Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

My how it pisses me off to see how my stressed out students have to waste their time picking through paragraphs they can hardly understand to find trivial or even non-existant mistakes. Would you please look this over and tell me how #1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 could possibly constitute a grammatical error?


The above flower spreads out into a circle when you look straight into its face. The buttonlike structure sitting right in the (1) middle of the flower is actually formed from many tiny flowers classed disk flowers. The disk flowers (2) include petals which are actually individual flowers called ray flowers. The ray flowers radiate out from the rim of the disk flowers and reach to the (3) edge of the whole flower. You can draw the flower easily with the following procedure. First, draw two dotted lines that (4) quarter the flower, imagining its shape. This enables you to draw the ray flowers correctly and keep track of where you are. Next, draw two circle guidelines: The inner one indicates the outline of the (5) disk flower, and the outer one, the extent of the ray flowers. Then, fill the inner circle with disk flowers and the outer one with ray flowers.

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Now, would one of you grammarians please explain to me which underlined word is a mistake, why, and why guessing correctly on a couple of questions like that could make the difference between getting into SNU or not?

[DrunkenMaster]

There's nothing wrong with the underlined words. Is there any chance that the students received a copy with the correct answers?

[Phant0m]

I actually read that same paragraph a few minutes ago when one of the Korean English couldn't figure it out also. The correct answer, apparently, is #2 "include", but she could not figure out why. I tried to look closely at the accompanying picture also to try and figure it out, and it could possibly be the case that the individual ray flowers are not part of the disk flowers.

[drunkenfud]

[Juregen]

(1) Center
(2) Contain
(3) Ends
(4)?
(5)?

[Draz]

I can't figure out how two dotted lines make a quarter.

[OneWayTraffic]

Yes, it's include. Usage error,not grammatical. Include is used to describe elements of a set.

Instead of 'include', I'd put 'have.'

[Ya-ta Boy]

I didn't spot any mistakes.

[aka Dave]

The disk flowers have what appear to be petals, but in fact these are...

Not sure about the grammar, but for clarity's sake if they're not petals the essay shouldn't describe them as such.

The writing strikes me as shoddy. I'm no botanist, but do flower's have faces? Maybe I'm wrong here, but that seems strange.

[Tobias]

See now why no one with a real education degree wants to come to Korea to do this, even though he/she may be able to double his/her salary?

There's always somethin'.

Nit-picking students would have me on a plane faster than I can say "don't come back here Yankee!"

[KoreanAmbition]

[Draz]

[T-dot]

[Hyeon Een]

[ontheway]

The use of the word "include" in the passage above is NOT incorrect. It is one of the accepted definitions and usages of the word.

This is a good example of the flawed questions that seem to infest the middle and high school level "English" tests given in Korea. The Korean test makers and teachers are unqualified to make tests and unqualified to teach.


The OP is justifiably frustrated. This question, if it is indeed part of an exam, and probably others, should be thrown out and the tests regraded.


Koreans, from students to university level English profs at the 4 major Unis, do not understand the simple meanings of words. The K/E and E/K dictionaries are filled with translation errors, and they can't get them corrected. Movies, books, plays etc. are so badly translated that they miss major plot elements and misunderstand major concepts. Without comprehension, grammar is useless. English grammar is far beyond their comprehension.