Korean Job Discussion Forums

[whatever]

...useless waste of my time of all the languages that I've set out to learn.

1. People react with shock when you say something. It prohibits normal communication. You have to repeat yourself, sometimes repeatedly so, or you won't be understood. When what you're saying is acknowledged, it's often too late to be significant.

2. People react with confusion over pronunciation in a way that belies their awareness of their own differences in vernacular. If you've lived in a country that is multicultural, you've gotten used to every manner of speaking the language. Here, taxi drivers...for example...can't seem to understand the most basic words in their own language, spoken slightly differently from their own family's or region's particular way of saying things...

3. Nobody wants to talk to you in Korean. Only those with no English skills whatsoever converse with you. In those cases, where you do hold a conversation, they are most likely to be very patronizing and weird. Everyone else wants to speak English because it's practice time.

4. Virtually nobody elsewhere except persons of Korean descent speak the language. I suppose I'll be better prepared to order food at a Korean restaurant--in a Korean neighborhood--next time I'm at home. It's anybody's guess as to whether they'll make the food spicy, as I asked, or ignore my request as I am a foreigner, who can't handle their one spice.

5. The expressive intonation in the language makes me want to puke. So many examples come to mind but are hard to express via the internet. "Wayayayayayayay?"

have a great weekend...

[wo buxihuan hanguoren]

Agree and disagree.

Yes, Korean is pretty much useless in other parts of the world, but if Koreans cannot understand you when you try and speak Korean to them, then that is really weird. Korean, unlike most other Asian countries, has no tones. Seriously, I was here for like 4 days before I tried ordering food in Korean; no probs understanding me.

Man, I hate to sound like an ass, but maybe put more effort into it?

There is no way I think Koreans will misunderstand you when speaking Korean, no way at all, unless you are saying something really off the hook.

[Homer]

Take it easy whatever...have a cold one, relax and do what you need to do to calm down...

As someone who is learning a new language you know what the hurdles are and should be able to deal with those as you progress through the levels of proficiency. It is very much trial and error.

I mean your points are well taken but many of us who speak Korean (fluently or not) could testify to very different experiences or to different explanations to the reactions you get.

Also, never over-estimate the quality of your pronounciation and keep context in mind when you interact with people....

Now if the language is not pleasant to you and you see no benefit...I suggest you stop learning it and save yourself the aggravation....unless of course you are one of those people who likes to go through frustrations just so he can complain about it later...

[whatever]

[the_beaver]

[Homer]

[whatever]

[wo buxihuan hanguoren]

Man, if people misunderstanding your pronunciation is your biggest problem here, then that is the least of your worries.

It is a Saturday night, get drunk, take care, as the rest of us try to do.

[whatever]

Don't worry. I'm drunk, or I wouldn't be posting here.

Now, go whack off to my avatar.

[Homer]

I agree whatever!

It can be annoying sometimes....but you either accept that this comes with the territory when learning new languages or give up because as I said...you will just suffer aggravation to what you see as being non-beneficial.....

The Korean language is not that simple...especially the levels of politeness. It i a very socially interactive language and is highly situationally dependent. Who you are and who you speak with dictates a lot of the vocabulary you should use. If you use the wrong level of politeness...this may lead people to ignore you as rude or to pretend not to understand you.

Getting too familiar with the cab driver if he is older than you might turn him off for example. This is not a right/wrong debate by the way...this is just some observations I am making.

The mon and pop shop on the corner....manned by that old halmoni or that old harabogi....you need to a certain level of politeness there as well...

Finally....some Koreans, when they see a foreigner, get keyed up to try and understand English or get nervous at the fact they migth not understand you...so when you roll out the Korean...they might not even be listening for it and it may take them by surprise...

Just my two rusty cents man....

[Ilsanman]

Way ahead of you, man.

[whatever]

[excitinghead]

This topic comes up on Davesesl every few months or so. I complained about it a lot myself I think about one or two years ago, and people will probably still be complaining about it 10 years from now.

I'm a bit drunk too, so I'll be a bit blunter than normal: Homer, Whatever's problem has absolutely nothing to do with using the wrong level of politeness, and everything to do with inexperience of dealing with strange accents, to the extent that many Koreans just can't handle the concept of foreigners speaking Korean. It just simply isn't in their world view.

This problem for the language learner isn't confined to Korea, but is much more exaggerated here because of the relative lack of non-Koreans here learning the language until recently. I'm personally very tired of many people saying Japanese people learn Korean much quicker than Westeners because of shared grammar etc., when just as important is the fact that most Koreans can handle Asian-looking people speaking Korean but just freak out when Westeners do the same.

In 7 years here and 3-4 learning the language like a maniac, I haven't had a single person offended with me and refuse to use Korean with me because I accidentally used a too informal choice of word or verb ending. The people who freak out about me speaking Korean freak out regardless of what I say, whereas the people who take the time to penetrate my weird accent are usually impressed and make many allowances for my mistakes.

My advice to Whatever when you sober up is...it gets better. It's like basic culture shock: at some point you'll find that nobody's so much as raised an eyelid at you using Korean in weeks, but then one guy does speak crappy English to you and treats you like an idiot, and it suddenly feels like everyone does, all the time. Hang in there, keep studying, and sooner or later you'll find that, apart from all the damn compliments about your ability that preface every conversation you have, you'll realise that you can't remember the last time Koreans had a problem with you speaking Korean to you.

Personally, I had to scroll back through old posts on my blog to find out the last time it happened to me, and eventually I found a rant from...4 months ago!

Edit: By the way Whatever, I've been curious, you didn't get your avatar from the blog here did you? http://thegrandnarrative.wordpress.com/2007/09/19/a-healthy-dose-of-lee-hyori/ Took me 30 mins to figure out how to cut and crop a bigger picture of hers using Irfanview to make it, I'll be damn annoyed if there was one on the internet already

[I-am-me]

[pest2]

Im with ya whatever. Besides that Korean seems to be like the most annoying language to learn when it comes to odd things other languages dont have, its very very difficult to use what you do learn to interact with Koreans.

Non-Korean: Mul hana juseo.

Korean: way?

Non-Korean: Mul hana juseo.

Korean: way?

Non-Korean: Mul hana juseo.

Korean: way?

Non-Korean: Mul hana juseo.

Korean: way?

Non Korean makes gesture of holding glass to lips to take a drink of water...

Korean: Oh! Mul hana! (saying it as if he/she is teaching the non-korean something completely new).

I was about to type that even if you cant use the speaking too much, being able to hear what they are saying is sometimes an advantage; especially at work when they are very likely talking about you... but then I remembered the days when I had absolutely no idea what they were saying and I have to go with 'ignorance is bliss' because hearing what they say makes it evident they are really a bunch of ignoramuses.