English Teaching in Korea Fueled by Samsung
English teaching in Korea programs at companies continue to see a huge demand among company employees, such as those at Samsung Electronics.
As Samsung Electronics significantly increased its support for foreign language education for its employees and word of mouth spread that it was a ‘program optimized for self-development,’ there is a trend of even ‘waiting for classes’ to study.
According to Samsung Electronics, the company recently signed a contract with a language academy to facilitate English teaching in Korea beginning from this month and significantly increased the support for English education for its employees.
The number of participants in foreign language education programs conducted over the phone has also doubled. This program, which provides English and Chinese education, provides conversation training with a native speaker, speaking on the phone for 10 minutes three times a week. Programs can be applied for on a first-come, first-served basis, but the number of employees who can participate each month is limited. Demand is so high that it is said that when applying for the program when the next classes are announced, employees will ‘gwangkle’ (meaning they click like crazy) to apply online.
It is known that the competition to apply for this English teaching in Korea program has increased significantly as word of mouth spread among employees that “the level of the program is quite good”.
This is not the only reason, but the fact that foreign language scores have some effect on promotion is also said to have had an impact. Samsung Electronics considers English conversational skills as an important evaluation criterion for promotion, hence why the demand for programs geared to English teaching in Korea. Scores are given by reflecting up to two language proficiency scores, and as the difference in promotion could be affected by just one point, the number of employees seeking to secure good scores is increasing. Samsung Electronics is also operating an online education program for English tests, such as OPIC.
Samsung Electronics plans to significantly increase the number of participants in this program in response to the needs of its employees, and then consider expanding further based on feedback.