I've finished making charts and studying the IL book for a second time. It's gelling together. I did a marathon study session starting last week and going on over the weekend and I finished yesterday.
I have made a discovery that I really love studying Korean. I do like studying languages I think. The achievement I feel of unraveling the grammar rules and so on is a good feeling. It has helped that I have used a better dictionary too. The dictionary on the Galaxy Player is excellent.
I realize that many of the sentences are expressions that I just have to learn off by heart. These expressions are the way Koreans talk. I can't really create sentences using the grammar rules I know for many sentences. It doesn't really work like that. Studying the grammar rules is more for understanding what I read than for making sentences.
But my writing has really improved. The grammar of my sentences is much better and I am making complex sentences.
I am getting better. I am getting used to the way Koreans use grammar.
It's quite different to English.
Now that my grammar has improved a lot, I find that vocabulary is still a big stumbling block when it comes to reading comprehension.
I really must study more vocabulary. The best way is to read a lot and make vocab lists like I used to when I studied English.
There is so much Korean vocabulary to learn. I feel like I have barely touched the tip of the iceberg. The thing also is the very long Korean sentences I encounter. That really puts me off. I have to just try my best though.
So after I have gone through the grammar and get that planted in my mind, I will concentrate on vocabulary. I will read lots of newspapers and try and translate the articles. I will read Korea Herald and study that.
I think this will really help me. I also have to find a Korean hagwon for the future. I think there is one in Unhaeng Sageori. I might enquire. The thing I have to do is to get up early and investigate.
I think I will forget about learning at the language institutes to be honest. I think I've done all right studying by myself. I've saved all the hard questions to ask someone later all in one go. The person has to speak English well and be able to explain things well - an intelligent person.
I have to then go through the Workbook as well. I want to know Korean grammar thoroughly so that my brain is like a reference book of Korean grammar.
The more I read, the better my Korean will get. That was the good thing about studying this book. It forced me to read a lot. Even when I didn't feel like reading I had to. And then reading got easier.
And I have picked up a lot of useful vocabulary by studying this book.
I enjoy studying. I have become addicted to it. I particularly like studying grammar.
That book is the best. I really like that book. I want to know it back to front.
The only thing is that it's not that good for spelling but I haven't done the workbook yet so that might be the reason.
I am not looking forward to doing the workbook.
What is left? I have to study the chapter Conjugational Endings by looking at the chart and the book at the same time.
I have to then study Nouns using the same method. Then after this, Particles. Then after this, Quotations. Then all the other chapters. Get the grammar straightened in my mind. Revising the book will take longer because I've already looked up all the vocabulary and I've decided on the interpretation of the English grammatical terms. I just have to commit them to memory and work out how to use the grammatical terms.
I have to work out the order of the clauses as well. These things are important. So there will be less concern about vocab when studying the book the next time round.
So I will try and memorize the grammar and familiarize myself with the overall structure of the grammar rules.
I will try and get the big picture in mind. I still won't be able to use the grammatical terms in speech I think but I will be much better and quicker at understanding the meaning when I read Korean. And my writing will improve too.
So the aim is not to bury myself in the details of the sentences but get an overall sense of the grammar.
Just try and go through the book this way. Already, I am going through the chapters at a fast pace, faster than when I read the chapters for the second time.
Quotations was a difficult chapter. Conjugational Endings is a difficult chapter. Auxiliary Verbs is difficult. Adverbs was a little hard.
Nouns is too. Particles is too. The other chapters aren't too bad.
I think I will give it a rest after I study Conjugational Endings. That is a mammoth chapter to study.
I am picking up dialog better since I have finished studying the grammar book for a second time.
It's really helping a lot. But of course there is much more study to do. I am only about one-third of the way there. I have to do lots more reading and looking up vocab and I have to shadow. I also have to revise the grammar occasionally in the future so that I don't forget it.
It's getting much much better. I just need live Korean people to practise on too. For example, my cousin said that my writing is good (I think). Mrs L said my writing is good too.
I can write little things on the L forum with the help of the dictionary.
It's getting better. I am becoming better at moving between the different speech levels.
It's coming together at last. It's still a really difficult language to learn though. I struggle with it.
Maybe I should make a vocab list for the grammar book. But it might be a waste of time as the definitions are already written in the book. There are some words in the text in list form that I don't know. I hate memorizing big blocks like this.
Anyhow, I can't wait until I finish the grammar book and start reading and extracting vocabulary. I don't really like doing this but it will mean I have progressed and will make even more progress in my Korean learning.
Sageuks are still mostly a mystery to me. I am getting better. I think another six months of study and I should be very good at Korean. I will concentrate on learning vocabulary and shadowing for the next six months. I will talk to people in Korean in six months - people who I haven't spoken in Korean to - and I will astonish them. They will be able to communicate with me and they will be surprised. I would have only taken a year to become fluent in reading, speaking and writing.
The goals are to be able to read the newspaper easily and to have a conversation with people. I can also write reports and express myself in writing. I can understand 90% of what they say in dramas and about 80% of what they say in sageuks. If you give me an article off the web I will be able to translate it into English. So I want as a goal the ability to translate back and forth easily in writing. And of course, speak fluently. Be able to express complex thoughts and ideas. Be able to follow instructions. Be able to follow what they say on TV. That's what I want. I want to understand 90% of what they say on TV.
So these are my aims for the six-month mark.
I think I can accomplish all these things. If I had studied full-time for the past five months I think I would have be about three-quarters of the way there. However, I didn't study intensively every day in the last five months so I am about one-third of the way there.
But at least I have the basics down and that's an important thing.
So I shouldn't worry too much about speaking really fast. So long as I am understood and I can understand others - that's the main thing.
I love studying though.
I mustn't be conceited though. I have to just plod on and learn things in a systematic and thorough fashion. The charts are a really good idea. I have given up the idea of writing on floppy flimsy paper to make the charts and will stick with the stiff cardboardlike paper that I have been using.
The charts are great summaries and at a glance I can see how things fit together.
I really need that as there are so many grammatical terms.
The memorization part will be hard as I hate memorizing.
I have to do this study at home because I don't think I can carry the charts around in my bag.
