Korean Job Discussion Forums

[FliptheCoin]

I actually like learning Korean, and I find practising it when I am out and about it a lot easier than at my hagwon. Don't know why but it seems they all have a great laugh any time I say something in Korean, or ask a questions about a particular phrase. Sometimes I want to scream "I don't laugh at you when you practice your english on me...!!!"

The best part is correcting kids when they shout out "MIGOOK SARAM". And I actually had some kids call me "ILBON SARAM". Yeah I could understand being called American, no offense taken, but Japanese, absolutley no resemblence.

And its a lot easier to understand what other people are saying. They want to practice their English with us, why not practice our Korean on them. I'm proud of the amount of Korean I've picked up while here, and every day I learn a little bit more.

[jajdude]

I wonder why they laugh at our attempts to use their language. Could it be that it just seems so odd to them? Or maybe we sound funny with our English accents. Or perhaps they are insecure about their English so they laugh at our lousy Korean. But it isn't exactly a confidence booster even if they don't mean anything by it. I'm also sure many Koreans have suffered embarrassment trying to communicate with foreigners. Basically you've got to not mind feeling like an idiot if you want to improve your foreign language ability. Personally I dislike feeling like an idiot. And one sure way to encounter this feeling is living in a foreign country with a foreign language all over the place! Just remember, most of those who laugh probably have never been out of Korea. We are luckier than them in that we can go to other countries teaching the most global of languages. So there you laughers, haha!

By the way I think I have had to laugh at the students occasionally when they say something downright funny in their poor English, unintentionally, trying to say the right thing, just not knowing how. I didn't mean to make them feel bad, but hey funny is funny if even I was the only one who understood why it was funny.