I understand what your getting at, sometimes Simon gets on my nerves with the english segment. But i get what he's saying when he talks about the actual entertainment companies.
Ikr? I mean, I'm a native English speaker and it's the only language that I'm fluent in, but I still realise that it's an exceptionally difficult language to learn.
is there actually any proof that they don't know korean? i don't like them (i hate the ethnocentrism and how they have no qualms out of making money off of korea without bothering to learn about it) but people always say this and idg how they know because it's not like they're doing their videos for a korean audience, so they don't necessarily have to know korean.
i know they were teachers before eyk became a full time thing, but even then idk if they actually had cause to learn korean because they were teaching english and tbh i came from an international school from another asian country and none of the teachers bothered learning the language either lol. idt it's just them.
its not just them, which is why its such a problem, alot of white westerners feel like everyone should know english but refuse to learn other languages themselves even when they live in another non english speaking country, its their privilege that allows them to do this cause alot of the time the natives of the country will bend over backwards to accommodate them.
That's true. But also like the user below said, in Korea they don't make it easy for you to learn Korean, particularly if you're an English teacher. Like if someone wants to practice using their Korean in school, they risk getting disciplined for it. So your 40 hour a week job doesn't allow you to use your Korean which leaves you with the rest of the time, in which you also have to dedicate time to planning your lessons on top of everyday life stuff.
Hence why before I'm going to Korea (in a few weeks) I have taken practicing Korean up to 8 hours a day because I know they won't accommodate me by helping me with Korean once I get a position.
I don't think it's just white westerners, tbh. How much controversy is there constantly about immigrants in America not knowing any English? I really don't care - if you can get by in a foreign country without speaking the language, and you have resources to take care of the language barrier when a problem comes up (doctor's visit, traffic accident, etc.) then I could not care less about you not making a huge effort to become somewhat fluent in the native tongue. If you somehow have the time and money and resources to try to learn the language, more power to you. The US is covered with enclaves for different language groups, and those living therein don't have to know much English to have a perfectly successful time of it. Same goes for American/British/Australian expats living in European/Asian countries
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I think they know enough Korean to get them by. Probably just simple sentences and from what I've seen, they seem to be able to understand it which is far better than knowing nothing on at all. They probably should learn it, but Korea is very English friendly (from what my teacher has said) apparently, like all the signs are in Korean and English. Although that's good, that probably hinders them (and a lot of others) from learning Korean properly.
My parents came to the US 15 years ago and English is still hard for them. They know enough English to get them by, but longer sentences or bigger words, they don't know. Luckily here, most people are pretty open to having foreigners so they don't have much too much trouble.
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
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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
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.
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man i sprinkled extra stupid in my tea today
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i know they were teachers before eyk became a full time thing, but even then idk if they actually had cause to learn korean because they were teaching english and tbh i came from an international school from another asian country and none of the teachers bothered learning the language either lol. idt it's just them.
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Hence why before I'm going to Korea (in a few weeks) I have taken practicing Korean up to 8 hours a day because I know they won't accommodate me by helping me with Korean once I get a position.
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My parents came to the US 15 years ago and English is still hard for them. They know enough English to get them by, but longer sentences or bigger words, they don't know. Luckily here, most people are pretty open to having foreigners so they don't have much too much trouble.
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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
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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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