Articles by George Loetter

Differences in Maxims, Politeness Conventions and Directness of Speech between Korean and English

I once heard a polyglot say that learning a language is learning a culture - when they speak Italian, they become Italian, when they speak Korean, they are Korean - and this is the mindset they have that allows them to speak so well in different languages. 

While not all of us, or our students, will be motivated to immerse this deeply into a language, it points at the truth of how language and culture cannot be separated - and understanding these differences is essential, as a teacher and a language learner.  Being an ESL instructor in Korea, I’d like to offer a brief explanation of...