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Immigrant Korean Americans are learning Spanish to improve work relationships

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chicagotribune.com - 102 views    bury it

The Korean American Community Services center offers classes in Spanish. It seems that a number of Korean immigrants are studying Spanish to better communicate with their often Latin American immigrant employees. Given what seems like huge cultural differences that both groups have, this is a solid way to begin breaking down some of the problems that often arise due to culture clash.

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qstrian 18 weeks 3 days ago
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Speaking a second language shouldn't be seen as intruding on La Raza prerogatives, fellow Windy Citizens. Who's up for a little Korean class?

Tamale Chica 18 weeks 3 days ago
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Considering how bad the cultural clash got between Koreans and African Americans in Los Angeles, it's a smart move by those business owners who employ many Latino workers.

Asian languages are difficult to learn if you come from a Latin based language system. Similiarly, Arabic and Hebrew also use a completely different alphabet system.

It's got to be incredibly challenging for anyone to learn English and be 100% immersed in it, when it's not your native language and you're already an adult (it's easier to learn another language when you're young). To then study Spanish is really a huge move.

qstrian 18 weeks 3 days ago
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My Korean Senior Citizenship classes, which I taught in 1994, helped me see the linguistic challenges of which you write, Tamale Chica. I still remember the single Korean character used to represent the American concept of the law & how my Korean students loved to answer the name of the Vice President of the United States as "Al Gore."

Tamale Chica 18 weeks 3 days ago
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The Japanese language has three alphabets, two are phoneme based. Of those, one is used to denote non-native words, such as Coca Cola or if you are in Japan, tacos. The other phoneme based alphabet is for Japanese concepts and names. They also use a third alphabet, borrowed from the Chinese which is like the one you described, which conveys larger concepts. It makes our 26 letters seem like a relief.

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By Tamale Chica
18 weeks ago

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Chicagoans who voted this up

  • Tamale Chica
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