|
 |
Learning Korean (FSI) | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| Pip Diglot Groupie South Africa Joined 6447 days ago 48 posts - 55 votes  Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: French | Message 1 of 2 30 November 2007 at 3:40am | IP Logged |
|
Greetings Professor, I have recently started learning Korean as I am now on holiday and have lots of spare time.
I have two questions : 1) I am only 18 years old, thus don't earn my own money to be able to buy pimsleur or any other such courses for Korean. I have decided to go along and start using the FSI courses and would like to know if they are a good way to start. My strategy is to just blind shadow and get a feel for the language's pronunciation and then - after a good deal of blind shadowing - move on to learn the lessons' meanings. Is this a good strategy and what are your overall views on the FSI Korean course ? 2) When trying to read material without an english translation avaible and without wanting to use a dictionary, what is the best way to get the full meaning of the text and try and decipher new vocabulary/phrases? Thank you for your time and have a pleasant day. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7257 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 2 of 2 02 December 2007 at 4:47pm | IP Logged |
|
Unfortunately I cannot recommend starting Korean using the FSI course. This course was well conceived, but so poorly produced as to be more of a hindrance than a help to progress. If you want to use the tapes to get a feel for the pronunciation, I think you will be in for a great deal of frustration. The audio is not at all suitable for blind shadowing for beginners as it makes no concessions at all to pedagogical speed and articulation—I myself was unable to shadow it years into my residence in Korea. Moreover, I found the voices to be so simply unpleasant that I asked several native acquaintances what they thought of them, and the consensus was that the accent and intonation were indeed somewhat strange, thus not a good model to follow. The other main problem with the FSI Korean course is the fact that book 1 uses distorting transcriptions rather than the simple, easy, and accurate Hangul, and though book 2 does switch to Hangul, the print is small, blurry, unclear, and employs antiquated orthography.
All in all, I would counsel against using volume 1 at all. As for volume 2, I would emphatically include it among those books to be worked through as part of stage 7b in the ideal approach to this language that I articulated not long ago, but I would advise using the book alone, without the audio. The pattern drills that it provides are excellent, and if you want to master this kind of tongue, doing them at some stage is ineluctable. However, as I just said, I think it better to wait until you can read the language well enough that you can do these at your own pace rather than with the tapes. Indeed, I know that others value FSI precisely because of the large number of tapes that come with each course, but this is how I have always found the FSI courses to be most valuable, i.e., without the audio at the high intermediate stage when you are aware of your imperfections and anxious to improve them by reading pattern drills aloud on your own. As to your second question, I am sorry to disappoint again, but at the beginning stage of acquiring a challenging tongue like Korean, there is simply no way to get the meaning of a text from context alone without either looking at a translation or using a dictionary. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
