Korean Job Discussion Forums

[olsanairbase]

I have seen a bunch of people who could speak, but one guy I knew spoke better than anyone. He knew satori for each region. He could turn on a dialect and use slang in each region. He knew Korean so well he taught himself Japanese by watching korean video tapes on how to learn Japanese. I have never seen anyone like that. He was a Mormon missionary.

So my vote is with the Mormon missionaries as they seem to know Korean the best....maybe I'm wrong though

[jvalmer]

Yup, mormon missionaries for sure. They do an intensive language course in their assigned language, that helps give them a base. And the few I've met, claim even the US military sends some of their language specialists to these Mormon learning centers to learn. Then two years of being in country trying to convert people in the local language does wonders for improving language skills.

Interestingly, they send a lot of missionaries to Toronto in an attempt to convert the massive Chinese population there. The Chinese don't let Mormon missionaries in.

[Gamecock]

OP,

While I generally agree that the Mormon missionaries are more diligent in language learning than most foreign teachers, citing one extremely gifted guy for your conclusion does not really follow logically.

[Skippy]

Ask yourself the question who would learn and speak Korean quicker.

A guy who is if he can sleeps in late, can if he has the time stay home and do some reading or watch tv or whatever he wants. On the weekend, heck the weekdays he can go find a bar that has other waygooks and hang out and shoot the _____, maybe he will meet some Koreans but they will likely know English (from a little to a lot). Most Korean people he will deal with will be for 5 sentence conversations that would resemble a 2 year old speaking. Also his job is English - so he is expected to speak English at work - maybe he can learn a little Korean from the kids but that can vary. He will likely expect that at an English School he can expect to deal with business in English with one Korean or another (who you speak more to the teachers that speak a little Korean or the one that speaks a lot). True maybe this teacher will be proactive and sign up for a Korean course. Given a year of somewhat dilligent study he might be able to pass the first two Korean Fluency Test. Then this guy only has one year of this. True he can renew and come back but it is his choice.

OR

A guy that before he gets here is given a cram course of about a 1 month or 2 in Korean. A guy that once he gets here has to get up early everyday and has to head out and go talk to Koreans who do not know English till about night time. Even a night time he still might not have any freetime he will still have other duties which once again includes dealing in Korean. This guy is not allowed to watch TV, use the Internet (except a few times to email family), read some Novels. If he does get a movie or a book it will be wholesome but that is not very often. His main duty is to convert people. This guy has very little chance to talk to other English speakers. The only other English speakers he will meet will be other Missionaries, maybe some Church members and the odd Korean he talks to. The people he will meet will be Korean speakers. He can not go to places that have English Speakers. He will be very likely partnered up with a Korean who likely speaks English but the expectation that he will have to speak Korean. There is a good chance the Missionary can be also assigned to a district/area that is in the country. Then give him two years of this with NO vacation.

Believe me I have met more then a dozen Missionaries. Most are pretty fluent. True some admit being not the best but usually have been here a few months and those guys could still beat the pants of a most waygooks who have been here a few years.

The only real times I have seen a waygook English teacher really learn Korean is for sex/love. The basic drive for sex will prompt a guy who is in a country of Korean women to learn Korean pretty quickly will happen. But the caveat is if your pool of women is ones you pick up in waygook bars who will likely speak some English then the drive goes down.

[cheolsu]

English teachers probably score at the bottom of the list for how much Korean they've learned. English-speaking Westerners who work with English-speaking coworkers and students (of various degrees of proficiency) are not going to learn Korean very well.

The best speakers that I've seen are, in no particular order:

1) Business owners
2) Students
3) Missionaries

Those who work for Korean companies can be quite good too.

On the other hand, I was surprised by how little Korean the factory workers I've met speak. I guess they have the same problem we do, namely hanging around with others from their homeland.

I once had a couple of Indian guys stare at me using an ATM at a subway station. I turned around to glare at them, but it turned out they just wanted to learn how to put money on their T-money cards. They said 교통 카드 in Korean, but I thought they were saying something in Hindi, which is what I was speaking to them.

[Sector7G]

[interestedinhanguk]

[lifeinkorea]

I don't know, what would you rather have, a teacher who can order you a beer in broken Korean or a missionary who knows how get you to all the cool churches to worship?

Sometimes the skill/quantity isn't better than the quality of knowledge a person has.

[CentralCali]

The Mormon missionaries are required to actually function in Korean in their day-to-day life here. NETs really aren't as our job reqires us to speak English. The OP's cited example may have formerly been a Mormon missionary as there's no way he had either the kind of time to spend during his mission to learn another language that way or permission to spend his time on something other than assigned mission duties. The United States Armed Forces have their own language training school, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (which I'm familiar with as I graduated from the Vietnamese-Hanoi course), and do not send people to any of the LDS Church's Mission Training Centers to study. For one thing, only missionaries study at the MTC. Here is the link to the Provo MTC. By the way, it's pretty much hit-and-miss for the foreign LDS missionaries (not all of whom come from English-speaking countries, either) for being paired with a Korean missionary who speaks English. For example, the two misisonaries currently assigned to my ward are one young lady from the US whose Korean is getting to be pretty good and one young lady from Korea whose English isn't.

[southernman]

Anyone whose function is to sell a product either comercial or spiritual has to obviously know the basics (or better) of the language. In whichever country they are in, or the product they are selling would be useless because they couldn't explain its benefits over the competitors

That being said I met a Scottish guy with a very strong accent that made his English sometimes hard to understand. He had taught in Japan and lost out big time in the NOVA collapse. He said he was reasonably fluent in Japanese.

I met him after he had been in Korea for about 3 weeks. He was a natural Linguist. He literally remembered everything that he had been taught by Korean people he had met. The Koreans on the course were amazed at his ability and retention after such a short time. So in my experience it would be him a mere NET with no formal training.

[lifeinkorea]

I am trying to imagine Japanese spoken with a Scottish accent.

"Erigatoo goozaymoose"

[southernman]

[liveinkorea316]

[silkhighway]

[olsanairbase]