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How to get started in Korean | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Dylanarama Newbie United States Joined 5235 days ago 30 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 14 02 September 2010 at 2:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have always wanted to learn Korean but every time I try it seems amazingly hard. I have no idea how to approach this language. What are some tips on learning it, what should I do? Many people always say the only way to learn it is to actually go to Korea, is this true? If you have experience learning this language please tell me what you did!
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| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5445 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 2 of 14 03 September 2010 at 2:27am | IP Logged | |||||
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First, learn hangul ASAP. Romanized Korean is butt ugly, hard to read, and just a plain nuisance. Learn the hangul based on sound rather than English equivalents. The consonants and English and Korean do not match up at all. Only some of the vowels are the same.
There are some sites and some textbooks/grammar books. I'd look around to see which one you like, but a good place to start is Talk To Me In Korean (website.) They do lessons by mp3s and PDFs. Downside, aside from catching up and waiting a week for a new lesson, is that the mp3s are kind of slow to learn from, but the benefits outweigh the negatives. (I didn't use it, I used Korean Class 101, where some of the people running the site came from, and they're similar, but Talk To Me In Korean is free.) You'll need a good online dictionary. Naver, Yahoo Korea, and Daum all have good dictionaries, but Daum loads a bit slowly. For learning more advanced grammar, there are good grammar books out there, but get the basics down first. Obviously, with the Korean wave being big, you can easily find dramas and music online. Korean isn't hard, it's just really different. After you get the basics of the grammar down, it's basically learning a lot of vocab and grammar. Listening is hard at first, but over time, distinguishing the consonants becomes much easier. Vocab is hard at first, since the words aren't related to English (aside from English loanwords.) You can go the hanja route, which I personally don't suggest unless you plan on learning any Chinese language or Japanese. Learning vocabulary becomes much easier in Korean after you learn a certain number of words (and that entirely depends on you.) 9 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6233 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 3 of 14 05 September 2010 at 11:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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Korean is an awesome language, but I struggled with the pronunciation (both pronouncing it myself and understanding native speakers) myself for years. I still do. You'll probably have better luck with it, though; I think there's just something wrong with me :)
But there are some things in your favor: The writing system is super easy. And I definitely agree with The Real CZ: learn it ASAP. I am not joking when I say that you can read hangul faster than you can read any of the stupid romanization methods for it. It really is easy to read, and it's fun to write. They put spaces between words which makes reading even easier (compare with Japanese, Chinese, and Thai, which don't) Catchy pop music that is fun to listen to A bunch of dramas (TV shows) that are popular around the world, and often subtitled in English. Some of them are pretty interesting and fun to watch and easy to get into. Good luck! Korean is a fun language to study. I'd often get frustrated at my inability to understand it, but I always had fun in the process. Edited by IronFist on 05 September 2010 at 11:12am 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| TerryW Senior Member United States Joined 6153 days ago 370 posts - 783 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 14 05 September 2010 at 1:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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This guy (Busy Atom) has some great videos on Youtube.
For learning Hangul: Hangul #1 video (of 11) His Korean lessons, once you learn Hangul, look really good too: ]Korean Lesson 001 If you go to his channel: Busy Atom channel click on the folders on the right side to see that particular video series. Looking at these, I just may learn Hangul from them without intending to learn the language. Looks like fun. And here's a great flashcard site for practicing Hangul: Hangul practice program Edited by TerryW on 05 September 2010 at 2:01pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ashleyr Newbie United States Joined 5036 days ago 18 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Korean | Message 5 of 14 05 September 2010 at 6:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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www.talktomeinkorean.com is great for beginners. I highly recommend it!
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| Nudimmud Groupie United States Joined 4988 days ago 87 posts - 161 votes Studies: Greek, Korean | Message 6 of 14 08 September 2010 at 10:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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Since I'm still in the very beginning stages of learning the langage myself, I can't really offer any advice on learning it. But, not too long ago, very proud of my Hangul mastery, I made a recording of myself reading some excepts from Harry Potter in Korean and sent it to a Korean friend of mine to correct my pronouncation.
She responded back: "Hahahaha! I listened to your recording! I can't make out anything you say! Hahahaha! Nice try though. :)" So, yeah, pronunciation is a bit of a bugbear. Edited by Nudimmud on 08 September 2010 at 10:58am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5445 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 7 of 14 08 September 2010 at 12:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yeah, learning to distinguish the consonants by ear is much easier than pronouncing them. I had the same problem when I made a video of me speaking in Korean. One of my friends was honest and said it sucked, so I have to work even harder at pronunciation.
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| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5331 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 8 of 14 08 September 2010 at 7:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
I completely agree. This is partly due to the fact that there are multiple romanization methods and all of them are far from ideal. Like IronFist noted, once you get enough practice with 한글, you'll find you can read and type it faster than the romanized forms of the same words (especially if your brain does what mine does and keeps trying to hit the correct 한글 key instead when you try to type a romanized Korean word).
Agreed. Get immersed in media in Korean and it will help you stay motivated. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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