Korea: Lee Slams Brakes on Transition Team's Enthusiasm

[Harold Schiffman]

Lee Slams Brakes on Transition Team's Enthusiasm

President-elect Lee Myung-bak seemed intent on curbing the runaway
enthusiasm of his Transition Committee, which has been alarming
Koreans with a welter of ever more ambitious plans for the future.
When the participants said ¡°good morning¡± in English, Lee snapped,
"Isn't that the kind of English expression even elementary
schoolchildren know?" During the closed-door meeting, a committee
member reportedly raised the question of overhauling Korean-English
transliteration, which had come up out of the blue a day earlier. Lee
stopped members from discussing the issue. "The Transition Committee
is not supposed to handle this issue in such detail,¡± he was quoted
as saying.

On the controversial matter of English-language education, Lee said
the committee has ¡°set a correct course.¡± But he added the
committee, which has drawn criticism with plans to introduce
¡°immersion¡± classes for all students and hire tens of thousands of
teachers, ¡°should take their hands off this issue from now on, since
the new administration will make careful preparations for its
implementation."

Lee expended some four-fifths of his 20-minute speech on the issue of
English-language education. At first, he laid stress on such an
education designed for both individual citizens and the entire
country. "Depending on their English skills, people can work in
different jobs, have different opportunities, and get different levels
of pay. Among non-English speaking countries, those where people have
a good command of English are far better off than the rest." He added,
"Unless we change, we won¡¯t be able to survive. With our country
sandwiched between China and Japan in Northeast Asia, the only way for
us to survive will be to change faster than China or Japan."

However, Lee said some parents and teachers ¡°have misgivings about
public English-language education. We can do nothing for those who are
raising opposition for opposition's sake. But we should try to
persuade those who lack understanding of this policy and let them
participate in the change."

Lee said the matter ¡°should not be made a political issue." He
suggested that the committee should not allow the issue to cost the
Grand National Party votes in the general election in April. Still, he
insisted strengthening English-language education was a major program
comparable to his restoration for the Cheonggye Stream in Seoul, as
key urban revival project of his time as mayor. But a Lee aide said
the president elect believed the committee had made a mess of this
issue in the initial stage due to excessive enthusiasm.

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200802/200802010010.html


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