For some time the government in Korea have been concerned that the country is not succeeding in its English language education. It was reported in 2009 (Korea Times 2009), for example, that Korea ranks 89th out of 120 countries in terms of TOEFL results, achieving a score below the international average. This is in spite of the fact that, as the same article reports, more than 90 percent of elementary school students receive additional private English education, usually in the evenings and weekends, with the amount of money spent on English education reaching 15 trillion won per year – a staggering US$13.35 billion.