A Response to The English Teacher

I came across this article by The Korean, a blogger whose writings and insights I have enjoyed reading and learning from over the years. I tried to post my response directly onto his website, but it was too lengthy; therefore, I've posted it here.

Dear The English Teacher,

I've returned from Korea, where I spent the past three years of my life, gathering a collection of experiences and memories, which, tonight, relate directly to your letter to The Korean. A few reactions.

As far as I think I understand your curiosities as to what you can tell your students "when they ask how much improvement they will see if they go to the US to study English," one question must be asked: In what mode of "study" do these students aim to engage? If they, like many of my own students have expressed, wish to finance a trip to America to sit in a Starbucks and read through a grammar book, that is, while being surrounded by English speak, then my suggestion for them is to go to Itaewon. If, however, they seek to join communities in the States where active engagement in the culture can happen, where challenging and meaningful aspects of interpersonal relationships may most likely take place, then the kinds of questions that we, as educators, must ask, change: "What kind of communities do your students wish to join? What are their interests and values?" What kinds of things do they wish to accomplish once they have learned English proficiently?”

To my knowledge, Koreans tend to ask the wrong questions with regard to English language-learning and their children. Take, say, two popular questions that mothers (who, for the most part, manage their children's education) usually ask: "What's the best way for my child to improve his English skills? And "How can my daughter speak like a Native English Speaker?" Children are, by their very nature, highly curious beings, who, if given the opportunities and resources, will acquire a second language quite easily. It's about nurturing their instinctual creative inquiries, and not just about English, but about culture, politics, literature, games, films, and so on and so forth. Nobody, not even linguists, can give a solid and generalizable answer to the question of what the "best" method of English language instruction is, because there isn't one.

Which brings me to The Korean's reply to The English Teacher, which, despite the reservoir of praise it has received, warrants a response that I hope will point out and thus help us understand the profundities that The Korean has unearthed.

To begin with, we must look first at the epithet, The Korean. We should remain very skeptical about blogs in general, but particularly about writers who claim, however tongue-in-cheek, tacitly, or however ironically, that they possess expert opinion on an entire culture.

With that said, I would like to talk about "how The Korean learned English" and his "guaranteed method of achieving fluency in another language." First of all, it's not hard to see that "The Process of The Korean’s English Acquisition" is not an instructive narrative about how he learned English. Instead of trying to provide an answer to how he became fluent, The Korean's response is cries of understatements, punctuated by a running list of academic achievements. This makes it easy for readers to make the false connection between "scholarly" success and successful learning of English (i.e., if I do what The Korean did, then I will learn English like he did).

The Korean begins by stating, "It must be first said that I am not a genius," a rhetorical flourish that many of us have heard used many times before, often uttered by the educated classes, in an attempt to be modest. The implication in this statement is rather obvious, so I'll move on.

The Korean proceeds to explain how he has always been an "A-minus student during the 2.5 years in...high school in California," an educational system that he characterizes as "deplorable," without providing a spade of evidence. America's K-12 is deplorable--a dictum--because he says it is.

Moreover, The Korean acculturated into an America that was not "particularly conducive to English learning by immersion." In fact, his school was "filled with many, many Korean speakers who staked out their own corner in the schoolyard to hang out among themselves, speaking Korean.” Still no sign of how he learned English.

[aside]: The Korean further indicates that he "began [his] American schooling at the beginning of the second semester of the tenth grade," and recalls "the despair of [his] first few months at school." He writes: "I was literally Charlie Brown in a classroom as my teachers spoke “wah-wah-wah.” Well, you weren't literally Charlie Brown: you didn't suddenly lose your hair and find yourself with four fingers; you might have been Charlie Brown, in a figurative sense, but you certainly didn't transmute into a Peanuts caricature.

After grazing over the fact that The Korean "scored 100 percent on [a biology] quiz--the only one in the class to do so," the narrative finally arrives at a concrete detail with regard to how he managed to "master" English, namely, through rote memorization, "like a good Korean student." He memorized over 30,000 words, a strategy I've seen many Koreans and Korean Americans use, in the past as well as in the present.

And for those who live in relatively nice neighborhoods, with parents who earn enough money for index cards, pens, tutors, etc., learning 30,000 words is not a difficult feat. Of course, there are those who live in impoverished neighborhoods whose parents earn just enough to battle solvency, whose schools don't get enough funding to pay for textbooks, and students whose internal motivations are so shot that they don't see the point in studying. Yes: there are even Koreans who live like this. There are African Americans who live like this. There are Mexicans and White Americans and Native American students who live like this. Indeed, The Korean is not a genius, and "far from it," as he suggests. The Korean is privileged, like many Koreans who can afford to move to the States.

I agree with The Korean on one position, namely, that one of the factors that "set him apart" was motivation. It is certainly true, as evidenced by the vast sea of research on second language acquisition, that internal motivations play a significant role in successful SLA. And I commend the Korean for his dedicated efforts and success in learning English. I disagree, however, with The Korean's third suggestion that rote memorization is "the best and most efficient way" to learn English.

According to The Korean, he has "always gained greater proficiency in [other non-English foreign] languages at faster clip compared to other students who were in the same classes as he, which confirmed to the Korean that his method is indeed the best one.” His use of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy is insulting to his readership, to say nothing of the thousands of people who may have already followed his advice. Of course, it was not necessarily "his method" that elevated his grades--that much is certain. There could have been a number of variables involved in the outcome, but The Korean did not mention these in his blog entry.

Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind The Korean's caveat regarding rote memorization: "The Korean’s method is only for those people who want to have a mastery (which, according to the Korean’s own definition, equals college-level proficiency) over a second language in a short period of time.” Also noteworthy, though, is the high probability for The Korean, an A-minus student who graduated a Berkeley Bear, to fail a college-level Russian proficiency exam if all he were to do was to memorize a Russian dictionary and a grammar book. I would likewise do no better on an Arabic test under the same conditions. To quote Noam Chomsky: “As participants in a certain culture, we are naturally aware of the great differences in ability to use language, in knowledge of vocabulary, and so on that result from differences in native ability and from differences in conditions of acquisition.”

Having taught a wide spectrum of Korean students in the ROK and in the States, I can attest to the realities of English fluency in both countries. And for someone to be able to move to America at the age of 16 and to matriculate into UC Berkeley, and maybe I'm not understanding something here, takes more than a handful of privilege--it takes a rich history of solid education. Therefore, we can safely assume that The Korean had a pretty good working knowledge of English by the time he came to America, though we can only speculate on how good his English actually was. Many Koreans are familiar with English grammar from as early on as elementary school (and nowadays, kindergarten), particularly for those who are A-minus students.

The Korean’s central argument for upping one’s English skills is fine, and for some, may work well. But we must come to terms with what happens when memories fade. A number of Korean Americans who ended up at fancy universities in the humanities and social science departments, for example, have opined in various blogs that acing the SATs and being disciplined in high school did nothing to prepare them to think and write critically in college. Koreans are perhaps one of the most disciplined people on the earth (hyperbole--probably not), and they often confuse discipline with intelligence. Any disciplined student with just the right amount and mix of internal motivation can do well enough in high school to get into, say, Berkeley. This ought to be a truism, but it is not.

So The English Teacher, the advice you give to your students depends wholly on what they value, and what their goals are, as far as English is concerned. Many Koreans I've come to know in the past several years have expressed viewpoints that accord with that of The Korean's: "What is fun is the result of learning." And that's fine. Such perspectives are not uncommon in Korean communities, and I’m not here to analyze values—I am here to provide another perspective, to contribute to the body of discussion on matters related to ESL. One question to keep in mind is whether or not Koreans will, in meaningful ways, contribute to society. Will they choose social engagement in ways that will better the community? Or will they focus instead on the "infinite amount of fun when you finally put the finished product to use"?