이번주 시사영어 강의 기사 : 한국의 조기 교육 열풍 [쉬운 글]

[조국현]

이번 주에는

'7세 고시'로 압축되는 한국의 조기 교육 열풍에 관한 내용을 가지고

영어훈련하겠습니다.

한국인이 영어로 글을 쓸 때 종종 저지르는 실수들을 저와 함께 알아보시죠.

[빨간색 부분은 강의 듣기 전에 먼저 고민해 보세요. 영어 고수가 되기 위한 훈련입니다]

[영어훈련 하면서 글쓴이의 논리를 감상하시면, 여러분의 논리력도 강해집니다]

Watching Korea’s early education fever

South Korea is a country well known for cutthroat children’s competitions and surprisingly early education. Indeed, many Korean parents send their children to a private English academy when they are as young as 4. When the child turns 5 or 6, the parents want him or her to enter an advanced-level private English academy that requires an entrance exam. Young Korean kids are therefore obliged to take the notoriously difficult exam for private education.

The difficulty of the entrance exam for 5 or 6-year-old children to enter a prime English academy is said to be at the 10th grade level, and some of the questions are as difficult as the Suneung, demanding analogical and logical thinking. If so, the exam certainly does not fit 5 or 6-year-old children. Some experts point out that a child at that age needs healthy emotional development, social interactions and creative thinking, rather than inference or logical reasoning.

Recently, a professor of child psychiatry warned that such a forced early education would not only hamper children’s normal brain development but also make young children suffer from anxiety and depression. Those children may develop an aggressive temper, emotional disorder or even schizophrenia. According to the professor, Korean parents’ early education fever may cause children psychological trauma and eventually end up sending a significant number of them to child psychiatry clinics later. It means that early childhood education may unwittingly turn into child abuse if pushed to the extreme or if it goes wrong.

중략.......