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May is Family Month – Save 30%!

The Month of May in Korea is often called Family Month. There’s Children’s Day, Parent’s Day, and Teacher’s Day. Korea takes Mother’s Day to a whole different level! On these days you give your Children, Parents and Teachers gifts to show them how much you appreciate them. Children often benefit the most with candy and money being popular gifts. Teachers get quite a lot of gifts as well as they have many students and parents to receive gifts from. And that’s why the month of May is called Family month in Korea!

Well… did you learn something new about Korea?

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Learning English…

My cousin is visiting for a while. I thought it would be interesting to get his thoughts on what it is like to learn English here in the United States. He has only written in Korean but I will post a translation in the comments later.  Enjoy. 

내가 여기 미국온지 25일정도 됐다.

처음여기에 올때에는 오면 영어정도는 쉽게 배우고 내뱉을수있다고 생각하고 왔다…

미국하면 흔히 무법자들이 흔하는도시…or  법이지배하는도시라고 생각하고 미국에 왔다.

그런데 영화나 내가 듣고 생각하는 미국과는 다르게 .조용하니 사람살기에는 참좋은 곳이라고 생각하고있다.

지금 내가 있는곳이 도시의 중심가가 아니기때문에 그럴지 모르겠지만. .사람들과 만나고 고모식구들과 생활하면서

많은 영어를듣고 배우고 있는중이다..흔히 한국에서는 미국가면2.3개월이면 듣고 6개월이면 말하고 1년이면 대화가 된다고 하는데 흔히 이건 한국에서 어느정도의 영어실력을 가지고 미국가서 유학을 가서 공부를 하는사람들의 기준이다.

나와 같은 경우는 형편없는 영어실력으로 미국에와서 듣고 배울려고 왔는데 막상 부딪혀보니 한국에서 쓰는 영어와 많은 차이가 있었다. 내가 생각하기에 한국에서 “너 영어 매우 잘한다” 라는 소리를들을 정도에서 여기오면 어느정도의 대화는 통할거같다 하지만 발음과 조그마한 스펠링.문장구조에서 조금의 차이점이 있을거같다..

내가 학생시절 학교에서 배우던 영어와 여기에서 조금씩 배워가는영어의 차이점이 많이있다..

첫째.발음이다. 한국사람과 미국사람의 발음하는것이 많이 틀린거같다..각각 나라의 말하는 스타일이 달르다는것보다 쓰는 모국어의 형식 자체가 틀리기 떄문에 듣고 따라할려고해도 똑같은 발음으로 하기가 너무 힘들다 ..

둘째.한국에서 배운 영어와 여기에서 쓰는 영어의 차이점이다..내가 영어를 처음배운게 중1시절10년전이라 할수있다. 그때부터 지금 까지 배운 영어가 여기에서 배운것과의 차이점은 큰차이는없다. 영어를 잘하는사람이라면 대화하는데 크게 어려움은 없을것같다 하지만 어부정하게 영어를배운 나는 여기에서 배우는데 큰 차이점을 발견하였다..한국에서 쓰던 영어중 여기에서 발음하는것과의 차이점이다. 어떻게 보면 발음차이일지도 모르겠지만 한국에서 읽는걸 알려주고 그대로 읽고 그렇게 알던 영어들이 여기에서는 읽는 방법이 조금 다른게 있다는것이다. 내가 들은 바로는 한국에서 배우는 영어가 영국식 영어라고 여기와서 들었다. 그래서 그런지 지금 미국에와 있는지금 한국에서 배운영어가 차라리 몰랐으면 하는 생각도 든다. 한국 사람들이 한번배울때 똑바로 배워라는 말이있다.그렇게 크지는 않지만 그 조그마한차이가 외국에서는 그말이 무슨말인지 몰라서 그냥 넘어가는경우가 있다.

셋째.외국사람들이 말하는 속도/패턴?

속도라고 말하면은 사람들의 능력에 따라 다르겠지만 나는 한국에서 배우면서 근처사람들이 영어를 읽는것을 들어보면 여기에서 듣는것과의 차이다. 유학을가서 영어를 배울때 듣는것이 제일힘들다고 들었다 왜냐면 사람들 마다 말하는 속도가 있겠지만 다른곳의 언어이다보니 힘들고 느린것당연한것 모국어보다 잘할수없을것이다. 사람의 특성중하나는 적응을 한다는것이다. 매일 늦게 듣다보니 영어의모국어인 미국에오다보니간 그 속도를 따라갈수없어서 힘들고 말하는 방식이 틀린것이다. 한국에서는 읽는법을배워도 줄여서 읽고 읽는패턴을 다 알려주지는않는다. 하지만 여기는 글을 읽다보면 스펠링이 그대로지만 읽을때는 조그마하게 교체되면서 읽어진다. 이런것이 여기와서 생소하고 힘들었다..

여기와서 영어를 최대한 빨리 배울려면 내가 생각한 바로는 최대한 듣고/쓰고/말하기이다.

어떤 수업을듣고 공부를 하든지간에 집중해서듣고 그것을 메모하고 말하든지 생각을하는게 공부의 기본이다.

영어도 한가지의 공부를 하는것이기때문에 이 세가지만 열심히 하면 금방배울거같다.

생각하는것처럼 영어가 쉽게 배워지지는 않겠지만 이 세가지를 이행하면서 힘든 영어공부를 배워가야겠다!

Korean Kids, Again

Last week we picked up two Korean children to stay with us for a couple of months. They are brother and sister and so far they are fairly shy with speaking English even though their understanding seems to be pretty good. San Francisco is about three hours from our house so we decided to do a little touring prior on our way home. We went to the Golden Gate bridge where it was a windy 62 degrees and then we stopped off at Stanford University before heading home to a warm 106.

My wife’s nephew caught a ride here on the same flight last minute so we have a full house. He is in his early twenties and just out of his 군대 service. He is here to (drum roll please) learn English and tour a bit before getting back to real life in Korea. He has ambitions of getting a government job and English experience seems to be a real plus on the resume. It seems like everyone wants to get a government job in Korea. Of course, we are all on the other side of the coin trying to learn Korean. I don’t think there are too many government jobs in the States that require Korean language experience though.

My oldest, having now lived in Korea for a short time is doing good with her understanding. My number two, Luke, is not having such an easy time of it, however. Here are some of his thoughts on the matter now that he is sharing a room with his cousin:

Living with Koreans is kind of hard because it is hard to understand them. I want to learn how to speak Korean but I just don’t want to take the time to learn it. My cousin who is staying with us doesn’t speak much English and he is sleeping in my room so that makes it hard to really communicate with him. The other two kids are better at speaking English but I don’t think they are learning anything because they are speaking Korean too much to each other and to my mom. I think I am going to try to learn some Korean during my older cousin’s stay.  

Wanna Bite?

More from Stephanie: 

So on an early release day at the elementary school where I helped teach, my aunt picked me up and I went with her to help her with her job, which was a private English tutor for kids. Her job seemed to consist mostly of driving to each kid’s apartment, checking their homework, asking a few questions and assigning more homework for next time. (maybe it was homework-check-day or something) but after we visited a few kids and got in the elevator to ascend yet again, we were joined by some very young “초딩”s. Before we came to that apartment we had each bought an “ice cream” (more of popsicle type things really) and were trying to eat it before we got to the kids house and when my aunt saw the two second or third grade boys, she immediately offerred her half eaten ice cream to one of them saying “무글래?”(먹을래). I was a little suprised that she would do this, because I highly doubted that she knew this kid, let alone be close enough to offer her ice cream!

Later, as I was leaving a tutoring session, ( that I taught by myself) with “Michael” (6th grade) who came from a different apartment and therefore had to go home also, we were joined by another small kid from that floor whom neither of us knew. Michael was eating a box of 빼빼로 that the 아줌아 whose kid I was teaching supplied for refreshments. When he saw the kid, he offerred some to the little guy who took a couple. I asked Michael if he even knew the kid and he was like , “No. Just.” (그냥 makes more sense in Korean, which by itself means like, ‘just because’ or ‘no reason’) and when I asked “why would you give a kid you don’t even know something to eat?!” to which he replied “Koreans are just friendly.” I thought this was a very interesting thing. I don’t know about other places, but here, random people are not apt to offer you stuff, unless they’re flyers advertising something but I know I would be a little freaked out if someone I didn’t even know offered me their 과자 they happened to be eating at the moment. Anyone else have a similar experience?

Secret Language

While I was helping teach at an elementary school, I noticed the kids said 멍미 a lot. I asked the English teachers and she said she didn’t know what it meant. I thought maybe I was pronouncing it wrong or something, but later one of the students I tutor said it too, he was in 6th grade and when I asked him what it meant, he said it was ‘secret language’ and that it meant just “what?!” . I don’t exactly know what it translates to, because he used it often and sometimes I think saying “what” in some situations wouldn’t quite make sense. but while I was in 서울 he high school kids used what they called “secret language” too. I think it’s more like slang though. Some other words that I learned were the slang words for elementary student, middle school student and so on. they took the normal 초등학생 and turned it into just 초딩.It’s the same for all the others: 중딩, 고딩.I don’t know if 대딩 works but it seems like it should. My cousin used this word when describing his friend, who he said used 초딩말 which is like elementary school language or, like he talks like an elementary student. Does anyone else know any “secret language” words?