BTS's Rap Monster was an ordinary child born in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province.
It is a hot topic that his grades were so good that he was competing for first or second place in the whole school during middle and high school, but what is even more surprising is his English skills.
He said that his mother was interested in foreign language education and taught him English.
He says he improved his English skills by repeatedly watching the American TV series [Friends], and his skills were so good that he got a TOEIC score of 860 during his school days.
During his school days, Rap Monster did not study English with the goal of advancing overseas.
Like most students, I studied English because it was important and might help me later in life, and the English I learned at that time ended up playing a crucial role in BTS's overseas expansion.
If you watch videos of BTS appearing on overseas variety shows, you can see that Rap Monster is in charge of most of the communication.
In particular, Rap Monster is the only one who can respond to the host's Western humor code.
This one member is giving wings to BTS's overseas expansion.
Would BTS have become this popular if not a single member of the group could speak English?
--- p.34

Becoming fluent in English by naturally accepting it in the same way as a native speaker is something that all students and parents dream of.
However, if you don't get an A grade in English in middle school during this process, you should worry.
If you don't get an A grade in English, you will be at a disadvantage when applying to specialized high schools or private high schools in your third year of middle school.
And the fact that A grades are not consistently achieved is interpreted as meaning that the child's English competitiveness is weak in the test-oriented Korean education environment.
If parents insist on fluent English at this time, the child may be placed in a difficult situation where he or she studies English twice as much as others but does not get high test scores.
The bigger problem is that if you take the mock college entrance exam after entering high school and get a grade below 4 or a grade below 3 or 4 in English, you will be at a significant disadvantage in college admissions despite your efforts.
This is the biggest concern when choosing an English study method that pursues fluency.
If your overwhelming English skills fail to compensate for your school grades and mock exam scores, you could suffer a great loss in high school and college entrance exams.
As a word of advice, parents should objectively assess their children's passion and ability for English and set a direction for their children as they transition from elementary to middle school.
If your child truly loves English and enjoys studying it, you can push yourself to learn English.
If your child is only barely doing the homework they are told to do, I recommend shifting their focus to English for exams as they enter the upper elementary grades.
--- p.46~47

Parents can also play a big role in English education because they can teach their children English directly using English books and DVDs until they enter middle school.
There are a lot of books on the market about how to teach English to children until they reach the age of 7 to 10.
If you want to teach English at home outside of school during elementary school, you can refer to commercially available methods.
Books on English study methods during this period mainly introduce DVDs and English books and teach you how to use them.
The content of each book is slightly different.
However, you don't have to stick to any particular method; you can study in a variety of ways.
The most important thing is for your child to be exposed to English on a regular basis.
It's okay if your child doesn't attend an English kindergarten or can't go to an international school.
Rather than comparing by looking at a few special cases, it is important to provide the best education possible within the given circumstances.
Elementary school is a time when parents can provide their children with sufficient exposure to English at home.
Education is a marathon, so there is no reason to rush and chase after someone who is ahead in the first 100 meters.
No one can be sure who will cross the finish line first until high school graduation.
--- p.101~102

In our country, elementary school teachers and middle and high school teachers are selected separately.
Elementary school teachers graduate from teacher's colleges, and middle and high school teachers graduate from teacher's colleges.
The content taught in college is different, and in fact, middle school English teachers often don't know much about what kind of English education is provided in elementary schools.
I started teaching in middle school.
I started teaching first-year middle school students in my first year, and I taught them what was in the English textbook without any idea what kind of English education they had received in elementary school.

Middle school English textbooks consist of a few listening comprehension, text, and grammar points.
I taught grammar and text interpretation as a matter of course, completely unaware that my students had not learned English grammar in elementary school.
Let's think from the student's perspective.
Students who studied English primarily through listening and speaking until elementary school suddenly have to study unfamiliar and difficult grammar and long textbook texts when they enter middle school.
This would be a real shock to students who have never studied English grammar and have never interpreted sentences based on grammar.
To reduce this shock, students should begin studying grammar and reading comprehension in the upper grades of elementary school.
It is recommended that students become familiar with English by gaining various English experiences in the early elementary school years, and prepare for middle school by the 4th grade at the earliest, or the 5th grade at the latest.
In Korean education, elementary school students should look ahead to middle school, and middle school students should look ahead to high school.
--- p.105~106

Middle school students in their third year take mock exams in March as soon as they enter high school.
The English section of the mock exam is virtually a test with no scope.
You have to interpret fingerprints you see for the first time and solve problems.
Students who received an A grade in middle school often receive a 4 or 5 on mock exams in high school and a 4 or lower grade in the 9-grade internal assessment system.
These are students who maintained their grades by studying only the test content in middle school.
If you only rely on your middle school English grades, you will experience great frustration in your first year of high school.
There is an easy way to check your true abilities in middle school.
When you are in your second or third year of middle school, you can take the English mock exams for the first year of high school in advance.
It is very easy to find previously given mock exam questions.
There are several ways, but the most systematically organized one is the EBSi site.
Use the QR code below to go to the past exam materials room and solve the English section of the March mock exam for first-year high school students.
If you score 90 points or higher, you are grade 1, and if you score 80 points or higher, you are grade 2.
If you are a 3rd year middle school student, you should get a score of 3 or higher, or a recommended 2 or higher, so that you do not have trouble with English after entering high school.
Of course, it would be best if you got a first grade.
If a third-year middle school student gets a first-class grade on a first-year high school mock exam, it is like getting a 50-meter lead in a 100-meter dash.
Even if you don't get a first-class grade, just being able to objectively know your current level of ability is a great motivation to study.
If you are in your second or third year of middle school, I recommend that you take the first year of high school mock exam right now.
--- p.115~116

If you've decided to memorize vocabulary, choose a vocabulary book and memorize it.
If you are a beginner in English, it is important to quickly memorize one vocabulary book and internalize basic English vocabulary.
At this time, you should memorize a vocabulary book that is appropriate for your level.
When you open a vocabulary book, it's good to have a vocabulary book that has half things you know and half things you don't know.
If there are too many words you don't know, you will have to memorize a lot of material, which will make studying less rewarding.
Even if you already know the words, you can improve your English skills by learning them again through example sentences, so choose a vocabulary book based on the standard of 'half words you know and half words you don't know.'
You should also choose a vocabulary book that has English example sentences.
You should never use a vocabulary list that only provides the Korean meaning of the words.
Memory always requires stimulation.
If you only memorize the Korean meaning of English words, there is no stimulation.
Let's take an example.
If you memorize the word 'pierce (동) ꅭ하다, pierce through' like this 'English word, Korean meaning', the effort required for memorization will be reduced.
But I have no idea how the word pierce is used.
Crucially, there is no memorization because there is no stimulation to the brain at all.
This time, let's memorize it with minimal examples.
If you memorize 'pierce (verb) to penetrate, to penetrate' and 'pierce their membranes to pierce their cell membranes' like this, you will know that the verb pierce must be followed by 'what' is pierced.
Once you get a feel for it, it will be easier to read next time.
--- p.136~137

There are many free EBS lectures that help you master basic grammar. EBS lectures focus on creating lectures for students who lack basic skills.
There aren't many classes for English learners at the academy.
And it is burdensome for beginners to go to an academy, and if they borrow the help of an academy from the beginner level, the cost is not small.
If you're a complete beginner in English, use EBS lectures to overcome the beginner stage. It's no longer a myth that EBS lectures are rigid and boring.
Of course, unlike some private lectures, EBS lectures do not allow the use of vulgar language or extreme expressions for entertainment purposes.
However, EBS has a strict review system, so after producing a lecture, it goes through a review process to correct any errors before uploading the lecture with accurate content.
Even if it's a little less fun, one of the most important things about online lectures is that the content is free of errors.
I've created countless basic English grammar lessons over the past decade.
For students who have difficulty with English, basic English grammar lessons are most necessary.
Among them, we will provide you with the currently recommended lectures and QR codes that can take you directly to the lectures.
All lectures are free.
Let's go ahead and master basic English grammar quickly.
Just by mastering English vocabulary and grammar, your confidence will definitely increase.
--- p.159

In the past, there were usually only one or two grammar books.
There was the legendary English grammar book Seongmun English Grammar, and later there was Man to Man English Grammar.
Almost every student in the country learned English grammar from these books.
But if we compare the days when learning English grammar with one or two books to the present, where hundreds of different English grammar books exist, has studying English grammar become any easier? It seems unlikely.
As with all learning, repetition is especially important in English grammar.
After watching it once, it is important to repeat it again to make the content completely your own.
When I only had one book to study from, I studied it until it was worn out, so repetition came naturally.
But these days, with so many textbooks and study methods available, students are looking for more convenient and efficient ways to study little by little.
Repetition does not occur.
Choose just one grammar book and read it through to the end without giving up.
Choose a book and read it over at least 3-4 times to internalize its contents and build a foundation for English grammar.
Once you master the basics, the additional material you study will be organized in your head.
I recommend level-based English grammar textbooks for single-volume learning.
--- p.162

For English beginners who have trouble interpreting sentences accurately, memorizing sentences is also a great help.
Memorizing sentences has the advantage of making vocabulary and grammar your own at once.
Although it takes a lot of effort to memorize sentences, it is no exaggeration to say that it is the ultimate study method. For students who are in the beginner stage of sentence memorization and have difficulty memorizing words and studying grammar, I recommend memorizing entire sentences.
If you are a middle school student, it is okay to memorize sentences from the textbook.
For high school students, the appendix at the end of this book introduces 100 sentences that were included in the last college entrance exam and are worth memorizing from a grammatical perspective.
If you memorize the sentences in the appendix, or if you can't memorize them completely but become familiar with them, you will definitely develop the ability to interpret English sentences.
--- p.170

To be blunt, speaking English is hardly reflected in exams for middle and high school students, so there is no need to invest much time in it.
To be more precise, I don't have the time and energy to invest in speaking English without securing my English test scores.
However, since English speaking ability after entering university serves as a criterion for evaluating English proficiency, it is a good idea to develop speaking skills in advance.
I think the level of English speaking required for middle and high school students in Korea is as follows.
"Speaking about your daily life in English (basic) - Speaking about Korean culture in English (basic) - Debating the pros and cons of topics suitable for teenagers (advanced)." If you can speak English to this extent, you'll be able to make native-speaking friends after college, have a decent amount of conversation while traveling abroad, and after getting a job, you'll be able to learn additional specialized terminology for your job.
You may not believe it, but our English skills are already sufficient to speak at this level.
--- p.190

Along with speaking, writing is what students find most burdensome.
In fact, speaking and writing are similar.
Unless you are a professional writer, writing what you say is writing, and saying what you write is speaking.
Writing is an important part of the descriptive assessments that are currently expanding in schools, and it also occupies an important area in performance assessments.
Above all, if you are going to work using English after graduating from college, the most necessary skills are reading and writing.
Because using English means working with foreign partners, and you'll be communicating primarily via email.
In that case, your main job becomes understanding documents or emails from abroad and writing responses to them.
Office workers who work with foreigners in the field say that writing is more important than speaking.
Because writing is so important, it is important to lay the foundation from school days.
The most common method used when writing is English. When studying English writing, the first thing that comes to mind is probably an English diary.
There are many published textbooks that organize expressions and words commonly used in English diaries.
If you refer to these materials and add your own experiences to a journal, your English writing skills will greatly improve.
--- p.203

In high school, the term 'analyzing' fingerprints is used.
You shouldn't just interpret the fingerprints and move on.
It is difficult to simply memorize it and move on.
You should analyze the passage in preparation for the main types of English questions in the CSAT, such as finding the topic, finding the title, filling in the blanks, grammar, vocabulary, sentence order, and sentence insertion.
So, it is necessary to look at one fingerprint 4-5 times and analyze it from various angles.
If you find it difficult to do this work on your own, it may be helpful to refer to the lectures on EBSi that cover the test scope.
EBS textbooks, such as Olympus and Suneung Special Lectures, are often included in the exam scope because they are used as supplementary textbooks in many schools.
The EBS textbooks used in this way should be actively utilized as the lectures are posted on the EBSi website and the materials for exam preparation are also available in the data room.
Above all, you must keep in mind that high school entrance exams are exams that cannot be crammed for in a short period of time.
From middle school at the earliest, or by the first year of high school at the latest, you should strive to master the basics of English: vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension.
--- p.217

Looking at the statistics for the English section of the CSAT, the types of questions that students make the most mistakes on are all types that require a solution strategy.
The most common mistakes students make on the CSAT are fill-in-the-blank inference, grammar, vocabulary, and sentence insertion.
The reason why the error rate for these types of problems is high is because even students with good English skills have a rough idea of ​​the problem, but they don't know how to solve it, so they just guess and find the answer.
You have to answer these questions correctly to get a level 1 in English.
So, how should we prepare specifically? First, we need to abandon the idea of ​​trying to solve difficult problems based solely on tricks without having a solid foundation in English.
Some students, with a level 4 English skill, learn the tricks of solving problems and try to find the answer by only interpreting about 50% of the content, but this is an extremely dangerous idea.
Instead of learning those tricks, it's better to memorize at least one more word to improve your English skills.
These days, the high-difficulty English problems on the college entrance exam are not so easy to solve with superficial tricks.
You must first acquire real skills.
We reveal strategies for solving the most difficult fill-in-the-blank problems for students.
Reading comprehension strategies for each type of problem don't have to be expensive to learn.
If you have common sense, all high school seniors in Korea can quickly learn it.
--- p.226

Among students' concerns about English, concerns about English vocabulary are overwhelmingly high.
Many students try to memorize English vocabulary as the first step in learning English, but the results are often not very good.
The reason is because it is difficult.
Among students who struggle with memorizing English vocabulary, there are almost no students who have memorized more than 30 words a day for three months.
Why? Because with that level of effort, you can memorize the words.
Most students try to memorize words for a month at most, and it is frustrating and difficult, so they need a way to memorize words more easily and comfortably.
Find the law.
There are various vocabulary memorization methods on the market that take advantage of the psychology of such students.
There are many vocabulary books and machines that help you memorize words.
But one thing is clear: no matter what method you use, you will never be able to memorize words without your own effort.
Let's hold on tight and memorize 30 words a day for about 3 months.
Once you have a thousand or so words floating around in your head, you'll find yourself popping out words you know when interpreting English sentences.
From this point on, you will feel a sense of accomplishment in memorizing words and your English studies will gain momentum.
Let's get through the frustrating initial stages.
We remember a lot.
I remember my home address and my parents' cell phone numbers.
If you see and hear it repeatedly, you will remember it clearly.
If you try hard, you will definitely be able to memorize words.

--- p.237