No English =(

While I was following the Olympics, on yahoo.com, they would list facts and statistics about each country.

Here are few statistics for Korea according to The World Factbook:

Religions:	Christian 26.3% (Protestant 19.7%, Roman Catholic 6.6%), Buddhist 23.2%, other or unknown 1.3%, none 49.3% (1995 census)
Languages:	Korean, English widely taught in junior high and high school
Literacy:	definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 97.9% male: 99.2% female: 96.6% (2002)

Here are the same statistics for Thailand:

Religions:	Buddhist 94.6%, Muslim 4.6%, Christian 0.7%, other 0.1% (2000 census)
Languages:	Thai, English (secondary language of the elite), ethnic and regional dialects
Literacy:	definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 92.6% male: 94.9% female: 90.5% (2000 census)

Did you notice anything eye-popping? For Thailand, it lists Thai and English. For Korea, it states: "Korean and English widely taught in junior high and high school." That basically means, no one can speak English, but it is widely taught.

From The Chosun Ilbo:

In the area of English conversation, Koreans ranked 134th (out of 147 countries), which is very near the bottom. This is the level of English in a country whose people, according to a Samsung Economic Research Institute report, spend W15 trillion a year on learning that language at private language schools and with private instructors.

Korea definitely spends a lot of money on English education. In addition, English is taught from an early age. Also, there are institutes, private tutoring, telephone English education, etc. everywhere in the country. So, why are there so few English speakers in Korea?

Below is a list of countries and the number of English speakers:

List in order of total speakers

Rank	Country	Total Population	Total English Speakers
1	United States	304,952,000	262,375,152
2	India	1,132,446,000	90,000,000
3	Nigeria	148,093,000	79,000,000
4	United Kingdom	60,975,000	59,600,000
5	Philippines	90,457,200	42,500,000
6	Germany	82,191,000	36,000,000
7	Canada	33,355,400	25,246,220
8	Australia	21,394,309	17,357,833
9	Pakistan	164,157,000	17,000,000
10	France	64,473,140	16,000,000
11	Italy	59,619,290	14,000,000
12	South Africa	47,850,700	13,700,000
13	Netherlands	16,445,000	12,000,000
14	Spain	46,063,000	10,000,000
15	Poland	38,115,967	9,200,000
16	Turkey	70,586,256	8,100,000
17	Cameroon	18,549,000	7,700,000
18	Malaysia	27,170,000	7,400,000
19	China	6,963,100(Hong Kong only)
20	Russia	141,888,900	6,955,315
21	Sweden	9,215,021	6,600,000
22	Zimbabwe	13,349,000	5,550,000
23	Romania	21,438,000	5,300,000
24	Belgium	10,584,534	5,100,000
25	Sierra Leone	5,866,000	4,900,000
26	Mexico	106,682,500	4,855,000
27	Greece	11,147,000	4,200,000
28	Tanzania	40,454,000	4,000,000
29	Austria	8,340,924	3,900,000
30	Ireland	4,422,100	3,850,000
31	Denmark	5,489,022	3,800,000
32	New Zealand	4,275,100	3,673,623
33	Bangladesh	158,665,000	3,500,000
34	Papua New Guinea	6,331,000	3,150,000
35	Liberia	3,750,000	3,100,000
36=	Finland	5,318,105	2,700,000
36=	Kenya	37,538,000	2,700,000
38	Jamaica	2,714,000	2,650,000
39	Portugal	10,623,000	2,600,000
40	Uganda	30,884,000	2,500,000
40=	Hong Kong	6,963,100	2,500,000
42	Czech Republic	10,403,136	2,100,000
43	Hungary	10,043,000	2,000,000
44	Puerto Rico	3,991,000	1,940,000
45=	Sri Lanka	19,299,000	1,910,000
45=	Zambia	11,922,000	1,910,000
47	Croatia	4,555,000	1,800,000
48	Singapore	4,588,600	1,793,245
49	Bulgaria	7,640,238	1,500,000
50=	Slovakia	5,402,273	1,400,000
50=	Ghana	23,478,000	1,400,000
52	Trinidad and Tobago		1,145,000
53	Slovenia		950,000
54	Lithuania		900,000
55	Guyana		680,000
56	Botswana		630,000
57	Estonia		590,000
58=	Latvia		540,000
58=	Malawi		540,000
60	Lesotho		500,000
61	Cyprus		420,000
62	Suriname		410,000
63	Namibia		314,000
64	Bahamas		288,000
65	Malta		280,000
66	Barbados		275,000
67	Belize		246,000
68	Luxembourg		220,000
69	Mauritius		202,000
70	Vanuatu		180,000
71	Fiji		176,000
72	Solomon Islands		175,000
73	Ethiopia		171,712
74	Guam		158,000
75	Brunei		144,000
76	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines		114,000
77	U.S. Virgin Islands		113,000
78=	Grenada		100,000
78=	Israel		100,000
80	Samoa		94,000
81	Japan		>93,500
82	Isle of Man		80,000
83	Bhutan		75,000
84	Switzerland		>73,400
85	Saint Lucia		71,000
86	Northern Mariana Islands		70,000
87	Antigua and Barbuda		68,000
88	American Samoa		67,000
89	Micronesia		64,000
90=	Bermuda		63,000
90=	Dominica		63,000
92	Marshall Islands		60,000
93	Swaziland		50,000
94	Aruba		44,000
95	Gambia		40,000
96	Saint Kitts and Nevis		39,000
97	Cayman Islands		36,000
98	Seychelles		33,000
99	Honduras		31,500
100=	Gibraltar		30,000
100=	Tonga		30,000
102	Kiribati		23,000
103=	Rwanda		20,000
103=	British Virgin Islands		20,000
105	Palau		18,500
106	Anguilla		12,000
107	Nauru		10,300
108	Dominican Republic		8,000
109	Saint Helena		5,400
110=	Cook Islands		4,000
110=	Montserrat		4,000
112	British Indian Ocean Territory		3,500
113	Lebanon		3,300
114	Niue		2,160
115	Falkland Islands		1,991
116	Netherlands Antilles		1,800
117	Norfolk Island		1,678
118	Turks and Caicos Islands		920
119	Guadeloupe		200
120	Saint Pierre and Miquelon		188
121	Pitcairn		46
122	Tokelau		40
	Cambodia
	Christmas Island
	Eritrea
	Guernsey
	Indonesia
	Jersey
	Korea
	Somalia
	Taiwan
	Thailand		6,549,329
	Bahrain
	Total		800-900 million

Overall, there are around 800-900 million people that can speak English. That's a pretty long list of countries.

Based on my experience here in Korea and teaching at HUFS, I have made a few observations:

1. Students focus too much on grammar rules. This is always fascinating to me. A lot of students understand grammar rules, but cannot speak or write without making grammar mistakes. Therefore, understanding the rules does not mean you have the ability to write or speak well in English. Instead of spending hundreds of hours learning rules, isn't it better to spend time practicing your writing and speaking?

2. Students study too much. Let's be honest. Studying sucks and it's boring. However, a lot of students study English like they're preparing for an exam. You cannot learn a language that way. I repeat, you cannot learn a language that way. However, you can get a high score on a language exam, as long as it's not an oral exam.

3. Students are stubborn about number 1 and 2.

4. Students are afraid to make mistakes. If you don't make a mistake, how can you learn?

5. Over the years, I've had some very successful students and some very unsuccessful students. The successful students have varied from police officers, university students, government officials, businessmen, etc. Therefore, I do not believe it's an age problem.

Mark Cuban, a very astute businessman and entrepreneur, said: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but hoping for a different outcome." How long have you been "studying" English? Is it time to try a different method?

Some students remind me of Sisyphus...

Here are my own experiences of studying foreign languages. (I've studied Spanish, Chinese, French, and Korean.)

Language Period of Study

Spanish 2 Years
Chinese 4 Years
Korean 2 weeks
French 3 weeks

I cannot write well in any of these languages. However, I can listen, read, and speak most of them with basic fluency, except French. I just practiced. No studying at all. Grammar rules? I don't know any. And by the way, the only reason I'm aware of English grammar rules, is because I'm teaching English. Otherwise, I would have no idea. Did you memorize all of the grammar rules for Hangul?