Well, the very advanced colloquial stuff, anyway.
Despite Korea being littered with English signs and Konglish, plus countless Koreans who possess some English skills but are too shy or lacking the self-confidence to speak with you, you'll find that many, if not most foreigners over here don't speak much Korean, but are able to comfortably operate in the country. But that doesn't prevent one from encountering the daily barrage of language barriers and misunderstandings that occur when out and about. As a foreigner, you're used to living in a world of highly evolved English such as sarcasm, innuendo, pop cultural inside jokes, and phrasal verbs. The overwhelming % of Koreans who speak English don't have the foggiest idea of such things, unless they've lived abroad for a while or are kyopos. It's incredibly important that you understand the notion of 'giving them the benefit of the doubt' whenever they make off-comments with their English, that might be construed as an invasive comment. Far too many times, the odd foreigner can be seen blowing up at a Korean who tripped over a misunderstanding due to the their English level and the foreigner assuming that the Korean has a heightened grasp of colloquial English, sarcasm, etc...Although TV shows like Friends are all the rage here, the actual English applications of the dialogue don't translate well, save for those students in university who have been studying for years or have experience abroad.
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