Korean Job Discussion Forums

[flotsam]

[ontheway]

Koreans who don't know any English, sure, they can't tell the difference. At my hogwan, they can. They have fun with immitations of Italian English ("what's a matta you, eh? gotta no respec'), French English (eet eez zay playzure to meeet you) and the buffoon (a famous actor, no less) who did the reading on the Harry Potter tape. (He is really over acting! The kids laughed and howled and we don't use the tape. My students are better than this British actor.) British, Australian and New Zealand accents are easy.

The kids here are often noticing the differences between Michigan, Iowa, and Arizona in English sound.

It's probably just beginners and parents who know next to nothing who can't hear the difference.

[flotsam]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

They can't tell the difference, but if someone has an accent that's difficult for most native speakers to understand, Koreans used to hearing standard NA / English accents will find him more difficult to understand.

[ontheway]

Flotsam,

Congratulations. You can spell. I no longer check my posts for typos, nor even go back to fix them as I race ahead of the PhpBB Critical Error thing. It got me dozens of times already today. I have to post and edit later to avoid losing what I've written. Sometimes I stop halfway, post, and continue in edit mode. It's annoying. But, you go ahead and hunt typos if you have nothing else to contribute.

As for my students, they know that nobody's perfect and they should use a dictionary. Here at Dave's, fixing a mistake can cost you a whole post.

As to your point about the 3 states, the other posters claimed that Koreans cannot tell the difference between GB, NZ and US accents. Those are easy. The 3 states are much closer by comparison. You are a native speaker, so I would hope YOU could hear the difference. That doesn't refute my point. Korean kids CAN hear the differences. The other posters probably teach beginners or students who know that the accents are so obviously different that they feel it unnecessary to mention.

[stevemcgarrett]

Rumor has it that if you are a stereotypical older kotonk Japanese American with horn-rimmed glasses, huge buck teeth, and talk like Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's it might be a tad bit difficult to find a teaching job in Korea.

And if you talk like Billy Bob Thornton with more twang than an out-of-tune steel string guitar, you might also have a problem.

But unless you chatter like Charo's little niece, I think a slight Latino-Hispanic-Chicano-Brown Power lilting accent shouldn't stand in your way.

North American is American is upper Midwest as in Tom Brokaw news talk (Rather, Cronkite, Donaldson, Schieffer are all Texans) or Canadian as in Peter Jennings (r.i.p.). Like Chinese, many if not most Korean students find it easier to listen to American rather than British English, especially if not simultaneously introduced to both.

Soi-e, not much New Joisey and Queens spoken here either.

Book that, Danno.

[flotsam]

[flotsam]

[Hollywoodaction]

[Hollywoodaction]

[Hollywoodaction]

[VanIslander]

By North American accent, they mean the typical neutral Hollywood movie English.

Not Californian slang or southern twang.

[stevemcgarrett]

Van,

You've been on that island too long bruddah. Need some tradewinds. Nothing neutral about Hollyweird, just neutered.

Never said California valley girl or Southern twang were what they are after. File that, please, Jenny.

It came out of American national news, for the most part.

The Lord speaks Brooklyn first: if it's good enough for the Looney Tune characters, it's good enough for me.

Aloha Hollywood:

If you'se referring to Lorne Greene, yep. We go back to our days as Stoney Burke and Ben Cartwright.

My vote for best voice has to go to Alexander Scourby, though.

[J.B. Clamence]

Koreans don't seem to be aware of subtle ethnic differences among Americans. They only seem to be aware that there are black people and white people, so as long as you're not black, they will probably assume you are a white anglo-saxon, regardless of your black hair and dark skin. From what I can tell, they don't seem to be very aware of ethnic differences like that.

[SOOHWA101]

Ya know, it really sounds like present Korea is similar to 1950's USA.

1)There are only 3 races: black, white, Asian
2)Pre-Civil Rights Act 1964; nuff said
3)stare at foreigners
4)Pre-burning of the bra; nuff said

A living breathing time capsule. I'm def. game.