krnofdrg
Mq Law Student :)
But people in Myeongdong are much more acceptable towards foreigners, because that it's like the hub for foreigners to shop (particularly Japanese, Chinese and English Speaking people), so I hear people are much more tolerant of people speaking English and whatever language that is not Korean. But yeah, I understand what you mean also, I have been in the same situation and it sucks >.<! Except my part was the people were very harsh/rude and they said it explicitly to me.I was in an Adidas store in Myeongdong and I was talking to one of my high school friends in English. The shopkeeper asked her if I could speak English and then I told him no. He then said that considering I was in Korea, I should be speaking Korean. Fair play though, I accept what he said and he wasn't rude about it.
I suppose it would be tougher for the parents though to justify why their child doesn't speak Korean. Surely people would be thinking why your parents didn't make sure you could speak Korean?
I've never experienced the second part personally though, I picked up Korean when I was very young so I can speak it quite fluently although not perfectly and even my sisters speak quite fluent.