Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mount real]

I've had a lot of uni students lately telling me they are going to Canada/USA/Australia/England/New Zealand to study English....most of them end up going to Vancouver...why? Because other Koreans have been there and "know what it's like". I mentionned to some students, "why don't you try Calgary, Toronto, any other city" and they look at me with a blank look in their eyes, most of them have never heard of any canadian cities outside of Vancouver...I did provide them info on homestays outside of Vancouver though...anyway, I asked one student, "so, what are you excited about, you're moving to a new country soon, all this new culture, food, ect"..to which her reply, "well, I'll get to study English in school" and that was it....there seems to be zero interest in the new country, culture, places, people, food, anything....before I came to Korea (I know it's different), regardless of my general ignorance of the place, I was excited about traditionnal culture, the food, customs, lots of stuff...I don't get that from most of my Korean students....so my question===do you think these people will learn? Sounds to me they will stick to their little group of other Koreans and complain about the place in Korean, much like certain foreigners do here..hehe...In my opinion, getting in there and mixing it up with the local populace is the best way to learn, and enjoy, a new language or culture....what do you think? I myself have started referring to Vancouver as "New Seoul"...thoughts?

[mercury]

I was playing pool recently with a group of guys who had just come back from Vancouver, one had been there 4 years. His English was TERRIBLE, I asked him "so, did you live with Koreans all 4 years?" He looked really surprised and said "Yes! How did you know that?"

[inkoreaforgood]

[Pyongshin Sangja]

Because Vancouver rules, that's why. Calgary? Koreans I know that went there were unhappy, it was too boring. Actually, they all find Canada boring. No noraebangs.

[poddubny]

[poddubny]

[Summer Wine]

My experience in the past has been in Australia and there appeared to be 2 groups in My Uni. One was individuals who came for a 6 month or longer paper or even the full degree. They put the effort in to learn the language and did so relatively well. They joined in with others and were open to others to a limit. (I found most of them rather racist to colored friends of mine).

The others came for 3 month courses, only spoke english in class and only spoke korean outside of class. Associated only with Koreans and avoided other international students and Australians. Thus thier english skills didn't seem to improve and they were typically seen as quite strange by most international students and australians. (It wasn't for lack of trying to be nice, I meet other students from thier courses from Indonesia, Japan, China, etc, who were quite pleasant and willing to speak english).

[khyber]

[Koreabound2004]

I worked at an international school in Canada in a fairly large city....and we had a number of Korean students there. They were either in our ESL programme or studying to receive an Ontario secondary school diploma....and eventually the goal was for them to go to a university in Canada.

All of the students were filthy rich(pretty much have to be to study abroad), and largely unmotivated. Most did not care to learn English, and stuck only with other Koreans(herd mentality). Most went back to Korea before finishing, and those that did get accepted to university said that they would go back to Korea as soon as they finished school. They wanted to take over mom and dad's businesses usually, or work for big companies in Seoul.

I only met two Korean boys whose English was very good. Why? Because when their parents sent them to Canada....they sent them to Saskatoon. Their logic(impressive) was that if they sent them to a place where there would likely be no Koreans that they would be forced to learn English, and they did! Then they moved to the big city after acquiring the language skills they needed for university. They both rented nice condos, and had top of the line cars. One of them is now studying at U of Ottawa, and the other couldn't get into U of T, and his parents thought he was a failure b/c of that and made him come back to Korea.

I cannot believe all of the money that is spent for them to come and study in Canada, and all they do is waste their parents cash(for the most part). I wish I could tell their parents to save their money.

[Real Reality]

[mount real]

[poddubny]

[poddubny]

[Newbie]

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