Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kiwiduncan]

I've been in Korea on and off for about 5 years and would rate myself at about intermediate level Korean. It's not really getting any better these days however, as I've lost interest in studying the language. It's a cool novelty language and may open some niche job opportunities, but whilst I've met a lot a nice Koreans and would love to chat with Koreans in NZ in their own language, I'm not passionate enough about Korea to be really dedicated to studying Korean.

Have many people here, after getting to passable level of conversational Korean, then found themselves feeling a bit jaded about studying any further? I'm considering studying Spanish because, although I have really enjoyed the process of learning Korean, I feel like I've been building a house that I don't really want to live in.

Spanish doesn't have the novelty appeal of Korean but it'll be easier to learn and much more useful. I just feel bad about giving up on Korean study whilst actually residing in Korea, but to continue with it would be like persevering in a loveless marriage.

[I-am-me]

[kiwiduncan]

The number of white Kiwis learning Chinese these days is pretty high, whereas I think there is now only one university in New Zealand offering Korean, so it is definately the more niche language.

I've always though I'd always have more opportunities to use Korean than Spanish in my hometown, but I think we've had loads of Argentinans and Chileans moving to Blenheim in the last few years.

[twg]

[OBXman7]

[reactionary]

There are many more Spanish speakers in the world than Korean, even if they don't always have as much money. But hey, never know, that could change. Ever consider working in the US? Go Spanish then.

+ It's more interesting.

+ if you speak spanish to native speakers, they don't keep trying to speak english - koreans are arrogant about their language at a level near the french.

+ it's a nice sounding language, though not quite as nice as italian in my opinion.

+ it's a hell of a lot easier than korean!

[Hollywoodaction]

Easy: study both. Learning a second, third, or even fourth language is never a waste of time if done correctly. Just remember to use it regularly so you don't lose it (with the internet, that seems easy enough to do).

[ernie]

i'd learn the language that opens up the most job opportunities for the least amount of effort... i don't learn things to be novel or out of respect, i do it to help myself!

i've been here about a year and a half and i studied korean at a university for a semester... i've come to the realization that, although i want to be a fluent korean speaker, it's going to take at least a few YEARS of solid, boring studying of vocabulary for me to be able to:
1) understand people who speak a mile a minute
2) have 100% perfect pronunciation so that i can actually be understood

a student of mine showed me a spanish textbook (i'm from canada so i've studied french but never spanish aside from US sesame street shows) and he thought i could speak spanish! the fact that there are many more spanish speakers in the world and spanish is more closely related to english (and french especially) makes it obvious to me that i should give up on korean and work on studying a more useful language like french or spanish or pretty much anything else!

as for your situation, i'm not sure about the demographics in NZ or your living plans for the future... do you study a second language in NZ schools?

[twg]

[twg]

[twg]

[twg]

Uh-huh...

So, which of the trolls are you, troll sock?

[kiwiduncan]

Just quickly looking at spanish websites on the internet it's pretty cool just how easy Spanish looks in comparison to Korean.

Can anyone recommend some good books for studying? I'll focus on grammar and vocab for the moment, but even in little Yeosu I think I could track down some Spanish speakers.

One of the posters suggested simply studying both Korean and Spanish. That's a good point. I'd like to still maintain my Korean even if I don start focusing on Spanish.

And Ernie, when it comes to languages the NZ education system tries to be a jack of all languages, but ends up being a master of none. We've had Maori, French, German, Japanese, Chinese and Spanish all offered at high schools, but the different languages go in and out of fashion. That's one of the drawbacks of being an English language country, we don't really know which languages to focus on.

(BTW, Thanks to TS1 and TS2 for keeping this thread alive )

[ernie]

that's something interesting that i never really thought about: in canada and the US it's pretty easy to decide which second language to study (french and spanish), and most non-english countries study english, so what do other english nations study?

i really wish i'd studied more french in high school - it's one of the few subjects that can actually get you a better job, especially in canada!

[Ginormousaurus]

kiwiduncan, you have summed up my feelings exactly. I have finished Sogang's level 6 and had planned on continuing my studies for the final year that I plan on living here. However, after graduation I took a 1 month break from studying and now haven't been able to get back into it. It's definitely a result of my growing negative outlook on life amongst Koreans. I just can't picture myself staying here indefinitely.

That being said, I have no regrets about all the time and money I've put into my studies. It's made a huge difference in my quality of life over here.

My next language is going to be Chinese.