English educator leads global online campaign

Min Byoung-chul, professor of international studies at Konkuk University, is full of drive and enthusiasm. He is constantly conjuring up new ideas to redefine and reinvent what he does.

And Min does a lot, even by the high standards he sets. His track record speaks volumes about his progress. Back in the early 1980s, Min was catapulted into national stardom as his television program “Min Byoung-chul’s Practical English” on MBC gained huge popularity.

The program was so popular that English teachers in high schools across the nation woke up at dawn to listen to every word of Min’s lectures, which placed importance on speaking ability.

Min’s stress on speaking proficiency sent a jolt to the country’s grammar-oriented English education. Many of today’s English speaking programs at private institutes in Korea have some elements inspired and initiated by Min’s pioneering methodology.

In recent years, Min had charged into different segments in the English education field, such as interactive online courses and mobile applications for Korean learners of English.

But the aforementioned is just part of what Min is doing as a renowned educator and founder of an international campaign called the Sunfull Movement, which fights against derogatory and malicious comments and postings on the Internet.

As a professor, Min teaches Business English in an unprecedented way. Rather than offering cookie-cutter classes, Min has installed a highly challenging and potentially lucrative extracurricular project for his students: development of smartphone applications.

Min, an expert on English education, is also putting out books on the topic and introducing mobile applications that incorporate his language-learning techniques. He also actively crisscrosses the nation to offer special lectures on effective ways of learning English.

Aside from English education, Min is focused on his new project on the Internet, a venue of potentially dangerous confrontations. Min said that heartless comments in cyberspace were deeply hurting a number of innocent people and driving some, in extreme cases, to commit suicide.

A growing number of students and adults are joining Min’s Sunfull campaign to encourage each other on the Web by posting positive comments, and he said he plans to spread the campaign beyond Korea.

The Korean government has recognized Min’s efforts. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade appointed Min as an Ambassador for Cyber Public Diplomacy last month, and Min said he would meet with foreign diplomats in Korea to expand his campaign, starting from neighboring countries such as China and Japan.

Following are excerpts from a recent interview with Min.

Korea Herald: Tell us a brief introduction about the purpose of the Sunfull movement.

Min Byoung-chul: The Sunfull movement has begun to prevent verbal abuse in cyberspace and school violence. Not only in Korea but also outside of the country, people often hurt others with heartless comments and words. Such heartless words damage people like a “silenced gun.”

The movement is based on the three basic principles: “tell only the truth, respect others, and considering that, write anything freely.” It started by students and now it has expanded even to congressmen, businesses and the military. It is now going national. Not just students but grown-ups should take the message “say good words,” which has the power to dispel misunderstandings between people.

KH: What did you feel operating the Sunfull movement?

Min: A while ago, a student from Woosong Middle School became paralyzed after getting in a car accident on the way to an excursion in Gangwon Province. When he was in his sickbed, his classmates visited him to cheer him up by giving him Sunfull. Then surprisingly, he recovered much better than doctors expected and he can now live without a respirator. Doctors said that it was miraculous since the possibility of recovering to that extent was just under 1 percent. This story shows that Sunfull can affect people positively not only the receiver but also the givers and all the others around.

We are planning to perform a “Sunfull Dance” event all over the country to cheer up the student. Students from Jeongwang High School in Gwangju, who produced a wonderful Sunfull Dance video, and a professional choreographers are now working hard to better compose the dance, aiming for the presentation event this month. We intend to scale this up to the whole country early next year.

KH: Tell us about damage that malicious comments are causing.

Min: There was an unpleasant incident in the restaurant Chaesundang this year between a female employee and a client. Unconfirmed rumors about them quickly circulated online and that led to negative reactions including malicious leakage of the two people’s personal data, an action that certainly hurt both the employee and the client.

We could witness many other cases, for example, a sports reporter’s suicide after getting involved in a false love scandal, a high-school girl’s suicide due to being bullied and the malicious replies speaking ill of London Olympics gold medalists Yang Hak-sun and Ki Bo-bae.

KH: How can we participate in the Sunfull movement?

Min: Whoever sees vicious replies on the Internet should not just ignore them, but instead should leave “Sunfull” below those vicious replies to change the atmosphere in a positive way. Also, we should not only react to negative articles. We should also make positive reactions for positive events, too.

To participate in the movement, read articles or blog postings on the Internet and leave some positive and persuasive replies. After that, copy your reply and the website’s address and paste them on the following official website of the Sunfull movement: www.sunfull.or.kr.

KH: Will the ruling that the “Internet real-name system” is unconstitutional also affect the Sunfull movement?

Min: There can be some restrictions because it is an Internet-based campaign. Even so, we regard this as an opportunity to put more effort to make a better, cleaner cyberspace.

KH: Do you have any special plan as an Ambassador for Cyber Public Diplomacy?

Min: The Sunfull movement has a powerful influence around the world regardless of time and space, because it is performed on the Internet. Therefore, I am going to meet ambassadors and foreign students in Korea to encourage them to communicate with each other more and better. Students can share their thoughts, and this way, we aim to promote mutual understanding among the countries in cyberspace.

We are going to start up with the neighboring countries like China and Japan. The new Chinese idol group, Feeling Girls, recently visited Korea to film a music video and I nominated the group as the Chinese Sunfull delegate. We hope that the movement will expand even to Europe and America in near the future.

KH: How do you teach students as a professor at Konkuk University?

Min: I have been working as a professor at Konkuk University since 2009 and now I am in charge of a Business English class in the International Studies Department. In class, I teach students how to apply their creative ideas to business English.

Other than the class, I am carrying forward a special project to develop creative smartphone applications. My past experience of developing my own English-study application called “Auto-speaking” is the background of this project. I planned the project two years ago to promote students’ creativity and potential, which can be very useful when the students face various circumstances in business. I am trying to show students that we can actually create something even without money.

By introducing investment companies and related government agencies including the Korea Tourism Organization to the students, I could teach the basic steps of establishing a business while producing practical results and gains. Companies and agencies were eager to participate in the project since they have gotten benefits through the project as they could harvest meaningful values from a small amount of input.

KH: How should we study English more effectively?

Min: I had once said in the past that “if a person wants to speak English well, he (or she) should write down what he thinks meaningful to him, and then ask a native speaker to translate it into English. And he should start learning English by mastering the translated expressions.” I am pretty sure that can still be a very successful method of learning English more effectively.

Practical English is a skill. So, basic patterns must be memorized before starting to study English. Based on this attitude, one can make further comprehension and understanding on more complicated English content.

Likewise, we cannot speak English well if we only practice listening and reading. I believe that “a person can understand whatever he himself is able to speak. However, he cannot always say everything that he can understand.”

From this point of view, current Korean public English education does not consider that speaking ability is fully established in the early stage of education. Therefore, public English education in Korea should be offered much earlier and it should be rearranged, putting more importance on speaking. Education authorities should start English courses in the first grade and then deepen them into debate-based learning in middle and high school.

Koreans often think that the Korean people are not that good at English. But I do not think that is true. Koreans just have not had a enough time and opportunity to learn English. According to the 7th Educational Curriculum in Korea, the total sum of hours of English lessons in school during the six-year period is less than 30 days. Even worse, Korean elementary schools give students only 5.6 days of English courses during the entire four years between the third grade and the sixth. The figure makes a striking contrast to that of U.S., which stipulates that at least 100 to 115 days of Korean language education is required if a person wants to be qualified to work in Korean-related business.

KH: Do you have any special advice for English learners?

Min: To learn conversational English, you should not just memorize separate words or simple sentences. That is, don’t just memorize isolated sentences, but learn “cluster English” that is meaningful to you.

You should improve English pronunciation by actually practicing speaking. You don’t just listen to the audio materials, but speak at the same time as the person in the materials.

Based on the two steps, you can improve your English by learning simple expressions, phrases and patterns you have memorized before. The importance of reading is seen here. You may start reading with basic fairy-tale books when you are young, and then intensify it by reading newspapers. When you read newspapers, don’t stop reading even when you face words or expressions you don’t know; check them after you finish reading the entire article.

KH: What attitude should adults and college students adopt when learning English?

Min: A determination to allot a certain time and effort to studying English is the key. Even if you don’t have enough time to spare, you still can practice speaking while you commute to offices or schools. Organizing study groups with people interested in studying English speaking can be a good idea.

Fluent English speakers never master English by themselves. You should take courage and be ready to communicate in English. Korean people often lack such courage and they obsessively think that they must become a “perfect” English speaker, which ultimately hinders them from improving English. So, take courage if you really want to speak English well.

Profile

● Dr. Min Byoung-chul is a professor of international studies at Konkuk University in Seoul and the founder and chairman of the Sunfull Movement, an international campaign that fights against cyber-harassment.

● Min was appointed as an Ambassador for Cyber Public Diplomacy on Nov. 30 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in recognition of his contributions in countering online bullying. He was also awarded the Order of Civil Merit (Dong Baik Jang) by the Korean government in June 2011 for his role in launching the movement.

● For more than 10 years, Min presented his own English instruction TV programs on major Korean television networks. He is the author of BCM Practical English, which sold more than 1 million copies, and “Ugly Koreans and Ugly Americans,” a book examining cultural and behavioral differences between the two cultures.

● In 2005, Min hosted, in Beijing, the Five-Nation University Students’ English Peace Forum, “How to Achieve Peace in Northeast Asia.” The principal goal of these conferences is to promote friendship between Korea and the other countries (China, Japan, Russia and the United States) through the English language.

● In 1994, Min developed “The Practical English Contest,” which judges spontaneous practical English conversational ability. In 1996, it became the Korea-Japan Practical English Contest with Japanese contestants participating in this event. The goal of this contest is to promote friendship between Korea and Japan through English.

● Min earned his Doctorate of Education at Northern Illinois University in 2008. The American university awarded him Outstanding Alumnus of the Year for his cyber peace campaign as well as for his lifelong devotion to English education in Korea.

By Yang Sung-jin and Yoon Sung-won
(iinsight@heraldcorp.com">nsight@heraldcorp.com)   (swyoon@heraldcorp.com)