#15351 by 'a sound asleep'
For the sake of balance in the discussion.
Looks like the piece originated at
Op-Ed: "My Flight Training Experience In Korea" — Civil Aviation Forum | Airliners.net
You should see the response #3 in the thread. Basically trainees posting their experiences on website happens everywhere. Airline dictating what to train happens everywhere.
#1542
I commented earlier but S Koreans adopted rote memorization based education because it's cheapest. Why? Because S Korea was the Poorest nation on the planet in 1953. And of course inertia has carried on since then.
About former Korean English teacher who can't really speak well, you can try to blame rote memorization but rather the real cuase is lack of chance for them to practice English with native English speakers. Until about 1980s, there weren't that many chances for S Koreans to practice English. Not enough traffic going in or out.
The situation has changed with increased traffic and more native English speakers teaching in S Korea (a whole cottage industry in itself) but basically Koreans who started schooling before 1990's had limited chance of real practice in speaking English.
So I should warn you not to blame 'rote' memorization.