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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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 Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 4:59 am Post subject: |
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| World Traveler wrote: |
| Chet Wautlands wrote: |
| I strongly encourage any foreigner living here to learn some Korean because it has enhanced my life so much. It's not as hard as people make it out to be. It really isn't. And no, I'm not a gifted language learner. I just spent time learning the language. |
How many hours total have you spent studying Korean?
In my experience most people seriously underestimate the difficulty of the Korean language. It looks easy at first, but it is not. It is a wolf in sheep's clothing. I curse the day I first got the notion in my head I was going to speak Korean. I've poured so much time and money into the language, but am still not conversant, and I am beginning to doubt whether I will ever be. |
To be fair (and I truly don't mean to be an ass in saying this), but aren't your goals to do IR/NGO type work involving North Korea? And thus you have very, very high standards in terms of where your Korean needs to be? It doesn't hurt your overall point, but I would think becoming reasonably conversational would suit the needs of most people, while you would likely need to reach the point of fluency to be able to engage in truly technical dialogues, no? |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 6:37 am Post subject: |
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| Setaro wrote: |
| Adventurer wrote: |
| Setaro wrote: |
| In this thread: many cretins who can't read the world's simplest writing system, and hide their ignorance behind a veil of 'I don't need to learn'. I bet they still go to Korean restaurants and ask for a fork because they haven't bothered to learn how to use chopsticks after years in Korea. |
Dude, what's it to you? Do you really need such a boost to your self-esteem to trash people who are not learning Korean? I am learning Korean, but one of my favorite workmates doesn't care, and he is a wonderful human being. Maybe, you could learn to become a wonderful human being instead of trashing other people because they're not learning Korean. I will probably know more Korean in a few months than a friend who has been here longer than me, and he can read Hangeul.
Would that make me a better person? You're trying to use the fact that you've learned some Korean to feel like you've got some kind of cultural prestige. You should simply do out of love for your desire to connect with the culture, not hate Westerners who haven't learned as much as some of us.
Good night..... |
If you (not YOU, I'm talking generally) move to live and work in a foreign country, for a period of years, yet make such a lack of effort in learning the language that you can't even read the simple script of said country, you are a cretin.
And yet again, you misunderstood what the OP and I can't seem to comprehend. This is nothing do with with how many Korean words you know, or how much you can speak. It's purely about that some people have been here years yet can't read a bunch of letters that take about 2 hours to memorize. I tought my girlfriend to read half the Hangeul letters in 45 minutes, just by looking at the station names on each metro stop as we travelled. By the end of the trip she could read some of the station names without needing to look at the romanisation.
If someone has been here years and can't even do that, their ignorance is truly astounding. |
I don't want to go back-and-forth on this issue. Are you a linguist? Do you have an M.A. in foreign languages and have done the research on Second Language Acquisition? It doesn't appear that you have. Even those who seek to learn a foreign language (target language) are not going to all master at the same rate. We're talking about differences in learning styles. Some people may confuse several of the characters with each other over a period of time. That would apply to many people learning Korean based on my experience. To truly master Hangeul for the majority of learners if they are earnest enough would take time for many of them. Some learners would have a better grasp of Hangeul once they acquire a certain amount of vocabulary and can match the sounds with the words in enough cases for the individual learners.
I agree with the idea that if you live in Korea, you should make an effort to learn the language. It's not necessary laziness. Some feel no need to learn the language. They all have different reasons. One, is that Korean is only spoken in Korea. Two, some learners find the vowel sounds difficult to distinguish. Three, some don't feel people encourage them to learn the language and make fun of them when they speak in Korean.
This reminds me of the people who complain about Mexicans who come to the U.S. and don't learn Spanish. Often, adult learners do not acquire a foreign language unless they put a lot of effort into it, and they often avoid putting the effort to learn a lot of the language.
Like you, I'd like to see more Waygooks making an effort to learn Korean. If they don't want to, it's their choice, and so what if they don't want to? They're not permanent residents or immigrants in most cases. They're not here to settle down. |
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Enrico Palazzo
Mod Team
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 7:01 am Post subject: |
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There is a lot of rude language in this thread. It's not really civil and calling other users cretins violates the TOS. It doesn't promote the civility we want on the Korea board. Civility exists on the international forums and mostly on the Korea board, but some go too far with attacks.
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