Korean Job Discussion Forums

[matthewwoodford]

Does anyone have a quick and dirty explanation of this for Korean students? I've never had much success getting the concept across, it's quite tricky.

[J.B. Clamence]

"expected to" = someone expects you to do something

[ajuma]

Uni students: I was SUPPOSED TO go to class at 9 am, but I drank too much last night.

Younger students: I was SUPPOSED TO do my homework, but I went to the PC bang instead!

[visviva]

The Naver dictionary suggests �ϱ�� �Ǿ� �ִ�. If you're allergic to translation, another quick & dirty would be:

was supposed to = "should have"

am/are/is supposed to = "should" OR "am/are/is said to"

I'm not sure either of those are really helpful, except as a starting point. It's that subjective/objective modal that trips most Korean students up, I think. The best thing to do is probably to start with a Q&D, draw attention to the form whenever it comes up, and keep presenting meaningful examples until the light bulbs start coming on. It won't happen all at once.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I have some success with it by using dialogs:

I 'call' a student in class and ask if he/she wants to go to dinner at 6. Then I have another student call me and ask me to go to a movie at 6:15. "I can't go to a movie. I'm supposed to meet X for dinner at 6."
Then that student asks me to go to a later movie. "I can't. Mom says I'm supposed to come home and study."

Then I talk about the weather. "It's cloudy. Is it supposed to rain tomorrow?"

After that, we talk about things they are supposed to do...bring their books and pens to class, wear uniforms, not sleep in class, smoke in the building, do their homework before they watch TV.

I try to show where 'supposed to' is similar to 'have to' and 'expected to'.

[katydid]

I told my students that be supposed to showed obligation, and was kind of like "have to."

[Moldy Rutabaga]

Depending on their skill level, I would teach them what suppose means, and work up from there to supposed to, which means that people believe or expect that.. I wouldn't treat it the same as a modal auxiliary, because it's not grammatically the same: You should drink soju. You supposed to drink soju.

I suppose that it's true.
They supposed that it was true.
They are supposed to be here.

Ken:>

[matthewwoodford]

Thanks for the responses.