1. One mistake that students make 100% of the time is answering the question: "How was your day?" 100% of the time my students will say "tired." They should say "tiring" or "It was tiring." Even my high level students make this mistake and it drives me crazy because it happens ALL of the time.
2. I tell my Korean students that the one thing I love about living in Korea is that meat is ingrained in this culture. It's so ingrained that Koreans sometimes say "I like cow meat" or even funnier "I like to eat cow/pig." Of course I correct my students and tell them that they should use the terms "pork" or "beef" or else it sounds like they're eating an animal while it's alive. Therefore, I have to tell them that they need to refer to the meat as pork or beef.
3. Sometimes I ask the student how their weekend was. You'll hear Korean students often say "I was boring." Then I ask my student, "Are you a boring person?" or "Are you not interesting?" Then they correct themselves and tell me "I was bored." I love to hear them laugh when they realize that they don't want to be thought of as a boring person!
4. When low intermediate students talk about their experiences, they often get the expression "I have never ______" very well. For example, "I have never been to Jeju Island." However, when students think of the opposite way to say that, they often say "I have ever been to Jeju Island." Students should say "I have (I've) been to Jeju Island" instead.
5. In Korean "find" and "look for" are exactly the same. Sometimes even my wife gets this wrong. Sometimes I'll be searching for my phone and she'll ask me "What are you finding?" when she meant to say "What are you looking for?" In English, "looking for" something comes before "finding" it. In Korean, they go simultaneously. I had to look for a great wife. Fortunately enough, I found her in April 2014. ;)
Scott Worden (L.A./Seoul Guy)
Instagram: l.a.seoulguy
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