Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raewon]

I've seen something similar to the following in many books:

A: "What's your hobby?"
B: "My hobby is collecting stamps."

I would always ask someone "What are your hobbies?" not "What's
your hobby?" is the latter OK?

What is the correct way to respond if you only have one hobby?
"My hobby is ~" also sounds unnatural to me.

Thanks for any replies that come my way.

[jinks]

Maybe because we are more likely to say:
"Do you have any hobbies?"
And the reply would probably be something like:
"Yes, I like collecting stamps (or whatever)"

Do you have a hobby? Is an EFL type of question and not the kind of thing people usually ask each other

[Epicurus]

[The evil penguin]

[Theo]

I had university students in China tell me: "My hobby is sleeping."

[The evil penguin]

[tzechuk]

Don't be so evil, Penguin. I used to collect stamps. My grandfather had several album of rare stamps that are worth quite a bit (he passed and we had them valued).

[Perceptioncheck]

[Hanson]

Collecting action figures and toys can yield interesting investment returns over time, too (a very long time), but collecting them is just as nerdy as collecting stamps. My grandfather, incidentally, had an impressive stamp collection when he died. My grandfather, rest his soul, was about as nerdy as they come.

I always felt collecting things, like porcelain elephants, or merit badges, or comic books, or whatever floats your boat, to be a bit odd.

[Theo]

No. 1 answer with my female (and some male) students: "My hobby is window shopping!"

[bixlerscott]

I taught about hobbies and realized the plural and singular forms that automatically come into play are confusing for low level ESL students.

Yes, we commonly say, "What are your hobbies?" You typically don't hear, "What's your hobby?" though it seems to be grammatically correct.

If only one hobby, you can just say, "My hobby is collecting stamps." Plural and singular answers to any questions are automatically understood by anyone with a grasp of English though this is a part of Western culture more so than the language itself making it difficult for Koreans. I'm not picky on the many English mistakes they make, because communication skills and vocabulary is what really matters.

It's like, "What are your skills?"
My skill is English. My skills are English, advanced math, and music. Even with a decent sized vocabulary, I found plurals, verbs, and tenses are some of the most difficult parts of ESL, but yet our understanding of them is easily taken for granted. This is why many people speak simple broken English. This gets rather complex so I myself don't speak correctly all the time when in Korea or other non-English speaking country as to keep it simple to facilitate communication.

Ah, yes, I too have gotten the joke of, "Scott Teacher, my hobby is sleeping." Playing computer games is about the only other answer. LOL.

[lifeinkorea]

In Japan, students often said "My hobby is driving".

[Epicurus]