Korean Job Discussion Forums

[joesp]

Has anybody attended the languagecast meetings listed on meetup.com? I went to a few of them, they were generally nice people.

I wanted to warn people about the "language exchange group" of meetup.com ((( http://www.meetup.com/Language-Exchange-Cafe/ ))) which has a few problems. The people at languagecast founded it. It is run by the same people. Difference being that languagecast is free but everybody (foreigners and koreans alike) have to pay 10,000 won to attend the "language exchange group" meetings.

The basis for my wanting to issue a warning and my concerns are the following:

1) the same group is advertised to Koreans on cafes entitled "외국인친구 만나기" and the likes, which are not even a language exchange.

2) I attended 3 of them, but the only foreign organizer does not exist and appears to be a fictitious character going simply by "David" with the picture of a foreigner attached

3) The group is not a language exchange, as I said before. foreign english teachers are not helped with their Korean at all. It is just another "let's Talk in English" conversation get-together.

4) foreigners pay 10,000 won to teach the Korean attendees English and the 2 Korean organizers take all the profits.

I told one of the organizer-helpers that he should put me on the payroll, too. With an attendance of 100 people at Gangnam and 60 in Hongdae they are making 1,600,000 won for organizing the event. I suppose they are giving the cafe owner 5,000 or 6,000 won, all while the foreign English teachers in attendance are doing the actual work and even paying to attend. However, I was only joking about joining. I am actually peeved because it is already difficult for foreign English teachers to learn Korean and they seem to be rubbing it in my face with this.

The whole thing just reaks of a scam. Telling different groups (the koreans and the foreigners) different things and lying behind a false organizer makes me angry and suspicious.

If anybody has any inside knowledge about if this really is a scam or not, please let me know.

[HANGRY]

Thanks for this post. I think it is pretty informative, and made me think about going to these exchanges.

I went to one of the languagecasts in Gangnam once with my k-girlfriend. I didn't think anything suspicious about it, as anybody could meet anywhere and start talking so it wasn't a big deal to me. All we did all night was talk in English to a couple of Koreans, so it wasn't that beneficial and I haven't gone again.

It is kind of obvious the cafe is probably paying somebody for bringing in that much business.

I definitely don't think I would go to the exchange you mentioned. There is no reason you should have to pay money for language exchange. Hell just talk to enough Koreans and you will find one who will bend over backwards to do a proper language exchange with you.

However, I've really soured to the whole concept of language exchange, at least until my Korean gets to conversational level. Until I find a Korean who is willing to talk to me EXCLUSIVELY in Korean for a set period of time, then I feel like all I'm doing is giving free English lessons.

[Kimchifart]

The three rules of language exchanges are:

1. never do language exchanges.

2. NEVER do language exchanges.

3. NEVER DO LANGUAGE EXCHANGES.

[radcon]

Some naive newbs. "Language exchange" is a euphemism for something else. "Hey Young Hee who is that foreign guy I saw you with? Oh that's just my language exchange partner."

[Otherside]

[xhaktmtjdnf]

I believe the fellow going by "David" was at some point banned from Dave's for his constant spam posts for language exchange.

[Mix1]

[joesp]

I am grateful for the one confessor who admitted, like me, to having gone to one or two then realized what is going on. If you look at the pictures of the organizers (the "not David" people), I wouldn't trust either one of those guys with 5,000 won.

What makes me so angry, besides what I mentioned, is the apparent obliviousness of the foreignersto the absolute ludicrousness of the situation. There were even actually 4 college students who took my picture and asked me interview questions for a college class.

I feel sorry for the foreigners who regularly attend these meetings because they have been so bullied by Korean society into believing the myths about the foreign English teacher, especially the following three points:

1) you are not allowed to speak Korean
2) you cannot speak Korean
3) my English is always better than your Korean

For some reason, I feel like the Korean organizers have scammed the foreigner attendees who haven't been in Korea long enough or don't have the resources to realize they can do better for themselves. It seems so unjust.

[joesp]

[joesp]

[Troglodyte]

I've seen "Language Cafes" (or some variation on that) in a couple of cities, particularly in Seoul near the universities. Often they will have a program that says what languages will be the designated language of the cafe at different hours on each day. A lot of them will encourage native speakers of the designated language (which is most often English) to attend for free. The native speakers aren't paid though. I've been to them a few times. It's often foreigners who want to meet new people. I think that 5000-10,000 Won is about the going rate. The organizers (or owners in the case of permanent language cafes) usually organize speaking activities of some sort. The permanent cafes will often have some periods with languages other than English, such as Korean, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese. To attend, you really need to have at least a very basic conversational level of the language.

There are also a few online websites where you can find a language exchange partner. Most are free. In my experience, sometimes they work. If you're a guy, and you actually do want to do language practice (and not just pick up girls), then you're probably best off finding a guy to do language exchange with. I've found that a lot of the time the girls that I met were more interested in a date than language practice. But for some people, maybe that's a good motivator.

[alongway]

I find the vast majority of language exchange people seem to be looking for free english lessons. I haven't done it in years because I found it to offer so little return. Most people were extremely lazy. If you asked them to clarify some complex grammar point or something like that they would answer:
"I don't know"
"So how about you look it up on Naver and explain it to me? You can read the complex stuff much easier than I can, and you can break it down for me in a much easier way"
"Well..that's really hard, it would take time"

uh-huh, and you think the lessons I was putting together for you and the detailed explanations of idioms and grammar were plucked out of thin-air without any effort?

I gave up on that, and hit the books instead. Unfortunately most Korean books are not up the calibre of some of the English material available, but I've found far more success in using Korean social networks. There are tons of apps and websites out there and you can easily find Koreans who don't know English or aren't even that interested in learning it.

[fermentation]

It isn't really a "scam." I think most people know (or should know) what they're in for. "Language exchanges" is just another term for "Let's get those white people to teach us English for cheap/free."

I went to one where they didn't have enough white people so they had me pretend I was American for free pizza and beer.

[Drew345]

I have found language exchanges to work as long as there are only 2 people, and a clearly defined time for each language. Really strive for 100% use of the target language during the designated time.
Once it get's social, or more people get involved, it will drift more and more into English; just because their English level will almost always be higher than our Korean level. So the whole idea of a "language exchange party" is pretty much self-defeating.
Keep it strict, 45 minutes Korean, 45 minutes English, and it works fine for me.
Oh, you can find lots of partners if you go to the Korean websites like Daum and look for an English-interest Cafe and post an ad there. Much more effective than posting on any English language website (where few Koreans go).

[Troglodyte]