Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jzrossef]

Other than Korean and arguably English, are there any other languages that are pretty common or useful in Korean society? (Ex. Spanish in US, maybe French in Canada... maybe) I guessed it's going to be either Japanese or Chinese, but maybe I overlooked other ones out there.

Out of that list, which one would be more useful, considering factors like relavance to society/culture, # of users, etc...?

[blackjack]

[jvalmer]

You'd be surprised by the number of Chinese students that work those service jobs, which I assume a large number are ethnic Koreans. Jobs like cashiers at E-mart or Lotteria. More then you realize. Tons of ethnic Korean-Japanese are in the country too.

I'd say Japanese and Mandarin Chinese are useful socially. That is if your Korean is good enough to detect non-native Korean language skills from an Asian looking waiter/waitress or cashier.

I live in a smallish city and the local 2-year college student body is 10% foreign, most of whom are Chinese citizens. Also have had a large number of broken Korean conversation with factory workers from Indonesia and Cambodia, enjoying a smoke in front of the town's main train station.

[redaxe]

I used Chinese a lot when I was in Korea. But I specifically sought out Chinese people to practice with. Generally, just Korean and English are useful, and sometimes Japanese, if you hang out in Myungdong a lot.

[BoholDiver]

Here is my estimation of foreign languages spoken in Korea by Koreans.

1. English
2. Japanese
3. Chinese
4. Russian
5. French
6. German
7. Spanish

After that, very few speakers of anything else.

[northway]

[rickpidero]

English is obviously number 1; Chinese and Japanese fallow. In my experience French is after that, it was explained to me that it's really difficult to get into English departments of universities. So, many students pick French because of the art and literature aspect. But this is just my observation. No real numbers. I'd be interested to find some sort of official poll.

[furtakk]

[sojusucks]

[SinclairLondon]

There are around 500 students studying at Pusan National University. There is a sizebale number of students from India and Pakistan, and there some Turks in the area, with a mosque and two Turkish restaurants nearby the campus.

[illvibetip]

[tomato]

[Globutron]

I know a couple of German speaking Koreans, and a few bangali men living hear working in the factories.
But no idea how common this is.

[jzrossef]

I didn't take Southeastern Asian immigrants to account. Darn.

But yeah, sounds like China and India are the highlight here. I shouldn't have too much difficulty re-polishing Korean flunecy, as I've lived in Korea for over a decade... just thought I might wanna try out third language not necessarily for job asset... I donno, it just sounds good idea if I have the time.

I thought about Japanese too, as Japan is still major investor and many Japanese come to Korea as tourists or work (Culturally, Japan and Korea are more alike in comparison to Chinese counterpart... mostly anyway) but I'd figure mandarin is the way to go. Learning a language is all about being able to use is and practive frequently, and there are simply more Chinese students I run into and talk to in comparison to Japanese peers.

I learned French since junior high (We got a lot of French as second langauge program here in Canada) and let's just say I managed to get by in Quebec... but I donno, maybe I'm not all that cut out for romantic language. (shrug)

BTW, I didn't know there were mosques in Korea. Aren't Koreans frown on any religion that are not Buddhism or Christian... even if freedom of religion is technically there by law?

[redaxe]