"Korea's Internet Barren in English:" Foreign Netizens
The home page "www.cowon.com" of the software development firm Cowon System is quite different from that of other Korean concerns. No Korean alphabet whatsoever is to be seen in the initial screen. Its menu graphic says, "Voice Synthesis & Recognition Multimedia." The home page at the bottom has two buttons - "Korean" and "English;" those familiar with Korean can press "Korean" and those familiar with English "English." "Our main product MP3 is marketed around the world. It's natural for us to pay more attention to English than to Korean. Out of our 1.7 million home page visitors since January 1998, 70% percent use the English site," says Kim Jung-kyun, a senior Cowon System official.
The Cowon home page is faithfully updated with English information. Whenever new information is added to the Korean home page, it is immediately translated and updated in the English home page. Probably thanks to its excellent English home page, which was ranked first in the home page shareware of U.S.-based Gib Davis, Cowon System's "Jet Audio" is now sold more in the United States, Japan and other industrialized countries than in Korea. Of its W1.5 billion turnover last year, some W700 million came from overseas.
The information sea of the Internet consists primarily of English. "Of the entire Internet users, 60% use English as their first language. In 2003 the rate may decline, but still an overwhelming portion of Internet users will be using English as their first language," observes Kim. The might of English doesn't stop here in the Internet. Information and technology experts estimate that more than 90% of Internet contents like home pages are done in English. This is because in addition to those using English as the mother tongue, an enormous number of Internet users use English as secondary language.
What is the situation in Korea which boasts of ranking second in Asia in the Internet growth? The "barren land in English" phenomenon seen in Korea's English education, in which few students learning English for ten years can express themselves in front of foreigners, many fear, recurs intact on the Internet. Many Korean sites are available for local netizens, but there are few English information sites and English home pages offering contents and commercial services.
Let's see first what influential domestic home pages are like. Take a look at the top ten Korean sites, according to tabulations by the U.S. Internet research firm Alex.com. From a global perspective, it becomes clear that the local Internet space still remains at the toddler stage. Of eight sites out of the ten excluding Yahoo Korea and Lycos Korea, both Korean versions of foreign services, only Serome Technology, offering the free-of-charge telephone "Dial Pad," provides English services. No English contents can be found with Daum Comunications, Pax Net, Netien, Neiber, Sei Club, Omylove, Giopia and Simmani. Boastful of a membership of a million or more as they are, their sites are offered for local use only like "a frog in the well."
Worse yet, a site offering chatting community service and claiming the provision of a pen pal service with foreigners, has no English menu. "The Korean Internet resembles an isolated uninhibited island for foreigners using English," laments a Korean with foreign nationality. "Some sites provide English services for the sake of face, but are of little help." Most corporations and public agencies are not much different in offering poor English menus. The Ministry of Finance and Economy, that proclaimed reinforced overseas publicity efforts in the wake of the financial crisis, provides English translations for only 40% of its Korean home page. The translation job is undertaken by two middle-echelon staff members of the Overseas Information Department on an extra-work basis.
Commenting on the standard of local sites' English services, Samsung Group's web-master Kim Soo-man says, "They appear not to feel yet a particular need for them. Even those corporations offering English services confine them to the minimum necessary extent." No wonder foreigners visiting Korean sites first are stunned by scarce information. But British Council information officer Choi Hyun-gyung advises, "Most local English home page services are offered merely for the sake of saving one's face. The Internet is a global system and the importance of English should not be overlooked."
