Korean Job Discussion Forums

manlyboy · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 6:55 pm Post subject:

Eddie Izzard did a tv program called "Mongrel Britain" (or something like that) where he learned a few words and phrases of old English from the middle ages, then went to the Netherlands to try them out, and he was actually able to make himself understood.

maston · Joined: 16 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

I'm scandinavian, speak good english and never had a native english speaking teacher in my life.

It's an asian thing I guess.. Having an American english teacher means higher status in some weird way.

Juregen · Joined: 30 May 2006

SPINOZA · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Location: $eoul

Whilst I'm aware of the fact that, excluding Frisian for a sec, Dutch is the closest relative of English, in my opinion Danes and Icelandic people speak accentless English, or actually pick up local accents from the area they're familiar with. See the famous examples of Danish soccer players Jan Molby and Peter Schmeichel, who spoke English in a Liverpool and Manchester [edit: accent] respectively. Eidur Gudjonsen (Iceland) also sounds like he's from West London. Fluent Dutch speakers of English always sound like they're from the Netherlands.

Just a thought.

Alyallen · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:44 am Post subject:

wo buxihuan hanguoren · Joined: 18 Apr 2007 Location: Suyuskis

Or just that American girls are easier when one has a pom accent I guess.

Alyallen · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:36 am Post subject:

yushin · Joined: 14 Oct 2006

Sorry...but I've travelled extensively in "Scandinavia" and the odd professional footballer, manager or politician aside people from these countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark) do not speak "good" or indeed any kind of English at all... though I have got to admit that the Dutch have the best English in Europe...maybe even better than Eire!

samd · Joined: 03 Jan 2007

I have met a few Koreans who claim to have learned their limited but still OK English from TV or "hip hop" but I don't believe them. Maybe combined with some self study, or classes at school it helps, but normally the input level is just too high.

I'd be an expert Korean speaker if this was the case, but I'm not, I've just watched countless hours of SBS, KBS and MBC. If I'd spent all of those hours studying Korean, I'd be far more advanced.