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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| onesteptwostep Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5777 days ago 49 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Japanese, Korean | Message 1 of 26 21 November 2009 at 7:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I thought it was about time I set some goals for myself, hence this log. For far too long I've been learning a grammar rule here, a couple of words there and really not making any proper progress at all. So, hello! :)
I'm learning Korean. I began in May this year, and I think my progress thus far has been satisfactory. Nothing worth punching the air over, but satisfactory. I can't read anything of length thanks to my horrible lack of vocabulary, but I can understand bits and bobs from songs, and understand some really simple conversations. Like I say, though, my vocabulary is holding me back, which is one of the things I'm aiming to tackle, starting as soon as possible. My resources are as follows: -> Basic Korean: A Grammar And Workbook -> Intermediate Korean: A Grammar And Workbook -> Colloquial Korean (with the CDs) -> KoreanClass101.com podcasts/audioblogs -> Korean radio and podcasts -> Lang-8 -> LiveMocha -> Korean friends on MSN. It's my 16th birthday (a big one!) in just under two weeks, though, so I'm hoping to get some more books when that comes around. And then there's Christmas. ;D But this is what I have for now. I've found the two grammar workbooks to be absolutely invaluable; I have completed the basic one (well, when I say 'completed' what I mean is that I know the basic grammar rules of Korean - I didn't take my time over the vocabulary... big mistake) but the intermediate one is a little more tricky for me, with lots more rules to remember, so I am trying to do little chunks at a time so I don't get discouraged from not remembering everything. I use Colloquial Korean mainly for writing practice. Only recently have I also started listening to anything in Korean that isn't music. The music was what had me falling in love with Korean in the first place; I loved the way it sounded when it was sung, and was delighted to find it was just as nice to listen to in normal conversation. :) I've got some of my favourite music videos with Korean and English subs, which I think are an awesome way of picking up vocabulary. I don't listen to any English music whatsoever - it's all Korean - and I am a bit of a headphone addict, so I get lots of passive listening in without even trying. I don't know whether it's actually benefiting me, but whatever, it's fun. XD Anyway, enough rambling. I have big exams coming up in June/July-time, so I might not be able to achieve everything I want to... but my goals for August 1st, 2010, are as follows:
I want to be able to get as far with Korean as I can, since next September I start AS Level courses in Italian, French and Japanese. I'm flirting with Japanese at the moment (have been doing so for the last two years...!) but I am under no illusions; I know that the work with all three of those at AS Level will be horrendous and that realistically I won't have a great deal of time for Korean, so it's my reasoning that the further I can get now, the better. But, please, feel free to tell me whether you think my goals are too easy or too ambitious or too vague or whatever - I'm new to this whole language learning business, so any help and support would be wonderful. :P I'll make my first post tomorrow. Until then, 안녕! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6440 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes  Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 26 22 November 2009 at 4:42am | IP Logged | |||||
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Good luck. Ask me for any questions if you come across any problems. I will try to answer them as fully as I can.
I assume your exam in June/July is your GCSE. Good luck with that too. I know how tough it is to spend your "sweet 16" revising +10 subjects. Been there, done that, you know. ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| onesteptwostep Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5777 days ago 49 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Japanese, Korean | Message 3 of 26 22 November 2009 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you, Jiwon. :)
Yes, my GCSEs. Twelve of them, in fact - not fun at all! Believe me, my 16th won't be 'sweet' - I'm going to spend the day with my nose buried in any one of the many books I'm hoping to get. I'm not the party type! Do you by any chance have a similar equivalent to GCSEs in Korea? - I don't know how long I spent on study last night - I spent too much of it watching music videos and listening, intensively, to some of my favourite songs. A lot of words kept coming up over and over in different songs; 이렇게 came up a lot, as did 바보 (which I later learned meant 'fool' - not a word I'll be using in a hurry). However, I'm a bit confused about the word 바래 [hope]. I looked it up in my dictionary and I was given 바라다 [to hope] - are these words related at all? If they are, the conjugation must be irregular. But at least, in Korean, irregular verbs are regular. :P So, not too much to worry about... but I'm going to try and get to the root of this one. In a pop song I listen to, it is used in the sense of '다시 사랑해도 너만 바래'. I don't know how to interpret that sentence. 'Again I hope only to love you' doesn't sound quite right, and the meaning of 도 is lost. Thoughts? I also downloaded a ton of podcasts yesterday. They're mostly in Korean but are aimed at Koreans wanting to learn basic English. More often than not, the English phrase is said with the Korean translation after it, so they're invaluable to me. It gets a bit tiring to listen intensively, but to help my listening (which is very poor), I guess I have to. Today I've done very little, just been sending messages back and forth on Lang-8. I'm brimming with glee because I've been told I sound very Korean. :D That's my day made right there! Downloading more podcasts for more listening later on. Hope to get lots done tonight. :) Edited by onesteptwostep on 22 November 2009 at 5:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6440 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 26 22 November 2009 at 5:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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They don't have something like GCSEs in Korea. However, I was school in an international school in Sri Lanka. Hence I did my GCE O-Levels (something similar to GCSEs they used to have long ago in the UK, now no longer published. I was one of the last batches to take these exams in the world) and GCSE German. Altogether, I did 12 subjects as well, and got 11 A's for my GCE O-Levels (they don't have A* in O-Level) and a A* for German GCSE. But I can assure you, all this has very little to play when it comes to unis... :/
바래 is a form of 바라다 as you have correctly guessed. It's irregular in the sense that 라 changes to 래 when you use -요 ending (바랍니다, but 바래요). 다시 사랑해도 너만 바래 means "Even if I (could) love again, I only hope for you". (again) (to love)+(particle indicating conditionality) (you)(only) (to hope). Best of wishes with your listening improvement program. When you are confident enough with aural understanding, I guss you could have a go at trying to watch my Korean videos on Youtube. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| onesteptwostep Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5777 days ago 49 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Japanese, Korean | Message 5 of 26 22 November 2009 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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You're obviously very intelligent! Getting 11 As and an A* would be an incredible feat for me, being somewhat average in my opinion (12 GCSEs, predicted A*-B). I guess it's the AS and A levels that count the most. But since you need good GCSEs to get onto A level courses, I think they do matter in the long run.
Aw, more irregulars? Talk about off-putting - I already have a four-page list of them! I see that now. 다시 seems to have an array of meanings, it's difficult to pick out the right one. As you can (probably) see, my Korean is pretty dire, but this is what I'm here for: to get better. I've already had a look at a few of them, actually. :D I shied away quite quickly, but the pronunciation videos you've made have been a great help. 그럼, 감사합니다! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6440 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 26 22 November 2009 at 6:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
다시 is always associated with something to do with repetition, or "again". Glad to know my pronunciation videos were of help. Do you want me to make any others? o_O Heh, one day, you'll understand my videos quite fluently. I really hope so. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| onesteptwostep Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5777 days ago 49 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Japanese, Korean | Message 7 of 26 22 November 2009 at 6:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
In that case, I've been looking at some pretty dodgy translations. I've seen 다시 translated as 'again', 'yet' (I got so confused, since I'd just learned 아직), 'but' - many different things. Thank you for clearing it up for me!
I think I'll be fine for the time being, but thank you for offering. If I run into any difficulties, I'll let you know. :) Fluently? Mm, maybe. There's a little bit of me that doubts I'll ever be fluent, but I can sure as heck give it a go. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6440 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 26 22 November 2009 at 6:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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다시 as yet and but? o_O Can you give me the context in which it was used? Perhaps it would make more sense then..
Well. Fluency in producing Korean would be tough. But I'm sure comprehension would be a lot easier than actual production. ;) PS - If you are expecting A*-B's for all your 12 subjects, then you must be quite a talented student as well. I was expecting mostly A's and B's for some subjects whose exams I "thought" I messed up(as I explained above, no A* for O-Levels). But in the end all the good worries were wasted for nothing really. Yeah, GCSE's allow you to pick your AS subjects. But really, if you get an A for English Language and Maths, plus at least 3 other A's, you'll have a sound beginning to your AS course. :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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