Korean Job Discussion Forums

[seattlespew]

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[Satori]

There is a discount chain in Japan called "Hard-off"...go figure...

[seattlespew]

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[SPINOZA]

Koreans are absolutely hopeless at English, generally. English education needs reform, at kindest, what with poor hagwons and big class sizes in public schools. It's a bit of a shambles. Long may that continue. The last thing I need right now is a Korea suddenly proficient in English. Even many Korean English teachers are of significantly less fluency than, say, a French or German teacher back home would be expected to be. When people say they come to Seoul and many Koreans speak English (thus they find it hard to learn Korean) are living in a country called Korea in a different dimension, if you ask me.

[cdninkorea]

[manlyboy]

Everybody knows it, but nobody speaks it.

[Smee]

Everybody knows what English is, but few know it.

And I had my students yesterday laughing at Thais and Japanese for their poor English pronunciation.

[SuperHero]

I would say that in general Koreans know about English but do not know how to speak it.

[JZer]

[RACETRAITOR]

The main problem comes from the embarrassment of a major corporation butchering English in an ad campaign ("Life is Wonderfull"). If a regular Korean commits this mistake, no big deal. But to get to the point where it makes it through presumably a creative process, a committee, and various editors and designers, you have to wonder how nobody catches these mistakes.

[adventureman]

[Son Deureo!]

[coolsage]

English is commercialized everywhere, but the slogans are meaningless. GS Mart: 'Friendly fresh fun.' (No, it's about shopping.) The TV commercials are worse. 'My special love'. (No, that's not it.) One would hope that with all the native speakers in this country, the authors of these things might want to, oh, run them past, just to see if they make any sense at all. But, noooh; check out the t-shirts if you're looking for mangled English. Well, whatever sells, I guess.

[Asiablue]

A lot of Korean speakers have trouble with English because they subsume everything into a Korean mindset. They don't 'think if English' for want of a better phrase. They tend to keep everything in the same narrow perspective that created the infamous Hermit Kingdom, which I believe was more of a psychological syndrome than reality. Some of my students are hermits and hate every minute of language study. Ironically, get them onto the subject of soccer or computer games and they'll yak non-stop for an hour.

To be fair, I'm sure most students of any language resist to some degree. It's too much of a challenge to their identity. I did the same thing when studying French, and after 2 years of effort knew squat. Yet while learning Japanese, I created a Japanese identify in my head and used it to focus. In conversation I could produce the goods without hesitation.

In Korea, I have found a couple of spectacular exceptions to the general rule, with a K-friend of mine speaking English so well you'd think he grew up on the shores of California. He has never been outside Korea. And he knows all about Konglish.

There are many reasons I'm sure, but my pet theory is that Korea has been attacked so many times in the past, folks are reacting to English much as they would any invasion. The difference with English is it here to stay, and ultimately will benefit Korea as a nation.

[I_Am_Wrong]