Seoul, South Korea & education and English learning
(cont) page 3
Living in Seoul, Korea by Paul Symonds
Is the article and ‘s’ for plurals
really necessary?
It never does any harm to ask but the answer is simply yes, they
are necessary and native English speakers will always notice if
you miss these things. If you start missing these items out, people
may be distracted from other parts of your conversation. Saying
‘My friend are fun’ or ‘I bought table today’,
sound quite strange in English. In Korean there is no ‘article’
and this is why it is very difficult to use in English. Similarly,
there is no single/plural similar to in English, in Korean. Learning
a language is never easy and I am learning Italian but find it
confusing that every item is classified as being either male or
female. A chair in Italian is ‘una sedia’ and because
of the ‘una’ it is feminine. Why every item must be
male or female I cannot understand.
My co-work enjoys listening to classic music!
When Koreans commonly talk about their co-work, they are of course
referring to their co-worker/s and when the word classic is used,
it in fact means ‘classical’ in English. The words
classic and classical are misused even in large music stores in
Korea, with a section in the shop often called the ‘Classic
section’.
In English, classic music is generally
considered to be music such as ‘The Beatles’, ‘Hendrix’
and other very popular artists from the last thirty to forty years.
’Classical music’ on the other hand, in English refers
to music such as Bach, Beethoven, and Vivaldi.
Speaking English abroad
Even when you have learnt
English or any other language, it is still difficult to use when
you are  abroad
sometimes. One recent situation that happened to one of my Korean
students occurred when she visited London, England. On needing
to ask for directions in London and having heard that policemen
in England were friendly, she decided to approach a policeman.
The first policeman she saw was one on horseback, so she walked
over and tapped him on the leg. As the policeman turned around,
she suddenly felt embarrassed with her English ability and said
to the policeman “Can I help you” rather than asking
for help.
I have probably made the same kind of mistakes when trying, with
my limited vocabulary, to communicate with Koreans in Korean.
Intonation and punctuation can also make a difference. One of
my favourite expressions, which can be changed with punctuation
in English, is the following expression. (Notice how the question
mark and exclamation mark completely change the meanings).
Private! No swimming allowed.
changed to
Private? No! Swimming allowed.
English is now becoming more and more important in Korea, as
Korea tries to compete globally. In an attempt to compete with
other countries (and also with each other), Korean people seem
to be spending more and more time, and more and more money, studying
English. When times are hard, people seem to study even more and
they seek to further improve their skills, in order to get further
ahead. The amount of money spent on English institutes in Korea,
is staggering. In fact, a recent report stated that Koreans spend
more on private education per capita, than anyone else in the
world.
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