Korean Job Discussion Forums

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

Teacher.... ________, spelling?"

"You is where from?"

"You is what old?"

"Home, you, where live?"

"I am not book."

"Pencil, me, no"

etc...

Randall Flagg · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 3:29 pm Post subject:

It all goes back to the way Korean is spoken. Somewhat backwards compared to English. If I were a kid learning Korean I'd probably be the same way.

I get:

Teacher, ______________ spelling is what?

____________ is die.

"I see A two trees." (i can't get them to stop saying "a" every time.) Twisted Evil

The constant over use of "is"...........

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

One of the things I emphasize a lot with the kids is to pronounce "s" sound at the end of words, whether it is a plural word like "eyes" or a singular word that just ends in an "s" like "nose" (yep, we're studying body parts this month!). It is such a common pronunciation habit among Koreans that adults find hard to break -- so while I let a lot of things slide, I make ALWAYS correct that one. It doesn't just sound weird, but can be very confusing. My students make the same mistakes mentioned in the above posts as well -- but by just repeating the right way to say things, and by making a big deal when someone gets a sentence right, they seem to naturally come around to speaking properly.

JacktheCat · Joined: 08 May 2004

schwa · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Yap

Good point, JacktheCat.

But I see 2 problems. Sure, thats how we learned our own native tongue, but we got tons more correction & reinforcement than Koreans in Korea ever will.

& the system will stomp that experimentation out of them quick enough, which is a shame. Rather than risk mistakes, older students tend to go mum. I get annoyed with my students when I visit places like Vietnam, Philippines, gosh almost anywhere, & people with far less book-learning can use simple english effectively & unselfconsciously.

But I keep up the fight, coaxing them to try. Fact is, the english fad in this country is still in a very early stage & I have seen considerable improvement around me in the handful of years I've been here.

PolyChronic Time Girl · Joined: 15 Dec 2004 Location: Korea Exited

When I have known my high school students for nine months, and they are still saying "teacher, nice to meet you!" upon every greeting.

schwa · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Yap

I made a point of correcting exactly that this semester. Second class, I wrote Nice to meet you in big letters on the chalkboard & put a big X through meet. Explained its appropriate first time only.

The mistake is understandable. Nice to meet you translates pangapsumnida quite accurately except thats an all-weather formality in Korean.

I've got 400 boys saying Nice to see you now. Still not perfectly natural, but an improvement.

guangho · Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2005 3:37 am Post subject:

I can't believe no one has mentioned the infamous "Englishee".

"Teachee, me Englishee no."

ajuma · Joined: 18 Feb 2003 Location: Anywere but Seoul!!

Just got done correcting a ton of writing notebooks. These are some of the things I'll be addressing in class this week:

Confusing "fun" with "funny". "I had a funny time."

"I want to MAKE a boyfriend." If only it were that easy!! Laughing

"I made a promise." I understand that this is the correct use in Korean, but it's NOT in English!

"I am missing you." Am I lost???

Over use of "at that time".

Confusing "ashamed" and "embarassed".

"I was in there." No, you weren't. You were THERE!

And those are just the errors from one class!!