Do you want to talk in Korean?

Hello! I’m Sophie, from Korea.
Is there anyone learning Korean in this site?
If you are, I can help you.
I didn’t find many writings in “Language Exchange” written in Korean.
But if you post your writing, I can correct you in detail.
Also, if you want to practice your speaking, you can have a conversation with me.
I think it will be really fun to talk in Korean.
Even if your Korean is not good, feel free.
Recently, I have more free time.
So just comment in this thread so that I can open my schedule.

6 Likes

Hi, Sophie, This is wonderful news!

1 Like

Yes, we are desperate for more Korean help here… We are at the mercy of Google translate… Thank you!

1 Like

Thank you for correcting my writing requests. Sometimes I have to wait many days to get them corrected! There seem to be few Korean speakers on LingQ these days. I assume there are quite a few learners though, but they probably post elsewhere for writing correction.

1 Like

Last week when I was in Seoul, I became ill and had to go to the pharmacy…and it was literally impossible to communicate to the Korean pharmacist the type of medicine I needed even with naver translate on hand. I tried to explain that I had Heartburn and Sinus congestion/ a cold… but the translation tech couldn’t find a korean word for these symptoms that he understood… it was mind-numbingly frustrating.

Welcome! I will try my best:)

그러게요. 아직 한국 사람들이나 한국말을 배우는 사람들에게 LingQ가 잘 알려져있지 않은 것 같네요ㅠㅠ 그래도 앞으로도 자주 글을 올려주시면 최선을 다해서 고쳐드리겠습니다^^

1 Like

I’m so sorry to hear that. Are you okay now? It’s the worst when you are sick somewhere far away from home. I just tried to use naver translator about what you explained but the result is disappointing…
By the way if you visit Seoul again and need some help, you can use this service. 1330 Korea Travel Helpline : VisitKorea
Korean Tourism Orgnazation provides this one-stop service. I hope you’re fine now. Take care!

1 Like

i am interested

I can only imagine how frustrating it would have been. Just for interest’ sake I tried to look up on naver and here are things which all seem to come with some indication it might mean heartburn:
속이 쓰리다
가슴이 쓰리다
가슴이 타다
가슴이 아리다
소화불량 (noun)

Of the lot, I’d give 가슴이 타다 a go since it more directly seems to be “chest is burning!”. But probably once you had a failed attempt or two at communicating, the guy you were talking to may have started to mentally shut down as panic of “I’m not understanding this foreigner!” set in… if that were the case then I think it would be hard to salvage the dialog.

I had a much less urgent situation come up on a trip to Korea wherein I ordered a coffee at Lotte World and the guy was quite busy as there was a queue. Coffee arrived black so I asked if he had any milk. He clearly didn’t understand me. So I then asked in Korean if there was milk. No luck. Then tried asking for coffee cream. Then saying “ooo-yooo” slowly. But I think after the first failed communication attempt he continued to look as if he were listening but mentally he was just going “oh crap I dont understand… I dont understand”.

My situation was resolved by another staff member helping out.

Did you manage to resolve your situation? Did you end up getting somewhat appropriate medication?

1 Like

Thank you! I opened some schedules. Please tell me your available time so that I can open more time!

1 Like

No, I just took some tylenol from the convenience store and I think the pharmacist gave me some “mystery” medicine that didn’t actually do anything. I just had to suck it up for a couple days.

I can say with certainty that this idea of “english being the universal language” is just not true. I’ve heard from so many people that you don’t need Korean to get by in Korea and you can get by just fine with English… but I found that to be completely false… outside of the airport/subway systems which have english signage and a handful of the bigger tourist sites, it was often difficult to find english speakers. The occasional store clerk would say “thank you” or some greetings in english, but often they would be too nervous and just point to the register to show the price.

No comparison to the Euro capitals like Berlin or Amsterdam… I was surprised at the poor level of english because Korea supposedly ranks higher on countries that teach english.

It’s just all the more motivating and reassuring that it is certainly worth learning Korean. It’s definitely a useful language to learn, where as I have difficulty motivating myself to study norwegian or other European languages because the english proficiency in some places is so good… Not the case in Korea lol.

I’ve had a number of visits to Korea now and its simply not true that you can get by with English. I don’t understand the posts I see on Reddit and such where people lament that there is so little opportunity to use Korean when they visit Korea. I have to wonder where they are going that English is so broadly spoken!

When I go its not like I’m visiting some small town somewhere - my parents-in-law live in central Seoul! So I’m talking about needing to know Korean while visiting department stores, florists, coffee shops, convenience stores in their major city!

I’m not expecting to be able to speak English. Its their country and I don’t expect Koreans to speak English at all.

It is motivating, as you say.

And clearly automated translation is still struggling with Korean. My mother-in-law installed an app on her phone to aid her being able to communicate with me. One morning I was up early so she spoke into her phone and showed it to me. The translation should have read “Do you need something?” (or similar) but instead it read “Whats wrong with you?” :smiley:

1 Like

hahaha the number of hilarious mis-translations I’ve had is endless, but that’s a great one!

Absolutely! I’m so glad you’re here! For some reason, there have never been many Korean tutors on LingQ.

1 Like

Nice to meet you:) Thank you so much! I posted my new schedules. If you’d like to talk at another time, you can send me a request. I hope we can talk soon!

1 Like

I most certainly will schedule something soon! I would also like to do some writing, if you are doing writing correction.

Glad to hear that!
You can view my conversation schedule here.

Also, I’m doing writing corrections.So feel free to post your Korean writing:)

1 Like

Hi I am Yasemin from Turkey, I am interested in your offer Cheers! :slight_smile:

1 Like

Nice to meet you, Yasemin! I posted my new schedule so please check:) You can check here.

I hope to talk to you soon. If you’d like to talk at another time, you can send me a request.
Also I can correct your Korean writing!