Korean Job Discussion Forums

[PatrickGHBusan]

[ArabicTeacher]

Maybe my Korean learning process was easier compare to other folks here since I'm also fluent in Arabic. The verb endings in Arabic, colloquial or standard, or even in the Quran, are as complicated as Korean ones and the nominal declensions in Quranic Arabic are somewhat similar to Korean ones.

[Fox]

[ArabicTeacher]

[Yaya]

Korean isn't easy but it was probably easier for me since I'm an ethnic Korean who grew up with Korean-speaking parents. That said, I wouldn't advise anyone to spend time learning it unless 1) they have a genuine interest in Korea; 2) they need it for their major or whatnot; 3) they wanna learn it for their significant other; 4) or they wanna learn enough to live and work in Korea.

A reunified Korean Peninsula could make things interesting vis-a-vis Korean-language education.

[Kepler]

Benny Lewis says that adults are better at learning foreign languages than children. He says he has successfully learned many languages as an adult. He claims to be able to speak "Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Esperanto, Mandarin Chinese, American Sign Language, Dutch, Irish" on his website.

In one blog post, he says his Mandarin level is actually lower intermediate.
http://www.fluentin3months.com/bennys-mandarin/

He claims to be fluent in German. However, he failed the listening comprehension part of the CEFRL(the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) exam in German. His score was 37%.
http://www.fluentin3months.com/c2-exam-results-and-analysis/

These are not bad results at all after only studying each language three months. Anyway, this is just one person's experience.

[edwardcatflap]

[World Traveler]

[SeoulNate]

[World Traveler]

Two million views on this:
https://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies
Look legit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_K._Kuhl
I'd trust her statements over Benny the Irish Polyglot's.

[mithridates]

You can recognize that adults on the whole learn languages faster than children do and think Benny is a crock. Stopped clock is right two times a day and all that.

Kids are good at accent and that's about it.

[World Traveler]

Kids are better at picking up grammar.

Kids have better listening abilities when it comes to distinguishing sounds.

Kids are better at pronunciation.

These are pretty big.

They can also respond more naturally/automatically, as they are using a different part of their brain than a person who first tried to learn a language after puberty. Between 12 and 16, the brain rapidly prunes unused connections.

[mithridates]

Kids do pretty well at full immersion, because they need to make friends or they get bullied.

Adults do better at small focused periods of time. That's why kids at hagwons pretty much never learn anything while those that have lived abroad learn quick. It's basically boot camp for them when they start all over again with zero friends.

The best learner of all is a focused adult. But you have to cut off a lot of ties to do it.

[World Traveler]

The best learner of all is a focused kid. But kids can't focus as well as adults. Their attention span is much shorter. And their motivation to learn a language is less in most cases. But their memory is better. Their talent for learning a language is better. Getting them to put in the work is less easy though.

There are adults who want to learn a language just as badly as any kid (if not much more so), but fail.

Studies show any young kid can reach native level fluency if given enough exposure. For adults, it is rare. It happens, it is just extremely uncommon. Generally speaking, children's brains are better suited to pick up a language. But everyone is different. For a tiny minority of adults, they can learn languages just as well as children.

How many long term expats speak Korean? Not many. It happens. But it is very, very rare.

Also, most who claim to be good at it are completely full of sh*t from my experience.

[mithridates]