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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| xd3qu1n0x Newbie United States Joined 6626 days ago 11 posts - 22 votes Studies: Korean, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 9 of 14 11 November 2007 at 1:16am | IP Logged |
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I commend you on your progress and determination with korean, its always makes me happy knowing that there are other determined korean learners out there.
A couple comments from my experience so far. I used Pimsluer a while back, and i didn't really like it at all. It may have been the older version you mentioned, but all i remember is that something just seemed off about it (maybe the use of high level speech throughout) so i just stopped using it. Arirang's LSK is some really great material, your approach with that is spot on. The old version, the one with the 2 korean women, is well structured and particularly good for starting out. The 2nd version, with steve and lisa is like a video phrasebook that covers a wide range of subjects but also explains important aspects and just hits many of the right points, though it is more rewarding if you have a little background first. The 3rd {newest version} is much like the 2nd but moves slower, it is still great review. RosettaStone for me was just a giant vocabulary builder, and a good one at that. The audio reading of the sentences with simultaneous pictures and the instant feedback for some reason hammered all the words i didn't know into my head rather quickly. On the grammar note, in terms of sentence order i don't think that would be a problem for you since you have your wife to talk to, but there are a number of grammar patterns that really need pointing out or getting a feel for with a ton of examples using words your already familiar with. Textbooks aren't absolutely necessary, but i've heard are specifically helpful with quickly understanding nuances in the meanings of grammar patterns, even though explanations are at times hard to read through. I haven't bought any books myself (i have a stash of wonderful websites), but "Integrated Korean" is rumored to be the book of choice amongst korean learners. Also, if you haven't heard of it, Sogang University's free online korean courses is another resource korean learners often use to go from nothing to Intermediate. All in all, i think your in good shape to get where you want with korean. Material made for korean natives (tv, dramas, books, internet pages, etc) is like you said what will get you where you want in the long run, but you need some ground before those will be of any benefit, and you seem to be getting along with that just fine. Oh yea, don't worry about Hanja. Unless you are going to be reading an entire korean newspaper EVERYDAY or want to tackle chinese in the near future, you don't need them at all. Before i had even learned 100 i found that i knew more than many of the koreans around me (maybe because of age group and that i live in US) but they are also progressively becoming less prominent in korea. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nhk9 Senior Member Canada Joined 6747 days ago 290 posts - 319 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 10 of 14 12 November 2007 at 6:56pm | IP Logged |
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I see that the OP already has 18months of exposure to Korean, so he probably has foundation knowledge of the language.
Sites like KBS offer entire verbatim scripts to their dramas. You can watch their shows on one screen and the scripts on another screen. They even offer the shows for free; or you could watch them on youtube. I feel that this is the most effective and efficient way or learning genuine Korean. Maybe you can give it a shot. Also I'd have to disagree with the poster above regarding Hanja. While Hanjas may not be used regularly today, a passive knowledge of say the top 1000characters would significantly benefit your vocabulary acquisition, since you wouldn't have the need to memorize everything with rote memory. Learning Hanjas or not really depends on your intended use of the language. If you feel that it's sufficient to know the basics and to be able to talk to your family, then by all means skip hanjas. But if you want to know what exactly the culture has to offer, you will certainly not regret having a good knowledge of them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ChrisWebb Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6206 days ago 181 posts - 190 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean | Message 11 of 14 13 November 2007 at 4:52am | IP Logged |
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I do have 18 months exposure and i have picked up the odd word or phrase over that time but I think the major benefit of that time is simply being fairly used to the way Korean sounds, to my ear it isnt a choppy language but quite pleasant and as i progress I find it, for the most part, quite logical also.
I didnt know about the transcripts of KBS dramas, that will i think be quite useful at some point, I'm still a way off of being able to follow a drama without English subtitles for now though. I think at some point I will definitely be addressing Hanja, my long term aim is actually to achieve advanced fluency as it's fairly likely that we will live in Korea at some point in the future ( but not the immediate future ). In the short term communication with family and being able to deal with day to day needs is a priority though. I've pretty much desisted with Pimsleur at this point, the slow progress was driving me nuts, after a break I will pick it up again though. That leaves 'Let's Speak Korean' as the core of what I'm working through now, I'll decide on the next step in a month or so once I have worked right through the 60 episodes in the old series. I couldnt wait, I joined the lending scheme at the local Korean bookstore, I currently am trying to read a children's picture book whose title I would translate as 'The forrester and the faerie'. What i'm doing is getting my wife to audio record a page or two of it at a time so that i can know the pronunciation and then try to figure out the text myself. It's made me realise that I can sort the grammar out ok at this point but my vocabulary is tiny, I look up most of the text on my pda dictionary ( occasionally getting an assist if I cannot find a word ). Although this is too painful to really be enjoyable I find words that you have to fight for like this are more easily remembered so long as I make a wordlist ands review it a few times. I think I may try a dual text next time though as the bookstore has some dual text comic books designed to help Korean's learn English, dual text would me hitting the dictionary a little less. I'm finding it's important to have a variety of study methods as you can switch between them avoiding breaks that you might otherwise take when hitting a roadblock in one or just tiring of a particular course. I'm optimistic, progress is slow but it is there and that is enough for now. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nhk9 Senior Member Canada Joined 6747 days ago 290 posts - 319 votes Speaks: English* | Message 12 of 14 13 November 2007 at 12:44pm | IP Logged |
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Sounds like you are very eager in attaining a high proficiency in the language, Chris.
I think that in your case it's very important to expose yourself to spoken korean. Actually many drama videos on Youtube do have English subtitles, so you can find the one to your liking. To find the scripts, just locate the drama's website (usually through typing in the korean title + the word KBS in google), and then find the button 'tashi pogi' 다시 보기' (which means 'watch again') The reason behind exposure to the language is that the intonation (억양) of Korean is very different from that of English's. Many Koreans frequently complain that they don't understand foreigner speaking their language, and intonation is probably a major factor behind this. When individual words are pronounced independently, they seem to sound different from when they are spoken in a flowing sentence. There are very few books that address this issue, but it is an important issue to consider, I think... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| furyou_gaijin Senior Member Japan Joined 6329 days ago 540 posts - 631 votes Speaks: Latin* | Message 13 of 14 13 November 2007 at 3:03pm | IP Logged |
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All about dramas and scripts is here:
www.dramabeans.com/kdrama-scripts/ 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ChrisWebb Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6206 days ago 181 posts - 190 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean | Message 14 of 14 14 December 2007 at 4:54am | IP Logged |
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Hmmmm, I slacked off a bit for a week or two. Still I didnt stop altogether I have been watching Korean drama more than studying but I'm now making more of a positive effort again now. I continue to progress, not as fast as I'd probably like but I'll take the small gains with the big ones so it's ok.
I'm going to start doing the Pimsleur lessons again and see if I cant get through them by February next year, at this point I think I have identified ways that will make my time with Pimsleur more productive than previously. Having grown my vocab somewhat now I'm going to try and fill in the grammar blanks before commiting myself to working through Rosetta Stone to really grow my vocabulary further. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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