On December 09 2008 03:07 masami.sc wrote: Actress Lee Ji Ah. Her English is very good! She was in the new hit drama "Beethoven Virus". There's a clip of her on Youtube somewhere speaking very good English.
To be honest - maybe it's because I'm Korean-American myself, I hate it when I get compared to some Korean girl who speaks MINIMAL English after studying in an English speaking country for like 2 years and plays if off as if it's her native language. It really irks me.
I hate it when I'm in a taxi and the driver's like .. oh your English is really good, how long have you studied abroad, like 2-3 years? And I'm sitting there like... "really good"?? I'm fuckin' fluent, asshole. Maybe I'm just being an elitist 교포 but man, I hate hate hate 유학생s who think that they are so good at English when they are obviously not. (the 유학생s who DO speak well tho, I have nothing against, it's just the 잘난척하는 kids)
I agree, Tablo is definitely biligual and so's Lee Ji Ah (in that vid) but... that other vid of the SNSD girls.... ugh.
What exactly does "bilingual" mean to you?
Yeah good point Susie, to be honest I thought most people assumed that multi-lingual meant really being proficient in more than one language (that Yuri and SooYoung vid... yeah they don't count, I don't even think SooYoung's Japanese is that good either) so lets say... Japan for example. You can speak Japanese and get by in the country without a translator. But yeah that taxi driver who judged you... to hell with him lol. There's nothing you have to prove to him. I made sure the people who I posted that I knew straight up they were multi-lingual (although Han Seung Yeon... she's a question mark even though she finished HS in Jersey)
I meet people in Korea who talk to me in their terrible English, and then even fumble their Korean as if they have a hard time speaking Korean since they've been abroad for soooooooo long (what, a whole 2 fuckin' years?!?!).
The taxi driver thought that of me, I'm sure, because of exactly these types of people - the not so fluent English speakers who play it off like they are.
When I was in Spain, I was able to get by - order food, ask directions, grab a taxi, etc. But in no way shape of form would I say that I'm multi-lingual that I can speak Spanish too. I'm sure to any Spanish speaker here I'd be insulting them if I said that I was nearly as good as they were. And I would never play it off like I was.
Bleh. This is just a rant; I've been meeting too many 유학생s that try that shit on me.
"Oh you studied in America too?" "... yes" "How long where you there?" "..... 25 years"
On December 09 2008 01:47 beefhamburger wrote: BoA is at least trilingual.
Speaking of BoA, she is getting ready to debut in America and she has been doing small shows across America. Her English is pretty good, but she has a fobby accent when she speaks and sometimes forget the "S" noise in words like calls and such. I hope she does well in America since there is no real Asian music artist in the states.
Even though I'm Korean American, I wouldn't consider myself bilingual. Sure, I can understand Korean quite well, and I can watch dramas without subtitles, etc, etc. But I can't read the Korean newspaper without noticing how little vocabulary I actually know. Even while watching talk shows, I find that I have to whip out my little electronic dictionary just about every other line. I get the GIST of what's going on, sure. But I'm not 100% . And until I'm able to read the newspaper without any dictionary aid, watch talk shows without being slightly confused, I would never call myself bilingual.
To be honest - maybe it's because I'm Korean-American myself, I hate it when I get compared to some Korean girl who speaks MINIMAL English after studying in an English speaking country for like 2 years and plays if off as if it's her native language. It really irks me.
I hate it when I'm in a taxi and the driver's like .. oh your English is really good, how long have you studied abroad, like 2-3 years? And I'm sitting there like... "really good"?? I'm fuckin' fluent, asshole. Maybe I'm just being an elitist 교포 but man, I hate hate hate 유학생s who think that they are so good at English when they are obviously not. (the 유학생s who DO speak well tho, I have nothing against, it's just the 잘난척하는 kids)
I agree, Tablo is definitely biligual and so's Lee Ji Ah (in that vid) but... that other vid of the SNSD girls.... ugh.
On December 09 2008 11:55 lilsusie wrote: I meet people in Korea who talk to me in their terrible English, and then even fumble their Korean as if they have a hard time speaking Korean since they've been abroad for soooooooo long (what, a whole 2 fuckin' years?!?!).
The taxi driver thought that of me, I'm sure, because of exactly these types of people - the not so fluent English speakers who play it off like they are.
When I was in Spain, I was able to get by - order food, ask directions, grab a taxi, etc. But in no way shape of form would I say that I'm multi-lingual that I can speak Spanish too. I'm sure to any Spanish speaker here I'd be insulting them if I said that I was nearly as good as they were. And I would never play it off like I was.
Bleh. This is just a rant; I've been meeting too many 유학생s that try that shit on me.
"Oh you studied in America too?" "... yes" "How long where you there?" "..... 25 years"
-_____-
to be honest this isnt just with koreans this happens in almost every country out there. If its one of the "less cool" countries - they will speak broken english/french/german with their own people. That shit went down for ages, read "War and Peace" - they all speak french while in russia. Indicates a "higher society" or something. Actually its "cool" to have british accent these days in the US, go figure. I always laughed at "bilingual" people that were not proficient with it. My sis studied foreign language for 10 years hardcore and she kept saying "i suck at it" while publishing own works and starting to teach at Uni. ignorant people like you mentioned fucking irritate me the most, its embarrassing/degrading to be around them
To be honest - maybe it's because I'm Korean-American myself, I hate it when I get compared to some Korean girl who speaks MINIMAL English after studying in an English speaking country for like 2 years and plays if off as if it's her native language. It really irks me.
I hate it when I'm in a taxi and the driver's like .. oh your English is really good, how long have you studied abroad, like 2-3 years? And I'm sitting there like... "really good"?? I'm fuckin' fluent, asshole. Maybe I'm just being an elitist 교포 but man, I hate hate hate 유학생s who think that they are so good at English when they are obviously not. (the 유학생s who DO speak well tho, I have nothing against, it's just the 잘난척하는 kids)
I agree, Tablo is definitely biligual and so's Lee Ji Ah (in that vid) but... that other vid of the SNSD girls.... ugh.
What exactly does "bilingual" mean to you?
Its not rant, I hated it too when I was in the city. I just learned not to use English. It was kinda difficult though when I met up with friends with whom it was easier to just use English with since the driver would be like what the fuck.
On the other hand, in cheonan/pyeongtaek when I took a taxi to go see my grandma the driver somehow picked up from my korean that I was a foreigner and tried to rip me off. Which is very unusual because I'd say maybe 1 out of 20 people think my Korean has anything wrong with it accent-wise.
SNSD lived in the states for less than an year, the rest went to kent (gay international school)
I don't really get angry when people try to brag their minimal english (because I know Im better lololol) But what really pisses me off is when I walk through Seoul at 4am I see this drunk ass Guy and Girl and the guy impresses her by saying
"I learned english in Canada, I am Bilingual"
At that point I just burst out laughing and walk away
On December 09 2008 13:13 MrHoon wrote: SNSD lived in the states for less than an year, the rest went to kent (gay international school)
I don't really get angry when people try to brag their minimal english (because I know Im better lololol) But what really pisses me off is when I walk through Seoul at 4am I see this drunk ass Guy and Girl and the guy impresses her by saying
"I learned english in Canada, I am Bilingual"
At that point I just burst out laughing and walk away
it's just that the word bilingual is used too loosely. bleh. My English is definitely better than my Korean, but at the same time, I think in both languages, thus I'd consider myself bilingual in that sense. It's just the lack of vocab and the chinese characters that really get me.
On December 09 2008 13:13 MrHoon wrote: SNSD lived in the states for less than an year, the rest went to kent (gay international school)
I don't really get angry when people try to brag their minimal english (because I know Im better lololol) But what really pisses me off is when I walk through Seoul at 4am I see this drunk ass Guy and Girl and the guy impresses her by saying
"I learned english in Canada, I am Bilingual"
At that point I just burst out laughing and walk away
Hey, what's wrong with Canada? >:o I learned english in Canada too, and I'm bilingual
On December 09 2008 13:13 MrHoon wrote: SNSD lived in the states for less than an year, the rest went to kent (gay international school)
I don't really get angry when people try to brag their minimal english (because I know Im better lololol) But what really pisses me off is when I walk through Seoul at 4am I see this drunk ass Guy and Girl and the guy impresses her by saying
"I learned english in Canada, I am Bilingual"
At that point I just burst out laughing and walk away
Hey, what's wrong with Canada? >:o I learned english in Canada too, and I'm bilingual
On December 09 2008 12:17 masami.sc wrote: Even though I'm Korean American, I wouldn't consider myself bilingual. Sure, I can understand Korean quite well, and I can watch dramas without subtitles, etc, etc. But I can't read the Korean newspaper without noticing how little vocabulary I actually know. Even while watching talk shows, I find that I have to whip out my little electronic dictionary just about every other line. I get the GIST of what's going on, sure. But I'm not 100% . And until I'm able to read the newspaper without any dictionary aid, watch talk shows without being slightly confused, I would never call myself bilingual.
Ouch, now I don't consider myself bilingual from your post in that sense but I am bilingual in the sense that I'm half fluent in Korean and Spanish (which is like 1 language although they're not similar at all) and English which adds up to 2!
I believe as long as you can read, write and convey your ideas adequately without thinking about how to say something every other phrase than you are fluent. Even though you may not possess a large vocabulary. Its also important to understand when someone corrects you in the same language.
My English definitely owns my Korean any day of course. I'm 100% fluent in English.
However for Korean that's a different story. I came here from Korea when I was 3 but I always spoke basic-intermediate level Korean in the household with my parents so that was no problem.
A few days ago I talked with some FOB kids and they thought I was FOB too because of my speaking skills? Although it was a pretty simple, basic convo I guess my pronunciation and such is better than I thought And back then when we had cable tv at home, I watched a lot of Korean TV shows/dramas without little difficulty of understanding but not 100% thoroughly, only the overall idea of what's going on, etc etc.
What's making me not so fluent/good at Korean is the fact I suck at advanced vocabulary/words. When my dad told me to read Korean books back in the days, I should have listened to him. My sister did that and she is AMAZING. She can read the bible in Korean and understand it completely and for an 8th grader who was born here, I think she's really good lol
Yeah my Korean got rapidly better when I started watching variety shows and such. I feel like you can only learn that way if you've had some sort of basic understanding to begin with. I'm probably at like 35% fluency level Korean wise, and that's gonna keep going up partially because it has too... not so much because of employment but I mostly deal with Koreans so yeah.
And again I didn't know people used bi/multi-lingual so loosely. Like I assumed that if you were bilingual you were really proficient in the two languages you knew, but I guess certain people just don't see it like that I guess.
I should study more vocab, how did she learn? Reading the bible in korean? Haha that reminds me at church, when like the pastor says a verse, then the audience(?) says another. I'm so slow in reading and I don't know whats going on in the passage.
On December 09 2008 14:19 il0seonpurpose wrote: I should study more vocab, how did she learn? Reading the bible in korean? Haha that reminds me at church, when like the pastor says a verse, then the audience(?) says another. I'm so slow in reading and I don't know whats going on in the passage.
You wanna learn how to read fast try noraebang... so hard to keep up with the songs lol. I ended up singing a SNSD song only because I had Into The New World memorized enough... the other song was She Is by Clazziquai