Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tanklor1]

I have to admit I've done a super duper job of avoiding the langauge of this country for the most of my stay here. I know most of the Korean alphabet and I can even pick out a couple of words in every couple of sentences that I hear. When kids talk to me I can pretty much tell from context what they want. I'm suscessfully being an ignorant North American!

I can live pretty comfy inside my bubble, but sometimes I kind of wished I had put in more of an effort. Take what happened last Monday. There's a restrauntant in my school building that I go to a couple of times a week. I always order the same thing so most of the time I don't even have to speak. (Nice actually) but Monday there was a another person on. Now I managed to order what I wanted in Korean rather well and I was sitting at a table waiting for my order to go. I always take my order to go and the regular person knows this. She was in the back taking care of something else. Once my order was finished the person asked me if I was eating in. (I understood this from context) Then it hit me I have no idea how to respond to this. I mistakenly told her that I was eating in, but I had no real way outside of using English to explain that I had made a mistake. Luckily the other person finished what she was doing and corrected my mistake for me.

I left there thinking. "Hey Korean would have been really helpful." it wasn't a big thing but it kind of woke me up.

So to those who took the time a effort to learn the langauge, how helpful is it?

[asylum seeker]

If you do put more into studying, good for you but I think you have to go into it with the right attitude.
For example, I studided Korean for one year at uni before I came and have kept up the study pretty well since I've been here (TOPIK level 3 passed) but ironically it seems the more Korean I learn the more I find that almost everyone I meet can already speak some English and that they dont want to speak in Korean with a foreigner. Whereas my non-Korean speaking friends are always running into situations where there was some misunderstanding about something due to their lack of Korean. So for me I've pretty much decided that learning Korean at the level I am is no longer about utility but just about having a hobby for its own sake- like collecting stamps, or learning the piano. That way I won't be disappointed about not getting much of a chance to use it and get all bitter and twisted like a certain red vegetable who frequents this site (just kidding tomato ).

[Yu_Bum_suk]

On Christmas Eve I was headed out with my friend to a western-style bar, near a Lotte Mart. We got in a taxi.

Friend: 'WA Bar?'

Driver: 'Uh?'

Me: 'Wa Bar juseyo? Lotte Mart juseyo?'

Driver: 'Eh?"

Me: 'Urinin Lotte Mart gasaeyo'.

This went on for a minute, with my friend and I trying to pronounce these two names every possible way - Lottae Marta, Wa Balr, Rottae Maltah, Loddae Marteh, etc.

Finally I asked for a pen and paper and wrote down LOTTE 마트 and we were finally on our way. This is not in a big city; it's barely big enough to have a Lotte Mart and passengers must regularly ask the driver to take them there.

After experiences like that, I just have to wonder if getting plastic surgery and changing the colour of my skin would be more useful than trying to learn more Korean in terms of making myself understood.

[jinks]

It really grips my shit when cab drivers will not understand simple directions to MAJOR landmarks. However, I have hit on a cure for this seemingly wilful misunderstanding of foreigners' rendition of Korean in taxi-cabs. Here's how it goes: jump into a cab as it is pulling off a busy rank, ask to go to Chosun-Ilbo building, or Gyeong-dae buk-mun, or Costco or wherever. When the cabbie displays extreme comprehension problems, jump out of the cab and get another taxi - actually you don't need to get another cab, because when the cabbie realises he has been sitting on the rank for forty minutes and he is about to lose his fare - he will suddenly understand. It is weird, but it works.

[Homer]

[SarcasmKills]

[Homer]

[ernie]

i think a driver would understand exactly what you meant! when we call someone on the phone we sometimes say "give me ___"

many of our sentences are not literal, and a little common sense goes a long way... korean cabbies are not the best with directions... i gave a map IN KOREAN to a place that was within a few kilometers, and 2 cabbies didn't understand! the third typed it into his GPS and figured it out... christ! just let ME drive...

[Homer]

Sorry ernie but WA Bar juseyo would at the very least provoke hesitation in a cabbie....

But, this particular driver seems to have been a bit dense...he could have paused for a sec and then figured it out. It seems he either could not or would not.

[Atavistic]

[Return Jones]

[tomato]

Here are some reasons why I think a foreign teacher should study Korean:

■ It sets a good example.

When the students see the Korean teachers getting together in the office and hangukmalling like crazy, they probably think, "The teachers don't practice English, why should I?"

If they see you practicing Korean outside of class hours, however, they will probably think, "The foreign teacher is enjoying practicing a second language, maybe I can too."

You're only one person against a whole army of Korean teachers, but do what you can.

■ Sometimes there is no way but the quick and dirty way.

The authors of the Let's Go series did the best they could, but I still can't teach the unit on always, usually, sometimes, and never without using the Korean equivalents.

■ A lot of potential classroom material is available in the Korean culture.

맹꽁 is a Korean folk song which is readily adaptable for a lesson on adjectives or antonyms. The kids already know the song. Just translate it into English, and the children will understand.

동물들 is a picture book which you could almost translate just by looking at the pictures. "Light chipmunk, heavy panda . . . Fierce lion, gentle zebra."

■ It helps you understand students' mistakes.

Why do Koreans confuse L's with R's? Because the ㄹ is the closest Korean letter to either one!

Why do Koreans say "promise" when they mean "appointment? Because the Korean language has the same word for both!

When my students play go fish, each student says something like "Sally is cat?"
Since 있다 means both to be and to have, they probably think is must also mean to be and to have.

■ The kids shouldn't speak Korean in English class, but when they do, it would help to understand them.

Soon after I arrived in Korea, I held up a picture book and one of the students said, "안 보여." I had to ask the student to write down the sentence on a piece of paper. Then I had to run to the office with the piece of paper and show it to a Korean, who told me that it meant, "I can't see."
a statement or question in English is ambiguous, but each of its possible meanings translates differently in Korean.

■ In the classroom, you might come across an utterance which is ambiguous in English but translates two different ways in Korean.

In one of the Brainy English chain's storybooks, one of the characters asks "Is it a boy or a girl?" The student read it as mi mi mi mi mi mi la, which implies "Is it one or the other?" I translated this as "남자아이 또는 여자아이입니까?"

I had to explain that the correct intonation would be mi mi mi la mi mi la do, thereby implying "Which is it?" I translated that as "남자아이입니까 여자아이입니까?"

■ Ability to communicate with the parents could help in classroom control.

One of my employers printed out evaluation forms and told me to fill out a line each day for each student.
He said that the forms will be given to the parents.
One day, one of my students threw a tantrum in class.
I looked up the word "tantrum" in the dictionary and carefully wrote it on the form while the student watched.
That corrected her behavior in a jiffy.

■ You might have reason to teach the students not only English, but Korean.

I was reading I See Colors to a student.
The student wondered why I was saying "I saw red, I saw blue" when the text said "I see red, I see blue."
I told her that I was reading the book in past tense.
She didn't understand.
I told her that I was reading the book in 과거 시제.
She still didn't understand.
I told her that 봤습니다, 했습니다, and 갔습니다 were all 과거 시제.
She finally understood.

■ Your director could get huffy on you.

On one job, my director got so cantankerous that she not only fired me, but refused to help me move out.
That meant that I had to contact a local moving company and make all the arrangements myself.

She probably thought she was making life difficult for me, but I did just fine without her.

■ You could get a job working under a director who is a real vegetable.

On my nex job, the supervisor worked in the national office in Seoul and only visited the branch schools a few times a year. (That was one reason I accepted that job!)

There was a downside, though:
Whenever I called him at the national headquarters and asked for a favor, he said that he was busy--doing what, we didn't know.

So I had to buy furniture by myself and get hooked up on the Internet by myself.
That was a small price to pay for not repeating the ordeal which happened on my previous job.

■ Your knowledge of Korean could help not only yourself, but others.

I count three times so far that I retrieved an object which a Korean dropped without realizing it--a glove, a 5000\ note, and a page of class notes.

One night, someone in my neighborhood left the car parked overnight with the headlights on. I wrote down the phone number on the windshield, but I couldn't find anyone to call the person. I called the director's phone number, but she wasn't home. So I had to make the phone call myself.

■ Studying Korean shows respect for the country and its people.

Koreans probably suspect that 한국어를 공부하지 않는 외국사람's look down their noses at Koreans.
Koreans probably suspect that 한. 공. 않. 외.'s cloister themselves with other 한. 공. 않. 외. 사.'s
Koreans probably suspect that 한. 공. 않. 외.'s get together on weekends and bellyache over every little thing.
Koreans probably suspect that there is a message board somewhere on the Internet where 한. 공. 않. 외.'s vent their wrath upon the entire nation of Korea.

Of course, you and I know that this isn't true, but this is probably what Koreans suspect.

[VanIslander]

Korean isn't useful outside of Korea and it isn't needed inside Korea either.

There are benefits intrinsic and extrinsic to learning the language though, if you want to.

I have not learned any Korean except for the bare bones basic to function (which is not much) yet have plenty of English-practicing Korean friends, knowledge and interest in Korean culture through their museums, folktales translated, historical sites, food in restaurants.

I am a visitor, a traveller, a tourist, a guest in their country, and as such the commitment I put into their language is minimal.

But the effort I put forth is great as a wholesale outsider appreciating the beauty of their land, their history, their cultural products and ways of life. I have many conversations with Koreans who want to practice their English and they gladly answer whatever curious question I may have. I have learned a lot about this country from its people.

Learning the Korean language in order to speak to Koreans who don't want to learn English is a benefit, but we all make our choices, and live within the confines of them.

[ernie]

for me, knowing some korean has nothing to do with respect, or setting a good example - it's all about ME! koreans don't learn english to show respect, it's to gain power (i.e. a better job) and i don't speak korean to be a nice guy, it's so i can get what i want...

my question to the OP is: can you get what you want knowing no korean? if you think you can function a lot better knowing some korean, then learn it... i've realized that i'll have to spend years studying korean to be fluent, so i've resigned myself to the 'survival' korean that serves me pretty well in restaurants, taxis, stores, and small talk conversation... btw, pick up 'survival korean' - it's a great book for learning the basics of the language!

[BTSskytrain]

[quote="tanklor1"]I have to admit I've done a super duper job of avoiding the langauge of this country for the most of my stay here. I know most of the Korean alphabet and I can even pick out a couple of words in every couple of sentences that I hear. When kids talk to me I can pretty much tell from context what they want. I'm suscessfully being an ignorant North American!

I can live pretty comfy inside my bubble, but sometimes I kind of wished I had put in more of an effort. Take what happened last Monday. There's a restrauntant in my school building that I go to a couple of times a week. I always order the same thing so most of the time I don't even have to speak. (Nice actually) but Monday there was a another person on. Now I managed to order what I wanted in Korean rather well and I was sitting at a table waiting for my order to go. I always take my order to go and the regular person knows this. She was in the back taking care of something else. Once my order was finished the person asked me if I was eating in. (I understood this from context) Then it hit me I have no idea how to respond to this. I mistakenly told her that I was eating in, but I had no real way outside of using English to explain that I had made a mistake. Luckily the other person finished what she was doing and corrected my mistake for me.

I left there thinking. "Hey Korean would have been really helpful." it wasn't a big thing but it kind of woke me up.

So to those who took the time a effort to learn the langauge, how helpful is it?[/quote]

you choose to live in a foreign country then you have chosen to learn the language. it's like me choosing to be a drummer in a jazz band. DUH! i have to learn how to play jazz. no brainer. learn the language.

skytrain