Kind of a strange question

self ^ | 6/3/05 | self

[sharktrager]

OK, I have a strange question.

In my job search I was contacted by a recruiter who believes I am an excellent fit for a position that sounds very exciting. But there is a catch. They want someone who is fluent in Korean. He advised me a strong candidate will be given the opportunity for company paid language training, but I was wondering. How tough is Korean to learn? I studied German and some Latin, but nothing anything like this before.

[tahotdog]

I'd much rather have to learn Korean than Chinese or any sort of a tonal language. Korean has a simple alphabet and the grammar is likely simple. If I had to learn an Asian language, Korean would be as good as any for a place to start.

[carolinacrazy]

I couldn't imgaine anything harder than an Asian language. I had a job offer once that required jive training. 10 viewings of Airplane later, I was in, you dig?

[CO Gal]

Go to your local library & check out some language tapes. Would give you an idea what you're up against. Good luck!

[Dog Gone]

How tough is Korean to learn?

I've known some pretty dumb Koreans, yet they seemed to have mastered it.

[Travis McGee]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1416223/posts

Tigerlikesrooster: Sharktrager is asking about taking Korean language lessons for a job on this thread.

Matt/Travis

[econ_grad]

You can learn to speak pretty quickly. Reading and writing are different tales altogether. Depends on the level of mastery, you can learn pretty easily or it could be laborious. My ex-wife spoke perfect Korean, but she couldn't write any more than a sentence.

[Larry Lucido]

Korean symbols are very easy to learn, and are stricly phonetic. But some Korean newspapers are written largely in Chinese symbols so you may end up having to learn some of those, also.

I found Korean grammar extremely easy compared to English, but you still have to learn vocabulary one word at a time, so immersion is still the best way to go (i.e., speaking it every single day, preferably in downtown Seoul).

[sharktrager]

The employer is a Korean owned bank serving the Korean community, so I suspect the opportunities for practice will be there.

[Larry Lucido]

Once you learn conversational Korean you'll make friends for life. All the kimchee and pulgogi you can eat will forever be at your disposal.

[patton]

I learned it once - it was pretty easy, much easier than Latin, but harder than German.

Of course, I was ten at the time, I think. Never did master Japenese, until I was 11.

Oh, and watch out for cognates - seemingly innocent words in one language, mean something quite different in another.

For instance, the Japenese word for "Bed-and-Breakfast," in Korean, means...uhm...nevermind.

[patton]

kagogi?

[Larry Lucido]

Great Seinfeld episode:

Elaine: The Korean women were talking about me. I think they were calling me a dog.

Jerry: How would you know? You don't speak Korean.

Elaine: Because this woman came in with a dog and Ruby called the dog the same word they used when they were pointing at me…ge ge ge

[TigerLikesRooster]

Alphabet is easy to master. You may be able to read signs and bill boards in two days if you concentrate on it. Of course, there is some issue of consonant collision which creates a third sound as a result. However, it would not be difficult to figure out.

As for grammar, the basic sentential structure is subject-object-verb. This could cause problem to Americans. On the other hand, it may have some resemblance to German in which a verb frequently travels to the end of a sentence when an auxiliary verb is used. However, the grammatical role is not determined by word position, to be precise. Each word is attached with a suffix, which determines such a role. In this sense, Korean may resemble Latin. The positioning of words are added convention for better structuring a sentence, I suppose.

One of the most striking differences may be that Korean does not have well-developed and elaborate relative clauses, which are almost ubiquitous in English. This could hamper expressing your thought quickly and easily. Direct translation of common relative clauses would result in really funny sentence. Since relative clauses are common even in spoken English, getting around this problem would require some work. Korean language has relative clauses, too. However, it is not as versatile a tool as in English.

Another is the honorific expression. The suffix of the subject and the verb are properly calibrated differently when talking to your elders(or superiors) or your juniors(or juniors.) Many Korean-Americans frequently run into trouble when they come to S. Korea because their honorific calibration is all messed up. Basically, they talk like little kids talking to their parents, even though they are well over their 20's. The safest way is to treat just about everybody like your elders. It could be awkward sometimes, but not a big problems. Treating your elders as if they were your kids could raise a lot of eyebrows.

Korean speech contains many short burst sound. Vowels are not long, smooth and leisurely like English. Consonants contains many stop sounds. Often, the biggest problem for English-speaker is not poorly-constructed sentence, but English-like pronunciation. English-speakers ' speech tends to be overly nasal, and heavy(in local lingo--> buttery.) For example, a Korean sound for 'd' is more like 'dh', closer to English 't' than English 'd.' 't' is almost the same in both languages. There are two vowels giving English-speakers a trouble, 'uh' and 'eu'. The former sounds like 'uh' in 'uh-oh.' It is a really common vowel unlike in English. 'eu' is another. This is like a 'ooh' sound, but with your lips more flattened not rolled up.

Anyway, the quickest way would be to master the alphabet(can be done in a real short time.) And do some consistent practice to reduce overly nasal and heavy pronunciation, while not spending too much time on vowels during speech. Then memorize a few hundred short stock phrases of 4-6 words. Pay attention to honorific situations. Master these basics and stay within this safe boundary until you feel confident. Don't take too many risks with honorifics and fine shades of adjective and adverb. Adjective and adverb, especially those expressing emotional state are quite elaborate. Many have no decent equivalent in English. This is where Korean makes up for the lack of well-developed relative clauses.

Hopefully, this summary would clarify the picture rather than muddle it further.:-)

[TigerLikesRooster]

Correction:

juniors(or juniors subordinates.)

Treating Talking down your elders as if they were your kids could raise a lot of eyebrows

[sharktrager]

It is very helpful.

Now all I have to do is get the job.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #16

Good luck.

[sharktrager]

I have a question, that may seem quite odd.

Are there any specific grooming tips I need to know about when it comes to doing business with Korean nationals. Specifically, are there things like hair length or facial hair they prefer to see or not see?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #18

Sporting intimidating mustache like John Bolton may cause tension.:-) On a serious note, Asians do not have much body hairs. If you are considered hairy even in America, it may help to reduce your body hairs.

I am not saying that you have to be baby-smooth. However, if you have many visible small hairs growing on cheeks where people usually do not expect them, maybe you can shave them. When Asians notice hairs where they are not usually present, it may set up a mental barrier of sorts which would take time to come down. It all boils down to familiarity.

[sharktrager]

What I actually have is a standard goatee. not real busy or anything. I am wondering how they view something like that.