Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Len8]

They say that compared to Japan Korea is leaps and bounds ahead with regards to English language aquisition. Japan has reached a stalemate maybe. Still though I wonder. Language skills are aquired by people who want to learn the language, and maybe there are more of those in the land of the morning calm.

They say that English sounds a little offensive to non English speakers. It's supposed to grate on one's ears. A lot of Koreans don't like to hear it at all I think,

I was sitting in a class in which they were showing a movie about early childhood education. I was bored at the time, so I went in and sat in the back. Most of the dialogue was in Korean, but I managed to pick up the gist of it. Students of course were very attentive. Every so often though there would be an English person giving a dialogue either alone or with someone else. The Korean translation was written at the bottom of the screen. Funny thing though was that students were immediately distracted and not interested when there was dialogue in English even though the Korean translation was at the bottom of the screen. They were always talking amongst themselves and goofing off when the English voice came on.

I was quite flabergasted. We as westerners will continue to give a movie as much attention as we can when there is dialogue in English to help us with the different language.

Have these students been programmed, brainwashed to turn off when English is spoken, or are they just plain incompetent in their own language and can't read Hangul?

[Medic]

Maybe the way English is taught in the schools is so bad that hearing it in educational movies conjures up memories of miserable times, so they tune out automaticaly.

[jajdude]

I agree with an opinion I read in the past. It went something like: "Few people are as psychologically disturbed as Koreans when it comes to English." Sounds a bit harsh, but living in Korea for a few years gives that opinion some validity I think.

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Aside:
I find the Korean language annoying, so I may be disturbed too. I like baseball but sometimes gotta kill the volume or change the channel because the language bugs me after a while. I also get annoyed by it at work.

[Len8]

Those koreans who do learn the language must become a little dysfunctional, because they would be going against their natures. Probably feeds the underlying preserve the culture mentality thing at all costs.

[Len8]

Those koreans who do learn the language must become a little dysfunctional, because they are going against their natures. Probably feeds the underlying preserve the culture mentality thing at all costs.

[Big Boss]

Not only Korean, the Chinese and Japanese are also very bad English speakers. They can write and read, but speaking pose to be quite difficult to them as their society are totally based on their own native language and dialect. If you go to USA, you cannot expect the American to communicate to you in Korean, as this is not their official and local well speak language. The East Asian will only be comfortable to speak English to foreigner or in an environment which is needed. I could say the best Asian English speaker are still the Indian and Singaporean.

[Medic]

Korean teachers and Koreans in general tend to dumb down their own when it comes to learning English. If it were taught to make it a challenge and something that is attainable we would see a big change in their learning abilities.

[RACETRAITOR]

I think most English teachers just don't have authority with Korean kids. It might as well be Ronald McDonald standing in front of them.

[Len8]

The best English speakers in Asia come from India and Singapore and Hong kong too. India was a British Colony and the educational system was based on the British system. Hong Kong was a British Colony too with a British based Educatilonal system. I am not sure about Singapore, but I suspect that their's was a british based educational system as well.

[Medic]

Found this on another Forum

I think anyone who spends a significant amount of time teaching in Korea begins to perceive the dialectic between the official government policy of wanting a ��globalized,�� English-speaking work force, and the reality that most Koreans would be much happier without the burden of English to plague their every waking moment. Let��s face it; in a culture so focussed on confirming and reaffirming its own unique identity the vast majority of Koreans are not intrinsically motivated to learn a foreign language: this lack of internal motivation is true of many Western countries�� foreign language programs and most foreigners�� attitudes towards learning Korean as well. Obviously, there is a small minority in any culture for whom learning a language is its own reward, but how many Koreans do you think would continue studying English if the government/corporations removed English from entrance/application exams tomorrow and decided to just test students on the content of nationally focused curricula? A very small fraction would be my guess.

And somehow, that just makes sense to me. I have for years now been faced on an almost daily basis with what often resembles a dull-eyed, semi-drooling, undead hoard rather than a class full of students. The most obvious criticism here is that it is entirely my fault for not being interesting: Just spice things up and they��ll come alive! Quite the contrary, I��m afraid. I frequently get compliments on how interesting my class is and have received letters of commendation from my institution for meritorious (read p-o-p-u-l-a-r) service, so I��m afraid that��s not it.

No, I think the problem lies with how English is ��marketed�� in Korea. Most students come up against a decontextualized and dissected English stripped of all beauty and utility which lurks as an obstacle to the very life these student want to lead—comfortable jobs, decent pay, happy families. English is a formalized and clumsily wielded examination tool, an apparatus used to inorganically generate an elite where none should exist. Students and job applicants, whose lives revolve around the ebb and flow of rice and kimchi, are constantly being measured against this totally foreign and mystifying quantity, which exists solely to make a living hell of the average Korean��s life. So, what��s to love?

But, English is an international language you might protest. Koreans need English. True, English is international, but how big is Korea��s international stage? And, what percentage of the country is on it clamouring for the spotlight? By all accounts Chinese is going to be an important force in future business, but you don��t hear Western governments making plans to force all first graders into Chinese emersion schools, do you? The truth is that most of Korea��s international needs could be dealt with by a small highly trained group of Korean-Americans and Koreans that have been educated abroad. Frankly, millions of people who can say, ��Hello�� and then break into a fit of giggles as they flee in giddy terror because they have ��studied English hardly�� for 14 years add nothing to the overall ability of Korea to compete in the world markets.

In my time here, I have taught Korean "English Teachers" who are convinced that English is impossible to learn and others who were so close to retirement that they didn��t see why they should start trying to learn how to speak the language they had been teaching (obviously wholly in Korean) for 35 years at this point in their career. Parents, who don't speak English, are regularly conned by corrupt hakwon owners, who really just want to entertain kids so that the tuition money keeps coming in, into thinking that a kid that comes home and says, "Nice to meet you" has really excelled. All of this says to me that the Korean approach to English is just plain wrong. Why don��t we just give 90 percent of the nation a ��get out of purgatory free card�� and focus on teaching English to the 10 percent that are gifted, motivated and interested? The result would be a happier nation all around. Just imagine all the joy that would generate: I dare you!

Unfortunately, we can��t do this because the whole hakwon system, which thrives off the waste and inefficiency of the official policy, would collapse and take most of the economy with it. We would have another Japan on our hands if all that money suddenly went into savings instead of recirculation. So, it looks like there is little reprieve in the works for the average member of the undead hoard. They will continue to be conditioned to have their eyes glaze over at the sound of the smallest English phrase, and these poor kids will continue to have their lives thrown into disarray by the otherworldly machinations of that confounded linguistic import known as English.

[manlyboy]

To grossly over-generalize based on my experiences teaching here compared to Indonesia: Indonesians learn English because they want to. Koreans learn English because they have to.

[lastat06513]

I can honestly say that compared to what I am up against now here in Kuwait, Korean students are "gold"

Trust me, they complain because they know they hate to study, but in the end they do more effort compared to Kuwaitis

Here in Kuwait, the students I teach (military personnel) are so lazy that they would get up and walk out of a class because they can't make a simple coherent sentence. At least, Korean students would make an effort to try their best.

I used to complain about the lack of motivation Korean students displayed, but compared to what I see here, I will NEVER EVER complain about it again once I return again....

[Privateer]

Which forum was that Medic?