[WHY] Why are English kindergartens on the rise as the birthrate declines?

One after another, the 5-year-olds walked up to the stage in their navy blue uniforms, trying to conceal their jitters in front of an even more anxious group of parents. Cell phones were attentively positioned and record buttons pressed, as members of the audience — moms, dads and even some grandparents — tried to convey encouraging nods and reassuring smiles to their shaking little ones.

After a deep breath and the cue to start, one girl slowly began to explain what she deemed the best invention in the world — entirely in English.

She was participating in the end-of-year speech festival last month at Edible Village, a so-called English kindergarten in the posh district of Gangnam, southern Seoul.

Edible Village is one of over 800 English kindergartens across the nation, a figure that is quickly growing even as the country’s total fertility rate has dropped every single year since 2015, and as ordinary kindergartens are shutting down at an alarming rate.

At English kindergartens, young children have to converse with their foreign teachers only in English, creating an exotic learning environment for which Korean parents don’t hesitate to pay more than triple the amount they would for ordinary kindergartens.

A fad that started in Gangnam more than 20 years ago has now made its way throughout the entire country.

Kindergartens with a rule: ‘Speak in English’

At English kindergartens, classes are taught by foreigners and kids — some as young as 2 years old — are told to speak only in English for several hours a day.

By law, English kindergartens are normally categorized as “a foreign language institute for children,” and are subject to the same laws as private education institutes, also known here as hagwon, rather than laws related to kindergartens.

Unlike English kindergartens, ordinary kindergartens in Korea are either established by the government or authorized by it and must strictly comply with the Early Childhood Education Act, which controls curricula. English kindergartens, on the other hand, have much more leeway in curriculum development.

Like hagwon, not all English kindergartens have the same curriculum. They advertise themselves as either “study-based” or “play-based” — or somewhere in the middle. Where a child ends up usually comes down to their parents’ preference.

“Some parents are content enough with their kids using English comfortably, but some parents want more than that,” said Eum Won-sun, managing director of Edible Edu, which runs Edible Village.

“Parents in the latter group want their kids to reach the highest level possible before they go into elementary school.”

The desire for ‘natural exposure’

Parents often cite “natural exposure” to English as the biggest reason why they send their kids to English kindergartens.

Spending hours a day interacting with foreigners and learning English in real-life situations, especially during one of the most critical periods for second-language acquisition, is an experience that can’t be provided at ordinary kindergartens, they say.

“I wanted my kids to learn English naturally, not in a rigid environment,” said Lee, a mother of two children, both of whom she decided to send to an English kindergarten.

“I also assumed they would easily lose interest in English if they later approached it as something they had to study,” Lee continued on condition of anonymity, adding, “I wanted to expose them to the language from a really young age when they had their guards down.”

A father agreed with Lee, saying he thought sending his child to an English kindergarten would be a great way to build a strong foundation for the foreign language and potentially lead to more opportunities in the future.

“I lived in the United States for over 10 years and I frequently use English in my current job,” he said. “Whether my son graduates college in Korea or studies in the United States, I think the ability to speak English fluently tends to open a lot more doors.”

Hefty fees

Aside from the language difference, what mainly sets English kindergartens apart from ordinary kindergartens are the fees.

Unlike parents who send their kids to ordinary kindergartens, those who choose English kindergartens aren’t eligible for government support, which is why fees are a lot more expensive.

The monthly average fee for English kindergartens in Seoul was about 1.1 million won ($850) in 2021, according to a recent study from the World Without Worries about Shadow Education, a local nonprofit organization that crusades against hagwon.

The five most expensive English kindergartens all cost more than 2.5 million won per month and were located in either Gangnam or Seocho District.

Edible Village charges at least 1.92 million won per month and requires additional payment for extracurricular activities and transportation.

In contrast, parents paid an average of 270,000 won per month for non-English private kindergartens in Seoul last year, according to the Ministry of Education, while the average amount paid to non-English public kindergartens in the city was much lower.

Gangnam, where it all began

In a country globally notorious for overspending on private education, English kindergartens are no new trend.

They came way before “English ballet,” “English Taekwondo” and “English villages,” chiefly popping up in Seoul’s wealthiest and most academically competitive Gangnam District more than two decades ago amid Korea’s globalization period, when the ability to speak the international language started to be seen as a necessity.

Over the years, English kindergartens flourished in Gangnam as tiger moms eagerly searched for ways to push their children to the front of the line, and like most other educational fads, spread to other areas, even small cities in the suburbs.

Despite Korea’s population decline, recent data indicates that the number of English kindergartens is on the rise, while that of ordinary kindergartens is shrinking.

There were 811 English kindergartens across the nation in 2022, up from 474 in 2017, according to data from the Education Ministry, representing a nearly 70-percent increase.

In Seoul, there were 311 English kindergartens in 2021, up nearly 40 percent from 224 counted in 2015, according to the World Without Worries about Shadow Education.

Among the 311 English kindergartens, nearly half were in the districts of Gangnam, Seocho, Songpa or Gangdong, known to be the most affluent neighborhoods in Seoul.

In contrast, the number of ordinary kindergartens in Seoul shrunk from 888 in 2015 to 788 in 2022, down 11 percent, data from the Korean Educational Development Institute showed.

Effective learning or childhood stress?

As with other forms of private education, some local critics and civic groups have condemned English kindergartens as drivers of socioeconomic inequality, particularly in light of the fact that many households can’t afford to spend a hefty portion of their income on placing their kids in an English-speaking classroom.

The effectiveness of English kindergartens has often been questioned as well, and still continues to be a hot topic among moms who can’t decide between an English kindergarten or an ordinary one.

While some people argue that learning a second language from a young age leads to language delays and confusion, multiple studies have debunked this.

In the research article “Bilingualism in the Early Years: What the Science Says,” authors Krista Byers-Heinlein and Casey Lew-Williams, psychology professors at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada and Princeton University, stated that “code-mixing” — when bilingual children mix words from two languages in the same sentence — is a normal part of bilingual development and can be seen as a sign of ingenuity, not confusion.

While bilingual children are not more likely than monolingual children to have difficulties with language, to show delays in learning, or to be diagnosed with a language disorder, they are more likely to show cognitive advantages and better social understanding, according to the research.

However, local experts argue that the same benefits can’t necessarily be applied to every English kindergarten in Korea because some, especially those who promote themselves as “study-based” institutes, tend to put children under unnecessary stress.

In a report on the effects of learning English from a young age, the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education, a local think tank on child care policy, warned parents against showing “excessive enthusiasm” for childhood English education, suggesting that sending kids to English kindergartens could add “excessive learning burdens” on them.

The institute recommended kids learn English from elementary school, after they gain enough “cognitive maturity and proficiency in their mother tongue.”

Indeed, other than financial reasons, many parents who don’t send their kids to English kindergartens often say it’s because they want their children to speak Korean properly before picking up a foreign language, or because they don’t want to pressure their kids.

Another reason is based on the fear that missing out on the traditional Korean-language Nuri Curriculum taught at ordinary kindergartens might make it difficult for children to later adjust to a Korean elementary school.

Parents who send their kids to English kindergartens admit those are some of the biggest drawbacks.

“Due to the nature of learning a different language, I think it’s effective to be exposed to the foreign language a lot from a young age,” said the father, “but the downside is that time spent exposed to English means time exposed to Korean is reduced.”

Kim Hyeon-jung, a father of a 4-year-old in Guro District, western Seoul, said he decided to send his son to an ordinary kindergarten because he wanted him to learn Korean first.

“My kid is just starting to speak,” said Kim. “I don’t even know whether he’s interested in English and I don’t want to stress him out by forcing him to learn a new language.”

Lee, the mother who sent both her kids to an English kindergarten, said she personally recommends English kindergartens to her fellow mom friends but never forgets to warn them to examine their child’s “disposition” before making a choice.

“I’ve seen a lot of kids struggle to adjust to English kindergartens because they were physically active and couldn’t stand sitting down for long periods,” Lee mentioned.

Luckily, Lee hasn’t had that experience with her children.

After a year of sending her 5-year-old daughter to an English kindergarten in Dongdaemun District, eastern Seoul, Lee said she noticed her child approaching English as a communicational tool, not some boring school subject.

“She sings songs and reads books in English just the same as in Korean,” said Lee. “My two kids even talk in English when they play with each other, and it’s those moments when I think to myself, wow they’ve really picked up the language.”

No signs of fading

Will there be more English kindergartens going forward? Based on the current trend, yes.

While some anti-hagwon civic groups have called on the government to ban English kindergartens and any other type of English-related extracurricular activities at ordinary kindergartens and daycare centers, any hints at such a move from the government have been met with a vehement backlash from parents.

The number of English kindergartens will only go up across the nation as long as English plays an important role in school success and in the Korean labor market unlike other foreign languages such as Japanese or Chinese, said Byun Soo-yong, a professor of education, demography and Asian studies at The Pennsylvania State University.

“Upper-class (or highly educated and high-income) parents want to send their children to English kindergartens because they know how to make their children be ahead of others,” Byun said in an email.

“On the other hand, middle-class parents and even working families want to send their kids to English kindergartens if they can afford to pay the fees because they also see English proficiency as an important means of their children’s social mobility, and thus they don’t want their kids to be left behind.”

In other words, Byun highlighted, English kindergartens will continue to grow in Korean society because they are spaces where parents’ desires for social mobility and reproduction meet.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]