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Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
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Intrepid
Joined: 13 May 2004
Location: Yongin
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 Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:02 pm Post subject: North side? |
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| I guess I spend more time on the north side of Itaewon-ro--where you can find a great variety of decent international restaurants. |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 7:50 am Post subject: |
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I want to learn Korean so I can prove to myself I'm not a useless idiot. When I go back home I want to be able to rattle off a conversation with a Korean native speaker to impress my monolingual friends. That way they'll think I'm interesting, exotic, and intelligent rather than an ESL loser. It's shallow but still...
Also, people who say they never learned Korean because it's useless and they spent their time making easy money, drinking, and getting easy lays come off as obnoxious. |
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tomato
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.
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| Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2005 3:41 am Post subject: |
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It is wonderful that Son Duereo's friends have accomplished other things besides learning Korean, but I still feel responsible for learning the language of every country I go to.
When a native speaker of English refuses to learn the host language, I suspect that he or she means this:
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| You are intelligent enough to learn English, but we are not intelligent enough to learn your language. So you are perfectly justified in treating all of us like perennial infants. |
or this:
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| You are responsible for learning English, but we are not responsible for learning your language. That's because we are so superior to you. |
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Son Deureo!
Joined: 30 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2005 7:45 am Post subject: |
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| Mashimaro wrote: |
| I'm glad I can speak korean if for no other reason that is differentiates me from alot of the mental midgets dragging their knuckles around this country |
You're making a lot of assumptions here Tomato, but when you stand up and applaud pretentious garbage like this, you are the one who's coming off as having a superiority complex, not your monolingual colleagues.
You, Mashimaro, and (for that matter) I are motivated to learn Korean due to intellectual curiosity, need to communicate, desire to be unique, belief it will make us more money in the future, whatever. Some people enjoy learning a language just for its own sake.
You know as well as I do, though, that the extrinsic incentives for learning Korean here are scant. It takes a special kind of person to feel that motivation intrinsically. Other people's intrinsic motivations can be just as strong, but carry them in other directions.
Make no mistake, however, that not sharing this desire does not elevate you above the "mental midgets" here who share your profession, your skin color and/or nationality in the minds of Koreans, your colleagues, or anyone other than yourself.
I've met a lot of truly amazing people who came here to teach English here. Some of them learned some of the local language. Most didn't. It's a tough language.
I have learned speak more Korean than most of the Westerners I've ever met here. And I'm glad I have.
But I am not better than they are. Learning languages is just where my interests lie. A lot of other people can do a lot of things I'd never dream of even trying to do.
Keep doing what you're doing. It's paying off in its own way, and I'm sure it will continue to do so. You have a right to be proud of your accomplishments.
But don't delude yourself for a moment that it gives you the right to look down on other people who have chosen other paths during their time here. |
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