I believe languages are easier when younger. The best route is total immersion. Listen to music and look up the words and try to mimic the pronunciation.
Was an ESL teacher for 20 years, and also a citizenship teacher. If he has lived here long enough to become a citizen ( and passed the test), he should have a decent command already. If he has just learned English by being around others that are also Korean, he will probably continue to speak with errors, but that shouldn’t stop native speakers from understanding him.
I tutor 1:1 in a variety of subjects/ ages. I have a woman who is around 50 years old. She came her for college, started a business, has raised her children here. She is very bright and she still struggles with English. (1) English is based on Latin; Chinese and the Asian languages have NOTHING in common with English, including written letters, phonics - sounds of letters, idiomatic phrases. (2) The biggest challenge is with prepositions and idioms. For example, ON the table, UNDER the book - these have to do with placement. But then you have ABOUT the topic, UNDER the weather, INTO the night. These are not logical, just ‘that’s how we say it.’
We laugh and laugh. “Why do you pronounce it this way, when it is written this way?” I explain the roots - ‘oh, this is from Latin, that is French.’ She has no understanding of “Silent E’ or ‘sounding it out’ although we have reviewed it endlessly.
Regardless, she handles her business beautifully. She does recycling (something) with China, so her colleagues also struggle with English, whether they are here or in China. She gives speeches (which I help her edit); her kids, raised here, also help her.
Makes me really glad I learned English as a child. We have many Asian immigrants in Los Angeles, though. Your friend will do well - but he will never speak like a Native.
Children can learn 2,3,4 languages when young, but easier if they are 6 or younger...
Consider Swiss children ...In their country they speak French, German Italian ...The children learn those languages plus English...
One of the best places for online ESL resources is here:
All kinds of materials; all free. A good place to start.
Music with translations
K-pop to English
Or
Recognized melodies
And movies with subtitles
This works
A friend of mine from way back said he learned to speak English by watching sesame street and other kids shows. It worked. He spoke English with no accent.
Those things are true but as always, I’d add there are exceptions. Many in my family have a gift for things to do with sound. I can not only recognize music almost instantaneously but I imitate accents and animal sounds very well and likely could’ve done very well with languages...I learned some German but not heavy pursuit. One cousin is a genius with music and his sister is so fluent in .german she’s teaching soldiers in Germany as permanent job. Our uncle was absolute genius with language (and sound generally): as a young adult he began learning languages by himself, till he became completely fluent in 7 totally different, and read some 11 others, including asiatic. He was in Intelligence in the Korean War due to his fluency with enemy languages.
He did this himself as an adult. If your friend has any sign of skill with sounds, he may be able to improve.
My parents started learning Chichewa when they were over sixty.
The best way is to immerse yourself in the language for the majority of your day for about 12 months. Speak it, listen to it, watch it. Do not depend on what you learn on the job as that usually is a small set of words.
Watch TV. It is the one time it actually serves a purpose.
He'd been in the US for a while, and most of my team is at a remote site -> so conversations (technical with nuance) happened over skype at the time.
It was VERY frustrating not in a way that you're angry at the person, but just hard to make progress. He is middle age. He also had been in the states over 5 years.
BUT ... our team talks a lot :-) ... on the phone I mean -> we MEET a lot, and they talk a lot down there.
I think his other jobs probably were programmer jobs where they stuck him off in a corner (like many development jobs) ... and so he didn't get a hell of a lot of practice.
But I noticed a couple months ago that I rarely don't understand a word he's saying. He's quick with US sayings now, much more confident ... and can finally communicate his very excellent thinking. Thinking was always excellent ... but he had trouble expressing it. Was just hard to understand and needed to expand his quickly accessible vocabulary.
So that's over about 18 months.
The difference -> LOTS of communicating all day long on our team. Previously he had no problem formulating ideas ... but expressing them ... he was only 80% there, and that was enough to make it really slow and hard to get to.
Now he's 97% and we have no problem joking with nuanced little twists of phrase.
Now I know PART of it, but not most of it, is that I'm used to it -> my ear has learned. But in general my answer is:
YES anyone can learn language at any age if they are in a situation where they are forced to talk A LOT.
It's probably quicker when very young, and also then you have the added benefit of not having another original language competing in your head.
But yes - patience, lots of expressing oneself ... practice practice practice ... and hopefully a supportive environment where people are patient. There were times when we were I thought my head was going to explode in the beginning trying to understand and also trying to hide my frustration. But we all knew he was trying, and he had the emotional intelligence to sense our frustration but also know we weren't made at him
So yeah - it can work. But if ANYONE is a dick ... that person will probably just shut down and withdraw.
Hah! And by the way - it would be good if some people had English as A language at all. (Sometimes that goes for US citizens)
He needs to hire a Karen for language.
The best Karens in education wore nun uniforms and carried rulers and yard sticks as their rod and staff of authority and retribution.
A year with a Karen correcting his speech and he’ll be as proficient as any born native speaker.
Depends on him as to how interested he is in acquiring better English skills.
There is book learning in community colleges and language schools specializing in some form of hands on instruction.
Then there is the proverbial “talking pillow” meaning someone with language ability who is a constant companion.
Someone has to be willing to work with him, find out in detail the kinds of mistakes he makes and help him fix them.
English is a tough language for non-Romance, non-Germanic native speakers. If German has many rules and few exceptions, and French has few rules but many exceptions, English has many rules and many exceptions.
Some people are great at languages, some aren’t so good, and most can learn I suppose.
Make sure your friend learns to put a space between a comma or a period and the word following it.
My wife is from another country. As we age her accent and vocabulary are slipping. I believe it is do to age.
They basically learned through immersion in daily life, work, and raising kids in America. Dad decided to further his education and managed to get into a PhD program in bacteriology. He almost didn't get in because of his age and being a non-native English speaker. This was in the early 1950's when America wasn't so welcoming of immigrants with fractured English. He was intelligent and hard working, and finished his degree. He worked in a research lab in the pharma industry, having never taken a formal English course in his life. When he needed something written for publication, he had secretarial support for his spelling. These days we have digital support. Mom's English was solid and she actually taught it along with other languages.
Both of my parents had heavy accents, and Dad's English was always more limited in range and vocabulary than Mom's. Mom was younger, she taught languages, and she just pushed herself more. They both read English books for pleasure. I never witnessed people having trouble understanding my parents, despite the accents. it is even more common now to encounter accented English. My experience with Asian accents is that if I'm having trouble understanding a speaker, it is usually when someone speaks very fast. The combination of accent, speed, and different rhythm to the language can make it very difficult. I run into this with people from India and sometimes China.
Try Duolingocom on his/her PC - it’s a very good way to work not just on a second language but pronunciation and syntax as well.
Even native-born Americans sometimes make grammatical, syntactical, and orthographical mistakes - your posting provides ample evidence of that!
(It's spelled "dilemma," by the way; and please leave a space after commas and periods.)
Answer: There is no "dilemma" here! Your friend should be able to learn enough English to "get along." End of story.
Regards,