2006-11-14

MWNews

Learning a foreign language is difficult - everyone agrees.
But there are people with no formal education and still manages to speak a foreign language. Some of them speaks so fluently that if I had not known they are non-Korean, I could have taken them as native Korean.
It's amazing to see how they make it - with more than 10 hours-work a day, no teacher, no textbook, no class. What's more, most of them are 'illegal worker', that means they are constantly threatened to be deported from Korea.

These people have created the Migrant Worker Television, a broadcast system to give a voice to migrant workers living in Korea. They have been broadcasting their own stories for more than half and a year. I watch their program from time to time.
If you're studying Korean too, I recommend you to visit their website and listen to their program. I'ts unbelievable that they haven't received any formal Korean language training... (It's also a great chance to know Korea from a totally different viewpoint.)

Try one of their latest broadcasting.


(Most of the staffs of MWNews have been living in Korean for ten years or more. The woman from China, however, is not 'really' foreigner. She's Korean-Chinese[중국동포/조선족]. You can notice that by her fluency and Yanbian accent. All of the staffs speak excellent Korean, but especially the Nepalese and Bangladeshi. Their pronunciation sounds so natural that sometimes it's hard to tell the difference from a native Korean.)

12 comments:

Spicebears 스파이스베어 said...

Wow! I want to speak like them!!

Song said...

Spicebears, YOU CAN DO IT TOO!

Equinox said...

People are always capable of impossible in adversity. Remarkable life force in the migrants.

Song said...

True true.
I saw the same life force in Maesot, the Thai-Burma border where Burmese refugees live.
Some former political prisoners speak excellent English, but all they had studied was some piece of English newspaper they had in the prison...

Anonymous said...

I notice the difference of the different accents and use of different words between Yanbian Korean and the Seoul Korean, which was set on purpose to show the identity of the girl dancer from Yanbian in the movie (title? i forogt :( ) starring 文根英.
I can still remember "A-ji-bai" ('uncle') in Yanbian-ish Korean.

Song said...

Wow~ Zaiming~ How keen of you to distinguish the difference:) (You never learned Korean, did you?)
You're right, "아즈바이" is not used in 'Standard Korean' but maybe in Yanbian- and North Korean accent.

Btw, if in Korea, your birthday could have become a very exciting and meaningful day - with a lot of 빼빼로.
It's interesting that Nov.11 is called as the day for single in China.

Anonymous said...

Hi, song.
I'd like to read your writing.
Because they always have new and progressive thoughts.
I think and think social problems again.

Song said...

오랜만입니다 Dauby님^^

블로깅이 뜸해지려던 참입니다... 아시겠지만 한국어 블로그는 언제부터인가 우울모드구요...

당분간은 이 상태로 계속 갈 듯합니다.

그래도 놀러오세요... 심심할 때^^;

Anonymous said...

hmmm....you have been busy......

Anonymous said...

바쁜 것도 있지만 요즘엔 별로 쓰고 싶은 얘기가 없어서요... ^^

Anonymous said...

so just blog about nothingness....

Nothing is something - no thought is blank.

We learnt this is Social Work and Counselling - When we are sitting doing nothing, we are actually thinking about our present state of inactivity. And that in itself is an activity.

I am mumbling too much now...anyway....I look forward to your future blogs.\ ^^

Song said...

Thank you Aini^^
Probably I'm just too lazy... hehe~