A House Guest
Monday, January 14th, 2008We spent yesterday travelling to San Francisco to pick up a Korean boy who will be staying with us for the next four months. He is 11 years old (양력으로). To me this seems very young to be away from home for that length of time, especially to be staying with relative strangers. However, as I understand it, this practice is fairly common in Korea. While we are not doing a business, the “home stay” market is quite large.
We had two home stay children a couple of years ago with limited success. What I mean by that is that the parents sent their children here to America with the hope that their children’s English speaking ability would improve and thus increase their educational opportunities in the future. Most of these programs, as far as I can tell, deal with groups of kids in a very structured program. Thes kids do not get a signifcant amount of real life free-speaking of English. The two students that we had spoke only in Korean to each other and really took advantage of the Korean spoken in my home as well. So, I don’t think that they had as much success as they could have.
The exprience was good though, and it helped expose my children to the Korean language more. (This kind of learning is a two-way street after all.) The boy staying with us now seems to have some good English skills and a willingness to talk and fit into our family. Both of these qualities should ensure that he has a successful stay here (and that we don’t suffer with an uncooperative child…).
What do you think, is 11 too young to spend tht much time away from home? How would you feel about sending your (hypothetical) child away like that? And, do these programs really work or do they just make the parents feel that way? I think everyone should experience another culture directly, I just don’t know if someone that young can appreciate it.
Posted by steved in General Announcements |
January 14th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
11 is fine in my opinion, it’s not as if he’s staying somewhere on his own!
Sounds like a good way to get a 24 hour tutor in your own house! If I were Steved I’d sit the little tyke down with a pile of KoreanClass101 pdfs and ask him to walk me through them!
January 15th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Well, by Korean, standards, it must be OK, as in I guess parents wouldn’t do it if they weren’t comfortable. But I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t send my 11 year old son on a trip like that by himself….and I’m not sure too many American parents would be up for that either.
Mostly, I just wouldn’t want to spend that much time away from my kid especially at that age. If he was in late high school, I’d start to consider it, but 11 (western age) means he is probably in 5th grade….
January 15th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
On the other hand, if I were in Steve’s position, I’d love to host such a kid! It would be a great experience for everyone involved….but I would be tempted to talk to him a lot in Korean which of course isn’t why he’s there….
January 16th, 2008 at 12:58 am
By American standards, 11 is young to send a child off on their own for that amount of time. In Korea, however, once a student is in high school there is no way to take that much time off; too much is at stake. That may be true for middle school as well. The only way a high schooler would come here would be if they were planning on graduating here. Otherwise they would be too far behind when they went back to Korea.
I end up saying things in English and then repeating in Korean if it is clear that he didn’t get it.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:00 am
It looks like my last sentence got chopped off in the post. I’ll try and fix that…
January 16th, 2008 at 4:14 am
I have mixed feelings about the Korean practice of sending children to English-speaking countries for educational experiences. At first glance, it seems like the kids are being stripped of choice and forced to experience a critical part of their socialization in a foreign country and away from all their closest relatives. It’s more complicated than that, though. As Steve said, the parents do this because they believe that it’s to the children’s advantage to have a experience learning English in an immersion environment to supplement the rote memorization that they are being taught in school. This is because English proficiency is critical for success on the college entrance exams, and later for a white-collar job in pretty much any sector. Because so much weight is put on educational credentials in the Korean job market, every middle class parent wants their children to attend one of the SKY schools (Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University). This scholastic hierarchy (학벌) reinforces the craze for learning English, and this extreme study abroad practice is only part of the picture.
These opinions are based on my observations and conversations with Koreans who have experienced study abroad at various levels (middle school, high school, undergrad, graduate, post-grad).
January 16th, 2008 at 4:55 am
The parents of this boy seem pretty level headed. They don’t have any illusion that he will go to one of the top three universities. They just want him to speak English fluently and have a good experience. Sure, I am going to take advantage of the situation, but I don’t necessarily agree with it either.
I don’t agree with the whole 학원 system either. It is great to learn a certain skill but what I see happening is every spare hour of every child (because if your friends are sending their kids then you better send yours, too) is taken up with some kind of studying but in the end it is empty. These kids can pass the tests but when it comes to practical application, like speaking English beyond the textbook phrases for example, they just can’t do it.
January 16th, 2008 at 10:03 am
What is the real source of coercion here is the society as a whole. As you said, these parents are pushed to this because of the measures that other parents are taking to provide their children with educational opportunities. At least once he passes the college entrance exam (hopefully) he’ll have two years of his life when he won’t be expected to excel in any way and he can reflect on himself in the military. After that waste of time, he can have some measure of choice in his life.
January 20th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
It seems that what the kid will get out of the homestay is reliant on, well, the kid himself/herself! If the child is simply a good student and particulary well-adjusted, then he/she will do OK. But if not…
In my experience teaching at a 학원, some of the students more skilled in English have lived in an English speaking country for a year. But, that’s hardly a prerequisite for learning good English, if the student him/herself is motivated. But as any educator knows, creating motivation is a tricky thing…
I have a 교포 friend whose job was (and still occasionaly is) sending Korean kids to study English in America. He has a ton of stories about his students getting into trouble at school. Most of them are about cultural/linguistic misunderstandings, such as using disrespectful/vulgur language with a teacher. There have also been cases of a Korean boy touching an American boy in a friendly way, but the American misinterprets. Koreans tend to touch people they’re close friends with, but in American culture, that’s not the case. More than one fight has been started that way– and even sexual harassment lawsuits.
My friend tells me that he has parents thinking that if they send their kid away for a year, they’ll be fluent in English like him. My 교포 friend lived in America for over 10 years, and did all his higher education there, so of course he’s fluent in both Korean and English. Parents meet him, and some naively think that their child will come back in a year like him. And the money just flows…
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