At the end of the day Thursday, it came down to this, with five minutes left: "Write something about cultural differences between countries." I like these kinds of assignments because they are "open". This is what I came up with:
Korean Original, Written by Me [수업에서 쓴 글]
나라마다 문화가 다릅니다. 예를 들면, 한국에서는 많은 사람들이 자주 술을 마시지만 이슬람교의 나라에서 법으로 술을 마시면 안 됩니다. 기독교 국가에서는 술을 마셔도 되지만 보통 서양인들 중에서 자주 술을 마시는 사람이 적습니다.
Translation into English
Every nation's culture is different. One example is that in Korea, lots of people drink alcohol frequently, but in Islamic countries drinking alcohol is not allowed by law. In Christian countries, people may drink alcohol, but in general there are few Westerners who frequently drink.
Korean Original, Written by Me [수업에서 쓴 글]
나라마다 문화가 다릅니다. 예를 들면, 한국에서는 많은 사람들이 자주 술을 마시지만 이슬람교의 나라에서 법으로 술을 마시면 안 됩니다. 기독교 국가에서는 술을 마셔도 되지만 보통 서양인들 중에서 자주 술을 마시는 사람이 적습니다.
Translation into English
Every nation's culture is different. One example is that in Korea, lots of people drink alcohol frequently, but in Islamic countries drinking alcohol is not allowed by law. In Christian countries, people may drink alcohol, but in general there are few Westerners who frequently drink.
Comment on My Argument:
Forgive my inexact argumentation. Writing anything coherent in this language, in three minutes, is hard enough!
What I meant is this:
Forgive my inexact argumentation. Writing anything coherent in this language, in three minutes, is hard enough!
What I meant is this:
Regular alcohol consumption, while it exists in the USA, is culturally discouraged, whereas in Korea it is rather culturally encouraged and in Korea regular drinking is common. The Korea Times reported a few years ago that72% of Korean men drink alcohol every day. Another report says that 9.5 million bottles of beer and 9 million bottles of soju (an awful drink similar to vodka) are consumed every day, in a country of only forty-some-million adults.
Comment on Mistakes / Teacher's Corrections:
I've reached the point where I can crank out something like this consistently, steadily, but slowly, and inevitably with mistakes. In this case, Han Teacher corrected two mistakes. One was a small grammar point [마시도-->마셔도]; the other one was replacing the phrasing I used for "in Christian countries" [그리스도의 나라 --> 기독교 국가]. I was curious about why she suggested that other phrase. This may be a case of "it just sounds right". Then I asked Ol' Mr. Google: My phrase only appears on nine [9] pages; her phrase, 179,000! That's why she's the teacher. (She is active and fun in class but has a tendency to speak too quickly for me to follow at times. She has told us several times that she likes drinking alcohol, but now that she's married with a baby she seldom does anymore. This is the kind of sidetrack that an American teacher would be much less willing to go down in front of students [see above].)
Comment on Mistakes / Teacher's Corrections:
I've reached the point where I can crank out something like this consistently, steadily, but slowly, and inevitably with mistakes. In this case, Han Teacher corrected two mistakes. One was a small grammar point [마시도-->마셔도]; the other one was replacing the phrasing I used for "in Christian countries" [그리스도의 나라 --> 기독교 국가]. I was curious about why she suggested that other phrase. This may be a case of "it just sounds right". Then I asked Ol' Mr. Google: My phrase only appears on nine [9] pages; her phrase, 179,000! That's why she's the teacher. (She is active and fun in class but has a tendency to speak too quickly for me to follow at times. She has told us several times that she likes drinking alcohol, but now that she's married with a baby she seldom does anymore. This is the kind of sidetrack that an American teacher would be much less willing to go down in front of students [see above].)
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