Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Jessiegirl]

Do you find your English gets worse the longer you teach in Korea? After some time, some phrases start to sound okay.

[noraebang]

I spent a year studying at a Korean university and noticed even my friends started to get confused about speaking English, because we spent so much time around Koreans who spoke English fairly well.

For example, my friends and I started using the pronoun "we" instead of "you" or "one" when describing general situations. "In English, we say..." which a total Koreanized way of saying something. Go back home to an English speaking country and you won't hear it. I actually told my native English speaking friend (who wasn't completely that bright) that saying "we" is unusual in that instance and he was like, "Really?"

You'll get used to certain things. Most teachers don't even bother correcting their students on Koreanisms that they hear every 1-2 minutes. For instance, calling a secretary a "desk teacher." "Hyunae, give these papers to desk teacher please." What does she do, does she teach desks? Or does she lecture others about the intricacies of desks? One frequent example is that most teachers here allow their students to call them "Teacher" or "Sally Teacher" even though that is never how we referred to our teachers in school. It was always "Miss Caruthers." I accepted this because it was nicer than hearing them butcher my last name, or even the first initial of my last name, "Mistah Aechee!"

If you speak Korean in certain situations and English in others instead of blending the two, then you won't have a problem. If you begin speaking your own mess of Konglish then it will become a bit more natural to you. You won't "lose" your English, but your garbage English will slip out absent mindedly when talking to a Korean in English.

[Perceptioncheck]

Sometimes I wonder about that very thing.

I don't think my English has changed but thinking about makes me tiring, to tell you the truth, so afterwards I must to take a rest and go to bowling for relax.

[toadkillerdog]

Yes, my English is slowly dying.

[NYC_Gal]

Verbally, sometimes. That's why I feel the need to blather here. Gotta make sure to keep the ol' lexicon fresh.

[daemyann]

I echo the verbal comments, to a degree.

A few friends of mine have sling boxes primarily to deter the onset of a lazy/poor vocabulary.

When you're constantly rewording and simplifying your speech, you can't be surprised when it's not as easy to draw upon $20.00 expressions later.

[PigeonFart]

yes, it duhzz.

Seriously, it actually does.

[HalfJapanese]

For some people they may live in a foreign country for such a long time that they can no longer properly speak their mother language nor properly speak the language of the foreign country.

[wormholes101]

Absolutely you will start to lose your native tongue.

Here's an excerpt for the dairy of Hendrick Hamel. He met a fellow dutch man who had been kept captive in Korea for approximately 25 years with little or no contact Dutch.

[tiger fancini]

[carleverson]

I rearry thinks it true!

[NYC_Gal]

Sling boxes are the BEST!

[Slowmotion]

The problem is I speak Korean also, so sometimes its really hard to translate something to English even though I understand the meaning. Trying to find the most natural way can be hard sometimes. I found the best thing to do is not think too hard, it makes it worse.

Hopefully none of you guys have added 'take a rest' to your lexicon

[CentralCali]

As long as I can still distinguish correctly between the following pairs, I'm not all that concerned:

• everyday & every day
  
• you're & your
  
• worse & worst
  
• diary & dairy
  
• its & it's

[Perceptioncheck]