Please teach me English- This is
a silly romantic comedy about a ditzy girl named Young-Ju
who has an ordinary life. (It's
obvious that Lee Na-young, the actress
that plays Young-Ju, is actually goregeous but they go through
great lengths to make her look like a nerd.) One day, a
hairy-chested foreigner walks into the public office where
she works to complain about an electricity bill. After becoming
frustrated that no one speaks his language, he starts shouting
“Doesn’t anyone here speak English?!”
Everyone starts slinking away to hide because they’re
ashamed that no one can help him. Young-Ju can do nothing
but muster up an embarrassed smile. The boss decides at
a company dinner that someone in their office should learn
English, so after spinning a bottle, Young-Ju gets picked.
“Everyone is so obessed with learning English.”
She says, “What’s wrong with living in Korea
and just speaking Korean?” Reluctantly, she goes to
the school and when she falls in love with one of the other
students, her life becomes much more exciting. Though Young-Ju
approaches the English class with a great deal of trepidation
and skepticism, her love for her fellow student encourages
her to study harder.
If you take this movie at face value, it’s nothing
but a shallow and lighthearted girl meets boy movie. However,
the interesting thing about this movie is how it examines
the English craze in Korea. Speaking English is a status
thing. If you’re a Korean who can speak English, you
appear much more educated and international. Practically
speaking, most Koreans learn English for work. Very few
do it to make foreign friends or lovers. However, the typical
Korean has no use for English in everyday life, so it’s
quite difficult for people to have the motivation to study.
The movie shows how scary and intimidating learning English
is for the typical Korean. In different scenes, English
is portrayed as a big scary monster in a video game, or
a sexy blonde teacher with a low-cut blouse who’s
out to get your man, or a SWAT team with guns. The first
time the girl approaches the English institute, it looks
more like a ghoulish haunted house, rather than a school.
While annoying at times, this movie does have it's funny
moments and it's still somewhat enjoyable. It also sheds
an interesting light on what an average Korean thinks about
the English language.
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