nobody speaks Korean except the groupmate

[Maybo]

I have a problem of tenses.
Once, I talked to my English teacher, I said "Last semester, our group needed to choose a forum and analyse slang. One of our groupmates chose a Korean forum. I didn't want to choose that because nobody speaks Korean except the groupmate."
My English teacher corrected my speech to "...nobody spoke Korean.." He explained that since I didn't know if the other groupmates could speak Korean later and maybe some of them had learned it next semester so I should use the past tense.
But What if I'm sure they can't speak Korean, can I keep the tense present?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I have a problem with tenses.
[space break]
Once, I talked to my English teacher. I said, "Last semester, our group needed to choose a forum and analyse slang. One of our groupmates chose a Korean forum. I didn't want to choose that because nobody speaks Korean except the groupmate."
[space break]
My English teacher corrected my speech to "...nobody spoke Korean.." He explained that since I didn't know if the other groupmates could speak Korean later and maybe some of them had learned it next semester [STRIKE]so[/STRIKE] I should use the past tense.
[space break]
But what if I'm sure they still can't speak Korean? [or: But what if I'm sure they can't speak Korean now?] Can I keep the tense present?

I suggested using still or now to make it clearer that you're talking about the present. Neither is necessary, but either is helpful.

Yes.

 

[Maybo]

I found I was unclear in the last paragraph. It should be "What if I was sure that they still couldn't speak Korean when I talked to my English teacher? Can I keep the tense present for "nobody speaks Korean" in that conversation?"

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I found I was unclear in the last paragraph. It should be "What if I was sure that they still couldn't speak Korean when I talked to my English teacher? Can I keep the tense present for "nobody speaks Korean" in that conversation?"

I answered that above: Yes. If they still don't speak it now, you can keep the present tense.

 

[tedmc]

To avoid the doubt of whether they would be able to speak Korean later, I think the past tense is better and more consistent. Using past tense does not mean they would from being able to speak the Korean later.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

To avoid the doubt of whether they would be able to speak Korean later, I think the past tense is better and more consistent. Using past tense does not mean they would from being able to speak the Korean later.

Yes, I agree. I'm simply answering the question when I say that if they don't speak Korean now, the present tense would also be correct.

 

[Maybo]

I don't understand the use of "would from being" in the following sentence.

Using past tense does not mean they would from being able to speak the Korean later.

 

[tedmc]

I don't understand the use of "would from being" in the following sentence.

Sorry. What I meant was:
...they would not be able to speak Korean later.