Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Eazy_E]

There have been plenty of threads about learning Korean here, but nobody has ever mentioned feeling GUILTY about not knowing much Korean.

I was pretty gung-ho about learning Korean for the first few months, and I made good progress: I know the number systems, survival Korean, telling time, and some banal chit-chat. I'm never totally lost. But making the jump from survival Korean to conversational is a huge step.

I guess it doesn't help that I have an Australian friend who's been here for three years (as opposed to my four months), and he's totally fluent. When we go out and I meet Korean friends of his, they babble away and occasionnally talk to me in Korean. In this case, I have to think of ways to tell them that I really can't speak it and so they end up going through my friend as an interpreter, which annoys him sometimes.

When I get home from teaching the kiddies, the last thing I want to do is sit down with a Korean textbook and start learning their language by rote. Yet I still feel bad for not being able to function in the language. Anyone else feel torn like this?

[mithridates]

I generally feel sorry going to any country without knowing the language. I generally can't go to a country a second time without having learned enough to get by. It might be more of a feeling of discomfort than guilt though. The most irritating thing to me is seeing a group of people just clutching their stomachs with laughter and having a great time in a completely incomprehensible tongue. Makes me wonder.

[SweetLou]

I could have written the same exact email, except replacing Australian with American.....would investing in Korean lessons help? That way, you'd have a financial reason compelling you to learn as well, and maybe the structure would help in forcing you to learn for 3 or 5 times a week.

Getting the motivation to drop 200,000 on classes a month is another story, as well as waking up early or staying out late to take the classes....I can't help with that end....otherwise I'd be back at my Korean hagwan right now.

[peppermint]

I understand where you're coming from. I'd say my Korean is far from fluent, but it's functional and I've got better listening skills than I let on. When I meet Korean people outside of the work environment I get one of two reactions- either "Omigawd it speaks our language!" or "You should speak more Korean!"

I'm really interested in learning vocabulary, but I'm at the stage where I need to start getting a feel for the grammar if I'm going to progress, and I'm finding that I hate studying grammar even more than my students do.

[shakuhachi]

[IconsFanatic]

My (openly gay!) barber always gives me the gears about not knowing enough Korean.

I just speak to him in Mandarin when he does that... shuts him up pretty good.

[scarneck]

I share your pain, I've been married for.....okay...16 years and I can "just get by" I can understand more than I can speak. Now some of that is my reluctance to use what I know for fear of being wrong. I know that sounds weak, at least that's what the wife says. She tells me "you have great pronunciation, don't be afraid to make mistakes, at least your'e trying, people will understand you dork"!
I can read it, learning that was the easy part. I have used the excuse that the old lady is so fluent in english, I did not see the importance of studying Korean. Now that time has passed and I have two sons, I farked up by not insisting they be bilingual. Now, I regret it. My oldest can read the characters and they both can understand the basics, but I have to admit, I'm ashamed that I did not push the wife to develop their skills. Hell, it was plain and simple laziness on my part. I found other excuses of why I could not find time to study hard: Schools, Deployments and work..all took precedence over something that is important. Additionally, I am very ashamed that I cannot adequately express myself with my in-laws, especially my mother in law who treats me like gold. I am however, getting back to the books and making the wife use Korean more at home. I hope to have to put it to use this summer!. hell, after being married for 16 years, maybe it's my brain, I just don't have the capacity for language...(yeah, that's good excuse)
But for the kid's sake (they are 11 and 14) I'll keep at it and show them that it is important to learn the language...

Peace

[Eazy_E]

[quote="SweetLou"]I could have written the same exact email, except replacing Australian with American.....would investing in Korean lessons help? That way, you'd have a financial reason compelling you to learn as well, and maybe the structure would help in forcing you to learn for 3 or 5 times a week.

Getting the motivation to drop 200,000 on classes a month is another story, as well as waking up early or staying out late to take the classes....I can't help with that end....otherwise I'd be back at my Korean hagwan right now.

[tomato]

Hello, Easy E!

Please ask your Aussie friend to post a message explaining how he became fluent in Korean in three years. Is he a Mormon? Is he a second-generation Korean?

I've been here for four years, and I've tried every learning strategy I can think of.

[Korea Newfie]

[quote="shakuhachi"]

[mithridates]

I learned Korean after a year and a bit of study in Japan plus three months over here in a Goshiwon in Shinchon. If I hadn't know Japanese though it would've taken about twice as long.

That statement above that people who don't study English are more interesting is just about true, but I'd rather rephrase it as people who study only English are generally boring, or people who realize that there are other languages in the world besides English are interesting. I'm still looking for a Korean that speaks Estonian.

[ThreeDogNight]

Just the fact that some say they know the language and can speak it is a big head trip your supposed swallow hard at in response.

Either you do it or you don't. No big deal.

Plenty get by in the US without learning English fluently. Black people still say 'axed' instead of 'asked.' Chinese and Koreans still speak 'pigeon English.' The Yugoslavs can't speak any and still think they're in Yugoslavia. Don't fall victim to this head trip.

I've not learned Korean fluently because it really hasn't been necessary, plain and simple. Do I feel guilty, me, being this superior being from the West because I'm inferior not knowing the language? No, I was invited here. Not to mention the fact that teaching and learning a language at the same time can really produce burn out in no time, and that in the end all I'll probably have to show for it is 'Hey, I learned Korean.'

"Nanun waeguk saram. Antoktokhayo, nappun naemsaeieyo. Uri chip-eso banguchipieyo, iutsaramdul nomu shikarowoyo. I changso-nun paboimnida."

This is all you need to know.

[mithridates]

[nolin nae]

[Eazy_E]