Korean Job Discussion Forums

[northway]

[some waygug-in]

I guess it needs to be said again:


I used to think China would become the next superpower and that mandarin would become the new "lingua-franca",


then I went there.


'nuff said.

[jurassic82]

[aq8knyus]

Yeah I was trying to find out if reducing the emphasis on English and increasing the emphasis on Mandarin was becoming a trend within PS schools.

Whilst the subsequent discussion about the global status of the respective languages was interesting it was not really what I was after.

[thunderbird]

watcha talkin about how many chinese schools do ya see?

[jvalmer]

[hari seldon]

If Chinese is going to displace English as the lingua franca, then how come the Chinese are scrambling to learn English?

[litebear]

[liveinkorea316]

You guys are forgetting that 60% of Korean words are actually of Chinese origin and students learn about 800 Chinese characters in highschool. I would not go so far as to say our jobs are safe because English is easier than Chinese...for Koreans...

[Redmosquito]

Check out this report by Graddol for a pretty comprehensive discussion of the global position of English relative to other languages. http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-englishnext.htm

[different]

This isn't politically correct to say, but English is a more logical choice for an international language.

1) As has been pointed out, China's writing system is a pain in the ass.
2) English is a LOW-CONTEXT language, so people from different cultures don't have to get a feel for all sorts of cultural nuances in order to use English. It's a more straightforward tool.

[creeper1]

If you want something to worry about look in the mirror and ask yourself this question - Am I an ESL bum? That is someone here getting drunk and pissing around without furthering his/her qualifications.

English will completely dominate. However, we also have to recognize that perhaps the boom time for EFL in Korea is peaking, or has already peaked. As the country develops more, more foreigners come here, standards for university jobs become more stringent, benefits for training school jobs become less generous. Market forces.

10 or 15 years ago as Korea's foreign trade was taking off and there was a shortage of really competent English speakers to work in this sector, English language skills were seen as an automatic passport to a good job and a better life. Now there are millions more university graduates than there were at that time and there are millions more reasonably competent English speakers than there were 10 years ago, but the number of jobs for them has not expanded correspondingly. As a result, English language skills are no longer seen as the automatic passport to a good job and a better life which they once were. This means that people are no longer willing to pay as much for classes, and the competition from the proliferation of English schools means that they no longer have to.

The day will come that being white and having any old degree will not suffice.

So eventually ESL bums will be kicked between the legs very hard. The price to pay for lazing around and wasting your time will be unemployment both in Korea and at home.

[NohopeSeriously]

[aq8knyus]

@creeper

So qualifications are 100% guaranteed to make you secure from unemployment?

The real world is a harsher place that you imagine, nothing secures you from unemployment. Just ask a former employee of Lehman�s.

[cincynate]

Don't forget that China has the most English speakers in the world. They don't mind doing business in English. English has been the dominate language for international commerce for quite some time. The west was the dominate force that started globalization. English will be the language of business for the long haul.