Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Miles Rationis]

Where are you?

[Jizzo T. Clown]

I can read and am starting to get a feel for how words are separated in speech, but my vocabulary sucks. The grammar's basically the same as Japanese, isn't it?

[Smee]

I don't own a Korean.
























*cough*

Intermediate. My vocabulary's all right, but my grammar is atrocious. I can follow along most conversations around town and in school, though I don't always have the speaking skills to go along with it.

[CentralCali]

[LuckyNomad]

My strongest point is vocabulary. Once you learn several hundred Hanja, you know why words are the way that they are, and you can often figure out what words mean by disecting the two parts.
For example: (sorry, I can't write Hangeul on this computer)

Mun(literature) Bob(Law) MunBob = Grammar
Ma(evil) Bob(law) MaBob = Magic
Ma(evil) Wong(King) MaWong= The Devil
Bul(not) Shi(death) BulShi= immortality
Jin(true) Ri(reason) JinRi= The Truth

It's basically like studying Latin to learn english words.

Everything else is intermediate

[Jizzo T. Clown]

[normalcyispasse]

[CentralCali]

[wo buxihuan hanguoren]

What does "onion how say yo" mean?

You would think that with the amount of foreigners teaching here, someone would have taught them how to say 'onion' correctly.

And what is up with the 'yo'? Do I look like a brother to you, Mr. Korean Man? Treat me with respect please, or heads will be kicked in, bloody blimmin' strewth!

[cdninkorea]

I'm able to get the gist of what people say to me most of the time. My biggest problem is that I can't understand them unless they speak slowly.

Very often a Korean I'm talking to will be very impressed after hearing me speak and assume I'm fluent (or close to it). Then they'll start talking at the same speed they'd talk to a fellow Korean, and it's over for me.

[ghost]

Been here for 5 months, and studying at the Korean Language Academy since June (3 months of once a week every Saturday for 3 hours).

Still unable to converse in Korean, but able, to just say a few sentences about who I am, where I am from, and what I do. I can also ask for directions, and know most of the numbers.

I have not yet reached the stage where my ear is in sync with the language and where I can understand most of what is going on.

To learn any language successfully, you need tons of exposure, and unfortunately as English teachers, because of the nature of our field, our exposure to the language is reduced, unless we make special efforts outside of class time to get that exposure. And most of us don't do that, because most Koreans are not really willing to have us hanging around them.

I recommend the courses here:

Seoul Korean Language Academy, 7F Hightech Bld., 649-2, Yeoksam dong, Kangnam gu, Seoul

Tel: 02 563 3226

www.seoul-kla.com

Ghost in Korea

[SuperHero]

finished level 3 at Sogang so that makes me high beginner/low intermediate using the actfl scale for language acquisition.

[Jizzo T. Clown]

[CentralCali]

[Jizzo T. Clown]