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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
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 Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 4:23 pm Post subject: |
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| isisaredead wrote: |
| Leon wrote: |
| Considering the state of the Korean economy it could prove to be a useful language. I doubt people taking Korean language courses at good universities are doing it to teach esl. Rather it is a language that few people learn, so it might be more marketable eventually than something like chinese which many people are learning. Also when the North colapses, I imagine there will be a demand for Korean speakers in the non-profit and governmental sector. |
whoa. this could well be the funniest post i'll read for the rest of the year. |
Why is this funny? If you want work in the right sort of career track it can be very helpful. Specificaly things like think tanks, government, and certian non-profits. I've seen several job adds in thoose fields that require korean language skills, or some that just ask for asian language skills in general. Also, there is increasing likelyhood that the North will fall apart in the next decade at least. |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Leon wrote: |
| Considering the state of the Korean economy it could prove to be a useful language. I doubt people taking Korean language courses at good universities are doing it to teach esl. Rather it is a language that few people learn, so it might be more marketable eventually than something like chinese which many people are learning. Also when the North colapses, I imagine there will be a demand for Korean speakers in the non-profit and governmental sector. |
The problem is that gyopos already saturate whatever markets it might help you tap into. |
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Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
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| Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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| northway wrote: |
| Leon wrote: |
| Considering the state of the Korean economy it could prove to be a useful language. I doubt people taking Korean language courses at good universities are doing it to teach esl. Rather it is a language that few people learn, so it might be more marketable eventually than something like chinese which many people are learning. Also when the North colapses, I imagine there will be a demand for Korean speakers in the non-profit and governmental sector. |
The problem is that gyopos already saturate whatever markets it might help you tap into. |
Yeah, this is true. But that doesn't mean that the knowledge wouldn't help you, you would just have to have other qualifications as well. Overall it won't hurt you, and will possibly give you an edge over others without language skills. |
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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| Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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You want to devote not hundreds, but thousands of hours to something that could possibly be helpful?
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As you noted yourself, it takes years to master a language. Very few K-12 schools teach Korean, so a non-Korean starting with Korean 101 as a freshman would need at least 6 years of study to achieve a proficiency level suitable for business or translating. That foreigner is competing against Koreans who have been learning English since elementary school. Quite frankly, I think that a number of Korean-speaking foreigners were hired more for their foreignness than for their language skills. Look at Steven Revere on Let�s Speak Korean. Yeah, he�s the first foreigner to get a degree in teaching Korean as a foreign language; however, he does not sound natural when he speaks Korean.
In the US and Canada, a Korean-speaking foreigner like you and I can find a niche for our language skills if we look hard enough. I was hired as an ESL teacher at my elementary school, which enrolls children of visiting Koreans at the local university, because of my language skills. I was delighted to find this job because the other 99 positions I applied for wanted Spanish speakers.
Koreans love English. They so love to learn English. They love their kids to learn English. In Korea, there is no shortage of Koreans with advanced to native-like fluency in English. Speakers of other languages, especially Chinese or Japanese, find Korean a very practical language to learn.
In the states, there may be vacancies here and there, but Spanish is far, far more widely marketable. Eight of the the top ten countries sending immigrants to America are Spanish-speaking. Number 1 Mexico has twice as many as number 2 China. Our immigrant pool is becoming less diverse as Central Americans dominate the rest of the world.
A final fact for thought. The Defense Language Institute, which trains language analysts for the US government, estimates that an English speaker needs 400 hours of instruction to become fluent in Spanish compared to 1300 hours for Chinese or Korean. Foreigners who invest this time and become fluent are elevated to the A-list of �wegukin talentuh� in Korea owing to the novelty of hearing Korean from a white, brown, or black face. However, if/when you repatriate, your language skills may become a mere conversation piece. |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 9:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Leon wrote: |
| northway wrote: |
| Leon wrote: |
| Considering the state of the Korean economy it could prove to be a useful language. I doubt people taking Korean language courses at good universities are doing it to teach esl. Rather it is a language that few people learn, so it might be more marketable eventually than something like chinese which many people are learning. Also when the North colapses, I imagine there will be a demand for Korean speakers in the non-profit and governmental sector. |
The problem is that gyopos already saturate whatever markets it might help you tap into. |
Yeah, this is true. But that doesn't mean that the knowledge wouldn't help you, you would just have to have other qualifications as well. Overall it won't hurt you, and will possibly give you an edge over others without language skills. |
Yeah but it's not like you're tapping into some under-served niche language market. If you want to go with a somewhat obscure language that could help you in the business or non-profit spheres, you'd be better off learning something like Bahasa Indonesian, Arabic, or Thai (random examples off the top of my head). |
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nate1983
Joined: 30 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 9:17 pm Post subject: |
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| isisaredead wrote: |
| Leon wrote: |
| Considering the state of the Korean economy it could prove to be a useful language. I doubt people taking Korean language courses at good universities are doing it to teach esl. Rather it is a language that few people learn, so it might be more marketable eventually than something like chinese which many people are learning. Also when the North colapses, I imagine there will be a demand for Korean speakers in the non-profit and governmental sector. |
whoa. this could well be the funniest post i'll read for the rest of the year. |
What's funny about it? The only thing that set me apart and helped me get my current job is having studied Korean - in fact, out of the 10 Americans we hired since last year, 9 speak an Asian language (4 through heritage, 5 through study); 4 Chinese, 3 Korean, 1 Bahasa, 1 Urdu...but you know, feel free to think what you like about the usefulness of foreign languages, Asian in particular. In business, the Westerners used to always come to Asia as executives to lead the company, and could just get by with English. Now Asians have pretty much caught up in terms of business savvy, so for the West to remain competitive we've gotta not fall behind our more-bilingual Eastern counterparts. Asia is where the vast majority of the world's growth is and will be for decades to come. How are we gonna compete with Western-educated and fully bilingual Chinese & Koreans if we only speak English? Think about that.
I'm not talking on an individual level, because it's up to an individual person whether they want to learn a language or not. But for certain types of positions, Asian language skills will be the status quo. The non-profit and government sector is very much in demand for Asian language speakers - you've obviously never combed those job listings, given your mocking tone. But the private sector has its niches as well. |
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pugwall
Joined: 22 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2011 10:34 pm Post subject: |
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| A western engineer who was fluent in Korean would be pretty employable. Dont really see whats funny about that |
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