Tuesday, December 06, 2005

TOEIC in Korea

Number of TOEIC Takers Reaches World's Highest

In 2004,

Korea 3.8% [pop. 48 million, 1.83 million TOEIC takers]

Japan 1.12% [pop. 27 million, 1.43 million TOEIC takers]

Taiwan 0.22% [pop. 22.5 million, 50,000 TOEIC takers]

China 0.002% [pop. 1,29 million, 30,000 TOEIC takers]

The wave of foreign firms accelerated the globalization of the Korean economy and dramatically increased the need for English. Korean companies are becoming increasingly international and more of them are requiring their employees to strengthen their practical English skills...

As TOEIC doesn't test practical English skills (and therefore nor do TOEIC teachers need to teach them), why take this test then?

1 comment:

Sean said...

I'm sure you know the real reason to take the test is that companies set minimum TOEIC scores for consideration in job Interviews. Additionally most universities will not allow students to graduate without a certain TOEIC score.

TOEIC is stupid, but Korea hasn't yet figured that out.