Why are Koreans (Excluding Korean Americans) so horrible at English?

[Guest qasqas]

I am not sure if it is true or not that Koreans are worse than other races when it comes to non-native English speakers, but I do not notice that most of them are rather weak when it comes to grammar. I have my fair share of experience with Koreans straight from Korea and it seems to me that either the students do not really prioritize their studies when it comes to the language, OR their education system does not really focus on the little things like grammar. I have friends who have improved a lot once they came here to study, but then I also have friends who still makes grammatical errors quite often despite staying here for almost a year. However, do keep in mind that even native speakers have issues when it comes to grammar. When I edit papers my friends write, I usually find at least one or two grammatical errors and these papers are written by people who were raised up here, or have lived here for over 5 years. I am not sure which schools you attended, but from what I remember, teachers rarely focused on teaching proper grammar to the students here (or at least at the schools I went to). I probably learned some in elementary school, but in high school? Teachers did not even teach us, despite the fact that I recall memories of teachers telling us to use the same grammar in papers and whatnot.

In other words, if students living in countries where English is the native language have issues when it comes to grammar, it is no surprise that students from non-native English speaking countries have even more problem trying to get it right.

Your choice of words is unsettling. There's a world of difference between Korean ethnicity and Korean nationality, as with every ethnic group and every nation. To imply that Koreans as a race are distinct from others when it comes to language is a bit... It might be that Koreans raised in Korea have a particular problem with ESL, but if they do it's certainly not because they are ethnically Korean. I don't mean to jump down your throat about this but it sticks out to me when people say things like this.

And yeah, the education system in the US is all kinds of messed up with regards to, among other things, not formally teaching the language. Native speakers still need to be consciously aware of the rules of their language. I went to public school in a fairly affluent area but I remember being taught far more about the formal structure of the English language in a foreign language class than I was in English class.

I also find it trivially easy to discern most broken English that people whine about, and wonder why people get all bent out of shape about it. I say I wonder, but I already know - people with little/no exposure to foreign languages feel entitled. There really isn't a need to insult someone for the mistakes illustrated in the OP of this thread, in fact "how did you do today" isn't awkward at all outside of context.

[Guest gmarie]

Well, my boyfriend is Korean, and his English isn't perfect. (He says it's terrible......) I understand him just fine, and really, I think this imperfection is endearing. You have to give people credit for trying to learn English. As a native English speaker, I don't know, but I have heard that English is one of the hardest languages to learn. Maybe I'm strange, but over the years I've come to adore broken English.

[Guest Hellolover]

I learnt French in school and my accent was awful. It's hard to speak another language that sounds very different from your native tongue. It has nothing to do with being Korean.

[Guest ailui]

coz the teaching material is crap and every movie or tv show is doubled

it's really hard to learn something if you're not entertained

[Guest Christinaisweird]

This is a very ignorant post considering he is an American and having been through the US education, they should have very well understood the strangeness of the English language. We are the only country who uses a different sentence structure compared to others.English is a mix of the European language itself.

In addition, why is he generalizing to Koreans, if anything it is all to all the English learners out there. Why would you feel ashamed anyways? There's nothing wrong about not perfecting another language.

[Guest kayee1]

totally agree,

i ve been korea last yr,

i didnt ever thought i cant communicate with anyone ,

coz they dont know how to speak enghish

and their pronunciation is soooo horrible

[Guest YoungPanda]

The same reason why I am horrible at Korean. . . ㅠ.ㅠ

Not my mother tongue 

[Guest janers]

at least they've probably mastered their mother tongue. i'd be more concerned about the n. american education system and how even at the university level, alot of ppl are a fail when it comes to grammer and sentence structure.