xteethx

Speak Korean

So this is the show where non-Korean women speak in Korean about their experiences of living in SK. The title of the show is roughly translated to Chatting with Beauties (which some are not) but it’s really interesting to hear them speak because they all have their own unique accents or intonations when Korean should be monotone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXB2qhwX4wAÂ

For instance, the blonde girl from South Africa (who also tries to play up the dumb blonde too much like whats her face on Friends)  often drawls out the last syllable of  sentences which is usually 다  (‘da’) from ‘입니다’ (ibneeda), the formal ending for declarative sentences. The formal tense is always used since they are on air.  Anyhow, the S African woman tends to sound stacatto:
daaaah … dahhhh ….. daaaah …. daaaaaah
What’s more disturbing to me is that many of them also adopt the rather cheesy gestures, body language, facial expressions etc that I loathe and thought could only be innate to Koreans. It’s new for me to see white people say ‘Fighting!’, a common expression used to cheer or encourage. For some of them (esp. the Asian non-Koreans) I wouldn’t be able to tell they were not Korean if I only heard them speaking w/o seeing their faces.
It’s also interesting to see Koreans’ attitudes toward foreigners who stay here for a long time. Most of them respect them for speaking Korean and in a way I think most want to emulate the western countries. But Korea is still a rather homogeneous society, and there are still many who would never want their kids to date or marry a foreigner. There’s also some who think that those who stay here too long, (esp. teachers) couldn’t be successful back at home. When I read message boards out there from non-koreans who have been living in Seoul for years and keep complaining about Korea or Koreans, I can’t help but to think that that viewpoint is true. I don’t understand why they don’t go back home if they’re griping about Korea all the time. On the other hand, I think most people are here cause they’re interested in Korea or need to pay off their student loans or for any other good reason.
My friend and I were talking about how fun it is here because you can easily meet all sorts of interesting people you can learn a lot from.  It’s one of the reasons why it’s fun to be here. I can understand how people can just stay here for years because it’s an adventure being here. It reminds me of my cousin who has been living in Japan for 10+ years. I dont think he can imagine any US city being more exciting than Tokyo which shares its similarities with Seoul. Though I love Korea I dont think I could ever make it my home. i’m ready to go back and get ready for grad school and do taxes lol. My classes are ending next friday. I’m happy. I’ll miss my students. I’m going to play and travel for a bit before i go back. I’ll say my goodbyes then.