South Korea’s Robotic Crutches

Engkey, the ESL Foreign Teacher KillerI’m continually worried that the US imparted to the ROK the wrong culture of technological quick fixing. Case in point: robots.

I don’t know why the ROK Prime Minister’s Office and the Justice Ministry are even bothering with rationalizing the country’s E-2 visa programEngkey is out to make foreign humans irrelevant.

The trials and errors at the Korea Institute, a wooded top-security compound for the country’s best scientific minds, represent South Korea’s ambitious robotic dreams.


Last month, it announced a trial service for 11 types of intelligent robots this year. They include “kiosk robots” to roam amusement parks selling tickets, and “robo soldiers” that will man part of the 155-mile border with North Korea with a never-sleeping camera eye, night vision and lethal fire power.

But the most notable step was this country’s plans to use robots as teaching aids. In February, the Education Ministry began deploying hundreds of them as part of a plan to equip all the nation’s 8,400 kindergartens with robots by 2013.

One type of robot, toddler-size with a domed head and boxlike body on wheels, takes attendance, reads fairy tales and sings songs with children. A smaller puppy robot helps leads gymnastics and flashes red eyes if touched too roughly.

Even though they are little more than fancy toys, experts say, these robots prepare children for a fast-approaching robotic future.

Early this year, when the institute did an experimental run of Engkey in Masan on the south coast, there was a mad rush among children to be selected for the program, said Kim Bo-yeong, an English teacher.

“They all loved robots. They get shy before a foreign native speaker, afraid to make mistakes,” Ms. Kim said. “But they find robots much easier to talk to.”

An independent evaluator of the trial noticed that Engkey required the constant presence of a technical operator. “Engkey has a long way to go if it wants to avoid becoming an expensive yet ignored heap of scrap metal at the corner of the classroom,” said Ban Jae-chun, an education professor at Chungnam National University.

Judging by Ms. Kim’s Masan students, I guess I’ve been doing it wrong all these years. Perhaps I should dress up and act like a robot, to relieve my students’ stress with dealing with humans. “A heap of scrap metal”? Well, that’s better than I feel most days. The robot won’t have to deal with messy sentiments about workplace fairness or common decency. It doesn’t have to sleep, either. Maybe, future models will be equipped to zap with electricity slumbering students – or serve them lattes – at midnight cram sessions.

Defense robots I find only slightly less troublesome.

South Korea is trialing (???) a remote-controlled sentry robot capable of carrying out surveillance and combat functions along the military demarcation line.

A military officer on Tuesday said one was deployed last month at a guard post within the demilitarized zone on the central frontline in Gangwon Province. It is a remote-controlled armed robot with state-of-the-art surveillance equipment.

“We’re going to deploy such robots at all posts along the DMZ by year’s end if the trial operation is successful,” the officer said. The military authorities could also deploy them on the five islands near the maritime border in the West Sea.

Equipment consists of a camera, a K-4 high-speed machine gun, and a central control system. Each robot is said to cost about W400 million (US$1=W1,212). The surveillance camera sends images to the command and control room in real time. If it detects an approaching enemy, the robot is activated to fire 40 mm rounds at high speed.

“Armed robots don’t judge themselves but are activated by soldiers to fire,” the officer said. “The robots will not completely replace all sentry guards along the MDL, but it’ll be possible to maintain a high surveillance level with a small number of troops.”

Generally, where conscription has become as much a national rite of passage, replacing conscripts with robots just seems inadequate. Will there be a joystick and a monitor included for the conscripts back at HQ?

I don’t have to wax poetically about enslaving generations of robots serving human masters. But, I would suggest South Koreans tackle issues, like learning English, dealing with foreigners, competing globally, and conscription before spending vast sums outsourcing these unpalatable topics to mechanical devices that might not be the savior disgruntled students and conscripts demand. But, at least, the Korea Institute hasn’t offered a robot to assuage frustrating rural men waiting for a foreign bride.

Powered by ScribeFire.


Filed under: Business/Economy, Education, Korea, Military Tagged: e-2 visa, engkey, esl, foreign teqchers, robots, rok, South Korea