Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tjinh200]

My friend is looking to go to Korea to study Korean, but cannot speak English so I am asking on his behalf.

I, personally, have researched a lot about Korean courses in Korea and have taken courses at Yonsei.

On this board, I know that many people have a lot of opinions about whether Yonsei or KNU or Sogang is better (etc.), but my question is:

In your Korean language courses at your respective schools, be they recognised universities or private schools, how many Chinese speaking students would you estimate there are/were and how did they impact your learning?

To be clear, I don't think anyone wants a big debate here, just subjective observations with the understanding that everyone is entitled to their own opinion...

Myself, at Yonsei, observed a 20-30% Chinese student attendance, and did not negatively impact my learning.

However, as my friend cannot speak English, it might be important for him to have a secondary language to reference if need be.

[crsandus]

The morning classes at Sogang are dominated by Chinese students from what I've observed. The night classes are filled with English speakers. The morning classes also has a fair share of Japanese students but Chinese students could easily make up 50% of the students.

[Css]

Ive been in classes where well over 50% were chinese and it was great...Much better than being in classes with other native english speakers. Much more of a chance to practice korean.

[Ssem]

I have attended classes at Yonsei (2004-2005, graduated) and Korean National University (2010) and the chinese population at KNU was much higher than at Yonsei.

I know for a fact that the yonsei textbooks have lower lever books in English/Korean, Japanese/Korean, and I think I remember Chinese/Korean as the market for foreigners learning Korean is shifting in that direction.

If you would like, I can inquire to my friends who are currently at KNU to see what they have for textbooks and resources at the 국제관 for Chinese speaking prospective students?

Unfortunatley, I have no reference with Sogang aside from friends who say that the conversational part of the course was better than Yonsei and KNU. My experience between KNU and Yonsei was that Yonsei had the 'better' (read: more established) language course and much of what KNU did mimiced the Yonsei model of teaching methodology. Both sets of teachers were very professional and I would recommend either school in a heartbeat to someone who is actually serious about studying the language.


- SSem

[chungbukdo]

[spicy]

it's way easier for them than it is for us, at least regarding vocab. a bunch of people have told me that chinese grammar as reasonably similar to english, so both speakers would be on comparatively level footing, but they'd have a pretty significant leg-up when it comes to vocabulary.

ewha is around 40 or so% chinese speakers (mainland/taiwanese/etc), probably pretty similar ~40% japanese, with the remaining 15-20 or so % made up mostly of europeans with a few north-americans and misc. countries.

i can't imagine not speaking english being a problem -- as a student, you're going to be here to learn korean anyways, not practice your english. if anything, i'd say that being an english speaker has often been detrimental to my korean, since few people around here speak chinese, but everyone who's willing to talk is usually eager to practice english with a native speaker.

just my thoughts (been here 6mo as a full-time student after teaching english for a year, 3mo of which i was also taking morning korean classes)

[Cedar]

Most of the big schools offer the exact same textbook in English, Chinese or Japanese. My husband bought the Chinese and we found that some of the vocab was translated poorly, that was Ewha. I strongly advise Yonsei b/c your friend will live in Korea, he can practice conversation ANYWHERE.

[tjinh200]

Thanks for the responses

As someone pointed out, there are some similarities in sounds when it comes to Korean and Chinese and Japanese and, in that respect people who are fluent in those languages do have a slight advantage at the start.

Further, has anyone studied Korean at a non-University program? (Not private study, but group-based classroom studying).

[mkishon]

many

[mkishon]

many

[chungbukdo]