Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Snowkr]

Hi all

for those of you who have been in Korea for awhile teaching, I'm really curious to know how many of you find yourself speaking Konglish or at least adjusting your language to suit the Koreans?

Also, do you ever catch yourself speaking this way to other native English speakers? Do you think it's a concious thing?

I'm asking because I'm interested, one after having spent a year in Korea and two, I'm collecting data for a research propasal in sociolinguistics for grad school now that I'm back in the states.

Any input here would be really nice!

[tweeterdj]

i'm not a teacher, and my wife teaches in a small kiddy hagwon, so she's always dumbind down the language. and yes, she does it at home too. drives me nuts, so often! i honestly think her english is WAY worse now than when we got here.

[Smee]

I went back home for 2.5 weeks between contracts, and I had a bit of a hard time. It was the first time I had sustained conversations in English and I found myself struggling to find the right words, and I'd trail off in the middle of sentences. Even after only a few months here I noticed my emails got appreciably worse.

With students, especially realllllllllly low level ones, I find myself only speaking a few overemphasized words at a time. It's counter-intuitive, in a way, because children are programmed to find meaning. That carries over to adults, where I speak in really tiny sentences. Often when I talk to other native speakers I find myself slowing down and gesticulating too much, until I remind myself they can handle normal pacing.

[Lizara]

I say aircon and handphone *looks guilty* Back in Canada I didn't have a cell phone and never needed air conditioning, so being here where those things come up in conversation much more frequently, I've picked up the Konglish words.

I've noticed my vocabulary shrinking too. It's funny, though, if I read a lot my vocabulary temporarily re-expands. I've also, to some extent, lost the ability to construct proper complex sentences; sometimes I have to think about it for a while instead of just writing it naturally.

[djsmnc]

I've maintained solid form when it comes to using English at home and Korean in Korea. There is nothing in between. If I were to find myself using Konglish, I'd burn my arm with a cigarette.

[Qinella]

[Ya-ta Boy]

I think Konglish is a bigger concept than just using the borrowed words with a twist, although it certainly includes that.

I do use air con and a few other Konglishisms when I'm talking to Koreans. I also slow my speaking rate way down, do a lot of body contortions, drop all the idioms and slang and speak in short, non-complex sentences. It's either that or not communicate.

I can also understand spoken and written Konglish better than most. Years of exposure does that to you.

I also think I can write pretty good Konglish, but I can't speak it. There is a thread around here somewhere where some of us wrote Konglish messages to each other. It was kind of fun. I don't remember which thread it is, though.

[cubanlord]

[lastat06513]

When I jokingly use "Konglish" in class, half the class found it amusing and the other half found it distasteful and patronizing.

But I loved using it to bust people's chops

[thu_tinh]

what other konglish terms are therE?
window shopping = eye shopping

[cubanlord]

[jajdude]

Konglish is really just Korean isn't it?

It isn't English. Not even close, really. Though someimes they slam out some English words amidst a flow of Korean. We've all heard this.

"blah blah blah.... "business solution" .... blah blah blah


You just get used to it. Most people who have never been to Korea would be baffled by what the hell they are saying.... sounds sort of similar to badly pronounced English and uses strange words put together... nah, that sure ain't English as the world knows it.

One exception I can think of: Hand phone. I heard Vietnamese say this too.

Have also seen "air con" used in books.

Anyway, of course I can speak Konglish pretty well if needed. Or use the korean word which sounds similar to the English word but only when the English word will not be understood.

Words like "Asia" or "Vietnam" are examples... they have their own way of saying them, and it's tough to teach the English way sometimes.

[yesnoyesyesno]

when Koreans use "English" words like "handphone" and "aircon" or even "real" English words pronounced in a Korean way, these words are no longer English words, they are Korean words. The Koreans decided that those words are going to be used to describe what they're describing. They can very well make up their own words if they wanted to. No English speaking person, if they are speaking Korean, has the right to say that a "sand" is NOT one of those sandwich things they sell on streets of Korea for the simple fact that "sand" is now a KOREAN WORD meaning exactly what the Koreans want it to say. at the same time, how many "English" words of foreign origin do we use that have little or no or "wrong" meanings? Kareoke.. In English, this is pronounced "Karyokie" but in Japanese it is pronounched "ka ra oh ke"... and you know what? if we're speaking English, it's pronounced "Karyokie" and a japanese person can't say anything about it because we're speaking English. this is the nature of language.

[jajdude]

[SirFink]

It comes in handy at the Pharmacy when you need "Ah-Seuh-Puh-Leen" or when you're at the PC Bong and you need to tell the kid at the counter that your "mah-oo-suh" isn't working. As I speak little Korean, I've found it helpful to sometimes just guess at things that I assume Koreans have adopted. Need cigarettes? Try asking for "To-Bah-Koh" at the store. Or how about a bottle of "Oh-Lane-Gee Joo-Suh" or a box of "koo-kees" ? Well, you get the idea.