Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Suntzu]

One of my adult students asked me what the most common English mistakes that Korean students make. So, this would be a very useful thread. Please let me know what you think are some common mistakes and I will print them out and share them with my students...

Here are some examples:

Adding an extra syllable after sh or ch endings: Englishe, churche

I was very boring yesterday because I stayed home.

The people in Daegu are kindly.

Thanks heaps

Hayden

[keithinkorea]

Adults are not the only ones who make those mistakes, plenty of kids too.

I'd say a major problem many (even semi fluent) Koreans have pronunciation wise is pronouncing 'ed' endings incorrectly. Many of my Korean colleagues and supervisors in the past have done this

For instance 'Changid' instead of 'Changd' for 'Changed'.

And 'fixid' instead of 'fixt' for 'fixed'. Koreans seem to be in love with adding extra syllables. This is very, very common indeed.

Another problem is making mistakes with 'fun' and 'funny' but that is more of a problem with kids. 'Starcraft is very funny'!


Also articles are often hard for Koreans to grasp. It is we all know 'an apple' and not 'a apple'..

These are all very common problems for kids and adults.

[schwa]

I had a class of adult students (english teachers) last year ask me repeatedly to correct all their mistakes, so one class I did so quite mercilessly & they all felt flustered & discouraged. Smart articulate people with clear ideas, but their speaking is riddled with small errors. They quickly asked me to stop!

This term my plan is to introduce just one "error of the week" at the start of each class & invite everyone to pounce on it. Pronoun mix-ups, dropped esses, -ing/-ed confusion, problems with articles, wrong word choice, etc. Let other slips slide. Gradual error awareness, I think thats the way to go.

[zappadelta]

They have such a hard time with tense, I just can't understand it.

[hellofaniceguy]

The reason for the mistakes is because of the korean English teachers!
Some time, listen to them in a conversation! They learned the same mistakes, bad pronunciation from their korean teachers as well. So we can��t really fault the current KT��s. It��s just a cycle which will never be broken or corrected. Even at the university where I am at, the Ph.D. in English director talks like a 7 year old korean child! The same with ALL of the KT��s here; 8 of them received their MA��s in the U.S.! They teach the same pronunciation mistakes to their students. All the FT��s have offered suggestions to the KT��s over the years but it falls on deaf ears. We are only foreigners after all and don��t know anything about teaching English even though most of us have years and years and years of teaching and have degrees in English, MA��s in TESOL, etc.
Check out the public middle and high school KT��s! Just as bad.
I don��t know any way to correct it short of only teaching young children who learn the correct pronunciation easily and have only FT��s teaching English. KT��s screw it up. Same with grammar structure��every week most of the KT��s ask the FT��s if this or that is ok. What are you doing teaching English then if you don��t know! Needless to say, they don��t ask me anymore.

[shakuhachi]

A common mistake of Korean adult english speakers is to think that they can use me as a free English lesson. I am always able to change things so we end up speaking Korean, usually by taking the complexity of the conversation beyond what they can understand in English

[Ya-ta Boy]

My pet peeve is the confusion of 'should' for 'must'. Sometimes it makes a real difference in meaning! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[JacktheCat]

The one problem you should nip in the bud, is positive agreement to negative questions.

Like "No, I am" or "No, I do."

It's grammatically correct in Korean, so very confusing to beginners.

[Son Deureo!]

From fairly advanced English speakers:

Confusing "he" and "she". I find that mock surprise works well here, ex. "You mean your father is a woman?", etc.

Adding "s" to irregular plurals, ie. "two mens".

Leaving out articles before singular countable nouns, ex. "I ate choco-pie after class".

Confusing countable and uncountables.

Forgetting to pluralize.

The usual prononciation mistakes (L vs. R, F vs. P, S vs. Th. adding syllables, etc.)

Calling me "Teacher" instead of my name (I give a speech about why they shouldn't do this at the beginning of every semester).



Most of these are very difficult habits to break caused by the vast differences between Korean and English. I really can't think of anything to do about this other than consistent reminders of what they're doing wrong and how to do it right, and the occasional review lesson or drill.

I'm all ears for ideas, though.

[Dispatched]

Using the word 'famous' when they mean, 'has a good or well known reputation'. I was quite surprised when I first arrived and was often told I would be going to a 'famous restuarant'. Wow such a small town with so many famous restuarants, what a great place!

'Genius', no ma'am, your child is not a genius, he/she might be gifted or have an ability for languages but I wouldn't go so far as to say he/she is a genius. It's frustrating when my Korean co-workers tell me about a 'genius' in their class.

Using 'service' when something is given to them for free, it's either complimentary or on the house, it certainly isn't service.

Now I understand about Konglish, if you want to create new words to represent something in Korea, knock yaself out. Just don't go changing the meaning of already established words, that justs stuffs everybody up!

[Saxiif]

Sticking is/am/are/was/were in front of non-gerund verbs for no readily-apparent reason. He is run etc. etc.

Also try to make a Korean say "yield" or "stewardess" you'll be in for some fun

[tzechuk]

My pet peeve is the way Korean businesses create a name for their business, using English alphabets that do NOT exist in Korean. What I am saying are letters like V or F and R and Z... it drives me nuts everytime I see a shop with a made-up ENGLISH word and translated into Korean phonetically. Why must they use a V or F when they don't have it in Korean and only end up replacing the V or the F with B or P in Korean, anyway?!

[Lizara]

yeah, verbs and tenses. My students still say things like "he have" even though they've studied grammar for years. Everyone says "I am eat the orange" but then it's "He eating an apple." A lot of their mistakes I can understand, but I don't know why verbs seem to be so difficult.

[Manner of Speaking]

[jay-shi]

my two cents...

Many of my adult students always say "nice to meet you" when they see me.

I tell them "nice to meet you is only used when you meet someone for the first time. I offer "nice to see you" as an alternative. But still get "nice to meet you" still ...