Korean Job Discussion Forums

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

Do you suppose the korean language might be more "important" outside Korea someday?

just because · Joined: 01 Aug 2003 Location: Changwon - 4964

mithridates · Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2004 9:58 am Post subject:

Maybe only in certain places in China and Japan. The only people I've met who really want to study the language are Japanese students abroad who have Korean friends or a Korean girl/boyfriend, and Chinese businesspeople who want an advantage in dealing with Korea's economy.

nev · Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Location: ch7t

Learning Korean is the best thing I've done here. I feel sorry for those who have been here a few years and don't know much, because they really are missing out on a lot.

Those that are learning shouldn't feel smugly superior - I don't think most of us do - but it is very relieving to be able to deal with non-English speaking Koreans without resorting to pointing and other hand gestures. Korea becomes a much better place when you remove some of the daily frustrations.

And of course Korean is of no use outside of Korea. But are we living outside of Korea? That's a dreadfully poor excuse for not learning it. Those here for only a year I can understand not bothering, but here for three years, four years, etc, are just shooting themselves in the foot.

Back to the original point of this thread:
Referring to a PC �� as a PC Bong.

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

Circus Monkey · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: In my coconut tree

Most, if not all major companies in Korea when conducting overseas business trips have at least one person in the group who has a good command of English. Or the host company will sometimes provide a translator. Perhaps, crazy, your pal would have liked to have known Korean better so as to impress the Koreans and then form some kind of bond.

intergalactic · Joined: 19 May 2003 Location: Brisbane

Back to the OP (and my korean is terrible by the way, but this really annoys me), could we all pronounce 10,000 as the first syllable in 'money', instead of 'MAN' the opposite of woman?? It irks me to hear foreigners talking about ANdong where they spent 4 MAN wons in a yARGWARN.

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

Circus Monkey · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: In my coconut tree

casey's moon · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Location: Daejeon

ladyandthetramp · Joined: 21 Nov 2003

mithridates · Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2004 7:38 am Post subject:

I remember a Chinese show on China Tv in Seoul before. It was for kids and so the Chinese was quite easy and they hammered away at one concept throughout the whole show, and they had two hosts: a girl about my age and a boy who looked to be about grade six. She would use �� with him because it would sound funny to have one host talking down to the other.

casey's moon · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Location: Daejeon

My first Korean teacher (she was also my supervisor at my first job in Korea) said that it was wrong to use �� with kids. But another foreign teacher at the school overused and misprounced the command �غ� and an assistant asked me to tell her to please say "�غ��" as the kids didn't understand the command and it sounded way too harsh. The kids were Korean age 5... My husband also has a tendency to use �� with kids he has just met, although not with kids he is related to. I use it with all kids, but not in every sentence. For example, I'd rather say, "�ּ��" as lots of mothers use that with their kids (not when they're upset though). But I would probably say "�׷�?" instead of "�׷��?" It's a personal style, I guess...

I hate it when I forget to use the honourific form with an elder, especially someone in the grandparent age category. Most verbs are easy, but every now and then I'm not confident about the honourific form, or I just forget. I feel strange correcting myself too. "�� Ծ�...... ��̾��?" It's pretty awkward. But I find as long as I do the bowing right, the �ҸӴ�s in my neighbourhood seem to overlook any langugage blunders.