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Language learning worry
Tags: Discouragement from learning
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happycheeks
Groupie
United Kingdom
Joined 4518 days ago
57 posts - 59 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian

Message 1 of 5

11 November 2012 at 11:23am | IP Logged

I have been stressing out a bit because I have this idea of needing to be perfect. I
can't help it. I am working through Teach yourself Korean and I understand some of the
dialogue in the first chapter. Do I need to be perfect in chapter one and then move onto
another chapter? I know hello and 6 or more words.I listen and speak at the same time or
I just listen until I know what is being said. I use anki to remember words and I watch
videos as well.

Edited by happycheeks on 11 November 2012 at 11:30am
1 person has voted this message useful

emk
Diglot
Moderator
United States
Joined 5343 days ago
2615 posts - 8806 votes

Speaks: English*, French^B2
Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian
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Message 2 of 5

11 November 2012 at 1:55pm | IP Logged

I've never used Teach Yourself Korean, so I don't know how the course is structured.

For Assimil courses, I have a rule of thumb: If I understand what each sentence means on paper, and I can understand 90+% of the recording when I hear it, then I consider the lesson finished. On average, this takes about 10 repetitions.

Of course, Assimil is based on comprehensible input, with just a little bit of grammar, so you might need to modify this rule for another course. But the goal is to know the material fairly well, not to memorize every last word. Of course, the standard disclaimer applies: we're all different, and if something else works better for you, do that.

Edited by emk on 11 November 2012 at 1:56pm
3 persons have voted this message useful

Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6408 days ago
9753 posts - 15779 votes

4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, Finnish^C1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

Message 3 of 5

11 November 2012 at 2:18pm | IP Logged

The best test is just to continue. If you move on to the next lesson and you can do it, go ahead. If you're struggling, go back and do the previous one more thoroughly.
This depends on your goals too, obviously. If you want to speak asap, you should be able to produce the sentences they make you produce.

The first few lessons are really important in terms of pronunciation and a new writing system, though. You may want to find a random audio with a transcript (or a k-drama with subtitles) and focus on the pronunciation and writing separately, making sure words are pronounced the way you expected from the written text/written the way you expected from the pronunciation.

You may also want to just use an additional resource for consolidation. Evita mentioned something called TTMIK in her awesome log, afaiu it's a free resource.
3 persons have voted this message useful

happycheeks
Groupie
United Kingdom
Joined 4518 days ago
57 posts - 59 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian

Message 4 of 5

11 November 2012 at 4:16pm | IP Logged

emk wrote:

I've never used Teach Yourself Korean, so I don't know how the course is
structured.

For Assimil courses, I have a rule of thumb: If I understand what each sentence means
on paper, and I can understand 90+% of the recording when I hear it, then I consider
the lesson finished. On average, this takes about 10 repetitions.

Of course, Assimil is based on comprehensible input, with just a little bit of grammar,
so you might need to modify this rule for another course. But the goal is to know the
material fairly well, not to memorize every last word. Of course, the standard
disclaimer applies: we're all different, and if something else works better for you, do
that.

I'll search for assimil for Korean as an extra resource.
1 person has voted this message useful

happycheeks
Groupie
United Kingdom
Joined 4518 days ago
57 posts - 59 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian

Message 5 of 5

11 November 2012 at 4:17pm | IP Logged

Serpent wrote:

The best test is just to continue. If you move on to the next lesson
and you can do it, go ahead. If you're struggling, go back and do the previous one more
thoroughly.
This depends on your goals too, obviously. If you want to speak asap, you should be
able to produce the sentences they make you produce.

The first few lessons are really important in terms of pronunciation and a new writing
system, though. You may want to find a random audio with a transcript (or a k-drama
with subtitles) and focus on the pronunciation and writing separately, making sure
words are pronounced the way you expected from the written text/written the way you
expected from the pronunciation.

You may also want to just use an additional resource for consolidation. Evita mentioned
something called TTMIK in her awesome log, afaiu it's a free resource.

Thanks for your advice. Evita metioned Talk to me in korean. I use that too and it's
great. That site has helped me so much.

1 person has voted this message useful

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