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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 1:37 am Post subject: Common language mistakes |
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Well, there are too many of course. I'm thinking of some typical ones that I don't fully understand, due to my lack of Korean knowledge.
One is why do some students say "eat water"? I don't get how they confuse eat and drink if Korean has equal words. Also, why do they confuse gender, using the opposite pronoun intended (he instead of she)?
Another one I do understand but is still a bit of a troublemaker when trying to communicate, that even quite advanced English speakers make, is responding 'yes' when it should be 'no' or vice versa. I understand in Korean it is the opposite of English, so otherwise very good speakers still do this. It happens in 'tag questions'... "You didn't see him, did you?"...."Yes."... "When?"... confusion.... "Did you see him?" ..... "No." It's common for English speakers to use these tag questions when we are uncertain, but Koreans do not reply correctly. It's something few learn I think. So if you have something serious to ask, needing the appropriate response, avoid tag questions. You might have to teach them in the classroom but I'd never expect any student to get them right.
Feel free to explain or add some more common ones, and there are many of course, like using plurals, getting verbs wrong, and so on. |
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poet13
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
Location: Just over there....throwing lemons.
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:02 am Post subject: |
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Numbers. Koreans use a 10,000 base. We use 1,000.
So, 50,000 is 5-10,000, instead of 50-1,000. |
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albazalba
Joined: 27 Dec 2006
Location: Hongdae
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:40 am Post subject: |
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| Another one I do understand but is still a bit of a troublemaker when trying to communicate, that even quite advanced English speakers make, is responding 'yes' when it should be 'no' or vice versa. I understand in Korean it is the opposite of English, so otherwise very good speakers still do this. It happens in 'tag questions'... "You didn't see him, did you?"...."Yes."... "When?"... confusion.... "Did you see him?" ..... "No." It's common for English speakers to use these tag questions when we are uncertain, but Koreans do not reply correctly. |
In English we reply negatively to negative questions e.g.
Question: You didn't do your homework?
Answer: No, I didn't.
However in Korean the answer would be positive e.g.
Question: 숙제 안했어?
Answer: 네
So it's a matter of direct translation, which usually leads to miscommunication.
Also,
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| One is why do some students say "eat water"? I don't get how they confuse eat and drink if Korean has equal words. |
Another direct translation as Koreans tend to say 물먹다 even though there is the Korean equivalent to drink, don't know why they tend to use eat.
Funny thing is, 물먹었어 is a Korean idiom meaning 'I lost out.' So if you ever hear a Korean answer a question like, "Did you get a raise this year?" with "I ate water," there is another direct translation resulting in miscommunication. |
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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 3:33 am Post subject: |
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One that I've gotten burned over:
Shigan = time but also hour.
My boss asked me to teach a class one "time" on Saturday and I agreed thinking "It's only once". Later I found out she meant "one hour" every Saturday. 
There are lots of them, but I'm supposed to be on vacation now.
Cheers |
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Fresh Prince
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: The glorious nation of Korea
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 3:37 am Post subject: Re: Common language mistakes |
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| jajdude wrote: |
Also, why do they confuse gender, using the opposite pronoun intended (he instead of she)?
Feel free to explain or add some more common ones, and there are many of course, like using plurals, getting verbs wrong, and so on. |
Great topic. Here's my guess:
As far as I can tell, Koreans memorize English words using their own alphabet, "Hangul." They also use their own cultural interpretation and the rules and customs of their own language, when learning English.
The Korean custom is to omit anything from a conversation that has already been stated or is clear from the context so they rarely use prounouns like, "he, she, it, etc." When they learn English they are using that same philosophy, so they don't put much importance on pronouns.
Things like the plural marker, "s" and pronouns like, "he and she," are something that a Korean learner would not see a point in using in a sentence, so they don't think about them when forming sentences and don't put much effort into learning how to properly use them.
I've found that the Korean, "English" teachers often omit these words for the same reasons.  |
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Fresh Prince
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: The glorious nation of Korea
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 3:42 am Post subject: |
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| Hater Depot wrote: |
| http://wiki.galbijim.com/Transference_error |
Very cool.  |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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tomato
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 5:45 am Post subject: |
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There are other languages in a question set in the negative is answered the reverse of how we would answer it.
In the 20's, there was a clever song on the subject.
Click here. |
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Trumpcard
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 7:38 pm Post subject: |
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| In the rotten place I work (a Junch Chul franchise) there are about 200 students mostly aged around 11. I can't for the life of me know why a good 99% of them can't speak beyond broken simple present and always refer to themselves as "my" eg: Me - Who has finished? Student - Tea-chaaa, MY", my finisheee. |
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thebum
Joined: 09 Jan 2005
Location: North Korea
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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| some waygug-in wrote: |
One that I've gotten burned over:
Shigan = time but also hour.
My boss asked me to teach a class one "time" on Saturday and I agreed thinking "It's only once". Later I found out she meant "one hour" every Saturday.
There are lots of them, but I'm supposed to be on vacation now.
Cheers |
"one time" is 한번. "one hour" is 한시간
sucks that you're stuck working on saturdays. why doesn't your boss talk to you in english? |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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How about a few 'classics' many of us have heard many times? You can keep trying to correct these mistakes, but a year doesn't seem long enough to get through to some well-ingrained bad English and Konglish. I believe there is an attitude common in Korea that correct usage is not that important, except on tests, that English can be used anyway at all, that is makes a nice decoration. Also, it's so widely studied yet still so foreign, it's baffling. Anyway, a few classics:
"Me book no" and "I'm not book".... most of the kids who use these know how to say, "I have..." and "I don't have.." and "Do you have....?" .... yet for some reason these terrible expressions keep coming out of their mouths.
"He is die".....I think they didn't learn the word "dead".... interesting how many kids are fixated on death...this one always makes them laugh...
"It's not funny" instead of "It's not fun."
"I am boring" instead of "I am bored."
"I like sing a song"
"I played ski"
" He came home lately" instead of "late"
Just some examples of things that are such a habit, that many students realize are wrong, but continue to use. |
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Neo
Joined: 09 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 9:50 pm Post subject: |
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I find the whole translation thing interesting. It is not nearly as simple and exact as dictionaries and training would have us believe, e.g.,
| Quote: |
| One is why do some students say "eat water"? |
The Korean word that is usually translated as "eat" actually means "ingest" - eat or drink. The word translated as "drink" (sorry - no hanguel keyboard) is usually reserved for alcohol.
Most any Korean English student will tell you that "let" in Korean is "shikida". It absolutely is not. "Shikida" means "force, compel". The Korean word "heorakhada" matches the meaning of "let" (allow) pretty much perfectly. My thing is - who keeps telling them this, and why? Maybe it's a window into the Korean mind. Koreans will happily use this word in contexts like:
"I let her stay behind to do her homework."
**************
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It happens in 'tag questions'... "You didn't see him, did you?"...."Yes."... "When?"... confusion.... "Did you see him?" ..... "No."
| Quote: |
However in Korean the answer would be positive e.g.
Question: 숙제 안했어?
Answer: 네 |
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Is a negative question a "tag question"?
The Korean way here is actually more sensible, and English is not very sensical:
"You didn't see him, did you?"
"Yes." (That is correct; that is the state of affairs. I did, in fact and as you asked, not see him).
****************
As for s/he, plurals, conjugating verbs, etc:
| Quote: |
| they don't think about them when forming sentences and don't put much effort into learning how to properly use them. |
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| I believe there is an attitude common in Korea that correct usage is not that important, except on tests, that English can be used anyway at all, that is makes a nice decoration. |
Yes. I also get the distinct impression (I just joined this board recently, but I've been here for several years) that Korean students are less inclined to believe me when I try to undo their Korean teachers' Konglish, because I am not Korean. I guess this speculation is likely to draw flame, if any response at all, but I think it makes good sense. What do you think? |
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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:17 pm Post subject: |
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"You didn't see him, did you?"
"Yes." (That is correct; that is the state of affairs. I did, in fact and as you asked, not see him) |
Actually I think most people would say "No (I didn't see him)." Or perhaps "Right (you are correct)." |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:19 pm Post subject: |
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Is a negative question a "tag question"?
No. That's the type that causes the confusion, or the one that is part positive and part negative.
A good explanation can be found on wikipedia. You can see which type of question will easily confuse Koreans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_question |
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