Korean Job Discussion Forums

[OiGirl]

I really feel than an obvious foreigner (tourist or longer-term resident) in any country should either

a) make an effort to learn some of the language

or

b) accept that communication is going to be really difficult.

I don't really understand foreigners in Korea (or in the US) who whine and demand that services be available to them in their own language. The only exception I'd make is offices or agencies that clearly cater to foreigners (like Immigration!)

I rarely go anywhere in Korea without having some language to talk about what I want to do, or my own interpreter if that's not possible. I don't expect people to be able to speak my language. It's nice if they can, but not necessary.

A lot of this process is not necessarily linguistic, but preparing yourself to know how things work at a certian place, and trying not to make unusual or unique demands that will tax your language skills.

[jaganath69]

Let the market decide. If there is money to be made from offering a service in another language, then someone will offer it. Otherwise, there is no compunction upon private business or government to provide it, anywhere, period.

[OiGirl]

Good point, Jaganath69.

Who chooses their services by the availability of English?

Which services?


I have one account with a bank that is super in English, and another at one that has no English at all. I go to great lengths to do as few transactions as possible with the second bank account.

[jaganath69]

[cdninkorea]

Whenever Koreans apologize to me for their low English proficiency I always tell them it's okay and that I'm sorry for not speaking Korean very well (I say this in Korean, which is, in some circumstances, all I know how to get across).

In other words: I agree. We're in their country. They shouldn't feel the need to apologize.

[oneofthesarahs]

Agreed. I try not to be too much of a pain in the ass in shops in general. The shopkeepers live in Korea, and it's my fault that I don't speak Korean better, not theirs. However, when I went to get my ARC card updated after I moved, and the level of English in immigration was less than the guy who sells me fruit on the street, that seemed a little ridiculous.

[OiGirl]

[pdx]

That's one thing that I was super surprised about when I got here. The amount of English that is everywhere. I barely know any Korean (after being here 7 months) out of my own laziness and because of how easy it is to get by without it.

[OiGirl]

[pdx]

yep. I had FREE Korean lessons by two great Korean women and I just quit. I know I won't ever study, and I don't ever find myself willing to study.

It makes me wonder how I ever got to speaking Spanish.

[OiGirl]

I spoke Spanish because I HAD to. Unfortunately, this didn't happen in Mexico, where I could always get someone to help me in English. This happened in the US, where I enabled Spanish speakers by offering services in Spanish, thus destroying much of their motivation to learn English.

[Natalia]

The last time I went to the bank in Korea I was met with panic, followed by an English-speaking senior staff member apologising profusely for his staff's lack of English skills.

Either they were scared I was going to be one of those people who made a scene because nobody spoke my language, or he really didn't realise how odd it was that someone would expect everyone to be fluent in a language that was not their own.

While I find my inability to communicate frustrating, that's my problem (and my fault), not anybody else's.

[pdx]

Yep, oigirl. the first time I stayed in Mexico by myself the friends at the place where I worked understood and spoke great English, but they refused to use it with me. I mean, I could ask things in English, and often did, but they would ALWAYS respond in Spanish. And sometimes I felt silly speaking English (because no one else was), so I practiced my Spanish. And they were wonderful and always helped me and corrected me and didn't laugh at me. There's a plus

My friend and I went to pizza hut the other night. There was hardly anybody in the restaurant. They gave us an English menu and were really nice. The girl serving us actually wrote down English sayings on her pad of paper and was trying to tell us "thank you very much" and "how is your meal?" except she was flustered and embarrassed and kept giggling and such. I felt REALLY bad because she didn't need to do that and I could tell she was so uncomfortable. I am so used to people speaking in Korean (and just not understanding, except the "eat well" phrase) that it was really awkward. We didn't know what to do so we were trying to encourage her and say her English was good, and our meal was good, etc.

Agh.

[antoniothegreat]

i think most people agree with the OP, but I think most people get upset at the other things, for example, the inability of Koreans to understand foreigners when speaking Korean, using body language, or insistance of using Englilsh (poorly) even when the foreigner is speaking Korean.

It is really frustrating when you ask "how much?" in Korean, and it takes five minutes for them to count on their fingers, laugh, and slowly, shyly say "five million won" while holding up for fingers for the cost of a hamburger.

[tomato]

Yesterday, I saw a message in which the OP complained that the local servicepeople couldn't speak English very well.
I wrote back, countering with an opinion similar to that of oigirl's opinion.
When I clicked on the "submit" button, all I got was a message saying that the thread no longer existed.

It looks like the moderators agree with oigirl.