'We Learn English For Our Revolution' - English Education In North Korea

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‘We learn English for our revolution’ : English Education in North Korea Michael Abraham Schulman (Gyeongsang National University) Schulman, Michael Abraham. 2009. ‘We learn English for our revolution’: English Education in North Korea. The British & American Language and Literature English language usage is thought of as a barometer of a nation’s modernity. Although North Korea in recent years has made strides in English education, particularly in obtaining native- speaking teachers, they are still behind in many areas of development. This paper reviews the few available academic and journalistic publications on English education in North Korea, through pre-war Korea, cold war, and the new millennium as English has grown in use and value around the world. It goes on to review the current state of affairs of ideology-driven English-language education in North Korea, utilizing personal interviews with key figures in the efforts to bring English education to North Korea. It concludes with an appraisal of the situation. Key Words: English education, North Korea, Tim Kearns, Rev. Don Borrie, Grahame Bilbow, The British Council, New Zealand/Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Friendship Society (NZ-DPRK Society), The Global Aid Network (GAIN), Institute for Strategic Reconciliation (ISR), Juche idea, Kim Jong Il, Kim Il Song 1. INTRODUCTION As the lingua franca of the world, English is often thought of as a barometer of a nation’s cultural, financial, scientific, and technological modernity. In Korea, there is an expectation for educated people to communicate in fluent English (Prey 9). Similarly, all over the world, the ability to speak English has become an indicator of personal status, sophistication, and worldliness. As a result, English has become a business, which is an indicator of a nation’s aspiration for modernity and international status (Singh, Kell, and Pandian 106). As communist and former communist nations rush to develop, North Korea struggles to keep up. Despite having developed nuclear arms, the country lags behind in many areas of development.

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‘We learn English for our revolution’: English Education in North KoreaMichael Abraham Schulman (Gyeongsang National University)Schulman, Michael Abraham. 2009. ‘We learn English for our revolution’: English Education in North Korea. The British & American Language and LiteratureEnglish language usage is thought of as a barometer of a nation‟s modernity. Although North Korea in recent years has made strides in English education, particularly in obtaining native-speaking teachers, they are st

Transcript of 'We Learn English For Our Revolution' - English Education In North Korea

Page 1: 'We Learn English For Our Revolution' - English Education In North Korea

‘We learn English for our revolution’: English Education in North Korea

Michael Abraham Schulman(Gyeongsang National University)

Schulman, Michael Abraham. 2009. ‘We learn English for our revolution’: English Education in North Korea. The British & American Language and Literature English language usage is thought of as a barometer of a nation’s modernity. Although North Korea in recent years has made strides in English education, particularly in obtaining native-speaking teachers, they are still behind in many areas of development. This paper reviews the few available academic and journalistic publications on English education in North Korea, through pre-war Korea, cold war, and the new millennium as English has grown in use and value around the world. It goes on to review the current state of affairs of ideology-driven English-language education in North Korea, utilizing personal interviews with key figures in the efforts to bring English education to North Korea. It concludes with an appraisal of the situation.

Key Words: English education, North Korea, Tim Kearns, Rev. Don Borrie, Grahame Bilbow, The British Council, New Zealand/Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Friendship Society (NZ-DPRK Society), The Global Aid Network (GAIN), Institute for Strategic Reconciliation (ISR), Juche idea, Kim Jong Il, Kim Il Song

1. INTRODUCTION

As the lingua franca of the world, English is often thought of as a barometer of a nation’s cultural, financial,

scientific, and technological modernity. In Korea, there is an expectation for educated people to communicate in

fluent English (Prey 9). Similarly, all over the world, the ability to speak English has become an indicator of

personal status, sophistication, and worldliness. As a result, English has become a business, which is an indicator of

a nation’s aspiration for modernity and international status (Singh, Kell, and Pandian 106). As communist and

former communist nations rush to develop, North Korea struggles to keep up. Despite having developed nuclear

arms, the country lags behind in many areas of development.

Since the report given by Song in “The Juche Ideology: English in North Korea” in 2002, North Korea’s progress

in obtaining native English speaking instructors, however small in number the arriving natives have been, has risen

in recent years. The number of North Koreans taking the TOEFL since 1999 has increased three-fold to 4,783 test

takers in 2005-6 ("Once-Banned Tongue Is All the Talk in N. Korea: Finding Good English

Teachers Difficult in Pyongyang."). In 2008, North Korea scored a 72 on the internet-based TOEFL (out of a

maximum of 120), while South Korea scored a 78, the Chinese scored a 76, and the Japanese scored a 66. There is

still much room to grow; Finnish is as distant from English as Korean, while Finland scored a 97 in the same year

(“Test and Score Data Summary for TOEFL Internet-based and Paper-based Tests”).

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This paper is based on academic and journalistic publications, most of which were published within the last fifteen

years, and internet informational resources on English education in North Korea. It also uses personal

correspondence with key figures in the Inner Circle in the effort to send native-speakers to North Korea.

This paper first reviews the history of English in North Korea, and goes on to examine the current state of affairs in

English education in North Korea, and concludes with an appraisal of the situation.

2. HISTORY OF ENGLISH EDUCATION IN NORTH KOREA

Politics is rarely the sole impetus for a language’s introduction into a country previously not exposed to it.

Missionary, military, and business interests usually accompany and often supersede it during a foreign presence,

however limited its influence at first may be. The introduction of English to North and South Korea was no

different.

2.1 Pre-War Korea

English was first introduced to Korea in 1882-3 after the signing of the treaties of amity (friendship) with the

United States and Great Britain. Under Japanese colonial rule from 1910, English was available to a select few who

attended high school. After the start of the war between Japan and the United States in 1941 to its end in 1945,

English education was banned. Before the partition of Korea (1945-8), English education was sporadic in the

Russian sphere of occupation north of the 38th parallel. During this period, Russian quickly became the most

prominent foreign language in the North, as English became in the South.

2.2 The ’50s to ’70s

With the ceasefire between the North and the South in 1953, the teaching of English and Japanese came to an end

during the North’s campaign for the “purification” of Korean, an effort limiting foreign influence. A watershed was

reached in 1964 when the North Korean Workers’ Party (communist party) of the Central Committee issued an edict

promoting foreign language study; English education in secondary schools began again. English and Russian were

taught on a 50/50 basis, but students did not choose the language they took (Kaplan and Baldauf 1028). In part, its

justification came from Kim Il Sung’s idea of another war with the West. In 1971, Kim Il Sung, in reference to

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English language learning, said: “In order to win the battle, you have to know your enemies language” (“북한의 외

국어교육:러시아어에서 영어위주로). In addition, he had dictated to the people of the North that they “must be

able to say military words such as ‘raise your hands’ or ‘we will not shoot if you drop your guns and surrender’ in

English and Japanese” (“북한의 외국어교육:러시아어에서 ”영어위주로 ).

2.3 Late Cold War: The Rising Star of the English Language

North Korea’s recognition of America’s rising prestige with the opening of diplomatic relations with China, and

the Soviet Union’s diminishing status due to a weak economy and ethnic divisions, English had become the sole

mandatory foreign language in secondary schools by 1975, replacing Russian (“북한의 외국어교육:러시아어에서

영어위주로). Out of about 500 students studying abroad in 1979, 100 were studying in Guyana; Guyana was the

only English-speaking nation North Korea had close relations with (Park 273). The year 1980 saw English and

Russian now taught on an 80/20 basis, which Kaplan and Baldauf believed, in view of the competition between the

North and South, might have been motivated by the need for scientific and technological knowledge (1028).

According to Park, 7.5% of the six-year secondary school curriculum in 1984 was taken by foreign language study,

a good portion of that being English language (273). By 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, English

completely replaced Russian as the sole foreign language in secondary schools.

2.4 Post-Soviet Era

Kyeong-ok Kim (alias), a defector now in South Korea who taught English in North Korea in the ‘90s, said the

provisions for and conditions in schools were poor. She reports that there were fifty students for each class.1

Students shared textbooks, and reused them for several years. Moreover, the textbook ordinarily did not give

enough classroom content to support her class; teachers had to supplement it with their own knowledge. Kim’s

salary was 100 won a month. She observed that those who showed interest in English usually went on to study it at

university (“I was an English Teacher in North Korea.”)

1 In 2003, the North Korean Ministry of Education stated that the teacher to student ration was actually 1:21 (Tan and Postiglione). Whether this

number changed significantly in ten years, the ratio is higher for English classrooms, the teacher defector was mistaken or lied, or the North

Korean government was giving misinformation are unknown.

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The government sanctioned English language teaching on the national TV network in 1993, in which English “was

possibly their [North Korea’s] only ticket to surviving as the only viable communist nation in the world” (Baik 128-

9).

2.5 New Millennium

From the new millennium, there were a number of diplomatic overtures made by North Korea regarding cultural

exchanges and English. In October 2000, Kim Jong Il asked US Secretary of State Madeline Albright for native-

English speaking instructors.2 3 In the same year, UN delegates from North Korea visited Georgetown University

and American University. In the fall of 2001, North Korean students attended training in English and international

trade at Portland State University. A year later, the British Council, an international cultural relations organization,

sent three British teacher trainers to North Korea after the two nations established diplomatic relations (“English

Education in North Korea: A Peak into the Unknown”). Yet, to this day, no diplomatic relations exist between the

US and North Korea.

3. CURRENT STATE OF ENGLISH EDUCATION IN NORTH KOREA

3.1 Context

3.1.1 Ideology-Based English

Song believes that English has perhaps reached its current level of importance because of both the regime’s need

for science and technology knowledge and the need for a universal medium to propagate Kim Il Sung’s own brand

of communist ideology (the juche idea) to the rest of the world, particular to the third world. Kim’s third world

project was a failure. Song also states that English language learning is a tool for the regime to strengthen its hold

on its people, with “ideology-driven English-language education likely to remain ideology-based for some time to

come” (Song 51).

2 Song says Kim might have been unhappy with his own translators (Song 51). This might have some weight; the Korean Central News Agency

of the DPRK (North Korea) often uses tortured prose to describe its adversary: “The US imperialist robbers have stretched their crooked tentacle

of crime-woven aggression with wild ambition,” where the US will “Meet the fate of forlorn wandering spirits,” while calling a North Korean

defector a “dirty and silly guy” (“North Korea's Confusing Brand of English”).

3 In the 80’s, Kim Jong Il himself went to Malta and learned English up to an intermediate level (Smith 111).

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A dialogue from a middle school English textbook is illustrative of North Korea’s “ideology-driven” English

education:

Teacher: Han Il Nam, how do you spell the word “revolution”?Student: R-E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-NTeacher: Very good, thank you. Sit down. Li Chol Su, what’s the Korean for

“revolution”?Student: Hyekmyeng.Teacher: Well, Kim In Su, what do you learn English for?Student: For our revolution.Teacher: That’s right, we learn English for our revolution. (Baik 313-4).

Everything must serve the revolution, including education. “All levels of education are completely politicized and

exist to buttress the socialist system” (Park 269).

From Song, a paradox can be read confronting the regime. English is needed to advance, yet language education is

rarely separable from cultural influence. Kim Jong Il and his successor will have to, at the same time, expose the

North to and protect itself from foreign influence (Song 47). Perhaps, the North will continue to import English

instructors from the third world, while minimizing the risk of exposing itself to Western values.

3.1.2 Limited Exposure to the Outside World

Most officials learn English in North Korea. A few top students leave the country, many to India, and learn

English through movies like “Jaws” and “Titanic” ("Once-Banned Tongue Is All the Talk in N. Korea: Finding

Good English Teachers Difficult in Pyongyang."). But these are the exceptions.

[V]irtually no one in North Korea, except the foreign diplomats of the highest rank, ever meets or converses with an English speaking foreigner. Moreover, it also means that very few people, except those who actually inspect and translate foreign publications written in English, are ever actually exposed to English medium reading materials(Baik 211).

In addition, “unlike China or Cuba, there is no channel of underground information (e.g. Voice of America, BBC)

through which people that are dissident from the current ‘regime of truth’ in North Korea can find out about the

world outside” (Baik 215). Cell phones were completely banned in 2004, and the few who have internet access

cannot reach outside of the country (Zeller).

3.1.3 North Korean Approach to English Education

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Kyeong-ok Kim (alias) says this about how English is conducted in North Korea:

I think the English I learned is not American English nor British English but North Korean English. When you go to middle school, teachers show you pictures, tell you a word or an easy sentence which explain the pictures, and make you repeat after. After doing that for 11 hours, we get the hint of how English is put together. After that, we learn phonetic signs for four hours. The styles of learning grammar aren’t really different from that of South Korea, but learning how to speak English is very different (“I was an English Teacher in North Korea.”).

With nearly all North Koreans’ exposure to anything foreign completely restricted, Nick Shaw, a Briton currently

teaching in North Korea sent by the British Council, says exposure is limited to schools and universities found in

“old” textbooks (“Teaching English in N.K.”). The exception is three universities in Pyongyang that use up-to-date

language teaching materials. However, most students use English translations of the aphorisms of Kim Il Sung and

19th century authors like Charles Dickens as learning materials. The best libraries in Pyongyang that were accessible

to a Canadian teacher had no books from the West produced in the last fifty years ("Once-Banned Tongue Is All the

Talk in N. Korea: Finding Good English Teachers Difficult in Pyongyang.") For freshman English classes at

Pyongyang universities, simple greetings are continuously practiced, with emphasis on pronunciation. English

classes are conducted in Korean (“Pyongyang College of Foreign Languages Allows Escape from ‘Closed

Society’”).

3.1.4 Analysis of English Language Textbooks

With the hermetic seal that blocks North Korea from the rest of the world, much of the information about English

education comes from analyses of English textbooks used in North Korea. Since studies on education in North

Korea, let alone English education, are rare and limited to its political ideology or defectors’ reports, textbook

analysis is the only way to deduce the teaching methods used in English education in North Korea. Kim and Choi

compare textbooks and teaching methods in the North and South. According to the authors, English teaching in the

North utilizes both the oral and grammatical methods in a teacher-centered classroom. The authors state that North

Korean educators employ Russian foreign language teaching methodology from the 1960s, citing Mlikotin’s idea of

“conscious automation”, which is language transferred from the conscious to the unconscious mind, making the

employment of language a habit (Kim and Choi 193). Through the analysis of textbooks, “English teaching in

North Korea places an emphasis on cultivating students’ ability to produce oral language by repetition and

memorization of material rather than developing the communicative ability to be able to engage in longer discourse”

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(193). In contrast, in South Korea, since the seventh national curriculum (1997), educational policy has been

fostering communicative ability (193).

3.2 Native Speakers in North Korea

3.2.1 The British Council’s Teacher Training Program

Since 2002, the British Council has been sending two teacher trainers every year. This figure has recently risen to

four. In an interview with the author, Grahame Bilbow, Director of English at the British Council in Beijing, has

remarked that the program has been run quite smoothly. The Council is “delivering high quality courses in teacher

development for English teachers and education professionals, developing a group of Korean teacher trainers, [and

is] working on curriculum and materials development with universities and the Ministry of Education” (G. Bilbow,

personal communication, May 8, 2009). Some of the activities in the teacher development program entail

pedagogical theory, classroom methodology, lesson planning, classroom observation and feedback, and English

language instruction for about 450 North Korean teacher-trainees and professors ("영국, 북한에 원어민 영국, 북한

에 원어민 영어교육 지원 연장.확대 « 한국의 대표 진보언론 ”민중의소리 ).4 The Council offers the latest EFL

teaching methodologies, stressing student-centered, communicative teaching methods based on a task-based syllabus

(G. Bilbow, personal communication, May 8, 2009). Brian Stott, English project manager from the British Council,

says:

[The teacher training program] will be used to develop English teacher training capacity within the DPRK [North Korea] higher and secondary education system [where North Korean English teachers] will later be deployed to provincial education universities and colleges as well as schools [where] the project [will have] an obvious multiplier effect (“Teaching English in N.K.”).

By 2010, because of high demand, the Council will expand its program, perhaps to send more native-speaking

teacher trainers ("영국, 북한에 원어민 영국, 북한에 원어민 영어교육 지원 연장.확대 « 한국의 대표 진보언론

”민중의소리 ).

3.2.2 Tim Kearns and the New Zealand/Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Friendship (NZ/DPRK) Society

4 Native-speaking teacher trainers estimate the professors’ fluency at an intermediate level ("영국, 북한에 원어민 영국, 북한에 원어

민 영어교육 지원 연장.확대 « 한국의 대표 진보언론 ”민중의소리 ).

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In 2006, Tim Kearns, a New Zealander, was sent by The New Zealand/DPRK Friendship Society, an organization

established by theologian Don Borrie and an economist in 1973. Kearns served as a volunteer teacher at Kumsong

College and Kumsong Middle School No. 1, first for six, then four weeks (D. Borrie, personal communication, May

5, 2009; T. Kearns, personal communication, May 15, 2009). Kearns observes that the North Koreans “were clearly

more at ease talking about wife-swapping than their country's nuclear program or the all-pervasive Marxist regime.

How the rest of the world sees North Korea is simply something we cannot discuss” (“A Look Behind the Curtain of

Repression and Isolation.”). Kearns followed the curriculum for the younger grades, but was encouraged to use his

own teaching style for the older grades, using the communicative method to stimulate group and class discussion

and debate. English teachers and the administration were open to a “liberal delivery” of the curriculum. While his

North Korean colleagues lectured, Kearns was able to employ pair and group discussions, drama, role-plays, debate,

and the occasional “odd experiment,” in classes with about 25 students (T. Kearns, personal communication, May

15, 2009). He would hold after-class conversation sessions with a few of his students, where his students expressed

interest in Kearns’ home country of New Zealand, and, in particular, sports. Kearns was impressed with the level of

English of his students, which “would shame a few native speakers,” stating that they, as second language learners

often have, had a better grasp at grammar. Moreover, he had no discipline problems – his students would greet

while standing, giving a hearty “Good morning, sir!” at the beginning of every class (T. Kearns, personal

communication, May 15, 2009). The North Korean English teachers were passionate about English, teaching, and

expressed interest in Kearns’ teaching techniques (“NZ Friendship School”). Yet, their source material was scarce,

and although some of the better equipped schools had British textbooks published by Oxford, they were, according

to Kearns, dated. Moreover, there was a dearth of authentic material. Despite this, Kearns’ students were highly

motivated, where he estimates that 90% of them will enter the computer science field. Kearns hopes to return some

day, though he can only have contact with one person via email since internet access is so scarce (T. Kearns,

personal communication, May 15, 2009).

The New Zealand/DPRK Friendship Society is, according to Borrie in an interview with the author, investigating

the possibility of sending a retired New Zealander couple to teach in North Korea. Borrie states that his

organization is assisting in facilitating other New Zealander educational contacts entering in negotiations with North

Korea on their own volition (D. Borrie, personal communication, May 5, 2009).

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3.2.2 The Global Aid Network (GAIN)

The Global Aid Network (GAIN), a Canadian humanitarian relief organization, sent teachers to train scientists and

engineers in English in Pyongyang in 2004. A year later, the North Korean government asked for GAIN to

withdraw, but has recently been invited back to send more native teachers (“북한,영어교사 양성에 높은 관심”).5

On GAIN’s website as of May 2009, there is an advertisement for a three-month position teaching English at the

English training program at the Kum Song Computer Talent Training Centre (KCTTC) in Pyongyang for selected

students (“English Instructors Needed - Global Aid Network, Canada”). The position is open to only Canadian

citizens.

3.2.3 Institute for Strategic Reconciliation (ISR)

In 2001, South Korea’s Sunshine Policy, supported by the US’s “coordinated engagement,” included proposals for

American educators to teach in North Korea (“Nautilus Institute Policy Forum Online: North Korea: Avoid Another

Crossroads”). It finally happened in July 2008 when Americans were invited to teach through a “knowledge

exchange” project. Though the Institute for Strategic Reconciliation (ISR), an American non-for-profit think tank,

nine college students, among them five second-generation Korean Americans, taught in middle schools and high

schools (“English Lesson in N. Korea”). This effort is just a single drop in a vast sea of mutual antagonism.

Whether the necessary climate for more cultural exchanges with the US will exist in the near future remains to be

seen.

4. CONCLUSION

According to Kim Il Sung in his 1977 Theses on Socialist Education, a “good” education is the means for

correcting the errors of the past, the protection of the revolution from “reactionaries” in the present, and, in the end,

achieving communism. His will, expressed in his corpus of writings, became, and still becomes, official policy

(“Theses on Socialist Education”).

5 Warren Harder, a Canadian, however, was recently sent through the China Educational Exchange, a US-Chinese non-governmental

organization, and taught in North Korea for six weeks (“A Challenge for Peaceful Engagement”).

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On the assumption that once a student reaches university, their instructors’ level of English ability must be greater

than their counterparts in secondary and primary schools. No instructor, other than one either for a considerable

number of years was immersed in English in an English-speaking nation, or a native-speaker will do. This need will

become more apparent as more North Koreans attend institutions of higher learning.

The year 2002 was a defining moment, with the British Council sending the first native-English speaking teacher

trainers. As to whether this will be a direction the North will continue to take remains to be seen. But, the North

Korean state, as the exclusive provider of goods and services, employment, culture, and information, whose sole

intention is to remain in power, will only continued to be supported and expand English education if it remains to be

beneficial to the state and to the juche idea. “The purpose of learning and introducing things from abroad should

always be to gain a better understanding of our own things and to carry out our revolution and construction more

efficiently” (“Theses on Socialist Education”).

It is likely that English education will continue to be ideologically-influenced as an antidote to the growing

necessity of openness that studying English requires. Tan and Postiglione state that as knowledge of the outside

world grows the task of indoctrination increases (271). Kaplan and Baldauf assert that the North Korean

government has tried hard to create a completely monolingual society with one objective (1031). Foreign

languages, like English, are seen as a means for socialist construction, taught for political purposes (Kaplan and

Baldauf, 2005).

In 1958, Kim Il Sung delivered a speech on educational matters, giving six major goals for school instruction; the

second is relevant here: “[T]hings new are destined to conquer things old” (Kim, Hyung-chan 836). English has

been the medium of communication for much of the world for some time now; although North Korea has made

progress in the provision of English education, however small, in recent years, much work remains.

Francis Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’ is the final destination of mankind’s ideological evolution. It is where

western liberal democracy is the final human government - witnessed from the collapse of the Soviet Union. We

might have to wait to the final end of the cold war until North Korea pulls ahead in English education with

determined stride, among other things, and join the world community (“The End of History?”).

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