In 1997 English became a compulsory subject in Korean elementary schools. The education of English teachers for the elementary level was accelerated. The training curriculum was reformed according to the educational objective to enhance students' oral communication skills in English. Coupled to this change, the introduction of English Teacher Assistants is now also being reinforced to stimulate lively classroom discussions in English. This paper is based on the actual situation promoting English education and examines the characteristics of English education "vis-a-vis" the Japanese situation, which is said to lag behind Korea's. The paper examines various differences of social background and different approaches to equal opportunity and identifies some problems of early English education in countries like Korea and Japan where English is not used in daily life. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)