Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Diana X2]

Is "hometown" Konglish, in your opinion? Of course it's a real English word, not totally invented like some Konglish words such as "handphone" and "name card"... but don't you think Koreans overuse it, the way they overuse "long time no see", "sky blue" and "so-so"? I always teach new students (especially adults) how to introduce themselves and in that lesson I teach them to replace "My hometown is..." with "I'm originally from...." Do you agree that this is more natural sounding? I had a new student today who kind of put up a fight about it. Just curious what other t's think. Thank you.

[Countrygirl]

You're right. The student is directly translating Korean into English. I tell advanced students that there is English thinking and Korean thinking. That seems to help them understand why the answer, although not incorrect grammatically, sounds unnatural to English speakers. I would only answer "My hometown is..." if someone asked me "What is your hometown?" but it is more likely that someone would ask me "Where are you from?". I believe that hometown is more of a Korean thing and belongs to the list of questions that Koreans ask when they meet someone (ie, how old are you, are you married, what University did you go to, etc).

[Zaria32]

"Hometown" questions used to be very common in the US...in the 1950s and 1960s. As people moved more, farther, and more frequently, it seemed to morph into "where are you from?"