Roh Supports English as 2nd Official Language
Roh Supports English as 2nd Official Language
SINGAPORE - President Roh Moo-hyun showed his support Thursday for making English the country`s second official language.
In a meeting with Cheong Wa Dae correspondents here, Roh vowed to introduce the changes incrementally. "We will implement the idea regionally and expand it (throughout the nation)," he said. Roh arrived in the city-state Wednesday.
"Although there is some opposition, it is necessary to expand the use of English and English education," he said.
The Ministry of Finance and Economy plans to build around 100 special regional zones across the country, including areas for teaching English to young Koreans and for accommodating foreigners.
In a separate move, Gyeonggi Province plans to build an "English Village," an independent campus offering English immersion classes for teenage students in Paju, a suburban city northwest of Seoul.
With a ground-breaking ceremony scheduled in August 2004 for planned completion in March 2006, the project is expected to be a milestone in Korea`s efforts to help its people enhance their English skills.
Provincial governments in Jeju and Incheon have also expressed interest in similar projects.
In 2001, the then-ruling Millennium Democratic Party attempted to promote English as a second official language on Jeju Island as part of an effort to transform it into an international free trade city, but failed.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism opposed the move, saying making English a second official language would not necessarily make Jeju thrive economically like Hong Kong and Singapore. Supporters of the dual language policy say that adopting English as a second official language is necessary to make Korean competitive in the age of information and globalization.
Others, however, oppose it, worrying that such a policy would lead to the loss of Korean identity and language.
According to linguists, 510 million people around the world speak English as their mother tongue and another 350 million are bilingual English speakers.
A recent survey by a Hong Kong government agency shows that Koreans are the least capable in spoken English ability among their counterparts in 12 Asian countries, including Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan.