Korean students memorize everything to study for exams. Almost no teachers in school teach students how to write creative answers on exam papers. Thus, students feel lost when they are asked to submit papers in university. Nonetheless, university students are expected to write essays and papers in the majority of the classes, with a huge gap of students’ abilities in writing. However, there are not many professors in universities who teach the students how to think critically and write down their thoughts into words step by step, eventually making students feel lost in the middle of nowhere. Korean public schools desperately need writing classes for students to be more prepared before university level.
I personally had a valuable experience in learning to write as an exchange student in Singapore last year. The class I took was specific for writing. In fact, it was a basic level global studies course; the professor walked us through how to analyze materials, come up with our own answers, and organize the thoughts into words on the paper. I found it very interesting because I learned how to study provided materials thoroughly, and how to break down those pieces of information to have better understandings. I had some experiences in writing simple essays and casual writing pieces -- but not much of critical thinking processes using the given materials required. The professor and the teaching assistant gave detailed and personal feedback a few times throughout the semester. I really learned how to apply those critical thinking theories into my own pieces based on the progressive feedback. Then I started to wonder, why haven’t I encountered such a thing in Korea?
No offense Korea. As a senior in Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, I have eventually taught myself to write effectively from various experiences of writing for classes through trial and error. It just takes longer to get to a similar point, and without much guidance along the way. The Korean education system mostly focuses on competition among students for better grades, even in universities. There isn’t much room for students to explore and share their thoughts in pieces of writing, without worrying about their grades. Thus, such circumstances do not allow classes to offer proper writing trainings, as they do not seem attractive enough for students who are mostly interested in higher GPA.
So how should this be improved? I believe that writing courses should be offered from middle or high school level. I do acknowledge that there are a number of teenagers who have private lessons and tutoring in critical thinking and writing. However, it shouldn‘t be something that students go further out of schools’ classrooms to receive such education. We all know that we have to write and express our opinions in some way, so why not teach the students properly from the beginning?
Many things should be changed in order to implement writing courses in public education. Teachers would need special training, curriculums have to be changed, and teaching materials have to be developed. It will not be an easy journey to break through, but it is definitely something that needs to be done no matter how long it takes. As the technology progresses and more and more robots and machines threaten humans, developing critical thinking and expressing our own unique thoughts in the form of writing will be beneficial on the whole in the long term.
From Chae-ryoung Hong
Student of English Interpretation and Translation
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul
