That, um, creative display goes along with the frequent errors in Korea's English textbooks, the ubiquitous inaccuracies in test prep materials, and the constant gibberlish of TV programs as further evidence that you really oughtn't trust too much English education to these Korean snake oil sales(wo)men. He deserves credit for telling viewers not to use them, though, because I've run into too many instructors who find students' cursing amusing.
On the topic of curse words, of course just about everyone who learns a new language is curious about body parts and crude one-liners. But using swear words is dangerous, and not just for the obvious reason. It's like when the foreign English teacher tries too hard to use his or her very limited Korean in class, and quickly goes from impressing the students to sounding like an idiot. For the benefit of any students reading today, let me tell you that while calling somebody a "son of a bitch" is extremely offensive, an immigrant saying "you son of beach" is completely ridiculous.
One of the 8th-graders almost got it right.
14 comments:
For children I agree. For university aged or adult students, if they are using it correctly and understand that it is (or can be) offensive to some I dont have a problem with it.
It is a hard line to follow. For my middle school students I tell them not to swear because they do it so much that they have no idea how serious it is. This especially goes for the middle finger response that most give each other every 5 seconds.
As for my older Korean friends, I think that it helps make them sound a little more natural during conversation. I mean really how many adults don't swear around friends?
I just find it funny that this video is circulating around. When are we going to get the Korean version? I had to learn all of my swear words from watching "Brotherhood of War" or whatever "taeguki" is in English
Swear words are tricky. By middle school most Korean children know how to say (sometimes in Konglish form i.e. beach for bitch) most common English swear words even if they don't know their meaning precisely. And of course as kids, they like to use swear words. However most of the time (though certainly not always) when they do swear in English I find it is rarely with the intent to offend. More often they are just trying out the word, trying to look cool to their friends, or even trying to impress a native English speaker.
Furthermore I have noticed as my own Korean ability has improved how context dependent the offensiveness of swearing is in Korean culture. Of course swearing in English is also context dependent, but in Korean I have found that the context boundaries are sometimes different.
First many Koreans swear a lot in their normal conversation. My girlfriend's mother does so all the time in a way that is not meant to be offensive.
Second on several occasions I have heard students and their teachers talking about swear words without offense being taken or even the student being told not to use such language.
Third many words in Korean can be highly offensive within certain contexts while in others they carry no special emotive value. 미친 (crazy) is an example of this. While in English "fuck," "shit," "cunt," and even "bitch" are almost always emotively powerful (if not always offensive.)
In short I think Koreans and most English speakers have different boundaries in which swear words can and cannot be used appropriately so we shouldn't be too quick to punish Korean students when they use English swear words.
They don't know our rules, and we don't know theirs.
I just like that the lesson was proscribed for pregnant woman. Like being knocked up somehow makes you less of an adult.
Teaching swear words can be fun, but it can also be quite difficult. I think someone above mentioned something about context, and indeed there are many contexts in which swear words can be used. So teaching the contexts can be difficult. All that said, I don't think that it is particularly useful to teach swear words. There are a lot more creative ways to insult people than using swear words.
An example of that is that in Korean there don't seem to be many ways to say "worthless," or "useless." When Koreans are talking about people and want to express that they say "쓰래기," which I feel is okay, but if you want to call someone garbage, words like useless and worthless can explain how a person is garbage like. Contrast that to how in Korean, "Son of a Bitch," and "Son of a whore," can be directly translated with Korean swear words.
In my old boarding school, the French teacher was well respected, and everyone knew he taught curse words on the first day of class to the freshmen. That way, he got all that business out of the way. It also got the students more interested to learn more.
What caught my eye is this is yet another English teacher getting it wrong. No, I'm not talking about the appropriateness of swearing---because he actually did tell people not to use it, but just to learn how to recognize it, in case "foreigners" swear at your Korean ass---I'm talking about a guy who didn't even bother to check with anyone to see if it was right. Fuking? Son of of bitch? Son of beach? Yeah, sure, relatively minor mistakes, but just more evidence that you really oughtn't put any faith in people in the English education business.
I thought this was awesome!
First off, the point was to understand the words, which are so often used in English.
Think about most teenage students: They are exposed to swearing in music, movies, the internet. Keeping these words "under wraps" in the classroom means that they won't understand the taboo and inappropriateness that surrounds them.
My high school kids in Quebec often used English swear words at inappropriate times (including during a school assembly). I took it upon myself to educate them: Yes, these words exist, and this is what they mean. Now, they are inappropriate to use in certain situations... It was appreciated by the students (because it demystified the taboo) and by teachers, who no longer had to deal with these words cropping up in class or in assignments.
I quit watching after he misused the first word with the example sentence, "The weather is sick."
I agree with Ms. Parker, there is something to be gained from teaching curse words to prevent them from showing up in academic work or used in ESL classrooms. I do the same thing if the issue comes up but I also make it clear that the students, no matter what level they are, don't have the language skills or cultural knowledge to know when and when not to curse effectively.
Essentially...here's what it means, now do not EVER say it because chances are you will sound like an idiot or greatly offend someone who may knock your teeth out.
Interesting. I would never teach the use of swearing in the classroom. I learnt all the Korean swearing that I needed with the wife and out and about.
I don't think swears, or slang of any kind, can be effectively taught -- they're something you simply pick up through social experience.
Swear words and slang are much more context-sensitive than other English words. Swearing during a casual conversation with my friends is going have a very different effect than, say, swearing during Christmas dinner with my family. Similarly, using '80s slang from my childhood might get a laugh from someone my age, while it might just sound stupid to someone ten years younger than I am.
These words can't be used effectively - or perhaps even understood properly - without that contextual background. I'm reminded of the numerous times I've heard Koreans attempt to use the phrase "What's up?" It just ends up sounding like exactly what it is: a phrase that's been memorized and then regurgitated, with no understanding of context. Like you say, Brian, the linguistic snake-oil salesmen who teach these things should be ashamed of themselves -- not because they're teaching inappropriate words, but because they're teaching people to sound foolish.
"Looks like another gimmick by a male English teacher to get his 15 minutes of fame in Korea. "
Thanks for sharing, Foreigner Joy. Not sure what you think his sex has anything to do with it.
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