Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chasmmi]

Inspired my the "silly things Kiddies say" thread. I bring to you the "Stupid things you've sais in Korean" thread.

This is the place to list all the mistakes and mishaps that have left you redfaced in the land where the sun rises next after it's gone over Japan.


Couple of my own to start things off:

When my at the time Home stay host mother called me to see if I had got back to Korea from my trip to Japan. I was in passport control and simply informed her.

병원에서 있어요. (I am in hospital)


The second one I cannot remember the exact Korean, but I had a friend who cannot speak English at all, meaning all communication was in Korean. One time I met her whilst in a very bad mood and in the hour we were together hardly spoke at all. I texted her to apologise about my behaviour later on that evening.


What I meant to say:

I am sorry, you must have been very bored because of me.


What I said:

I am sorry I was very bored because of you.

[Junior]

"yes, I like Korea"

[jessie-b]

haha! Those are good ones...I'm sure I'll say tons of stupid things once I get up the nerve to talk with more people in Korean.

What are you planning on doing with your Korean Language skills? Have you ever been an English teacher or did you just decide out of the blue to come to Korea and study the language? Just curious.

[chasmmi]

My degree major is Korean. I am just coming to the end of a compulsory one year exchange year at Korea University.

I'll then have two more years in London in order to graduate. I do hope to come back to Korea on an indefinite basis after that, but whether it is teacher or something else I am not sure. It will depend on what my best option is when I get the degree.

[bluelake]

When I first lived in Korea many years ago, I used to flip words around. (The computer I'm on right now has trouble inputting hangeul, so I'll romanize) For instance, instead of calling a Korean high school teacher Kim Seonsaengnim, I would call him Kim Saengseonnim

Another incident happened when I first lived in the country and was just starting to learn Korean. I was in a dark coffee shop with some Korean teachers and needed to use the restroom. I pulled out my pocket dictionary and looked for the word toilet. The hangeul was hard to read with the small print and low light. I ended up saying something like, "Hakjangshil eodiisseumnikka?" ("Where is the dean's office?"). Needless to say, the others were quite puzzled...

[chasmmi]

Ah I've been there with the first one,

Telling people i want to eat teachers and calling teachers Kim fish. Classic Foreigner Korean.

[shantaram]

I wrote a message to a friend who was upset over being told they were ugly. I thought I'd written 'minamiya imnida' but actually wrote 'minamia imnida'. Because of that one stroke missing on the end of 'minamiya', I soon had the friend on the phone, wailing at me, moments before my class was due to begin. It took days for me to explain my intention to him.