English Proficiency

Aside from a part of the Civil Service Examination and those tests administered by companies I've applied to in the past, I haven't taken any English proficiency exam in the Philippines. I once thought of taking the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) but I haven't gotten around to doing so.

The standardized tests that a student could take include TOEFL, TOEIC, and TEPS
for English, DELF for French, JPT and JLPT for Japanese, and TOPIK for Korean.

In order to graduate, one of the requirements for graduate students of the University is to take a 외국어 시험 (foreign language examination). We could either take an exam which will be administered by the University or take one of the standardized language tests. Based on what I've heard from other students, for the University-administered exam, they will give me a document that is in Korean, then I will have to translate it in English. I have no idea how long and what topic will the document be. I will definitely be in big trouble if the document is one that is technical. I then decided to take a standardized test. Since the possibility of me passing Level IV of the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) is nil, my only resort was to take the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), which I did last March 29, 2015.

Based on the student handbook, I just need to get a total score of 585. However, our major officer said I need a score of 700 or higher. I didn't ask for the reason. I surmised that probably it is because I already speak the language. I also thought that getting a score of 700 is most likely easier than translating a document or taking the TOPIK.

The result was released almost three weeks after, and I got a score of 980. Oh boy, was I relieved! I no longer have to worry about the foreign language examination.

When my labmates learned of my score, they called me "TOEIC 천재 (genius)". Whenever they introduce me to their friends, one of the things they would say about me is the score I got. Once in a while I would hear someone say "how I wish I would get the same score as Lynn did".

Before hearing all of those, I didn't care much about the score. All I wanted was to avoid the university-administered exam and the TOPIK. But I guess for a Korean student, who upon graduation will have better opportunity of landing a job if he/she has a high TOEIC score, it's a totally different story.

One commonality of all laboratories I've been to, here in our University and in other universities, is the presence of English proficiency books. In our laboratory for instance, every student have at least one book of TOEIC in their desk. They have books on grammar, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, speaking, and vocabulary. Also, almost every Korean student I've spoken to have had additional English lessons either online or by attending a 학원 (academy). They started attending these 학원s as early as when they are in the elementary.

All of these, does not come cheap. A set of books cost, at the least, 50,000원. Having individual tutorials usually cost 20,000-30,000원 per hour, the academies probably ask for the same amount. Should they decide to go to other countries such as the Philippines, Australia, Canada, United States, or the United Kingdom, in order to learn the language, then the expenses would increase exponentially.

The question then is: "After they have spent so much time and money, will they be able to communicate using the English language?" which I think should be their ultimate objective because this is what the TOEIC or any other standardized English examination is testing. Based on what I've observed, it is not always the case. One fellow graduate student for instance was studying vocabulary words the previous semester. To check how much he has learned, I took his book and read random words, to which he was able to give me the translations.  But that's it. When I asked him to, he couldn't use the words in forming sentences. This is the same for most of the Korean students, I've spoken to.

This got me thinking. Why is it so difficult for them to learn the English language? It is not as if they just started learning it in the university. Could it be because of the difference by which English and Korean sentences are constructed? (One reason why it's hard for me to learn the Korean language.) Or is it because when they study English, the explanation in the books and instruction videos (probably also by the teachers in school or academies) are in Korean? Or it might be because they only use English during the time that they are studying it and have no other venue to practice it? I don't think there's one particular reason. Instead it is due to a combination of different factors.

I really want to be able to help the students in our laboratory. What's the use that I am here when I couldn't even help them as they learn the language. As much as I hope I could teach them, I realized that I couldn't because I couldn't explain to them the same way that teachers in academies do. All I could offer is a venue for them to use the language. I could be their 'speaking buddy'. If only they would find the confidence to stark speaking with me in English. Even if it's just a sentence or two each day.