As someone who's worked with successful Korean CEOs expanding globally, I've noticed the same English mistakes appearing again and again. The good news? These are easy to fix once you're aware of them.

Even the most successful executives—people running multi-million dollar companies—make these subtle errors that can affect how they're perceived in international meetings. Let's break them down.

1. "I am interesting in your proposal"

The Mistake: Confusing "interesting" with "interested"

Why Korean Speakers Make This Mistake: In Korean, you might say "재미있다" (interesting) to express your interest. The direct translation doesn't work in English.

The Fix:

• ❌ "I am interesting in your proposal"
• ✅ "I am interested in your proposal"

Remember: Interesting = you make others interested | Interested = you feel interest

2. "Please give me advice"

The Mistake: Using "advice" as a countable noun

Why This Happens: In Korean, "조언" (advice) feels like something you can count. In English, "advice" is uncountable like "information" or "water."

The Fix:

• ❌ "Please give me an advice"
• ❌ "I need some advices"
• ✅ "Please give me some advice"
• ✅ "I need your advice"
• ✅ "Could you give me a piece of advice?"

3. "I will contact to you tomorrow"

The Mistake: Adding unnecessary "to" after "contact"

Why This Happens: Korean speakers translate directly from "연락하다" (to contact) and add "to" thinking it sounds more complete.

The Fix:

• ❌ "I will contact to you"
• ✅ "I will contact you"
• ✅ "I'll reach out to you tomorrow"
• ✅ "I'll get in touch with you"

4. "We are discussing about the merger"

The Mistake: Adding "about" after "discuss"

Why This Happens: In Korean, you say "~에 대해 토론하다" (discuss about), so the direct translation includes "about."

The Fix:

• ❌ "We are discussing about the merger"
• ✅ "We are discussing the merger"
• ✅ "We're talking about the merger" (if you want "about," use "talk")

Pro Tip: "Discuss" already means "talk about," so you don't need "about" again!

5. "According to me, this strategy will work"

The Mistake: Using "according to" instead of "in my opinion"

Why This Happens: "According to" sounds formal and professional, so Korean speakers use it to express their opinion.

The Fix:

• ❌ "According to me, this is the best approach"
• ✅ "In my opinion, this is the best approach"
• ✅ "I believe this is the best approach"
• ✅ "From my perspective, this will work"

Remember: "According to" is for citing external sources, not your own opinion!

• ✅ "According to the report, sales are up 20%"
• ✅ "According to our CFO, we're on track"

Why These Mistakes Matter

"When you're negotiating a multi-million dollar deal or presenting to international investors, these small mistakes can make you seem less confident—even though your business strategy is brilliant."

The good news? Once you're aware of these patterns, they're easy to correct. Most of my CEO clients fix these mistakes within 2-3 sessions.

How to Practice

Here's what I recommend to my Inner Circle clients:

1. Record yourself - Listen to your business calls and notice these patterns
2. Self-correct - When you catch yourself making these mistakes, pause and correct them out loud
3. Practice with feedback - Work with someone who can catch and correct these errors immediately
4. Use them in context - Practice these corrections in your actual business scenarios

The Bottom Line

You didn't become a successful CEO by avoiding mistakes—you got there by learning from them quickly. The same applies to English. These five errors are incredibly common among Korean executives, but they're also incredibly easy to fix.

The difference between sounding unsure and sounding confident in English often comes down to fixing just a handful of small patterns like these.