Lessons Leave No Time for Play in Seoul

Read and discuss the following text.

Explain the words and word combinations in bold in the text.

5) Fill in the correct preposition or particle, then make sentences:

1) … the (not too) distant future; 2) to add … money; 3) to fill … a tax form; 4) to be … the way out; 5) to integrate smth … smth; 6) to consist … smth; 7) to pit one’s strength … smb; 8) to chase … smth/smb; 9) to enjoy smth … its own sake; 10) to become expert … smth.

6) Answer the questions:

1. What are the two traditional reasons for education?

2. What changes might occur in the future?

3. What might make it difficult for to adjust to any changes?

4. What evidence does the writer give to suggest that we will succeed in adjusting?

5. Do you think you would get more pleasure out of the neo-tug? Why?

A 17-year-old boy drifts into sleep, his head drooping into the textbook open in front of him. It is 9pm and Yang Dong-myung has two more hours of study to complete before going home. Around him sit other teenage South Koreans struggling to stay awake as a tutor scribbles English vocabulary on a blackboard.

Mr. Yang and his classmates are among the roughly 80 per cent of South Koreans who attend private evening schools, known as hagwon, to improve their chances of reaching university.

An almost cult-like devotion to learning has been among the driving forces behind South Korea's rapid economic development over the past half century, creating one of the world's most highly educated workforces.

But concern is growing that the obsession with education has spun out of control, putting children under too much stress and families under pressure to pay expensive tuition fees.

The government signalled its alarm last month by announcing plans to outlaw evening classes after 10pm as part of tougher regulation of the $11bn (€8.6bn, £5.8bn) hagwon industry.

Mr Yang attends his hagwon in Seoul four evenings a week from 6pm to 11pm after a full day at school. "I get tired and fall asleep in class," he says. "But in Korea education is important so my parents force me to study."

South Korea spends 6.8 per cent of gross domestic product on education, more that any other member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. However, the. country's public spending on education is below the OECD average at 4.1 per cent, highlighting the role played by private tuition in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

The teachings of Confucius, the ancient Chinese philosopher who stressed the importance of scholarship, influence many east Asian societies.

In South Korea, the zeal for learning is reinforced by a belief that knowledge is crucial to the bid to catch up with richer nations such as Japan and stay ahead of China.

"Korea is a country with few natural resources so to better ourselves individually and as a nation we have to use our brains," say Lee Nan-young, mother of two teenage students.

Commitment to education is reflected by research showing South Korea's 15-year-olds have the highest scientific literacy and second-highest mathematics standards among OECD members.

A slogan on the classroom wall in Mr Yang's English lesson reads: "Accomplish your dreams". But dreams come at a price: in his hagwon, fees of $280 a week.

"Half of our family's income is spent on education," says Lee Sook, mother of two hagwon students. "We go without holidays to afford it. In every area of life we make sacrifices for our children's education."

Lee Hang-soo, vice-president of Mr Yang's hagwon, says the school grants bursaries to children from poor families. But he admits South Korea's education system is divisive: "The 20 per cent of children that don't attend hagwon are split between those that can't afford it and those clever enough not to need it."

Private tuition has become so entrenched that public schools skip parts of the curriculum on the assumption it will be taught in evening classes.

"Public education teaches students to be rounded individuals; hagwon exist to get them through the university entrance exam," says Mr. Lee.

Getting into a good university is considered a ticket to success in status conscious South Korea, where people are judged according to educational background.

The annual entrance exam is so important that people start work an hour late on test day to keep roads clear for candidates, while airports restrict take-offs and landings during the exam to avoid disturbing students.

However, there is growing awareness of the negative consequence of such a fanatical approach to education.

"I worry about my children having no time to exercise and have fun," says Lee Nan-young. "Children are getting fat because they are always studying."

Jung Bong-sup, head of school policy at the ministry of education, says the hagwon style of teaching fails to provide the skills needed in the modern global economy.

"Students memorise facts but they don't learn the ideas behind them," he says. "In the 21st century people need to think creatively and that requires more interactive education."

However as long as university remains the path to prosperity in South Korea, parents will send their children to hagwon. "If other kids go then so must yours," says Mrs. Lee.

By Andrew Ward

2) Transcribe and pronounce correctly the following words:

Korea, Korean, Seoul, gross, crucial, nature, natural, resource, slogan, sacrifice, divisive, conscious.

3) Find the English equivalents for the following in the text:

клонить (кого-л.) в сон, бороться со сном, движущая сила, плата за обучение, валовой внутренний продукт, учёность/эрудиция, природные ресурсы, уровень научных знаний, девиз/лозунг, жертвовать чем-л. ради чего-л., преуспевание/процветание.

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