Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ilsanman]

I will try to reproduce a quotation from a Korean friend of mine. Please respond, whatever you wish to say, good or bad.

'I don't think Koreans should have to follow American English, or any other country's English style so exactly. I don't like this emphasis on American English. We Koreans, a lot of us speak English, and we have our own style, like pronunciation, and that should remain the way it is.'

[Hater Depot]

One the one hand, I want to agree, because places like Singapore and Jamaica have their own Englishes. On the other hand, they actually use English as an everyday language. English is a foreign language in Korea, not a second one.

[the_beaver]

My answer: No. Not yet.

Yes, there are different brands of English such as the English in the Philipines and India, and the differences among these styles and other standard forms are consistent. As an example using a 'standard' English, Scottish people speak differently than Americans, but they are consistent in their differences.

Koreans, however, do not yet have enough high-level English speakers to have formed their own flavor of English. Most of the pronunciation differences and (I don't want to say 'style', but because you used it. . .) style differences are features of interlanguage. In another generation or so, when (if) English becomes a voice of the middle to upper classes, then yes, your friend's comment will be valid. But it's not valid yet.

[Cigar_Guy]

I'll tell you what I tell my kids here.

Let us assume that I learn perfect Korean. Vocabulary, syntax, accent, everything--so good that you'd think me Korean if I was on the phone. Any store, office, school, or anywhere else I go in Korea the reaction I get will be "Wow, this foreigner speaks perfect Korean."

However, if the kids are able to attain the same level of expertise with English and travel to America, people will believe that they were born and raised there (more or less--people in New York will still look at you strange if you ask for a can of "pop").

Definitely something to be said for that.

[Homer]

Well some sort of standard is a good idea.

However, if they wish not to be constrained by one standard (American in this case) when they reach fluency then that is their choice.

[Woland]

I think your Korean friend is right, in large part. With a few exceptions, there is no real need for learners to tied to a particular native speaker standard. I don't think your friend is talking about the development of a 'Korean English' like Singapore English (that's not going to happen), but rather that he or she feels no obligation to sound like a native speaker in his/her use of English. And I think your friend's position reflects a growing tendency among learners in EFL contexts.

We need to come to grips with the fact that there are now more non-native speakers than native speakers of English, and that it is increasingly likely that most of those non-native speakers are going to interact more with other non-native speakers than native speakers. This circumstance must raise some doubt about the validity of native speaker models for these populations.

What we should hope for, if we wish to maintain the usefulness of English as an International Language (or, as some put it, as a lingua franca), is insist on the importance of comprehensibility in learner outcomes. How to achieve this is a difficult question, but it does not require a native speaker standard.

A number of scholars have written on this point and presented ideas about what an English as an International Language Standard might look like. Henry Widdowson's recent book for Oxford, the title of which I forget right now, has addressed the question of ownership of English and what the curriculum for English instruction might look like in light of this. Jennifer Jenkins has specifically addressed issues of pronunciation in her book, The Phonology of English as an International Language, which does try to move towards development of an a standard for pronunciation and discusses the central issue of comprehensibility.

Some native speaker teachers who have found their jobs in EFL contexts just because they are native speakers may feel threatened by this idea. But qualified teachers who continue to learn about the language and teaching, whether native or non-native speaker, should, I think, welcome the shift towards more attainable standards for learners, which I believe will result in more positive learner outcomes.

I'm not claiming that the native speaker standards and those who support them, among both teachers and learners, are going to go away soon. But I think this phenomenon will continue to grow in coming years and is increasingly being accepted by leaders in the field of English language teaching and will be something that people have to deal with in their work.

There's a lot more to be said about this, but I'll stop here and wait for responses.

[RACETRAITOR]

Kind of a good idea, but yeah, they're not ready. I've been surprised lately at some of the inconsistencies in American English here. Even Koreans who've been educated in Canada and the UK seem to prefer American spelling. Yet on some things they still use English English, such as "football." That one confused me the other day (or at least I did in the context of the conversation in order to make a point).

And they take words from other languages too, such as "hof" wherever that's from, and "pension."

[Qinella]

I agree with Woland that the most important thing is comprehension. The whole purpose of language in the first place is communication.

However, pronunciation does at time inhibit a listener's ability to understand the speaker. For example, my mother called the Korean consulate in the US to ask some questions, and said that she couldn't understand the woman on the other line at all, and the woman eventually got frustrated and hung up. But, the woman was speaking English.

This has happened to most of us, I think. A situation where you can't understand someone because their accent is too foreign to your ear. In my case, I find Indian speakers very difficult to understand at times. I've also talked to some folks from parts of England whom I could barely understand.

I wonder if anyone has ever had problems understand the "standard" American pronunciation. That is to say, the "news caster" voice, like the guys on the test prep tapes (whom I do a wonderful impression of--just ask Kermo). If most speakers of the world consider that the easiest pronunciation to understand, then it would seem obvious that's what people should strive for.

As for Koreans having their own "style". Um.. I don't know about that. Most pronunciation problems I see have to do with being stuck in a Korean language mindset. As in, there must be vowels after certain consonants, k should change to ng sometimes, some letters (z, v, f) simply don't exist, etc. Not so much a "style" as it is an inability to escape one's native tongue's restrictions.

I do like the idea that Ilsanman's friend is thinking along those lines, though. Any sign of rebellion against the system in Korea is great, in my book.

Q.

[crazylemongirl]

My english is mish-mash of various styles. Most people talking to me would never have me pegged for a kiwi because my accent is so off these days, and after teaching American English for so long my spellings and some vocabularly useage and spelling switches between American/British ofthen within the same sentence. I also still use a bit of kiwi slang around the place so it sounds kind of weird.

In the end I think Koreans goal should be to understand and be understood. Given their general level at the moment, I think to deviate too much from 'international english' in favor of a local vareity will not allow them to be understood by other speakers of English (not just native speakers).

[rothkowitz]

Lets not pretend that Koreans have the faintest clue about pronunciation.

If they praise American English its merely out of inflexibility and they wouldn't have a clue what to make of the regional variations.

If they praise British English its cos of some recent movie.

Make them intelligible to each other and other asians cos thats who they'll be communicating in english with.

[Woland]

[Zyzyfer]