How Kim Su-bong Helped His Daughter Learn English for University

English may seldom come up in everyday life in South Korea, but it has long mattered in school and university admissions. It can continue to count when people apply for work and seek promotion.

Parents have reason to pay attention to how their children learn it, particularly in a society that sets such store by education.

One Parent’s Account of Teaching English

Kim Su-bong’s How I Taught English for a Top U.S. University describes what he did while helping his daughter learn English.

Kim was an office worker who worked out his own approach to English instruction. His daughter went on to study at Duke University in the United States.

The book recounts what happened as they worked together and what he learned from it.

A Father Who Took Her Ambitions Seriously

The book has much more room for what happened between a father and daughter than for educational theory. Kim writes about how it felt to help her study and the situations they got into along the way.

What stayed with me was a moment away from the lessons. While watching television, his daughter said she wanted to be a member of the International Olympic Committee when she grew up. Kim took the idea seriously enough to sit down with her, find out what it would involve and contact the relevant organisations. The quality of his attention is plain in that small episode.

The English Curriculum

The book gives a place to Kim’s ideas about teaching alongside the family story. His curriculum follows eight stages.

Eight Stages toward Advanced English

1. Stage 1. Get comfortable with English (grades 3–4)
2. Stage 2. Practise pronunciation and rhythm (grade 5)
3. Stage 3. Learn English storybooks by heart (grades 5–6)
4. Stage 4. Study sentence structure for reading (grades 6–8)
5. Stage 5. Practise listening with gap-fill exercises (grades 7–11)
6. Stage 6. Put spoken English into practice (grades 6–12)
7. Stage 7. Develop writing and essay skills (grades 9–12)
8. Stage 8. Bring the skills together in presentations (grades 11–12)

By the standards of families starting with English in preschool, Kim’s daughter began relatively late.

She was in third grade when they started. By the time she finished high school, she was ready to go to Duke. The book gives enough detail to see how much work took place between those two points.

One student’s path can’t settle when someone else should begin. It shows what was possible with time, steady attention and a goal she wanted to reach.

The book was published in 2006 and reflects the choices available to families at the time. It is still an absorbing account of a parent taking a child’s education seriously.

Book Information

How I Taught English for a Top U.S. University (Korean title, translated)

Author

Kim Su-bong

Publication date

10 January 2006

View the book on YES24

We may earn a commission on purchases made through the affiliate link in this article.