Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raptorsfan]

Korea's an export driven economy, with most of their GDP being generated from exports.

In 2009, China's was easily Korea's #1 export destination accounting for about a quarter of exports with the US being a distance second with just 10%.

In fact, Korea' export dependancy gap between China and US has been widening rapidly and it's been forecasted to get even wider.

If that is the case, why aren't Koreans more aggressive in learning Chinese, instead of English?

Of course, English still will be the international language of business for many decades to come, so Koreans still should focus on learning English.

But, it just seems like they are investing in the wrong language.

[eamo]

I suppose they will eventually reluctantly recognize that China is where their economic future lies......

......but Koreans have such a superiority complex over the Chinese related to all the negative perceptions going around about 'dirty Chinese' etc.......they will only accept the importance of China and Chinese language with bitter reluctance.

[Old Gil]

YES.

I do a language exchange 3 times a week with a Chinese grad student who also teaches. She has a ton of students who have majored in Mandarin in college and studied abroad in China for a year. She says that my speaking ability is better than 75% of them and I've studied solo for a year, my Chinese is probably a 4 out of 10 at the moment. She says that they're great at reading the characters but cannot put together a sentence to save their lives.

My thinking (and hers as well) is that they just do the standard Korean abroad lifestyle--live in Wudaokou and only hang out with Koreans, just study a language to pass the test and don't worry about communication. She told me another story about an ajeossi who lived in Qingdao for 10 years and could barely make a sentence. He went back to study after the contraction of the economy last year.

IMO that problem is that lot of Koreans look down on the Chinese thru their racial lense of "they dirty no wash oily food. we are clean Han people" so it limits their social interaction opportunities that are necessary for actual everyday communication. So even the Koreans that DO study Chinese don't seem to nail it.

[redaxe]

[UknowsI]

I have a lots of Korean friends who consider English their 3rd language. Their second language is usually Chinese or Japanese. None of them even have it as their major, just personal interest or hobby.

[Old Gil]

[Hightop]

In all my years in Korea and my time studying Chinese I have met many Korean women who can speak Chinese well but I have only every met ONE Korean man who could speak well. I think the superiority complex that Koreans have over Chinese makes it nearly impossible for a Korean man to lower himself to speak Chinese. And when he does study it it is just for show.

[mayorgc]

Chinese will be much more prevalent in the future. Won't happen overnight.

[the_beaver]

[Dev]

Easy question. The answer is simply that English is the business language of the world. The Chinese learn it to do business with the U.S. Plus, it's likely that in any major Chinese company, there's someone that can speak English. If not, translators can be hired cheaply.

I don't know how much an advantage a Korean would get in China being able to speak Chinese. I mean, you know the old saying, "money talks, bullshit walks".

I do think that if / when the Chinese develop into an importer / consumer of imported finished products, then knowing Chinese would have an advantage for Koreans. Basically, what I'm saying is that "the customer is boss". Right now, China is mainly selling its workforce. Most of the buying they do is for raw materials. In this case, they're often in a weak position because they need the stuff. Once we're selling them consumer goods, then we'll be on our hands and kness speaking Chinese.

[allovertheplace]

because China invaded south korea and English speaking forces protected it.

[kinerry]

[shinramyun]

[placeshifter]

While I agree that Chinese is vitally important for the future, following this logic, all Americans should be forced to learn the language of their financial masters...since China and Japan together "own" the US.

[raptorsfan]