However, 58 year-old Professor Kim, an expert in linguistics from Seoul International University, who we referred the story to for comment, advised caution in an email message: "Research shows that English-speaking foreigners who came here before Internet usage became really widespread in the mid-1990s felt a long way from home and tended to assimilate more quickly, because they had to. However, studies show that since then people have increasingly lived their lives online, making the world seem a smaller place and people more small-minded. Now it's possible for a foreigner such as John to move to Korea but still feel as though they're living back home, albeit perhaps in one of those rough neighborhoods where mostly immigrants live."
Curiously, research shows the inability of foreigners from the Internet-generation, or Generation-I as it's known in Korea, to learn Korean partly because they are too busy posting online about their inability to learn Korean, is a phenomenon which largely appears limited to native English speakers; statistics show that immigrants to Korea from other Asian countries tend to learn the language quite quickly. But Professor Kim says he can explain this - "The Internet in those countries is rubbish." he concluded.
