Okay, here is some background before I explain : I've been teaching myself Korean for about two years. I live in the US and have never been to Korea. I am by no means fluent, but I can carry out basic conversations and I have more skill in reading and writing than speaking and listening. I also do translations from Korean to English, mainly with Tweets.
They have said in previous videos (their U-KISS interview comes to mind) that Simon can read Korean and speak it a little bit and Martina said in Korean that she knows a little bit of Korean. His accent when he said 조금/a little bit was completely ridiculous, so I highly doubt that he knows all that much. I mean, in the above video, Simon says 삼겹살/samgyeopsal in a straight-up North American accent. Martina's accent is slightly better, but it really can't get much worse than Simon's.
I personally believe that you can tell a lot about someone's proficiency in a language from their accent and their accents are too bad for them to be beyond beginner's level, especially when you consider that they've been living in Korea for so long and they hear natively-spoken Korean day in and day out. I have also heard international K-pop fans speak Korean with considerably better accents.
Basically, they have spoken bits and pieces of Korean in their videos, and it's enough to tell how little they know.
My issue with this is that, as far as I know, they aren't teachers anymore and they do EYK full-time. I don't agree with the sentiment that English teachers in foreign countries don't have to learn the language of that country, but I at least understand it. However, EYK is about various aspects of Korea and IT IS THEIR JOB. It is how they bring money in, how they support themselves.
Therefore, it is BEYOND disrespectful imo to make a living off of a country and its culture and not know the language to at least an intermediate (or preferably advanced) level. They are using Korea/K-pop/etc for their own personal gain and while maintaining an ethnocentric view. They talk about idols and even interview them, but can't understand what they say or speak to them.
This is a massive problem. I mean, when they were teachers, they had to have college degrees, make lesson plans, etc. Essentially, they had to be both qualified and prepared to do their jobs. When their jobs entailed teaching English, they ensured that they were qualified and prepared to do that. But when their jobs consist of teaching people about Korea/K-pop/etc, it's totally cool for them to not know Korean at least to the extent that they understand what they're discussing? I don't think so.
I personally believe that you can tell a lot about someone's proficiency in a language from their accent and their accents are too bad for them to be beyond beginner's level, especially when you consider that they've been living in Korea for so long and they hear natively-spoken Korean day in and day out.
Personally, I don't believe this. I know a lot of people from different countries who has learned English as their second language. My friend from Italy who has studied abroad in many different English speaking places and has been fluent in English since she was little has a very, very strong accent, but she has no trouble speaking or understanding it. I have a friend from China who has really good American accent, but you can tell she struggles to understand some words/phrases.
From the people I've met and my experience, accents are no indication of how well you know a language. As one of my friends explains, it's just an indication of well you can hear the difference from the way you're saying it to the way it's supposed to be said.
Maybe it depends on person to person, but in ~my~ experience, accents become closer and closer to native pronunciation with increased skill in the language. That's how it works with me and that's what I'm going on.
Also, English is a notoriously difficult language. Korean is hard as well, but not as much as English, and I think that that's a component too.
Generally speaking, I do think that the more you study a language, the more native you'll sound, but many have proved me wrong lately about this idea. I go to a university that emphasises foreign languages so we have a lot of international professors and students.
Edit: I, too, am studying Korean (~1 year) and honestly speaking their accents don't seem too bad. Perhaps they can't hear the difference yet. I don't know. If you really want to hear bad accents, come sit in one of my Korean classes.
Their accents wouldn't be considered that bad if they were still living in Canada or something, but they've been living in Korea for almost half a decade, hearing native Korean day in and day out. Accordingly, when they speak it, their accents should be better, purely due to osmosis. The fact that they aren't is an indication to me that their Korean skills aren't where they should be. Honestly, it's at the point where it almost seems like they're purposely avoiding bettering said skills, which is a whole other issue in and of itself.
Yeah this. Also the fact that they haven't learned more Korean/have weak accents suggests to me that they mostly hang out with other foreigners/Koreans who are fluent in English, and that's really not a good cross-section of Korea. It's easy to get caught in the foreigner bubble when living abroad if you're not fluent in the language... it seems to me they're in it.
Exactly, and how do they expect to be seen as like, ~proponents of Korean culture~ when they themselves clearly know fuck all about it? It's absolutely ridiculous.
It makes sense that your students may not have great English pronunciation though because they don't live in a mainly English-speaking country. Simon and Martina have lived in Korea for a number of years, hearing native Korean day in and day out, and they would pick up both the language and a decent accent just by osmosis unless they were purposely avoiding doing so, which seems to be the case, and that is a whole other issue in and of itself.
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They have said in previous videos (their U-KISS interview comes to mind) that Simon can read Korean and speak it a little bit and Martina said in Korean that she knows a little bit of Korean. His accent when he said 조금/a little bit was completely ridiculous, so I highly doubt that he knows all that much. I mean, in the above video, Simon says 삼겹살/samgyeopsal in a straight-up North American accent. Martina's accent is slightly better, but it really can't get much worse than Simon's.
I personally believe that you can tell a lot about someone's proficiency in a language from their accent and their accents are too bad for them to be beyond beginner's level, especially when you consider that they've been living in Korea for so long and they hear natively-spoken Korean day in and day out. I have also heard international K-pop fans speak Korean with considerably better accents.
Basically, they have spoken bits and pieces of Korean in their videos, and it's enough to tell how little they know.
My issue with this is that, as far as I know, they aren't teachers anymore and they do EYK full-time. I don't agree with the sentiment that English teachers in foreign countries don't have to learn the language of that country, but I at least understand it. However, EYK is about various aspects of Korea and IT IS THEIR JOB. It is how they bring money in, how they support themselves.
Therefore, it is BEYOND disrespectful imo to make a living off of a country and its culture and not know the language to at least an intermediate (or preferably advanced) level. They are using Korea/K-pop/etc for their own personal gain and while maintaining an ethnocentric view. They talk about idols and even interview them, but can't understand what they say or speak to them.
This is a massive problem. I mean, when they were teachers, they had to have college degrees, make lesson plans, etc. Essentially, they had to be both qualified and prepared to do their jobs. When their jobs entailed teaching English, they ensured that they were qualified and prepared to do that. But when their jobs consist of teaching people about Korea/K-pop/etc, it's totally cool for them to not know Korean at least to the extent that they understand what they're discussing? I don't think so.
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Personally, I don't believe this. I know a lot of people from different countries who has learned English as their second language. My friend from Italy who has studied abroad in many different English speaking places and has been fluent in English since she was little has a very, very strong accent, but she has no trouble speaking or understanding it. I have a friend from China who has really good American accent, but you can tell she struggles to understand some words/phrases.
From the people I've met and my experience, accents are no indication of how well you know a language. As one of my friends explains, it's just an indication of well you can hear the difference from the way you're saying it to the way it's supposed to be said.
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Also, English is a notoriously difficult language. Korean is hard as well, but not as much as English, and I think that that's a component too.
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Edit: I, too, am studying Korean (~1 year) and honestly speaking their accents don't seem too bad. Perhaps they can't hear the difference yet. I don't know. If you really want to hear bad accents, come sit in one of my Korean classes.
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