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Eazy_E
Joined: 30 Oct 2003
Location: British Columbia, Canada
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 Posted: Sat May 29, 2004 6:49 pm Post subject: |
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| ryleeys wrote: |
Am I the only one that thinks life here is pretty much the same as back home?
I mean, life has its ups and downs no matter where ya live. Just cause the signs are in a different language and the people look different doesn't change the basics of life. |
I tend to disagree. The language barrier can be like a dark cloud that hangs over one's head. In a country where you speak the language easily, you can have friendly chats with whoever you come across, make friends, and never feel truly isolated.
In my workplace I'm the only foreign teacher and it bothers me that I can't understand anything, nobody talks to me, and I can't talk to anyone else. If I go to a staff dinner I have to be babysat by the Korean English teacher.
Now I know I should learn some Korean, and I have done that but it's just an impossible feat to become fluent in less than a year. This isn't so much a gripe against Korea, but the pervasive language barrier that exists here.
My contract is up in 11 weeks and I'm looking forward to getting back to a place where I don't feel like I live in a bubble. I'm sure others would feel the same way. |
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ryleeys
Joined: 22 Dec 2003
Location: Columbia, MD
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| Posted: Sat May 29, 2004 7:13 pm Post subject: |
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I've been dealing with language for a while... DC is pretty diverse. And I guess it just doesn't bother me as much. I'm also the only English teacher at my school and the Korean teacher doesn't speak English.
Honestly, nothing has happened here that didn't already happen to me in the States. |
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matthewwoodford
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Location, location, location.
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| Posted: Sat May 29, 2004 7:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Look at it this way: that same language barrier causing you grief is the reason you have a job. |
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Eazy_E
Joined: 30 Oct 2003
Location: British Columbia, Canada
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| Posted: Sat May 29, 2004 8:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Very true. It's not likely I could find a job teaching EFL in a country where English is widely spoken... except possibly Ireland. |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Sat May 29, 2004 8:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Eazy_E wrote: |
| Very true. It's not likely I could find a job teaching EFL in a country where English is widely spoken... except possibly Ireland. |
Why not? Yoo-hak is very common in Korea...many other people from non-English speaking countries travel abroad for study as well. If you are qualified, you can teach anywhere. I was a teacher in Canada...ironically, most of my students were Korea.
It was nice to see the tables turned. Koreans trying to get by in Canada. They generally didn't mix well. They stayed together and spoke Korean all the time outside class. On weekends there were no classes...they all went to the library to study. 
The Japanese, South Americans, Europeans...all got out, enjoyed the country and the people to the max...greatly improved their English by doing so.
The Koreans were very much in self-imposed isolation.
Sorry...totally off-topic. |
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matthewwoodford
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Location, location, location.
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 1:53 am Post subject: |
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| Demophobe wrote: |
| Eazy_E wrote: |
| Very true. It's not likely I could find a job teaching EFL in a country where English is widely spoken... except possibly Ireland. |
Why not? Yoo-hak is very common in Korea...many other people from non-English speaking countries travel abroad for study as well. If you are qualified, you can teach anywhere. I was a teacher in Canada...ironically, most of my students were Korea.
It was nice to see the tables turned. Koreans trying to get by in Canada. They generally didn't mix well. They stayed together and spoke Korean all the time outside class. On weekends there were no classes...they all went to the library to study.
The Japanese, South Americans, Europeans...all got out, enjoyed the country and the people to the max...greatly improved their English by doing so.
The Koreans were very much in self-imposed isolation.
Sorry...totally off-topic. |
I taught ESL in England last year. Same deal: the Koreans would cluster together and not mix with people outside class. The same seemed to be true of Chinese and Japanese though. |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 5:47 am Post subject: |
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Is it common thinking here that the only way to learn something is in a classroom? Volunteering or something like that couldn't help one learn a language, surely? (sarcasm on full blast  )
By the way, who do you suppose are the most exclusive people? The ones least likely to associate with foreigners? Seems to me Koreans, Japanese and Chinese all must be real high up on the list. Perhaps some other countries are similar though? |
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Homer
Guest
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 6:29 am Post subject: |
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jajdude...
I learned quite a bit of Korean, not to mention got a lot of practice by just going to my sunday jangi games in the park with the old dudes....
Its all about what you are willing to put into it. Its quite allright to come to the conclusion that Korean is not for you (for whatever reason). However, that conclusions has consequences and ramifications. One of the main ones being that it makes any complaints about the language barrier become slightly silly. |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 6:51 am Post subject: |
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Homer,
You are right. I am a whiner. Forgive me my nonsense. But as I said before I aint playing with a full deck |
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Homer
Guest
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 11:41 am Post subject: |
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| How many cards are missing jajdude? |
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Cthulhu
Joined: 02 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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The UrbanMyth wrote:
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| I will probably go back to Canada someday, but for now Korea is a better place (for me personally). |
That's what it was like for me. Korea was a better place for five years; now Canada seems to be. Of course there's always a part of me that misses Korea, but I think that's true of most expats who've come through here. |
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