desperately need help

[sarahelaine]

I am a preschool teacher who had twins from Korea dropped off in my class today. I don't know any Korean and they don't know any English. I need to know very basic words such as hello, hungry, bathroom, more, nap, clean up, yes, no, etc. I also need a phrase such as "it's okay" to comfort them. Please give us any help that you can.

[bewolff]

this is typed with American English romanization for quick pronunciation...

ask questions with a rising tone
speaking them too slowly might make it harder to understand. don't be afraid to say them a little quick. acting when saying them will add to understanding. hold your stomach when you say "a-po?"

hua jang shil-------bathroom
pe-go pa? -----hurngry?
a-po? -----hurt?
pee-gon-hae yo? -----tired?
anyong , or anyong ha sae yo-----hello/good bye
a-nyo!-----No!
nae-----yes
it's ok------kwen cha na yo (the "a's" pronounced like "a" in "father)

Good luck with this.

[austinfd]

heres a few more that might be helpful:

clean-up: chawn so hey bwa (that vowel "chawn" isn't quite as strong as lawn... the standard english spelling is "cheon" but that never helped me when I was learning!

more: taw again, the vowel isn't spelled well in English, in this word it rhymes with "saw"

now: chigum

later: najoon-ae "ae" means long /a/ vowel sound

[Keith]

Thanks for helping out Beowulf

Here's another few words that might be able to help you out (not using the standard romanization we typically use):

an dwae! - you can't do that! don't do that!
jal haessuh - good job
igeo - this
ja - sleep (can use this for "go to sleep")
meogeo - eat (can use this for the imperative "please eat")

Also, if you're in a quick bind, I suggest www.survivalphrases.com/korean
It gives you a good basic vocabulary in a very short amount of time.

Be sure to ask any questions if you have any more... Good luck!

[holdfast]

i am also a preschool teacher and there is a korean boy there that does not speak english. i can speak korean well enough to understand him, but he's not in my class, so i hardly get to talk to him or help him out. but from talking to him, here are a few more things to add: (this is not standard romanization, i'm just spelling it out how it sounds to me)

sit down - ahn jah

let's go - ga jah

try it/try doing it - hae bah

get down (my kid likes to climb on things) - nae lyoh

go play - noh loh ga

what did you say? - moh la goh?

don't cry - ool ji mah


hmmm.... if i think of anything else immediately helpful and short, i will post it. if you have any other questions about teaching korean kids, i have limited experience and would be happy to help!

[sarahelaine]

Thank you for all of your help. Hopefully I will be able to communicate well enough for them to understand. I can only imagine how scary it would be to be dropped off in a new country where practically no one speaks your language at five years old. At least they have eachother. I am suppose to be teaching them English and then they will return to Korea in about 5 months. This may seem like a silly question but I really have no ESL experience. Do they understand to shake their head for yes and no? So far they are extremely shy and I've only seen a few smiles. Also is there anything I might do and not realize is a taboo in their culture? Yesterday I just kept smiling and giving them a thumbs up because we had no way to communicate. I was hoping that was acceptable behavior. Once again thank you so much for all of your help. I actually feel like we might make it now.

[Keith]

Oh! One thing that is Taboo is writing their names in red. Also giving a knife to someone in Korea taboo... but I'm sure you won't be doing that one!

[holdfast]

i have no esl experience either, but i have been privately tutoring the above mentioned 5 year old in english for a month now (because i can't help him when he is at school). the first few times we met, i used a lot of korean, but now i try not to use any korean at all. we studied for 45 minutes today and i had to explain something in korean only twice. i say that only to let you know that it is possible to teach them even if you don't understand them at all.

i have been using flashcards to teach words and physically acting out verbs with the little boy. i am so excited now because he tries to make sentences! i really don't know how to teach grammar to a 5 year old who cannot write or read, but i speak in simple sentences and he just picks up on them. i don't know how that works, but it does. i've been using those baby's first word type of books as well to teach words. we look at the books and he tells me what he sees on the page, then he tells me what those things/people are doing. then i try to act out another example.

just start from the very beginning, and don't give up! kids pick up languages very easily, so if you just talk to them slowly and clearly and repeat repeat repeat, they will be speaking and understanding in no time!