The Korea Herald : English as official language

Wow! Korea's Ministry of education and Human Resources Development is making a move to install English as an official language in three "free economic zones," which are listed as Incheon, Busan-Jinhae, and Gwangyang.

In order to accommodate the change, the ministry says it will start an English immersion program for mandatory education from 2008. That would be a huge undertaking.

As you could imagine there are points that would cause people to argue either way. Some people say that the program will make the country more economically competitive. Others say argue the opposite. There is one quote that I love about making the country stronger economically.

If a nation's level of English skill determines its competitiveness, so goes the argument, the Philippines should have joined the ranks of advanced countries, while Japan should have been dropped from the list of developed nations.

Touche!