching English to its citizens. Outside the school system, parents are paying an estimated 10 trillion won a year to help their children learn English at home or abroad. Nevertheless, many college graduates are afraid of chatting with native speakers. That, linguists say, is a result of a national school system that traditionally stresses reading and memorization of English grammar and vocabulary at the expense of conversation.
In Korea University of Seoul, 30 percent of all classes are now in English. Speaking English with a native accent has become a status symbol.
36. What was Kim Hyo Jin’s problem?
A.She spoke English with a Korean accent. |
B.She dared not talk with westerners in English. |
C.She was afraid of looking at her English teacher. |
D.She kept staying with her Korean classmates. |
37. Which of the following is true of the “English Village”?
A.It is located in a European country. |
B.It houses 460 Korean students in a week. |
C.Students will be punished for not speaking English. |
D.Students take turns to serve as language policemen. |
38. What can be learned about the way that Korean students learn English at school?
A.There aren’t enough English classes given to students. |
B.Students don’t have enough chances to practise speaking. |
C.Emphasis is placed on students’ ability to communicate. |
D.Grammar and vocabulary is taught by old-fashioned methods. |
39. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A.Let’s Read in English | B.English as a Global Language |
C.A Hunger for English Lessons | D.Change in Koreans’ Attitude to English |