이거 해석좀 해주세용...ㅠ
Instead of instilling in their children such open-mindedness, Korean mothers frequently protest to schools when a child from an interracial marriage becomes their childs classmate. Teachers should also teach their students to embrace those who are different from them, but few seem to steer their students towards the path of a global community. In contrast, quite a few teachers lead their students down the dark road of parochial jingoists and exclusive ultranationalists.
Growing up with different household languages, children from interracial marriages may not be able to speak impeccable Korean initially. Gradually, however, they will become more fluent as they are further exposed to it. In a sense, these bilingual children will become invaluable assets to our nation in the future, as Korea will play a more important role in the global village. Being narrow-minded, however, we often make fun of their broken Korean or prohibit them from speaking their mothers language.
The lack of Korean proficiency will inevitably lead to a lack of motivation and result in poor academic performance. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology should implement a special language acquisition system for those who are from interracial marriages. In the United States, for example, the ESL (English as a Second Language) program has been quite successful in encouraging students whose native language is not English to compete with their American counterparts. Korea, too, should initiate a KSL (Korean as a Second Language) program as soon as possible to help those mixed-race students. Currently, Korean schools have as many as 25,000 students from interracial families and yet, the Korean government has not done anything substantial to help their situation.
The result is disheartening. According to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, approximately 24.5 percent of mixed race students have given up on their educational pursuits in Korea. In the 16-18 age group, 69.6 percent have either not enrolled in high school or dropped out. Some of them are reluctantly sent to their mothers country for schooling where they can be more easily accepted. However, instead of driving them out of the country, we should recognize these children as Korean citizens and accommodate their needs in our education system.
We now helplessly watch our biracial children suffer from alienation and identity crises simply because they have different physical features. They are the lost children in todays Korean society. If we do not take care of them, who will? When social responsibility and racial prejudice become compelling issues in our society, we need to stand up and change our mindsets to positively improve our nation as a whole.
Regardless of whether a child is full or half-Korean, he or she is representative of our country. We should be accepting and welcoming of them, and celebrate all our nations children. They are our future, and who knows? Among them may be the Barack Obama of Korea.
Kim Seong-kon is a professor of English at Seoul National University and president of the American Studies Association of Korea. - Ed.
