korman Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5059 days ago 4 posts - 6 votes
| Message 1 of 36 16 January 2011 at 2:03am | IP Logged |
I want to learn Korean, and I'm trying the "immersion" method. I have dramas, music, and have Korean books. I try to have something in Korean in front of me at least 8 hours a day. I've been doing this for 6 months, and I still have no idea what is being said, or what I'm reading.
Why?
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Nguyen Senior Member Vietnam Joined 5091 days ago 109 posts - 195 votes Speaks: Vietnamese
| Message 2 of 36 16 January 2011 at 2:22am | IP Logged |
Are you studying or just trying to learn by bosmosis. The latter doesn't work, also six months is not a long time for such a difficult language. It would be surprising indeed if you were to be able to understand Dramas, Music etc.. At this stage in the game. Get some good study materials and be patient. One day things will start making sense.
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Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5565 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian
| Message 3 of 36 16 January 2011 at 2:49am | IP Logged |
Just having the language in front of you is not enough if you have no way to break down what is being said and understand the meaning of the words. Nguyen is right, you do have to do some study of the language itself (i.e. grammar and vocabulary), especially with a language as dissimilar to English as Korean is. With Korean you will also have to study the different registers of speech, since completely different words are used depending on who the speaker is talking to. And not to discourage you or anything, but Korean is a particularly difficult language and even if you moved to Korea and cut English out of your life it would probably still take you years to feel comfortable in it.
Edited by Levi on 16 January 2011 at 2:49am
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polyglHot Pentaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5064 days ago 173 posts - 229 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian Studies: Russian
| Message 4 of 36 16 January 2011 at 2:55am | IP Logged |
Are you serious? 6 months of watching Korean movies without subs?
Of course you need to use subs until you are half fluent. This type of immersion only
works after you have studied all the grammar, OR when you are living in South
Korea, where you'd need to speak it to survive. Preferably both, I mean all three.
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zerothinking Senior Member Australia Joined 6370 days ago 528 posts - 772 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 5 of 36 16 January 2011 at 12:20pm | IP Logged |
Because it doesn't work and it never has and never will. You're wasting your time. Semi-
immersion is good as a supplement to actual study. Actual study comes first. At least 30
minutes.
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Segata Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 5169 days ago 64 posts - 125 votes Speaks: German*, Japanese, English Studies: Korean, Esperanto
| Message 6 of 36 16 January 2011 at 12:33pm | IP Logged |
korman wrote:
I want to learn Korean, and I'm trying the "immersion" method. I have dramas, music, and have Korean books. I try to have something in Korean in front of me at least 8 hours a day. I've been doing this for 6 months, and I still have no idea what is being said, or what I'm reading.
Why? |
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Try to look up words that you hear/read all the time in a dictionary if you cant yet figure out what they mean just from the context.
You could also supplement your studies with Anki or any other flash card program. (please refer to All Japanese all the time). That's basically how I learned Japanese (Immersion + Anki) and Korean (still on my way to fluency ;))
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portunhol Triglot Senior Member United States thelinguistblogger.w Joined 6250 days ago 198 posts - 299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (classical)
| Message 7 of 36 16 January 2011 at 5:37pm | IP Logged |
Some people swear by the immersion (or artificial immersion) technique but I tried something similar with Mandarin and it didn't work for me either. I agree with everyone else, get a good grammar/work book to teach you the grammar and basic phrases and vocabulary. After that, put some focus on the aspects of the language that still confuse you or are difficult. A little extra drilling on these concepts will go a long way.Additionally, other than tons of exposure, what helps me is using the language a lot, even at a basic stage. If I can use a word/grammar point/phrase/etc. I rarely ever forget it.
Edited by portunhol on 16 January 2011 at 5:40pm
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bushwick Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6242 days ago 407 posts - 443 votes Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese
| Message 8 of 36 16 January 2011 at 6:11pm | IP Logged |
immersion doesn't work magically, and I have trouble comprehending how you didn't realise that after 6 months.
but nevermind, they probable haven't gone to waste, as you can probably at this point distinguish between things being said (like recognizing common words, etc.) intonation and all these subtle intricacies.
but you NEED to supplement it with study, be that grammar, or just comparing translated sentences, but do something that will at least help you UNDERSTAND.
the method you're trying could technically work with a language closer to your L1, but Korean is far too different and cognates are minuscule.
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