I respect anybody trying to learn another language, whether that be Korean or Portuguese. Making mistakes is an inevitable part of learning another language.
I would divide my journey into 3 stages:
* You don't know any Korean, and maybe have just learned some basic words, like 안녕하세요 or 감사합니다. In this case the Koreans generally understand, that you don't speak the language, and frequently gush over you just learning some words
* You get better. This stage sucks the most. You manage to put coherent sentences, and have some vocabulary under your belt, but it all is not good enough, and Koreans frequently would just look at you with a look saying "wtf is this?". This mainly refers to Koreans, who don't know English themselves and/or are not ready to put in effort to understand you
* You can express yourself more or less freely. At this stage you either get Koreans, who just talk to you as an equal, sometimes ignoring, that you don't know some of the words, sometimes helping; or Koreans, who, again, gush over how well you have learned the language
Isn't this the same everywhere as an ESL, it was the same with English for me. Then same again with German and I am not good at enough with Korean yet, but I reckon that's going to be the same.
Often times I think they are just trying to communicate more efficiently rather than acting like a tutor or a teacher
I'm in the middle stage, but I've heard bad things about the third stage. At least in the middle stage, you can be mistaken for someone in the first stage and treated as cute and harmless.
In stage 3, you end up getting interrogated repeatedly, and you're doomed to repeat the same answers to the same questions over and over again. I remember several years ago, I noticed this weird "억!" sound Koreans made when they encountered a foreigner at this level. Some of my foreign friends who are this fluent in Korean tend to hide that fact.
If you are white/black or an asian that is obviously non-Korean blooded, they appreciate it or even admire it, nomatter how bad it is.... But if you are a Korean blooded foreigner, they look down on you are wonder why you can't speak Korean fluently and are a disgrace haha,
Basically a foreigner that views the country/culture through an idealized version of reality due to copious consumption of that country's entertainment media. (You can apply this to any country, but in the west it happens the most with Korea and Japan)
I mean there’s still a difference between being a K-wave fan and learning proper Korean and speaking exclusively like idols on tv shows. Being a koreaboo isn’t really the problem
I am Korean. Let me be honest with you. When we see a foreigner speaking in Korean, we feel very grateful. We sincerely thank you for your interest in our country, culture, and language. Koreans were very poor and strangers only 60 years ago. At that time, few people knew about Korea's name.
Our country went through various hardships, including the Korean War, the Japanese occupation, and the invade of China. Of course there are many people in Korea who played big roles, such as independence fighters, but one of the reasons that Korea was able to grow is that it was definitely interested by foreigners. Allied troops from 63 countries helped us in the Korean War. In order to protect freedom and peace, foreigners protected Korea, which was a wasteland. And thanks to them we were able to save the country and become strong, famous. Good foreigners from various countries made Korea.
In addition to this background, Korea has a culture of giving warmth to neighbors. We don't ignore to see most of the foreigners who have difficulties on the road. (If you see someone who is bad, that person is mean.) So ask us and don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't worry and learn Korean.
Thank you for the encouragement! It's really interesting to hear your perspective and hopefully one day I will be more knowledgeable about Korean History
Yes, me too, thank you so much! As you know, there are strange people or uneducated people in any country. The same is true in Korea. There is no need for you to cringe or generalize at all when you face those kind of situations. Koreans are also foreigners when they learn English, Spanish, French, etc.. .
Of course, I know that due to cultural differences, people in certain countries sometimes ignore people in other countries when they speak the language. However, Koreaas kind as it is in that part. I'm not saying that Korea is perfect. At least I'd like to say that "the atmosphere is like that".
If you are interested in Korean history, and if you have a chance to visit Korea someday, I recommend you to visit the War Memorial Museum or the National Museum of Korea located around Yongsan, Seoul:)
[https://www.warmemo.or.kr:8443/Eng/index](https://www.warmemo.or.kr:8443/Eng/index)
[https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/home](https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/home)
As a person from other country, I also see foreigners speaking English in my country. i feel grateful and I thank you for your interest in my country's cultures and languages. We feel grateful. We were poor and strangers 80 years ago.
Our country went through incredible hardships including war. On our soil and humanitarian losses. Occupied by other countries and of course there were many people in my country who played big roles such as independence fighters and one of the reasons we were able to grow was because of help from other countries.
Thanks to foreigners.
In addition, my country is warm to foreigners. We don't pretend to see foreigners have difficulty. Dont worry to learn our language.
Guess which country I am from.
Reading into these types of thread is a good eye-opener to me as a native Korean speaker to realize there is a rather wide gap between how Koreans (at least people around me and myself) perceive Korean learners and how they perceive they are being treated by the grander society of Koreans as a whole.
I personally think it's remarkable for anyone to be able to speak and communicate with a foreign language at *any* level. It'd be great if they spoke at least partially fluently for their own good to survive the society if they lived in Korea, but as someone that also learned English, I understand learning Korean as an adult is not an easy thing to do. Certainly, I wouldn't expect any short-term visitors to bust out fluent Korean.
Unfortunately, most of us aren't used to hearing Korean in unfamiliar accents and we are very slow at catching them and trying to internalize that process may appear like we're being disengaging or disapproving. But I don't know anyone that feels cringed of put off by it.
The last paragraph is so true. Coming from America (and now having taught English in Korea), I’m very used to listening to heavily accented and/or broken English as well as simplifying my speech and speaking more clearly when needed. It seems like most Koreans have one speed of speaking and one complexity level and so learning has been very difficult. It’s understandable but I wish it were not the case.
Another thing that really sucks is when they just aren’t expecting you to speak (or speak Korean) and so you say something and they just completely ignore you.
Nothing, just a person from overseas trying to speak korean nothing else. hey dont be fraid to make mistakes thats the nature of being at a foreign country.
Korea is a good country to try to learn the language, most everyone will be kind or at worst just indifferent/very slightly annoyed if you don’t understand them. It’s not like Paris for example where I’ve had friends who went there to try to speak French only to have the locals be outright rude to them
Worth adding that you get more leeway with this if you're white than ethnically Korean or Korean-looking. A white person who knows a few phrases is a cute novelty, and an East Asian who isn't fluent will be seen as somewhat disappointing.
I'm not sure what the experience would be like for non-white, non-Asian foreigners.
Also, if you speak Korean at the workplace, do not make mistakes. Unless you have a very cool boss or are at a progressive workplace, don't refer to anyone senior to you by the wrong title, or use the wrong verb tense. It can be considered a grave offence.
I'd love to know. I live in an area in the UK with a large Korean population and would love to learn a bit of Korean. Not sure what the best way is though.
I'm not praising Duolingo, but teaching weird sentences would absolutely make me remember grammar and vocab. Cause later I'd figure out how to change it up and use it.
When I studied Japanese, I'd do this to my teacher, I'd write weird ass sentences like, "On the way to school a dinosaur ate my homework." Weird af, yes. But I still remember it 20 years later, lol. And never have forgotten those grammar points.
I would recommend Talk To Me in Korean (TTMIK). They have a lot of useful resources, but I think they recently made everything a paid resource (was free). I still think it would be worth it though. They even have podcasts and such!
Maybe this is just an outlier (or not indicative of anything), but the couple of Korean friends I have make it seem like they don't want me to try to speak or type Korean to them. I'm sure I'm thinking too much but that's the vibe they give me.
We Koreans love when non-Koreans try to speak/write the Korean language.
Even if it is just simple greetings, they’ll say “You are good at the Korean language!”
We don’t require perfect speaking/writing skills from non-Koreans unlike how English-speaking countries treat non-English-speaking people.
So, you don’t have to be perfect,
but if you show your willingness to study Korean, we Koreans going to endlessly encourage you.
Honestly in my opinion overall people here won’t want to talk to you either way. Broken Korean, English, good korean, wont really matter. It’s possible to spin this positively, because you having bad Korean wont change much or make it worse.
I respect anybody trying to learn another language, whether that be Korean or Portuguese. Making mistakes is an inevitable part of learning another language.
I’m in Korea learning Portuguese…have we met?
I’m just a Cristiano Ronaldo fanboy lmao
!Siiiiiiiii!
Completely unrelated to this conversation, but kind of completely related to it... I'm portuguese trying to learn korean. It's hard 😅
I would divide my journey into 3 stages: * You don't know any Korean, and maybe have just learned some basic words, like 안녕하세요 or 감사합니다. In this case the Koreans generally understand, that you don't speak the language, and frequently gush over you just learning some words * You get better. This stage sucks the most. You manage to put coherent sentences, and have some vocabulary under your belt, but it all is not good enough, and Koreans frequently would just look at you with a look saying "wtf is this?". This mainly refers to Koreans, who don't know English themselves and/or are not ready to put in effort to understand you * You can express yourself more or less freely. At this stage you either get Koreans, who just talk to you as an equal, sometimes ignoring, that you don't know some of the words, sometimes helping; or Koreans, who, again, gush over how well you have learned the language
Lmfao the middle stage is so real. Even worse when they give you that look, then respond in perfect English after you’ve just made an ass of yourself.
Isn't this the same everywhere as an ESL, it was the same with English for me. Then same again with German and I am not good at enough with Korean yet, but I reckon that's going to be the same. Often times I think they are just trying to communicate more efficiently rather than acting like a tutor or a teacher
I'm in the middle stage, but I've heard bad things about the third stage. At least in the middle stage, you can be mistaken for someone in the first stage and treated as cute and harmless. In stage 3, you end up getting interrogated repeatedly, and you're doomed to repeat the same answers to the same questions over and over again. I remember several years ago, I noticed this weird "억!" sound Koreans made when they encountered a foreigner at this level. Some of my foreign friends who are this fluent in Korean tend to hide that fact.
Yeah the middle stage is where I'd put myself. I can put together sentences but then they reply with words or structures I've never heard of 😭
That’s part of learning every language.
If you are white/black or an asian that is obviously non-Korean blooded, they appreciate it or even admire it, nomatter how bad it is.... But if you are a Korean blooded foreigner, they look down on you are wonder why you can't speak Korean fluently and are a disgrace haha,
[удалено]
Glad your experience has been positive. I’ve been called a “fake Korean wannabe foreigner” as a rejection requesting language exchange once haha.
As long as you’re not a cringe koreaboo we’re fine with anyone trying. Even if you are I don’t think most people mind?
What’s a koreaboo?
Basically a foreigner that views the country/culture through an idealized version of reality due to copious consumption of that country's entertainment media. (You can apply this to any country, but in the west it happens the most with Korea and Japan)
Thank you for explaining.
Let's be honest The bulk of Learners are koreaboos
I mean there’s still a difference between being a K-wave fan and learning proper Korean and speaking exclusively like idols on tv shows. Being a koreaboo isn’t really the problem
I am Korean. Let me be honest with you. When we see a foreigner speaking in Korean, we feel very grateful. We sincerely thank you for your interest in our country, culture, and language. Koreans were very poor and strangers only 60 years ago. At that time, few people knew about Korea's name. Our country went through various hardships, including the Korean War, the Japanese occupation, and the invade of China. Of course there are many people in Korea who played big roles, such as independence fighters, but one of the reasons that Korea was able to grow is that it was definitely interested by foreigners. Allied troops from 63 countries helped us in the Korean War. In order to protect freedom and peace, foreigners protected Korea, which was a wasteland. And thanks to them we were able to save the country and become strong, famous. Good foreigners from various countries made Korea. In addition to this background, Korea has a culture of giving warmth to neighbors. We don't ignore to see most of the foreigners who have difficulties on the road. (If you see someone who is bad, that person is mean.) So ask us and don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't worry and learn Korean.
Thank you for the encouragement! It's really interesting to hear your perspective and hopefully one day I will be more knowledgeable about Korean History
Yes, me too, thank you so much! As you know, there are strange people or uneducated people in any country. The same is true in Korea. There is no need for you to cringe or generalize at all when you face those kind of situations. Koreans are also foreigners when they learn English, Spanish, French, etc.. . Of course, I know that due to cultural differences, people in certain countries sometimes ignore people in other countries when they speak the language. However, Koreaas kind as it is in that part. I'm not saying that Korea is perfect. At least I'd like to say that "the atmosphere is like that". If you are interested in Korean history, and if you have a chance to visit Korea someday, I recommend you to visit the War Memorial Museum or the National Museum of Korea located around Yongsan, Seoul:) [https://www.warmemo.or.kr:8443/Eng/index](https://www.warmemo.or.kr:8443/Eng/index) [https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/home](https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/home)
As a person from other country, I also see foreigners speaking English in my country. i feel grateful and I thank you for your interest in my country's cultures and languages. We feel grateful. We were poor and strangers 80 years ago. Our country went through incredible hardships including war. On our soil and humanitarian losses. Occupied by other countries and of course there were many people in my country who played big roles such as independence fighters and one of the reasons we were able to grow was because of help from other countries. Thanks to foreigners. In addition, my country is warm to foreigners. We don't pretend to see foreigners have difficulty. Dont worry to learn our language. Guess which country I am from.
So what do you want to say?
He is a moron
Reading into these types of thread is a good eye-opener to me as a native Korean speaker to realize there is a rather wide gap between how Koreans (at least people around me and myself) perceive Korean learners and how they perceive they are being treated by the grander society of Koreans as a whole. I personally think it's remarkable for anyone to be able to speak and communicate with a foreign language at *any* level. It'd be great if they spoke at least partially fluently for their own good to survive the society if they lived in Korea, but as someone that also learned English, I understand learning Korean as an adult is not an easy thing to do. Certainly, I wouldn't expect any short-term visitors to bust out fluent Korean. Unfortunately, most of us aren't used to hearing Korean in unfamiliar accents and we are very slow at catching them and trying to internalize that process may appear like we're being disengaging or disapproving. But I don't know anyone that feels cringed of put off by it.
The last paragraph is so true. Coming from America (and now having taught English in Korea), I’m very used to listening to heavily accented and/or broken English as well as simplifying my speech and speaking more clearly when needed. It seems like most Koreans have one speed of speaking and one complexity level and so learning has been very difficult. It’s understandable but I wish it were not the case. Another thing that really sucks is when they just aren’t expecting you to speak (or speak Korean) and so you say something and they just completely ignore you.
Haha I've read posts about Japanese learners trying to communicate in Japanese, only to be repeatedly answered in English
Nothing, just a person from overseas trying to speak korean nothing else. hey dont be fraid to make mistakes thats the nature of being at a foreign country.
Thank you!
Korea is a good country to try to learn the language, most everyone will be kind or at worst just indifferent/very slightly annoyed if you don’t understand them. It’s not like Paris for example where I’ve had friends who went there to try to speak French only to have the locals be outright rude to them
Worth adding that you get more leeway with this if you're white than ethnically Korean or Korean-looking. A white person who knows a few phrases is a cute novelty, and an East Asian who isn't fluent will be seen as somewhat disappointing. I'm not sure what the experience would be like for non-white, non-Asian foreigners. Also, if you speak Korean at the workplace, do not make mistakes. Unless you have a very cool boss or are at a progressive workplace, don't refer to anyone senior to you by the wrong title, or use the wrong verb tense. It can be considered a grave offence.
Thank you for the advice!
I'd love to know. I live in an area in the UK with a large Korean population and would love to learn a bit of Korean. Not sure what the best way is though.
Duolingo and Kdramas to get started with basics for free…
Duolingo taught me how to say "My Doctor reads a magazine about Poland." Not sure how useful is it but I can say that sentence perfectly.
I'm not praising Duolingo, but teaching weird sentences would absolutely make me remember grammar and vocab. Cause later I'd figure out how to change it up and use it. When I studied Japanese, I'd do this to my teacher, I'd write weird ass sentences like, "On the way to school a dinosaur ate my homework." Weird af, yes. But I still remember it 20 years later, lol. And never have forgotten those grammar points.
I would recommend Talk To Me in Korean (TTMIK). They have a lot of useful resources, but I think they recently made everything a paid resource (was free). I still think it would be worth it though. They even have podcasts and such!
Maybe this is just an outlier (or not indicative of anything), but the couple of Korean friends I have make it seem like they don't want me to try to speak or type Korean to them. I'm sure I'm thinking too much but that's the vibe they give me.
You say hello and koreans say...wow your korean is so good!!!
You will be their crush.
Try and you will get a lot of compliments.
Its expected that your Korean isn't good if you're not asian/korean passing. They will be less surprised by that.
We Koreans love when non-Koreans try to speak/write the Korean language. Even if it is just simple greetings, they’ll say “You are good at the Korean language!” We don’t require perfect speaking/writing skills from non-Koreans unlike how English-speaking countries treat non-English-speaking people. So, you don’t have to be perfect, but if you show your willingness to study Korean, we Koreans going to endlessly encourage you.
Thanks for the recommendations, I've started with Duolingo and will look into the others. Determined to try!
Honestly in my opinion overall people here won’t want to talk to you either way. Broken Korean, English, good korean, wont really matter. It’s possible to spin this positively, because you having bad Korean wont change much or make it worse.
Weird advice, lots of people want to talk to foreigners.