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By Park Si-soo
For many Koreans, learning English is a self-imposed, never-ending headache ― the language is too challenging to master but too charming to let go.
As a result, many people ― young and old, wealthy and poor ― spend substantial money polishing their English ability every year. But their lack of commitment and action, out of many excuses, has left the nation's average level of English proficiency stuck in "moderate" for many years, with little progress made to ascend to the next level.
A recent survey of 1,000 adults (aged 19-59) showed this allegation is well grounded. Market researcher Embrain Trend Monitor said 86 percent of participants had a desire to be fluent in English but only 19.6 percent were learning the language.
Major reasons for not learning English were "rare use of English in daily life," "little time to learn English" and "slow improvement."
The survey broke down reasons why they wanted to learn English. The biggest portion, 46.7 percent, said fluent English would present them with "new opportunities."
Second was "to avoid facing unpleasant situations overseas" (44.3 percent), followed by "English fluency helps sharpen personal competitiveness" (43.4 percent), "for a better future" (41.7 percent), and "to have a better life in a globalized society" (30.9 percent).
Next were "to collect, read and comprehend overseas information produced in English" (24.9 percent) and "for business reasons" (16.2 percent).
Those in their 50s had the strongest desire to learn English.
