Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rapier]

[Blue]

I dont think koreans are so shallow as to think that every one MUST be a doctor or lawyer. I know people who would be totaly content as a 24 hour food delivery boy... as long as he can get a 4 year degree in it from seoul university.

[Godzilla]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[rapier]

looks like the hardcore korea defenders have won the debate, we'll just have to accept that korean education is a highly efficient, smooth-running machine, that churns out millions of well-balanced, innovative, bilingual, independent people.

[ulsanchris]

going back to the original topic. I think part of the problem is that in order to learn a language well it helps if the person learning feels a need to learn it. I would guess that a lot of koreans feel that don't need to learn it. And the ones who do feel the need to learn it only feel the need to learn it in order to pass the toiec test, which is based on listening and reading. So they learn only how to gather information in English and not to speak or write it.

[nev]

[Blue]

yea. its getting old. I debate better in person any way. LOL

on a side note.

Hmmm... bit of a sweeping statement, wasn't it? Is that the same Japan that has pumped billions and billions of dollars into the development of Asia? The same Japan that enjoys a quite unique relationship with Thailand? Has provided itself as model for Korea, China etc.? That has factories and plants in most SE Asian countries?

ja.. its also the same japan that had its imperial grip over most of the pacific rim just over 50 years ago. that japan has done so much or has bussiness relations means little more than the fact that america has been the stabilizing and nurturning force in korea for all this time. but that of corse is a totaly different bag of worms

[Blue]

by the way .. who do you say invented the MP3 player? remember now.. the MP3 file format and the MP3 player are totaly diffent things. one is the format taht allows the music to be super compressed. the other is little more than a hand held RAM chip with a few controlls and earphones.

[jajdude]

Most of us have had some Korean friends. I wonder how many Koreans have had foreign friends? (foreign teacher not included of course, well maybe with adult students)

Some Korean kids have lived overseas. They have had foreign friends. I have never known a Korean kid to have a foreign friend in Korea. It must happen, I've just never heard of it myself. At the int'l school no doubt.

Since foreigners make up less than 1% (let's say good English speakers less than half of that), there aren't many to go around for Koreans to be friends with. Or to interact with in any other way outside of a "teacher-student" relationship. And some couples and dates etc...and a few who hang out in foreigner bars I guess.

Oh yes, some do have foreign co-workers and employees or bosses.

This all leaves so many Koreans with not much hope to acquire English speaking skills outside a classroom and through personal interest and effort. Or they could be lucky enough to travel.

But I also wonder how Koreans can have it both ways. They want to learn about foreign language and culture yet they stick so strongly to their own culture, language and ways in a close-minded and stubborn way. They have a real conflict of interest here that will remain a long time and will continue to make English so damn frustrating for them. I'm not sure they quite see how they also make it harder for themselves by being so unable to relate to the outside world. I guess it isn't their fault. (And no it's not everyone, just a big majority)

But....
I've also heard there are around 5 million Koreans living abroad. That's quite a lot. (Yet how many of them stick to mainly Korean communities? ARGH. ...How many marry foreigners?)

Does almost all this apply to Japan as well? China? Elsewhere? ----Taiwan did seem more open and accepting of white people.

[bundaegi]

I'm sure you're familiar with what is called the "brain-drain", Korea unfortunately still loses a lot of its best to the U.S. and Japan and Europe. I found many Koreans I met in University to be amazingly good at English, very cultured and not very eager to return home.

Also, comparing my experience teaching in Japan, the Korean kids and adults I taught rocked house all over my Japanese counterparts. They just tried so much harder, there was more continuity at my hogwan of ECC Songpa than anywhere else I taught at in Japan. I had 8 year olds in Korea I could carry on fairly good conversations with. In Japan, I would be happy if they would say "Haro tee-cha, good-do mo-nin-gu!"

My 2 cents.

[tomato]

Why do Koreans have to have foreign friends to practice English?
Where do they get this notion that one or both parties have to be native speakers in order for a conversation in English to take place?
There are millions of English students in Korea.
Why can't they speak English to each other?

I recently met a Russian who has studied Korean.
So we interchanged a few sentences in Korean.
Now isn't that just astounding?

[Eazy_E]

[Saxiif]