Spending a lot of time over the last year in Asia has had fairly detrimental effects on my ability to speak proper English. In Japan, I found myself speaking Japangrish, to make myself more easily understood, and in China, well, I just didn't speak much English at all. It's gotten so bad that my mom has started making fun of me for it. Case in point: In an email thread with my family, I referred to the "laundry machines" at the office. My mom's reply: "Here in the 'new world' we call them washing machines :)" I love my mom for being cool enough to make fun of me.
I've lost count of how many times Koreans have asked me the question, "How long do you stay in Korea?" in those words or something very similar. Clearly this question is taught in every English class in Korea, because I hear it over and over again, so I just wanted to be very clear about something here: DO NOT USE THIS EXPRESSION. IT IS INCORRECT. This phrase is incorrect for a few reasons, but primarily because it sounds ambiguous to native English speakers. Specifically, there are probably two different questions that you really want to ask: 1) How long have you been in Korea? (한국에 오신지 얼마나 됐어요?) 2) How long will you stay in Korea? (한국에 얼마나 있을 거예요?/한국에 얼마동안 있을 계획이에요?) Nearly always the intended question is number 1, "How long have you been in Korea?", followed afterwards by number 2, "How long will you stay in Korea?". But the incorrectly stated question ambiguously sounds somewhere in between number 1 and number 2. So, don't ever use it ...
Try surviving in Korea for over two years, you're English is great, I'm quite jeruse, what is a washing machine?
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