Korean Job Discussion Forums

[young_clinton]

Hello

Has learning Korean positively affected your relationship with the community or your relationship with your student's parents?

Do you think learning Korean WOULD help with improve community relations and relationships with student's parents?

Let me know

[oldtactics]

I teach uni so I don't interact with parents, but I've found that even basic/intermediate Korean makes a huge difference in my life. I just find life here a lot more interesting and entertaining when I can ask simple questions and interact with people instead of just avoiding eye contact. I'm not someone who is confident enough to talk to strangers on the street, but when I'm interacting with people already, having Korean language skills improves the interaction by about 150%.

[PatrickGHBusan]

Yes, while I lived in Korea it helped a lot. It opened a lot of doors, led to much greater understanding of where I lived and of Koreans. It defused a lot of missunderstandings and provided me with more autonomy to do things (did not have to rely on a Korean friend).

It led to some great long lasting friendships with Koreans and opened a lot of employment doors.

[computermichael]

The wench at kimbap cheonguk always gives me extra meat because I sweet talk her and tell her all of the hot gossip about the other foreigners who frequent there. I've lost track of all of the times speaking more than enough Korean to order a bowl of slop has curried me favors, gotten me free stuff, and defused situations where I was being heckled by drunk old men.

I'm not even all that great at Korean. There are tons of foreigners in Anyang, and most of them don't learn much Korean, so I think Koreans are impressed when a round-eye doesn't just shout one word in Korean and shake his finger at something.

However, I work with this guy who is okay at Korean. He's pretty stupid and not great for as much effort as he puts into it, but he's been at it for a long time and always tries to make a big show about how he can speak Korean intermediately. I think the average Korean hates him more than somebody who knows nothing at all.

[notinKS]

Absolutely! The coffee shop that I frequent has comped me coffee and let me upgrade the free reward that I had earned on their punch card. I enjoy talking to the security guards in our building and on more than one occasion I've been given a discount because I can speak Korean. It's one of those things that you will never ever regret learning but will regret it if you don't learn it.

[edwardcatflap]

[Jeunesse]

My experience as a foreigner here has become 1000% more pleasant with a little bit of Korean. It can be hard for strangers to open up to you, but I've made all sorts of casual acquaintances just around the neighborhood and it isn't always easy to chat people up but just having day-to-day interactions and establishing a casual relationship is nice.

[computermichael]

[quote="edwardcatflap"]

[Underwaterbob]

Definitely. Just don't learn too much or they'll start walking all over you like they do most Korean employees in the workplace.

[edwardcatflap]

[Ramen]

[MacLean]

A lot of Westerners regret learning some Korean. Why? Because now they can understand what Koreans are saying about them. Koreans love to talk negatively about foreigners (right in front of them as if they were not there). When you know what they're saying it can sometimes make your experience here less pleasant. If you're overweight or less than beautiful you'll hear a lot of hurtful talk about you from people sitting across from you on the subway. A friend of mine who is fluent has, on many occasions, told people to "change the topic please. I can understand what you're saying about me, and I find it extremely rude."

So yeah, it can be helpful, but it definitely has its drawbacks.

[Underwaterbob]

[lorenchristopher]

Personally I wouldn't care to have a relationship with my students' parents. I've never tried and don't want to, haha.

That being said, my Korean is OK and has improved my life here in so many ways. Not just getting free stuff or making friends, but understanding what's around you, discovering new things and being able to read/figure out things on your own.

It's nice to go from relying on co-workers or Koreans for help, to finally having enough confidence in the language to be able to handle things yourself.

[sublunari]

Just yesterday morning on the subway two asswipes were conversing LOUDLY about god knows what a few feet away from a car full of quiet passengers. On top of that they were sitting in the old people seats. The nerve! I glanced at them for maybe a quarter of a second, grimaced, and tried to get back to my reading; a few minutes later, after the conversation had yet to abate even slightly, an older ajosshi growled out something like: "waygook saram choedabundae!" (the foreign person is staring!) and that shut them up for good.

At homeplus, my favorite checkout ajumma sees that I have not purchased gimbap. Several months ago I bought gimbap for lunch from that place for a few days in a row, bought the gimbap from her each day, and was eventually treated to the wonderful question---"gimbap masheesoyo?" But yesterday she asked me very politely and kindly why I wasn't buying it anymore and I babbled out some nonsense about how I just wasn't getting any that particular day because gimbap is my lifeblood. She nodded and learned how limited my Korean language skills truly are.

Fast forward to the subway afternoon, an idiot with a very strong Busan accent (so strong it's a miracle these people can speak at all, it sounds like they're snorting through their noses) steps right behind me and proceeds to talk into my neck. I can actually feel his breath pulsing into my flesh. The subject concerned how handsome someone's boyfriend was. No ajosshi to save me that time.

Despite these continuing depredations I'm still too polite to tell any stranger to dok chaw!

One last note: people back home are impressed if you can say even a few words in an Asian language. It sounds like the most inexplicable nonsense to them, and they have no idea how far you are from even a semblance of mastery, so by all means, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by throwing an hour a day into a study of the Great Han People's National Language.