Sphere: Related ContentIn the past, children pointed at foreigners and said, “Look, mom, there’s a foreigner!” These days, it is not remarkable to encounter foreigners on the street.
A growing number of foreigners are coming to Korea, and the percentage of those who come to study the Korean language is increasing as well.
The number of foreign students studying in Korea was 6,160 in 2000, including college and graduate school students and those taking language courses at Korean language institutes affiliated with universities.
The figure surged to 11,646 in 2001, 12,314 in 2003, and 16,832 last year. About a quarter of them were language students.
“In the past, most of the students were those working at embassies or multinationals. These days, many foreigners in their 20s come to learn Korean to prepare for graduate studies here or just because they are interested,” Jeon Na-young, head of academic affairs at Yonsei University’s Korean Language Institute (KLI), told The Korea Times.
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46 Comments
How many of these students are gyopos?
“In the past, children pointed at foreigners and said, ?Look, mom, there?s a foreigner!”
In the past? I guess that’s technically true, seeing as how it happened to me yesterday.
Sparkles*_*
In my 5 semesters of experience/torture at Yonsei KLI, the vast majority of the foreigners taking Korean were either Japanese (split about 50/50 between “real” Japanese and jaeil kyopo) and kyopo (mostly US). Of the remainder, Chinese were well represented, along with Russians (both Slavs and kyopo). The few that were left were either married to Koreans or just had yellow fever.
It’s nice to see more foreigners interested in Korean, but let’s not kid ourselves about how international it’s become just yet…
I don?t think Korean is going to take off as a global language. Why learn a language spoken by about 70 million people, many of whom are keen to speak English with foreigners.
No, it’s not ever going to take off as a global language. But as an academic exercise, or an intellectual diversion, the Korean language is really interesting. It’s generally quite regular, and logical in its structure — elegant, really, if you divorce the language from the ideas and ways of thinking it carries.
nequila,
My experiences at Ewha match yours almost to a T. But a buddy of mine went to another major university, can’t remember the name though, and he said his classes were full of people from all over the world, not just the standard four countries. And I see a large number of non-korean Americans hanging out in front of the language school on campus where I work.
As to the idea of people learning Korean because of yellow fever: my first roommate spoke Korean well but always wanted me, who at the time knew not one word, to come along to the bars with him. His idea was that my not knowing the language somehow showed that I was new to the country (pure) and therefore not some sort of “hunter.” I was the bait, basically, and then he’d jump in to make the introductions. I can’t remember if it worked or not, though, because I’m married now.
There’s one university where you’ll see ethnic diversity: SNU, since it’s the designated University for teaching Korean to recipients of the Korean government’s 4/5 year grants [who usually reside at the International Prison, er, House, in ?€§?Έ?·?. Although I hear the place moved, but anyway...]
I stayed at ?????ζ??€¨, International Prison’s real name, for a year. And it was full of people studying on government grants, coming from places as diverse as Mexico, Iran, S??n??gal, India, Rumania [remember the TV ad for ?Ύ???Ό??΄ where that blond white dude said "?Ύ???Ό??΄ ??Ό??Έ??!"? He was one of them.] or Mongolia… When I left, there was quite a bunch of Malays ? so much so that they had lobbied to have a prayer room and be allowed to cook their own food, a no-no for safety reasons, at least for the rest of us.
Every year in summer there was a bunch of short-term visitors brought in from a bunch of countries, they had introductory courses in Korean, Korean culture, etc for a month or two, and THESE guys and chicks were 60% kyop’os.
The motivation seems to be that most of these either don’t speak English or are afraid of doing so because the slightest mistake may cause loss of face.
Yeah, right…Just like the ajuma who announced to my white friend that “People come here from all over the world because they love Korea so much” and “Korean food is so great that people come here just to eat it.”
I quickly informed her that foreigners are here not beause they want to be but because they have to be and they are polite enough to say the food is good when frankly it isn’t nearly up to world standards.
But I suppose, if we Koreans don’t toot our own horns, we might collapse under the weight of our own insecurities. So if you can’t be world standard, just pretend…
– In the past, children pointed at foreigners and said, ?Look, mom, there?s a foreigner!??
I suppose, if you define the past as “yesterday”…
Is there an echo in here?
” Sparkles*_* on Oct 27th, 2005 at 10:39 am
Is there an echo in here?”
^ ^ ^ ^
? ?? ?? ?? ?
Hey mom, look! It’s a foreigner on the Internet!
I see Yonsei hasn’t changed since I was there. I made it to level 5 evening program before switching over to Sogang. My class make-up was exactly as Nequila described.
I was tired of the Yonsei teaching method of introducing a couple of new sentence patterns followed by each student giving one example, and then moving on to something else. We were expected to go home and practice and memorize the sentence patterns and new vocabulary. The evening program stretches out the 6-level day program into 8. The evening class teaches 80% of the curriculum of the day class in less than half of the instructional time, 9 hrs. wk. versus 20. Whose brilliant idea was that? Everyone in the evening class had a full-time job, some had families, and we had very little time to memorize a slew of new structures and vocabulary. As a Yonsei employee, I got a 50% discount but quit out of frustration.
Sogang’s program attracts more Westerners because of its emphasis on communicative competence through a variety of classroom activities.
I don’t think Korean is going to take off as a global language. Why learn a language spoken by about 70 million people, many of whom are keen to speak English with foreigners. There are something like 55,000 foreign students in China, and Chinese is being added as an Advanced Placement foreign language subject for high school students.
I have found in my travels that most people look on my ability to speak Korean the same as they would say if I spoke Navajo or Hmong. It is a great conversation piece that usually with no where to take it. Of course it is quite handy in dealing with Koreans but then you already know that. I think that one of the reasons Korean will never become a commonly studied global language is the attitude that many Koreans have about it. Foreigners that can speak Korean are regularly paraded about as part of a horse and pony show but are, in my humble opinion, very rarely taken seriously. Then again, the way that most foreigners butcher the language, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why.
I started teaching myself Korean about a year ago because of a Korean girlfriend. Reading the previous writings I’ve learned that my condition is called yellow fever. Yes I love Korean girls but I also find the Korean language pleasant to the ear and very sexy when spoken during intimate moments!! I also enjoy the reactions of Koreans when a big white guy speaks a little Korean. drbedroom.com
Actually I was motivated to learn some Korean precisely because I got tired of hearing “Look, mom, there’s a foreigner!”
drbedroom,
let’s be honest, what language isn’t going to sound sexy in an intimate moment with a beautiful girl?
drbedroom, a.k.a. Nic Cage
let?s be honest, what language isn?t going to sound sexy in an intimate moment with a beautiful girl?
Hebrew
As a hardened veteran of Yonsei’s KLI program, I can safely say that their methodology stinks. The whole listen to the teacher and repeat grammar patterns like a parrot method gets old real fast, and having a language lab class with 30 other people where no one corrects you is pretty worthless. A doctoral candidate in East Asian studies friend of mine reckons that the pedagogy of Korean language pedagogy is still in its infancy, but what passes for one now is definitely sub-par.
A lot of disgruntled students, esp Westerners, defected to the Sogang program after a semester or two, but what I’m curious is whether after 6 terms, they’re much more fluent than someone who’s gone through Yonsei.
I’m kyopo, so the reason for me to wanting to learn the language was obvious, but I’m positive that if I weren’t of Korean background, I would have ZERO interest in it. It just isn’t a world language, and given the complexity of it, unless you’re gonna open a business in K-Town LA or spend your whole life in Korea or something, there’s not much point in learning it.
Are there any heroic westerners here who learns his Korean by reading Moohyup novels instead of reading newspaper foreign policy drivel?
I learned my Korean from reading translated Japanese mangas. The money you waste at these colleges can be better spent at manhwabangs. Of course, you won’t meet any chix that way…
virtual wonderer, you’ve just missed the classy manhwabangs, which are full of really hot ladies
I think Yonsei is better at error correction and provides comprehensive instruction in grammar. If I were to advice a newbie, I’d say go to Yonsei for four terms to get a strong grammar base and then switch to Sogang to become fluent through conversational activities. I think Yonsei assumes that students living in Korea ought to have lots of opportunities to speak Korean, and thus, don’t need fluency practice. They don’t realize that it is hard for white faces to get Koreans to drop English.
During my last year at Yonsei, the university was in the process of setting up the Global Lounge. As an English instructor and learner of Korean, I approached a dean with ideas about resources and activities to promote mutual language learning beyond boring old language partnerships, which die off after a few weeks because the learners find it difficult to sustain a conversation after a while. Absolutely no interest.
Another glaring weakness in the field of Korean as a Foreign Language is the lack of listening materials. A pair of Korean teachers in Australia published a very good listening text for absolute beginners many years back. It is not even sold anymore, and there has been nothing else since.
I have also studied Chinese and Japanese. Learners of these languages have a rich variety of language learning materials to choose from. On the shelf of the Japanese language section of the bookstore, one can find 3-4 different books dealing with particles and books clarifying usage of easily confused words and expressions. The Korean section is a staid assortment of integrated skills texts using the audio-lingual method and a few grammar books.
Oops, that’s “advise” not “advice.”
let?s be honest, what language isn?t going to sound sexy in an intimate moment with a beautiful girl?
“Hebrew”
Oh my god. Took the word right out of my head.
That, and Vietnamese.
I messed up that tag. Marmot, why do you keep messing with the blog scheme? It seemed fine. At least leave the tags there for us HTML idiots.
Woops… forgot to add the tags. Fixed.
…no more flags, either?
“let?s be honest, what language isn?t going to sound sexy in an intimate moment with a beautiful girl?”
Chinese.
I?m kyopo, so the reason for me to wanting to learn the language was obvious, but I?m positive that if I weren?t of Korean background, I would have ZERO interest in it. It just isn?t a world language, and given the complexity of it, unless you?re gonna open a business in K-Town LA or spend your whole life in Korea or something, there?s not much point in learning it.
Nequila, of course it’s not a world language and nor is it meant to be. We Koreans have zero interest in becoming part of the world. Our culture is what we use to seal ourselves off from it and to keep it out. Our language suits us fine.
?let?s be honest, what language isn?t going to sound sexy in an intimate moment with a beautiful girl???
Chinese.
Actually, Korean sounds very harsh and unpleasant to my ears. And Korean characters are so ugly to look at, just like the sound of that language.
In my Korean class a few months ago our teacher asked us why we we’re studying Korean.
Nearly half of the class said “So I can argue with Korean people,” or a similar variation. I’ve heard similar sentiments from other students in other classes too.
Our teacher seemed a bit shocked from this wave of cold water that hit her square in the face… can’t say I blame her.
Brian
Xi said,
Actually, Korean sounds very harsh and unpleasant to my ears. And Korean characters are so ugly to look at, just like the sound of that language.
Korean is a beautiful language with all kinds of beautiful, witty expressions. If it sounds harsh and unpleasant, it is the fault of the people speaking it. For some reason, many Koreans, especially drunk, older Koreans, tend to speak loudly, almost yelling at the person right next to them, but that does not mean the language is “harsh and unpleasant.” A group of rowdy Americans speaking English will sound harsh and unpleasant, too.
If you would like to hear how soft and pleasant the language can be, try tuning in to a late night FM radio station and listen to the DJ speaking to his or her audience. If you want to hear how clever, cheerful, and fun the language can be, try listening to this song.
Nequila,
I also went through the Yonsei KLI program and agree that their teaching methods were outdated and boring. They had few speaking activities that would let us experiment and have fun with the language, and they always seemed to be rushing on to the next chapter.
I think Yonsei should slow things down, add more activities, and even consider making it a 2- or 3-year program instead of a year and a half. There is a lot of great stuff in their textbooks, but it is just too much to learn in a year and a half. Actually, I think an intensive 3-year program would be about right for learning the Korean language.
I disagree with you on Korean not being worth learning. Koreans are spreading out all over the world, and there is a growing interest in Korean culture and job opportunities, especially in Asia. There is also North Korea, which is an untapped resource that will provide all kinds of opportunities once Kim Jong-il is gone and it finally opens up to the world. When that happens, people with Korean as a second language will be in great demand.
Of course, if you go far enough East, you would end up in China…but in taxi parlance, that’d be “the scenic route.”
mizar5-
If you are talking about Cantonese, then agreed.
If you are talking about Mandarin, then disagreed.
Haven’t heard any other dialects.
GBevers,
As you noted yourself, it takes years to master a language. Very few K-12 schools teach Korean, so a non-Korean starting with Korean 101 as a freshman would need at least 6 years of study to achieve a proficiency level suitable for business or translating. That foreigner is competing against Koreans who have been learning English since elementary school. Quite frankly, I think that a number of Korean-speaking foreigners were hired more for their foreignness than for their language skills. Look at Steven Revere on Let’s Speak Korean. Yeah, he’s the first foreigner to get a degree in teaching Korean as a foreign language; however, he does not sound natural when he speaks Korean.
In the US and Canada, a Korean-speaking foreigner like you and I can find a niche for our language skills if we look hard enough. I was hired as an ESL teacher at my elementary school, which enrolls children of visiting Koreans at the local university, because of my language skills. I was delighted to find this job because the other 99 positions I applied for wanted Spanish speakers.
Koreans love English. They so love to learn English. They love their kids to learn English. In Korea, there is no shortage of Koreans with advanced to native-like fluency in English. Speakers of other languages, especially Chinese or Japanese, find Korean a very practical language to learn.
In the states, there may be vacancies here and there, but Spanish is far, far more widely marketable. Eight of the the top ten countries sending immigrants to America are Spanish-speaking. Number 1 Mexico has twice as many as number 2 China. Our immigrant pool is becoming less diverse as Central Americans dominate the rest of the world.
A final fact for thought. The Defense Language Institute, which trains language analysts for the US government, estimates that an English speaker needs 400 hours of instruction to become fluent in Spanish compared to 1300 hours for Chinese or Korean. Foreigners who invest this time and become fluent are elevated to the A-list of “wegukin talentuh” in Korea owing to the novelty of hearing Korean from a white, brown, or black face. However, if/when you repatriate, your language skills may become a mere conversation piece.
Well, you can never judge a book by its cover, eh? Who woulda thunk that the most eloquent defense of learning Korean on this thread would have been from Gerry?
No, it does not yet have the international reach of, say, English, French, or Spanish, but it is slowly gaining in importance. It’s certainly arguably a more useful language to learn now than in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or even 90s.
And as for the perceived attitude that some native speakers allegedly have towards foreign-language learners, keep in mind that many Japanese appear to be similarly amused/bemused by foreigners’ attempts to learn their language.
And heaven help me, but I have to pick up on something Brendon wrote:
“It?s generally quite regular, and logical in its structure ? elegant, really, if you divorce the language from the ideas and ways of thinking it carries.”
Well, if you’re driving at what I think you’re driving at, I could again point to Korea’s neighbour to the east. ζ°ζ???Έ??Ύ? is a high art in both countries.
Also, let’s not forget that most KFL instructors are usually grads from an English dept, and usually know diddly about the language as a learning process. The best instructors I had ? in France, I never went to KLI ? were people who either couldn’t speak French or refused to. Usually the 1 to 2 year invited profs.
ζ°ζ???Έ??Ύ? in China is different from Korea because China has 56 official nationalities. At the annual People’s Congress, Han Chinese wear modern clothes while Tibetans, Mongolians, Dais, Miaos, Uyghurs, and other minority faces sport photogenic traditional garb that screams, “Look! I’m a minority!” No major or minor holiday celebration would be complete without ethnic dances performed by Han Chinese in glitzy minority-meets-Hollywood costumes.
Er, I was talking about Korea’s neighbours to the East…. China is a whole other story.
Thanks for the correction. I didn’t read carefully enough.
Sonagi,
Actually, the DLI guideline doesn’t apply to fluency (even for a language as easy to English speakers as Spanish , it takes much more than 400 horus to become truly fluent), but merely to become proficient and have a decent working knowledge. I knew guys that had finished the 1200 hours of the DLI program in Korean (30 hrs a week in small classes for a year), and when they came to Yonsei they tested into level 3 and generally sucked.
GBevers,
I don’t think that Korean is an unworthy language by any means, and it is nice to see it becoming more popular, esp in Asia. However, given the difficulty of learning it and its limited reach, I am intrigued when foreigners (or those with no obvious connection or need to learn it) choose to try and learn it.
“Korean is a beautiful language with all kinds of beautiful, witty expressions. If it sounds harsh and unpleasant, it is the fault of the people speaking it.”
Well maybe it has witty expressions but a lot of people must be speaking it incorrectly. Most of the time I also find it a not so nice sounding language, and the extreme whinging tone women and even some men project, combined with the whiney baby face adult speakers use, was enough to put me off continuing lessons. It’s just not something I’ll ever use when I’m gone from here. Thai sounds a hell of a lot nicer.
About the only thing that sounds nice in Thai is “Hallo Welcome!”
I thought you would have picked ‘Hello, hansom maaaan’ or ‘You like Ladyboy’?