Classroom Korean-- or words that may be useful for foreign teachers

While the above image may not be an everyday occurrence (this was my class back during Chuseok), you can rest assured that you will hear an ample amount of Korean when you are teaching any age group. The younger they are, the more you are likely to hear, that's why I'm touching on this blog topic right now.

Yes, classrooms are supposed to be all English, with no Korean allowed! However, I have found that is rarely the case. Of course, there are people that can and do pull off classrooms where no Korean is spoken, at least extremely minimally, but that has not been my experience. Now that we've established that point, I'm going to make one of my own. That is simply that there are words and phrases you should plan to become acquainted with if you're teaching English to small Korean children, or even larger Korean children because it will be extremely helpful for a variety of reasons.

I'm going to assemble a small list of words we've encountered in our travels with the Korean word(s), the phonetic pronunciation for English speakers, and the meaning of said words. This list may be an ever expanding one, but hopefully it'll give any kindergarten/elementary teachers a little more to work with than just the blank look I know I was wearing for a while when these words came up.

Amanda Teacher's List of Somewhat-Useful Words to Know

hello                  안녕하세요 or 안녕       ahn-yong ha-say-oh (formal) or ahn-yong (informal)

yes                    예 or 네                            ye or neh (neh sometimes sounds like ‘deh’)

no                      아니                                 ah-nee (also ah-nee-oh)

I don’t like it       싫어                               she-ro (also pronounced she-do)            

trash                  쓰레기                              sure-egg-ee

pee                    쉬 (short for 쉬하다)         she

poop                   not sure??                       oonga or ddong (just a hard d, very common usage)

blood                  피                                     pee

teacher              선생님                              seun-saeng-neem (nim is a gender neutral honorific)

baby                   아기                                  ah-gee (with my kids it sounds like egg-ee though)



cute  귀여워                                           gwi-ow-ah (I hear it as (ah) kee-oww-ah a lot)      

stupid                 바보                                 bah-bo (not something you want your kids saying!)

alright/okay        not sure??                      chee cha

train sounds       not sure??                      chee chee po po              

As I mentioned above, this is just a starter set which I may add to. I did some research and scrounging using what knowledge I have of Korean, but some of them I was unable to actually find that reflected what I've heard. Please feel free to let me know if there's anything that needs fixing. I will of course add to this as needed. But these are words that have been immensely helpful once I learned what they meant.

I hope everyone back at home in the States is having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We've had a casual weekend of cleaning, shopping, roaming, and eating. Tomorrow we're back to the start of the work week and the start of June on the weekend. We're getting excited because June will be our 9 month mark of our contract and three months until we head home. It's been fun, but it's almost time for this journey to end.