Liz
- 2010-07-17
I have been teaching Koreans (tutoring one-on-one or in small groups) for several years now. The information by the previous poster is accurate. They are usually wonderful students, and very thankful to be learning English with a native English speaker. They are very respectful, and I have not encountered any problems teaching male or female students (I am female and all of my students are adults, aged 20-50 years old. Some of my students are dedicated to doing their homework, while others are not. Most of them are working full time jobs and may have children, so their free time for studying at home is very restricted.
Specific areas of difficulty for Koreans learning English are:
- pronunciation and intonation (in general, their English language studies in school in Korea typically did not focus on speaking, and were taught by Korean teachers, rather than native English speakers. As I understand it, this is now in the process of changing, and the schools in Korea are requiring English speakers to have native or near-native speaking ability)
-sentence structure (they are not used to the SVO structure of English)
-pronunciation of "l" vs. "r"
-pronunciation of "f" vs. "p"
-enunciating the final "s" on words
-usage of the articles "a", "an", "the"
ann anzano
- 2010-07-17
Hi,
I'm Ann. I've been teaching Korean students for almost three years now. I don't have an experience of teaching other nationalities except for Filipinos and Koreans, so I cannot give much comparison. But I'll try my best to describe Korean students according to my first hand experience with them.
Koreans are basically friendly people yet they are shy to speak up especially to a foreigner. Unlike other nations, they are not so open for foreigners. But nowadays, they are kinda changing. I bet you're an American. Actually Koreans are really fond of white people. They have a very high respect for Westerners especially if you're a native speaker of English.
Most Korean students aren't new to the language. In fact, most of them have been studying English for a long time already. But they don't use English in a daily conversation in Korea. They just study English but don't use it and that's the reason why a lot of them are still not profficient with the language. Speaking English to their friends is quite taboo and they are considered boastful if they do so. But one thing about them is that they are good at grammar. I learned from my students that in school, they learn grammar using the Hangul (Korean language). Their teachers explain grammar rules to them using Korean so they can understand better. But the bad thing about it is that they simply know the rules but don't know how to apply it and make grammatically correct sentences.
Korean students speak English with a monotonous tone. They are also having much difficulty with r and l, more than anything else.
Good luck..if you have more questions about Korean students, just feel free to contact me.
Hello,
I have been teaching Latin-American ESL students, and I would like to try teaching Koreans also. What is different? What challenges should I expect?
What letters do Korean students have trouble pronouncing?
Are many Koreans "false beginnners" of English (do they have significant pre-exposure to English)?
What grammar do they have problems with because of their first language? Syntax? Tenses?
Do they do their homework assignments?
How do you approach literacy? Is it very challenging for Korean students?
What should I be aware of culturally? Is an American woman at risk of offending them?
What problems have you faced? How did you resolve them?