Language Fail

Ugh, we all know that problems in the workplace are no fun. Well, add a language barrier to the mix and these problems can be a million times worse. BIS is an amazing school and we’ve been very fortunate to get the opportunity to work with some incredible people. There are, however, frustrations just like any other professional environment.

One of the more prominent frustrations is the communication problem. Christopher and I are often frustrated with the communication between the only English speaking staff, the English/Korean speaking staff, the semi-English/Korean speaking staff, and the only Korean speaking staff (does that make sense?). We have co-workers from every degree of the spectrum and it gets frustrating and exhausting communicating policy, ideas, and concerns in this manner. We feel that important words are often lost in translation, resulting in an entirely different scenario than we had anticipated. There have been times when a Korean staff member tells each of us foreign teachers something individually and then when we convene to discuss, we all have gotten something different from the conversation, leaving us very confused.

We wish there wasn't such a barrier between the foreign staff and the Korean staff. All of the staff here are so kind and gracious yet we don't really know them or their true personalities. We often hear them laughing and are disappointed because we want to be in on the joke; we want to know what funny thing happened on the way to work or what child they are making fun of. Unfortunately, our Korean skills are sub par and we probably won't be at the level to understand them more clearly any time soon. We don't even know their real Korean names - they only tell us their English names and all of the children use their English names. If you know me, you know that I like to talk and I hate that I can't always converse with the other staff members on a productive level. When riding in an elevator with them, I simply have no words and it's frustrating.

Chris and I have decided that we need to make more of a conscious effort to become better citizens of the Republic of Korea which includes learning more of the language. Reading Hangul is clearly not enough to effectively communicate with the many interesting people whom we encounter and wish to know. We are going to be having a very basic Korean class, facilitated by our Korean friends, in exchange for writing help and "accent improvement" (that's what they want). We will keep you posted on our progress, although it may be slow.

In the meantime, these daily Korean words and phrases on the Korea Times website have been helpful...