I have a student in my 8 year old class that I am worried about. He is the son of one of the teachers, so he is American by birth. However, he has never lived in the US. He attended a Korean kindergarten and speaks Korean. In fact, he barely speaks English at all. But here's what I need advice about: the student is 8 years old, and does not attend any elementary school. In fact, his 80 minutes of English at my hagwon is his total education at the moment. Since he is American, is there any way that the Korean laws (of children being required to go to school) can be enforced and get this kid into school? He is WAAAAY behind other students his age. And it's getting worse every day.


Or should I just mind my own business and let this kid continue along this path his parents have unfortunately chosen for him?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

How do you know he doesn't go to school? Did his parents tell you?

There is lots of stuff we weren't told.

the son of 2 Korean-american teachers?

the son of one American (single) parent?

the son of one American + one Korean parents?

the son of two American Korean-speaking parents?

Is he 8 years old in Korean age and 6 years old in American age?

since the parents teaches at the school - is the parents even paying for the 80 minute
lesson - or is it just a "free-perk" for being a teacher at the school.

there has to be a reason why the parent didn't bother teaching the son English....?

The student has 2 American parents. One of them is a teacher at my school. I know he isn't getting any other education because I watch him sit at my school for 9 hours a day playing video games on the Internet. As for him not being able to speak any English, he went to Korean kindergarten. The mother, who teaches at my school, is not a very motivated individual from what I've experienced from working with her. I can only assume that she never worked with her son on English language studies at home. Must have never talked with him at home either. But this is all speculation.

he is American by birth. However, he has never lived in the US. 

Then he is not American.

Title and post are really confusing.

Weird, I guess they are too poor to afford an international school and don't want to put the kid in a Korean elementary school. I would hate to have a school aged kid as a foreign teacher in Korea. There isn't much educational opportunity for them.

My husband and I teach at a public elementary school. We have three daughters aged 11, 9 and 8 (Korean age). Our kids went to the Korean kindergarten at our school and are currently attending the same school where we both teach. They are in grade 4, 2 and 1. We can't help our kids much with their Korean but we check that they do their homework every day and try to do whatever we can to help them. Besides their normal school work we also did a home school program with them when they were younger in the evening since we believed that they needed additional education in English also. Now we are using a computer based program to assist them with additional studies in the evening. But we try to have a balance between their studies and free time. Our kids are fluent in both English and Korean. If this child cannot speak English and both his parents are foreigners, he may have some developmental problem. That is the only thing that makes sense to me.

If I were in your situation, I would definitely speak to his mother since you teach at the same place but hey, that's just me. I can't fathom how some parents in this day and age and sit back and not be interested in their kids well-being. What kind of future will he have. This is very sad indeed.