A Diachronic Peek at English Education in North Korea

• 발행기관: 한국외국어교육학회
• 저자명: Jeong-ryeol Kim
• 간행물 정보: 『한국외국어교육학회 학술대회 자료집』2018년 한국외국어교육학회 학술대회, 79~81쪽, 전체 3쪽
• 주제분류: 사회과학 > 교육학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2018.10.30

영문 초록

English education in North Korea (NK) is divided into two tiers: an elite-centered st education for 1 junior/senior high schools in each province ascening to universities and a public education for general junior/senior high schools with a mediocre expectations of teachers and the low enthusiasm of students. This is because, even if general students learn English except for a very small number of diplomats, there is no use or opportunity using the language for them. NK is in a hostile relationship with English (as the first language)-speaking countries that use legitimate English, such as the United States, the UK, Australia. Until the end of the 1980s the government of NK dispatched international students with enough scholarship to send students to countries like Tanzania, India, Iran and even to the Beijing University Foreign Language Department in China. Professors were extremely proud of themselves by boasting I am an elite who studied English after studying abroad. Professors experienced studying abroad like this are the minorities of around 20% even the best English institutions like Kim Il Sung University and Pyongyang Foreign Languages University. Professors who studied English through studying abroad also learned English in countries like Tanzania and India, so pronunciation is different from a standard English, although the NK university students believed that they officially learned the Oxford standard English. Since the mid-1990s the atmosphere has changed and executives tend to refrain from letting their children study abroad. Even if studying abroad, there is a high possibility of getting criticism of being revisionist, if you do wrong. Local diplomat children who studied at a foreign school were actually often recalled to their home countries in the 1990 s. In the 2000’s the relationship between the English speaking countries and NK has remain deteriorated. However, recently, the number of executives who let the children teach English greatly increased. To be precise, the popularity of foreign language education has increased, and extracurricular classes in foreign languages that only rich people can enjoy are beginning to increase. The reason for this is that speaking English majes it easier to make dollars as they have dying needs of international currency as the western economic sanctions remain steady and strong. After taking the elite English course, parents with power can utilize their connections to make their children become diplomats. If you try to make dollars in North Korea, it is best to go abroad. Indeed, there are many rich people among diplomats. Even if you cannot become a diplomat, if you can speak English, the probability of getting a job is much higher in secure dollars sectors such as trading companies and travel companies. It is privilege itself majoring in a foreign language at a leading university in NK. In such universities, it can be said that opening up has been promoted as it is relatively earlier. Learn English by using foreign movies such as Gone with the Wind , Roman Holiday , Ben Hah , Romeo and Juliet as a listening material. Also, for example, if you have a South Korean (SK) book in North Korea, you will be a political prisoner, but you can say that only the English dictionary published in SK is an exception. If you trim only the cover trademark that you know as a Korean book and apply black ink to words like Hankook=한국, 대한민국 , there‘s no problem even if you carry a dictionary. In NK, which is a thoroughly controlled society, only the field of English learning is hard to control because mainly the children of the higher positions in the party are studying and cannot be controlled. Students who have an English dictionary made in SK can be safely said that they are sons and daughters of high ranking executives. They are not subjects to be controlled, but rulers to control others. The root cause of interest in English education at such a highe