Korean Job Discussion Forums

[t-hype]

Has anybody studied Chinese in Seoul at a hagwon?

I dropped by Pagoda and Sisa in Gangnam to inquire about classes. (I'm pretty low level and only know about 200 characters.)

Both places said their lower levels are taught in Korean. My Korean ability is about the same as my Chinese so I'm wondering if I'll be ok.

[Yaya]

You can easily find a Korean Chinese to teach you Chinese for like 10,000 won per hour for a private lesson. Or advertise that you need a Chinese tutor at the international departments of universities or something.

[t-hype]

at this point, i'd prefer a classroom environment.

thanks, tho.

[jomiro]

id say thats very difficult to find.
after all.. the majority of people wanting to learn chinese are koreans. therefore the classes are in korean.

you can try find study groups online. but then again, i wouldnt know where to look.

best bet would be for you to actually get some books and study yourself. i think there are some korean books that teach chinese, but also have english translation to their texts and vocabularies. maybe theres even books that teach chinese in english. you gotta look.

but i think those two options are all youve got. since you know some chinese already, it shouldnt be that difficult.

good luck!

[Yaya]

Isn't it also better to only be able to use Chinese?

[morrisonhotel]

[plato's republic]

Have you thought about looking for a language cafe? I studied Korean at one of those places around three years ago. The teachers were all volunteers, and you could choose either private or group lessons. They offered classes in Korean, Spanish, Japanese, French, Chinese and Russian from what I remember. I paid 4,000 won for a two hour private lesson once a week. It was a good experience overall and I managed to pick up a fair amount within the nine or so months that I studied there. I don't remember the name of the place, but it was a five minute walk from Ewha station. Try Google, or perhaps a search on here.

Best of luck!

[t-hype]

hmm. a language cafe sounds cool even if it was only as backup to my actual lessons... not too familiar with the ewha area tho but i'll try to google it...

i'm leaning pretty heavily toward pagoda in gangnam but i'm totally open to other (and cheaper) options. ^__^

[samd]

[Yaya]

[samd]

[metalhead]

No, Yaya is correct. Of course, to Aussies and Brits that have never learned another language (and in my opinion, generally suck at doing so) it may seem like it's not possible to learn 'from immersion'.

It is.

Wow, weird that, foreign teachers that speak no Korean are thrown into hagwon classes each day, teaching students that know no English, and somehow those kids learn.

If you, as a teacher, believe that the students' native language is necessary for them to learn a foreign language then you don't know how to teach, not to sound like a tw@t or anything, but it's true.

[samd]

[metalhead]

[t-hype]

some acquaintances of mine were living here with their toddler son. they had been sending him to a korean nursery while they both worked. they were beginning to worry about his english language development because he preferred korean, the language he was listening to 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. such is the wonder of childhood. i've worked in a public school with about 500 koreans 40 hours a week for the past two years and have inherited nothing of the sort! lol.

as for immersion, i happen to think chinese is one of the languages that an english learner with dictionary in hand could suffer through an immersion class with little ill effect because the grammar is so similar to english. korean on the other hand is an ENTIRELY different story as the grammar has nothing in common with english.

(i spent my first few months of korean study with teachers who didn't speak english and books written completely in korean ---> FAIL.)

at any rate, i took a "level test" with pagoda over the phone yesterday. planning to register today. i'll keep you posted...