Korean Job Discussion Forums

[princess]

I have always had to hear things about my "southern accent". My last school let me go and they said two parents complained that I talk too slowly. Another school told me to speak slower and this school said I don't speak fast enough. Arrrgh!!!!!!

[katydid]

Jesus...you spoke too slow for the students? Who'd have thought someone would complain about that????

[Arthur Fonzerelli]

I've met some aussies and kiwis here that I could barely understand because of their wretched accents...

How in the world would a Korean student understand them?

[Kwangjuchicken]

And don't you just love it when Koreans think your English is bad because they can not understand you As an American French teacher with many years of experience, I can honestly tell you that there are 2 kinds of people I can not understand when they speak French: (a) Non-natives who speak French badly, and (b) native speakers.

[J.B. Clamence]

[tmcurro]

[kiwiboy_nz_99]

[wylde]

lets see... fonz....

first of all... g'day matey

if i talk through my nose, make my t's sound like d's, call imperial measurement english and metric measurement metric maybe then you could understand me.

american english, to me, sounds just as foreign as japanese english. i probably couldn't understand you either pal.

to all the yanks who read this, i respect and appreciate your english, fonzie seems to have a very narrow minded point of view...

i understand the english taught here is american english, thats what they want, thats what they feel they need.. i have a poor american accent but i have tried to extend my r's and change my phonetics to suit my job..

If your boss in aust or nz said... learn this new skill otherwise your position may become obsolete, shouldn't you at least try?
when i first arrived i was asked to change my accent, man.... was i dirty. but i now understand the students need american english .. if you can do it, you are worth more in korea.

my 2nd job i was threated with dismissal if i couldn't speak with at least a little american accent.. so i tried..

also, it does seem that konglish is based on british english and now trying to learn american english.. darn it must be tough for them..

by the way, it is completely wrong to hire an aussie or kiwi and then fire them for being aussie or kiwi..

but korea has 6000 won bottles of vodka.. geez i love this place

cheers big ears

[katydid]

This is ticking me off...so I must bump up the topic.

Now my boyfriend is being forced to listen to American language tapes during his break (for three hours!!) to "correct" his accent. Too many people are leaving classes because of him, his supervisor told him. My boyfriend then told the guy why doesn't he listen to the tapes himself, as he hasn't an American accent either. Ha ha. (Well, he has a point!)
Again, we go back to:"Why the hell didn't the hagwan owner pass him over if he didn't like his accent in the first place?!?!"
Is there any sort of legal recourse he can have IF he is let go because of his accent, or is that a hard thing to prove?
Jeez, I'm thinking if I go to the airport tonight, I might meet my boyfriend there!
Grrr....

[kiwiboy_nz_99]

[Leeroy]

I'm from NZ too and never had an issue regarding my non-North American accent while I taught there.

Let's face it, the accent problem that so many Korean students complain about is really just a weak scapegoat for their inadequacies in English. " I can't understand you. Therefore your English is bad." Can't fault brilliant logic like that, as a previous poster already mentioned.

Accent is not an issue for learning English. Learning how to pronounce so that all speakers of English can understand you is what learners of English should be concentrating on. Does it matter if you don't have a native speaker's accent? of course not. I think most native speakers of English couldn't care less either. Becoming familiar with a particular accent is only necessary when a student is living among speakers of that accent.

I've talked to several students, many of whom Korean, who said that when they travelled to Aust, NZ, or the UK they were somewhat embarrassed because so many people there asked them "why do you sound American?" I find it a bit sad that many learners of English (usually Asian) think that English should sound American as if it were some kind of default. Different accents are great. They should be encouraged. Imagine how boring English would be if we all spoke with the same accent.

As for some of the people who post here claiming that they can't understand people from X country. What the hell is wrong with you? I can only think of two occassions in my entire life when I didn't fully understand what people were saying. One time was a cockney kid who asked me something like he would ask his other cockney friends, and the other was some old farmer guy from Yorkshire on TV being interviewed by local news. Both instances were just cases of people using very very region specific colloquialisms. I think standard vareties of English in English speaking countries differ minimally.

[Leeroy]

so the name for people from east London (not in SA) has to be beeped out now.......?

[katydid]

The filter is **very** sensitive and didn't like the first four letters of your word.

[dogbert]

[Kwangjuchicken]