About 36,000 students applying for College Scholastic Ability Test(CSAT) chose Arabic as a second language subject even though only three high schools taught students Arabic.
A significant number of Korean high school students in the third grade were studying Arabic harder than other major subjects such as Korean, English and mathematics. Some were learning from Arabic tutors who major Arabic and their parents were paying a lot of money for them. In 2004, only 531 students had chose Arabic as a second language subject. This year, the number sharply increased by 35469. Even though only three high schools taught students Arabic, 40% of students applying for College Scholastic Ability Test(CSAT) choosed Arabic as a second language subject for some reasons.
First, everyone could start from the same line from the bottom. According to cramming schools offering special Arabic course, most students could not get high score in Chinese and Japanese due to the great number of other students who had lived in the countries. They added it is easy to get better score in Arabic because no one has lived in Arabic speaking countries.
Second, students could get higher score in Arabic than other minor subject in short period. Although there were only 3 high schools across the country teaching students Arabic, the average score in Arabic was much higher than other minor subject last year. It was 80 compared to Japanese's score, 66. This means most students learned Arabic in private institute or tutors during short time.
A number of students choosing Arabic as one of subjects to enter university skyrocketed because all of the students could prepare the exam at same starting line and get high score in relatively short time by learning in private institutions. Some experts argued that students should learn Arabic in school curriculum that is well organized not in cramming schools in order to develop Arabic language skills.
That's a great idea. That's the same reason that I took Italian in college. Everyone else had years of Spanish, but not many studied Italian before college.
ReplyDelete