Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JamesFord]

My Korean girlfriend is not the best English speaker. Our communication is fine (dont' get me wrong, it's not that bad), but she doesn't have any chance to develop her real conversation skills and broaden her vocabulary.

I'm just wondering how long one can expect a Korean to develop fluency after they move to an English speaking country. Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this?

[browneyedgirl]

How doesn�t she have a chance? Don�t you guys have lively conversations ?

Just having someone to talk to should open up her vocabulary. You don�t even have to correct her all the time, she should be able to catch on from hearing it enough and getting your responses. Oh, she could take some classes, and you could be her study buddy.

If you take her to an English speaking county she should become fluent in a year or so (if she has mainly English-speaking people to talk to), but she�ll probably always have a slight accent. If you move to an area that has a high Korean population and she makes friends with all Korean-speaking people there will be little improvement.

I see it all the time at my college. The exchange students that isolate themselves with people from their country don�t improve any, but the ones that don�t have anyone to talk to in their native language pick up English almost instantly. I know a kid from Russia that was fluent in English less than a year (he had taken no English classes in Russia). I also know kids from Mexico that can't speak any English and they've been here for three years.

[Fresh Prince]

I agree with the above poster. I've seen people able to speak at an intermediate/low-advanced level, after living in an English speaking country for only a year. That is with no English language training prior. I've seen Koreans specifically, that have graduated from high school in Korea and moved to a western country, and when they return home after two or three years, they speak with a perfect native accent.

If your girlfriend wants to learn English, she would do better to stop hanging around Korean people, and make some native English speaking friends to hang out with. I've also seen Koreans and other groups of people, that will group together with their own countrymen while abroad. They are barely able to put together an English sentence after one year. They speak Korean to their friends, shop at the Korean stores, eat at the Korean restaurants, etc. The only time they are forced to use English is when they go to the store.