'Writing is the future of English education' 코리아 타임즈신문 기사(패트릭 어학원 원장 인터뷰)

[패트릭어학원]

'Writing is the future of English education'

Patrick Language Institute Executive Director Patrick Park

By Jung Min-ho

The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) has long dominated the English education market in Korea as one of the most common testing tools measuring one's English proficiency.

Patrick Park, 34, executive director at the Patrick Language Institute, believes the best days of TOEIC, which only eval‎uate the test-takers' reading and listening abilities, are over.

"The standard has changed," Park said in an interview with The Korea Times last week. "An increasing number of companies want their employees to work with their English, such as exchanging formal emails, instead of simply being able to communicate in English."

Believing that English writing ability will be more valued and emphasized, he chose to be a writing teacher for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).

"I came to the conclusion after analyzing the trend of English education here," he said.

"In the '90s, listening was hot; people flocked into institutes where they could learn English with American shows like ‘Friends'. Speaking brought a new sensation in the 2000s. The next is writing."

He even thinks that tests for English writing ability will be created and firms will take it seriously because the ability is closely related to real business.

"TOEIC is nothing more than just a measure of an applicants' sincerity. Companies do not expect them to be good at handling foreign buyers just because their TOEIC score is high."

He said a combination of wrong teaching methods and the demand for high scores rather than real English improvement has slowly killed TOEIC over the past 20 years.

He likened wrong teaching methods, such as rote memorization and studying with leaked questions, to taking diarrhea medicines to lose weight.

"In the end, you have to work out to lose weight healthily. The same thing applies to learning English," Park said. "To be good at English, it should be taken as something you have to live with, instead of a single-shot challenge."

Students are also guilty of the wrong English teaching methods, which are preval‎ent across the country, he said, because many of them, in fact, do not want to improve their English.

"You know what is funny? The name of (the largest) private English institute is Hackers, not teachers. When the news broke out it leaked TOEIC questions, students flocked into it," Park said.

That was the biggest reason why he decided to open his own English language institute after working for other ones for many years. Some owners even asked him to give up teaching English to students.

Born in the U.S. state of Georgia, Patrick came to Korea at the age of five to attend Korean elementary and middle school. He grew up learning both Korean and English, which now gives him a significant advantage in teaching his students.

"While some students have problems with their English, others have issues with writing itself, which needs a different teaching approach," he said. "Being bilingual definitely helps me for that."

Teaching English was not his first job. After studying journalism at Rutgers University in New Jersey and he started working for an English newspaper in Korea.

"Students need to find fun and value in learning English," Park said. "If you cannot like it, I think, you should not do it."

mj6c2@ktimes.co.kr

출처 : http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2014/05/181_157590.html