Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Whistleblower]

This is just obvious though. Too much memorization and not enough fluency practice for the job interview. I have interviewed so many applicants for jobs that it is predictable. Applicants have difficulty with fluency, rarely the applicant cannot say anything at all but most of the time they have difficulty understanding phrasal verbs.

Anyone else had experience with interviewing applicants with their English fluency? Any opinions?

[billybrobby]

They're asking about Pax Americana? Christ, that's a bit much.

I did a job interview in Korean once. Then they called me back to talk to the CEO, and I was extra nervous, and his interview consisted of asking me, in English, if I liked Korea and telling me that I'm handsome. (The point of this story is that my Korean is awesome and I'm handsome.)

[mithridates]

Pax Americana? He should have been all "Pax Americana est aevum quo Civitates Foederatae Americae in hemisphaera hespera pacem creaverunt et servaverunt usque a fine belli mundani alterius, bitch."

[Unposter]

What don't Koreans whine about?

Though I have to admit many of the Korean Speaking Exams are not up to par.

[Adventurer]

I used to have to prepare people for interviews. Some were pretty good, but some were horrible. I remember this one lady wanting to interview to become a flight attendant. I felt she had no chance. If she really wanted to become a flight attendant and do well on the test, she should have come to our hagwon long before the interview was scheduled. She needed a lot of work. I, frankly, don't think Koreans take learning English seriously enough. They want to learn English, but they don't want to put forth the effort in too many cases.

Can you give examples when it comes to phrasal verbs that Koreans, you think, are having trouble mastering?

I was once impressed with one student who never studied at a hagwon before having lessons with me. I asked her how she learned what she knew. She said her father had her lesson to tapes twice a day for most of the year, and she did that for some years.

[matthews_world]

Koreans are simply scared to speak any other language. Once they get over that hurdle and improving their English by talking to foreigners, traveling and experiencing culture then they get the sense how important English is. Takes more than a hagwon for students to learn English.

[crash]

I've interviewed hundreds of applicants to assess their English speaking skills and at least 90% attempt to memorize their answers. Most usually get flustered when asked follow up questions that are not on their cheat sheets. After I've failed some applicants, management asks me to interview them again because their TOEIC score is rather high. I still get asked to pass most of them though, as the managers usually think I'm grading too harshly. It's quite easy to pick out the applicants who have lived/studied abroad in just the way they pretty much introduce themselves.

Would have to agree that most of the applicants I see are extremely stressed out to be conversing in English in an interview setting. It's not a perfect yardstick to be measuring their skills but in my opinion, is a better indicator of their English ability than a score on an automated test.

[marlow]

[Whistleblower]

[Privateer]

You can't fake it through memorisation.

[matthews_world]

[Young FRANKenstein]

[Adventurer]

[Gollywog]

Ask me if I feel any pity.

What do most of these kids do in class for three years of middle school?

If they made an effort to stay awake, pay attention, stop talking and stop playing with their cell phone, it would be a start. But don't they realize you can't learn a foreign language just sitting in class a few hours a week? You need to do some work on your own at home. You need to actually USE English in some way. You need to read. You need to listen. You need to speak.

And then when they actually get tested, they say it's DREADFUL.


WTF do they expect, after doing their very best to avoid learning English in class?

Do I feel any pity?

Guess.

The few kids who aren't stewing in anti-American hatred and do some work will be at an advantage. Screw the rest of them.

[Young FRANKenstein]