English vs. 5000 other languages
Jim, it’s been just a week since the summer school, but it seems so long ago. I’m back to my normal life and I am very relaxed as I’m doing nothing special, and staying at the residence. While I was taking the course I had to take the tube for about an hour to go to the class. You might not understand why I had to travel by tube. Here’s the reason. My university has two campuses. One is natural sciences campus which is in Suwon where I’m staying and the other one is humanities and social sciences campus which is in Seoul where the summer courses took place so I had to go there every morning. It was really tiring to travel every morning when so many people commuted. I don’t know much about London and how busy and crowed it can be. Here in Seoul, or suburb areas when it’s rush-hour, it’s incredibly busy, sometimes the tubes are fully packed with people, and you cannot move. I hate it. Sometimes it goes the same for buses. They would be quite reliable unless there was bumper-to-bumper traffic.
As I lived in the countryside, I wasn’t used to this kind of busy city life, you know, where I lived, people knew each other, and there was kind and friendly environment like say hello to each other in the morning when I went to school. We didn’t even lock the door except when we were going away or at night. Before I started to live at residence, I had lived with my grandmother in Seoul and had to travel almost 2hours at most. Every morning I took the tube and saw so many people surrounding me, and just thinking we don’t know one another, just we are someone who go somewhere, we don’t say hello, and surely we never see each other again. It’s highly unlikely that I bump into someone I know in this kind of city. I started to feel so lonely about living in the city. Do you know what I mean? Since moving out from my hometown, I’ve become indifferent to many things which I used to care about and I think sometimes I’m being selfish. I know that there are so many advantages about living in cities, too. I love going out here, but also you lose something valuable at the same time. .
By the way, yes I took the photo of the beach in Pusan. How could you be taken while you were jumping? As soon as I saw your picture, I remembered the picture of me jumping, so. I’m putting it on. Here is the Cotswold. On the way to Bath, I stopped by here and took a walk.
I wondered how many languages are in the world, so I googled it and no one knows exactly, and there is an estimate sayiing between 3000 to 8000 languages exist. these days, so many people are learning enlgish as a second language and it's considered as important to speak English.
Taking about my English skills, I’m better at writing than at speaking. The reasons are simple. I like writing more than speaking even in Korean. Well, I’m not a shy person, but I tend to listen to people rather than say whatever I want to say first. It’s quite relative, though, I mean if a person I talk to is very shy or not talkative, I’m being chatty. Also, I didn’t have enough opportunity to speak English in the class because studying English was just for exams, so I read a lot, and studied vocabulary and grammar and practiced listening a lot. As almost Korean students have done, or will do, or are doing English exams to enter a university or get a job or study abroad, English is just as important as Korean. I mean speaking Korean well in public or writing essays in Korean and taking Korean exams are also very hard. To make things worse I’ve also had to learn so many Chinese originated words and Chinese characters which help you to get a better understanding of what you read in Korean. I can say that I know English grammar more than Korean one, which is so complicated, and has so many exceptions.
Well, I can’t only blame the education system, here. English is so different from Korean, there’s nothing common between two languages. We can also learn Japanese at school, and I think it’s the same education system but, we learn Japanese much faster, and speak it quite well. One more thing is that even though you become good at speaking English because you have lived abroad, when you get back here, it’s difficult to keep up as no one speaks english in everyday life here. So, it’s been an unsolved problem to learn English in a desirable way here in Korea. However, things have been changing, when I was at high school, we started to have a class with a native English speaker as a teacher, and I would say that many English learners and teachers have recognized that speaking English is more important than any other, so education system has changed. So, I think the younger they are, the better education they get and the better they speak English. Hopefully, things are looking up.
Actually, I have seen this video clip before, and I was surprised to see the Chinese students screaming English. Well, I guess the world makes people become English mania. I agree that we need a common language to communicate, and English has already played a role as a common language, so, we need to learn it as long as you want to study or work abroad.
JIae
Comments
Hi Jiae! Learning English is so important nowadays. Not only for career purposes, but also for culture and entertainment. So I really enjoy studying English. I didn't know Korean could learn Japanese quite fast. I think it's interesting how languages share some similarities. Portuguese is very close to Spanish and, in a smaller degree, to French and Italian. English has a lot of Latin rooted words too, so my native language helps me with English vocabulary. Best wishes.
Hello Jiae, how are you? when I read your post today I instantly felt an urge to send you a message about it. Especially about the part you described your feeling as for leaving in a big city. I completely saw myself in your words. I just feel the same way. I lived in a big city for a long time and now I came back to living in a small town. And just like you said, I miss things I could only have if I lived there, but at the same time there are certain things that make life in the small city worthy. If only it wasn't so far away... Then the only thing we can do is to focus on the pros and try to forget the cons. Here in Brazil besides English, Spanish is also taught at school. But it's just the same as there. We can't learn much at school for groups are too large and teachers can't do their jobs well. If you want to learn more you have to attend a language school. But English is really worth the effort of learning it. Besides being a beautiful language, it's also used worldwide, just like you said. See you more soon. Bye, bye for now.
Hi,Jiae. I can't agree with you more in English learning. But you should also know sth about other different culture though other languages.
Hi Jiae it's really loving what you wrote about feeling lonely while you are in a crowded context, in a big city!I felt the same when I moved to the capital city of Sardinia (the Italian island where I still live)althouh it isn't a big city at all. But I used to live in a small village where we knew each other...like you.I think the main reason of that is that now we are living in a costant hurry and this lead us to forget what values are really important!But I want to reassure to you. After some time, the life in a city really improve, because you recreate a sort of small city around you...where you can feel love again. I wish you the best, because you are a very sensitive person. By the way, Have you ever been to Italy? and have you ever heard about "my" island?I love English language but, as you can see,I make lots of mistakes!but I have to say that in Italy language are bad teached!so it isn't only my fault... Finally one word about stem cells.In my opinion it has been a great discovery and I hope researchers keep studying on that.The issue is controversial you know, but why don't leave at least them working whith the embryos in surplus-freezed-unused, while they keep experimenting alternative methods,like isoleting stem cells from an adult tissue or collecting them form umbelical cord? But this is just my point of view. I hope to read about you soon. Have a good day.Valeria
Hi Jeae. The asin people has been doing an enormous effort to learn english and be part of a globalized world. the nunbers of language in the asian wouth west is amazing and with very deep roots in the culture with uncontable years of development. the effort made by the governments to integrate its countries were fantastic. sometimes some westers countries like mine did not have the same attitude and we are paying the high price to stay parcially out of the trade market. more then ever the development of one person or a whole country need of interaction and knowledge made outside your own country. best wishes.
Hi Jiae, congratulations. You have known to write about a lot topics. Now, with steam cells and languages your are giving a new turn to this wonderful blog. On the video about english mania is said that people start to study it for taking a new future. With steam cells is the same. The key point with steam cells is that nobody knows where we can arrive and..... are we going to a better point??? If we observe the needs of beings, are the steam cells improvements one of our urgent necessities??? I could be treated for already all illnesses but..... actually I want to live 150 years???? We live in a limitated resources system. When something changes so radically it can be assimilated in the right way. Well, it's enough, changing of subject; let me say that I enjoyed a lot your wonderful pic, it is a jump to the hope. The world remain in your hands, make a good use of it. See you.
hi,Kim. I'm from Vietnam.I am a teacher.I teach E in a primary shool.My daughter is crazy about Korean films. Her English isnot very good.She is in grade 7 (12 years old).I wish she could have a friend who speaks E, so that her E could be better.
Hi Jiae! How has your summer break been? hope you have a fantastic summer break! To talk about English, I’ve had two lodgers from Korea in my home. They came over to the UK to improve their English. They had been learning English since from their middle school.- they were late twenties. Surprisingly their speaking English wasn’t good enough to take their aiming course at uni ; as a result, they had to take English language course for one year before they studied the main course. Many English learners in Korea are so shy to speak English, and they are too afraid of making mistakes. I think they need to pluck up the courage and practise the language as much as they can. Practice makes perfect!
Hello, JIae! Recently, I’ve read an article which discussed the future of English as a global language. One prominent professor argued that Chinese, Arabic, Hindi and Urdu will take over from English simply because there are more people speaking these languages than there are people speaking English as a first language and although they can learn English as a second language, they will never stop using their mother tongue. The other one explained that non-native speakers of English use it as a way of communication whether in business, science and technology, or music industry. I can see that you are multilingual ‘cause you can speak Korean, English and Japanese, and you know some of the Chinese characters. Are you multilingual? You have that advantage of living in a country where all these Asian cultures come together so you can know them better. About living in a city – I have a different experience from yours. When I lived in a small town, everybody knew everything about everyone else. People talked to each other and ABOUT each other, behind each other’s back. I couldn’t stand that gossiping which was sometimes even malicious. In a big town I saw people in need and sick people, but they received help from good people and they got well. I became compassionate and considerate ‘cause I was moved by this good deeds. I cannot say that there aren’t poverty and people willing to help in the small town where I lived but there I lived in the cocoon of a caring family, sheltered and didn’t notice much what was happening around me. I hope you will have patience to read this comment to its end ‘cause I’ve made it so loooong.
Hi Jiae it's really loving what you wrote about feeling lonely while you are in a crowded context, in a big city!I felt the same when I moved to the capital city of Sardinia (the Italian island where I still live)althouh it isn't a big city at all. But I used to live in a small village where we knew each other...like you.I think the main reason of that is that now we are living in a costant hurry and this lead us to forget what values are really important!But I want to reassure to you. After some time, the life in a city really improve, because you recreate a sort of small city around you...where you can feel love again. I wish you the best, because you are a very sensitive person. By the way, Have you ever been to Italy? and have you ever heard about "my" island?I love English language but, as you can see,I make lots of mistakes!but I have to say that in Italy language are bad thaugh!so it isn't only my fault... Finally one word about stem cells.In my opinion it has been a great discovery and I hope researchers keep studying on that.The issue is controversial you know, but why don't leave at least them working whith the embryos in surplus-freezed-unused, while they keep experimenting alternative methods,like isoleting stem cells from an adult tissue or collecting them form umbelical cord? But this is just my point of view. I hope to read of you soon . Have a good day. Valeria
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