Learning Languages - Introduction
This is a blog about learning languages - Korean specifically. This blog enables me to keep a record of my progress, my ideas about learning languages and just some experiences about learning Korean.
I started learning Korean about eight weeks ago. I think I've passed the beginner stage and am into the early intermediate stage. I have a good handle on basic grammar which I acquired after studying Korean Grammar in Use. The book was a good introduction to the Korean language. I probably cannot use the grammar to communicate well at this stage but it was helpful studying it all the same as it helps with reading comprehension.
This brings me to the next point. There is a lot of confusion surrounding the topic of the best way of learning a language. I believe this confusion arises because people are talking at cross purposes. Some are talking about what it takes to be a fluent speaker and others are talking about how to be good at reading and writing.
The different language skills require different methods of study.
There are those people who are verbally fluent in a foreign language, that is, they can hold a conversation at normal speed with a native speaker. However, it's possible that these people are lousy when it comes to writing and even reading in some cases. This is because these people have never studied Korean reading and writing. They haven't learned the characters well and haven't studied grammar (which involves studying spelling). Therefore, even though they may be fluent in speaking, their reading comprehension and writing skills may be poor.
Conversely, there are those who have studied grammar and spelling and are quite good at reading comprehension and doing written translations but are hopeless in speaking (and in some cases in listening).
So you have to be specific about what you mean by "fluent".
In my case, I hope to acquire the skills of speaking, reading, writing and listening.
At the moment, none of these skills are good in my case. My speaking is very bad. My reading is all right and my writing is basic. My listening is gradually improving. My spelling is OK for my level and for the time I have spent studying.
I have brought the point about different methods of learning for different skills because I am facing that situation myself.
If I just do immersion and nothing else, I am not going to be good at writing. I find this with Korean students of English. Many who spend a year abroad improve their speaking skills considerably, but cannot write an essay and they do not enjoy reading. They spend all their time communicating verbally in English. They may pass as very good English learners but if you dig and probe further you will find their reading comprehension and writing abilities are very poor unless they have devoted an equal amount of time in improving these other skills.
You'll find that there are many Korean students of English who are good at reading comprehension and listening but are bad at speaking and writing. The reason for this is that English grammar is not taught well in Korea. You might be surprised to learn this as Korean students always boast that their knowledge of English grammar is very good because they were taught English grammar in depth in school. It is true that Korean English teachers do focus a lot on English grammar in schools but they do not teach it in a systematic way and in a good way. They teach what they think students should know. You will find that Korean books on English grammar are very different to the English grammar books you find in English-speaking nations. And the quality of the teacher is also important. I have worked in hagwons where the teacher did not correct mistakes in grammar in exercises and so obviously had a poor grasp of grammar themselves.
In addition to this, Korean teachers speak English in a grammatically incorrect way. Students pick up the mistakes unconsciously and the teachers' mistakes become the students' mistakes. An example of the way the mistakes spread from teacher to student is found in Konglish (though not strictly grammar). Teachers often are unaware that they are teaching Konglish words to their students and students believe that Konglish words are proper English words. Of course, students pick up Konglish from other sources than their teachers, but this is just an example. A native teacher would likely pick up straightaway that the student is using Konglish words and point this out to the student.
Because grammar is often learned subconsciously and intuitively through listening to properly spoken English (or whatever language you are trying to learn), if a student is not exposed to large quantities of input like this, they will not acquire grammar skills that they can use intuitively when they speak or write. This is reflected in the student's poor speaking and writing skills.
So, to summarize, for writing, one needs a lot of spoken input (and correct input too) for the student to be able to express themselves fluently in speaking and writing. For writing however, this kind of spoken input is not enough. A proper and thorough study of grammar is required as well. This is where many Korean students of English show a lapse. They might feel confident about speaking and can pass for pretty good fluent speakers of English but when it comes to writing an essay, they often fall woefully short. Writing requires high-level grammar and spelling skills and this is why many native speakers cannot write good essays.
To repeat, one's goals need to be defined properly before choosing a method of study. If one's goal in learning a language is just to be able to converse with native speakers and be able to communicate with others so that daily living is possible, then no in-depth thorough study of grammar is required, and reliance on immersion will probably suffice.
On the other hand, if one's goal is to be proficient in speaking, reading, listening and writing, then some study of grammar is necessary.
Not only this, but the ORDER of study is very important.
If acquiring all the four skills is important, then the recommended order of learning should be like this:
1) Immersion: putting oneself in an environment where one is exposed to comprehensible spoken content for many hours a day (Stephen Krashen).
2) Concomitantly to the above, one should be memorizing vocabulary for common words. As one learns vocabulary, one hears the same words being spoken and this hearing of the same words reinforces one's learning of the words.
3) An overview of grammar is useful at this stage. Studying grammar should be undertaken with the understanding that the study of grammar itself is not enough to be fluent in speaking and writing at this early stage. The purpose of studying grammar is not so that one can do perfect translations backwards and forwards, but to just familiarize oneself with the new language and why it is spoken in the way that it is. It enables the acquisition of language through the immersion method, but is not the primary method of acquisition in itself. A primer in grammar that brings the student up to intermediate stage is preferrable. An advanced grammar text at this stage will probably deter a student from learning further as it introduces too many complexities at this stage.
4) If one has acquired enough basic vocabulary and some basic grammar and understanding of spelling, then one can do some reading for fun. However, the reading should be easy enough so as not to stress the reader and make it a big chore. It should be easy enough so that the reader is not reaching for the dictionary for every second word. The sentence difficulty level should be such that the reader understands the gist of the sentence without necessarily understanding every word or being able to parse the sentence grammatically. This is for fun and for the learner just to see what progress they have made and what stage they are at. Of course, the choice of material is of central importance. If the subject matter is something that is highly interesting to the reader, the reader will benefit a lot from reading the material than if the reader has very little interest in the subject matter. Fairytale stories are usually well-liked by most readers who are at the beginner/intermediate stage. (It's usually only when you have reached the intermediate stage that the reader will enjoy reading. The beginner is probably too much in over their head when it comes to reading.)
By what do I mean when I talk about immersion?
In many situations, it's not possible to get oneself into a typical immersion environment, one where native speakers are interacting with the learner for at least 4 hours a day. In those cases, substitute methods can be helpful. One of these methods is watching videos and TV programs. These also have the benefit that the learner can pick and choose material that they enjoy and therefore will be more stimulated to listen and observe than if they had not picked enjoyable material.
Ideal situations for immersion are working side by side with native speakers, living with native speakers (relatives, spouses, housemates) who speak the target language exclusively, and attending school with native speakers where the target language is spoken all day including in the classroom.
5) More structured forms of exposure to the target language are listening to audios of the target language, perhaps audios from CDs that come attached to a textbook.
CARE WITH WATCHING FOREIGN LANGUAGE MOVIES
Problems can arise if one is too passive when watching a foreign language movie with subtitles. One can focus on just reading the subtitles and switch their minds off from the spoken language. The spoken language becomes more or less "noise" to them.
So one must be aware of this and make an effort to listen closely and try to match up the spoken language with the subtitles. If one can pick up a word or two from each spoken sentence and match it up with the subtitle word, that is making progress and the watching of videos becomes a useful activity. So try and be an active listener and watcher in other words.
If motivated, one can use an online dictionary like Google Translate (a very superior translation tool I have found) while watching a video and can pause the video and look up a word in the dictionary and try to match it with its counterpart in the other language. One can build up quite a good vocabulary this way. There is natural repetition of vocabulary in videos so learning this way makes the words stick in one's mind.
BOOKS FOR LEARNING VOCABULARY
I personally find children's books for learning vocabulary useful. They often have fun simple exercises where the vocabulary is repeated and after completing the exercises you find that many words stick in your brain. I learn Korean vocabulary from a book for Korean children learning English. This book has got many pictures and many useful exercises that if I do, drills the vocabulary into my head. The book I am studying teaches basic everyday useful words that I need to know and contains 600 vocabulary words. It's a good start. The vocabulary I have learned prior to this was picked up from grammar books but these books do not really focus on vocabulary per se so I was missing knowledge of many basic vocabulary words. The vocabulary book helped fill this gap for me.
Unfortunately, this book is a standalone book and not part of a series and so I will have to find another vocabulary book that has new words for me to learn and doesn't repeat the words I have learned already too much. If the book I have learned from was part of a series that would be ideal as each book higher in the series would introduce me to new vocabulary all the time and successively more complex vocabulary.
LEARNING PHRASES
While learning vocabulary, it's also useful to learn phrases. Phrase books that have a word and then have a sentence or phrase containing that word are very helpful. The phrase helps one to remember the word and learning the phrase itself is useful. However, useful phrases that are commonly used in everyday life are required. Also, simple phrases and not complex sentences involving multiple ideas are the most useful ones.
Some people recommend reading and memorizing phrases as a method of learning. They advise you to read and even record the phrase and then listen to it many times until it gets stuck in your head. If there is a CD accompanying the book with a native speaker reading out the phrase aloud this is even better.
This method is good if one cannot be an environment where one is naturally immersed in the target language.
This method does involve much repetition. It might take the hearing of the phrase a minimum of twenty times before it sticks in one's head.
The problem with this method is that it can be a bit boring. Also, if one's pronunciation isn't very good, you might be learning to say a phrase incorrectly.
WHEN ONE HAS ENTERED LATE INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED STAGE
When one has acquired a good vocabulary, say about 4000 words of vocabulary and has good listening and comprehension skills, one can be said to have entered the late intermediate or advanced stage. At this stage, one can spend more time doing reading and studying grammar.
While doing these things, the immersion must continue, either the natural immersion or the artificial immersion (videos, audio CDs etc).
So the process is one of constantly trying to pick up new vocabulary, trying to find a way to immerse oneself, learning enough grammar to make the input one receives more comprehensible and keeping up with the reading (if one wants to be proficient in reading and not only in speaking).
Note that I have said very little about PRODUCTION (speaking and writing) at this stage.
One will be ready to speak when one has acquired enough vocabulary, grammar (absorbed passively and intuitively through listening to spoken language) and phrases to express oneself relatively effortlessly.
With writing, it takes a little more effort than this. One has to read a lot and do some translations and study grammar a little more in depth.
SLOWING DOWN AUDIOVISUAL MATERIAL
In the early stages, listening to material at its normal speed can be bewildering. Therefore, if one can slow down the material it will be helpful. I find that the ipods, ipads and tablets are good for this. I have a Samsung Galaxy Player that can slow down the video and the audio. The pitch is a little affected but the audio is still comprehensible. If I try and do this on the computer (I have a mac), it becomes a little more complex. I have to use Audacity to slow down the audio, then slow the movie down in iMovie, then import the slowed audio into iMovie and then export the new slowed-down movie. Needless to say, the process can be very time-consuming. So I try and use the Galaxy Player if I want to watch the movie in slo-mo. If it's just the audio I want to slow down, the computer will suffice.
STEPHEN KRASHEN
I find his theory of language acquisition to be the best one out there. It matches with my experience and with my observations of people who are fluent in a foreign language. However, one must be wary that he is mainly talking about SPEAKING fluency and not WRITING fluency. It is not enough to immerse oneself (in the spoken language), one must also study grammar formally and do tons of reading in the target language if one wants to write well.
The material must be enjoyable
This is very important and so I am stressing it here. That's why finding a hobby you like to do is helpful. If one can attend classes in that hobby (yoga, cooking, crafts) where the target language is spoken, one will be very motivated to pay attention in class and pick up the target language.
A LIST OF ACTIVITIES
Cooking classes (this includes Youtubes of cooking instructions)
Dancing classes
Sports classes (swimming, skiing, inline skating)
Hobby groups (biking, hiking, public speaking)
Volunteering (local library, orphanage, animal shelter, political action groups)
The range of activities is really broad. It depends on the individual as everyone is different in their tastes and interests.
As for me, I have very little luck being exposed to a natural immersion environment as I don't attend school and any workplaces I work in English is spoken (to me at any rate). So I have been watching Korean dramas. I am constantly on the hunt for dramas I enjoy. I have a bank of many Korean dramas with English subtitles and it's a matter of finding time to watch them. Sometimes, I watch for fun and don't watch for the purpose of consciously learning. If I like a drama I will watch the segments over and over again. Other times, I will watch and study the drama; I will look up words in Google Translate and try to find words I know in the spoken dialog.
I have been watching many sageuks. These are my favorite dramas, especially the ones that set in the ancient period, pre-Joseon era. Unfortunately, the language used in those dramas is old-fashioned. Also, the vocabulary is not that useful as everyday words aren't used as much as they are in contemporary dramas.
However, I enjoy watching these dramas and because enjoyment is a big part of motivation, I will keep watching these dramas.
If I come across a boring drama albeit one set in contemporary times, I am less motivated to learn Korean from watching the drama. So that's not good for learning.
Another problem I have is that for my level the actors speak too fast. I might have to watch the dramas in slow mo on my Galaxy Player more.
I really enjoy studying Korean. I can spend big chunks of time in a day learning Korean. I can study from morning to night. I think a big part of that is that I enjoy watching dramas. I also enjoy studying vocabulary and using those children's books to study from. I also do not mind studying grammar so long as the grammar book is a good one, and the grammar book I have been learning from is excellent (Korean Grammar in Use). I have supplemented this book with "Using Korean" but this is mainly for light browsing. It explains some grammar points particularly grammar points about banmal and how the different speech forms are used in everyday life in Korea that the "Korean Grammar in Use" book does not touch on much.
The "Using Korean" book is really more for the advanced student so I am not studying that book in depth. It's more a reference book to which I turn to if there's something I don't understand and the "Korean Grammar in Use" book doesn't have an explanation for it.
I have a lot of manwhas that have both the English and the Korean in it. I am struggling a bit to read them so I know I haven't really picked up much grammar intuitively and need more immersion before I can read comfortably.
And my speaking is no where near natural. I am consciously translating from English when I speak. I do not spit out Korean phrases that I have memorized and internalized. I guess that's because I haven't really been in a natural immersion environment.
As I have said, this is hard for me as many people in Korea can speak in English and will prefer to speak in English when they communicate with a native English speaker. It's not a conspiracy where Koreans are trying to use you for language practice, it's just that English learning has been a large part of Korean society for many years now that most Koreans are comfortable communicating with a native speaker at a basic level and it is more convenient for them to do this than lower their speaking level to match a beginner's/non-fluent Korean speaker's level.
The task ahead is to do engage in hobbies and join groups and classes in which I will have more opportunity to be exposed to everyday Korean in a natural environment. I will have to find something I really enjoy doing or learning.
WATERSHED
I believe that once I pass a certain level, it will be a watershed event for me. Once that level has been achieved, I think my Korean acquisition will accelerate. It is like my learning of English. Once I had acquired a certain amount of vocabulary and had read x number of books, my English improved tremendously. I was able to write essays well and felt that nothing I read was beyond my level of comprehension, even dense literature books.
SUMMARY
This blog post primarily seeks to clarify the different types of fluency in a language that exist and the different methods of learning that are required to achieve these different fluencies.
This blog post was not written very well, I realize, but it's not meant to be a formal essay or a dissertation.
It's just an informal post that I wrote with very little planning.
I think the point I have made is an important one because there are many competing theories of language acquisition out there and understanding the individual's personal goals goes a long way toward working out what theories are applicable for you.
In the main, I think Stephen Krashen's theories are the most reliable ones but even so Krashen doesn't make a great distinction between writing and speaking fluency.
In a normal child's development, speaking comes first and then reading and then writing. In an adult's case, the order of development can be different because of demands of work, school and life.
In my case, I have to learn reading comcomitantly with learning to speak. I am having difficulties finding an immersion environment in Korea which is frustrating for me. I guess this situation is a double-edged sword. The fact that English is widely spoken helped me to settle into life in Korea relatively easily. But it means that I am going to have trouble picking up speaking.
Also, I am having difficulties finding time and resources to join clubs and activities I enjoy. Because I can't read Korean well (or understand it), I have trouble browsing Korean websites and finding the groups or clubs I want to join.
Because I am spending many hours watching videos, I am staying inside the apartment a lot and this kind of restricts my social activities and my desire to expand them. The only people I meet and chat with are people who are good at English and they naturally have little desire to speak in Korean with me.
The only chance I have to speak in Korean is with taxi drivers and with shopkeepers, service staff and so on, but these encounters are very brief and also they have not introduced new material to me.
I have tried language exchange partners but the partners are at a much higher level to me and it kind of annoys them to speak in Korean to me so the language exchange is one-sided. In that case, I am bored because I find that the topic matter I speak about with these people is kind of boring. I am constantly trying to find interesting subject matter to talk about instead of the usual "What did you do on the weekend?" but my language partners often make no effort. So I am bored speaking with these people and in English so it's a waste of time for me. I am giving these people a free language lesson and am being bored in the process. If the person wasn't boring, that would be different. I wouldn't mind talking to that person in English as it would be like talking to a friend. However, the people I have come across are really boring and talking with them reminds me of why I left language teaching in the first place. And also with these people I have to constantly remind them to speak in Korean as they keep lapsing into English. It turns out that for 5% of the time we speak in Korean and 95% we speak in English. So I don't really want to continue with those people. When they speak in Korean, they make no effort to dumb down the level for me and just speak at their normal pace and use complex language. So I understand about 2% of what they say. I get very little benefit in other words. It's the same as listening to the TV when the news is on -- when I do that I understand the same percent -- about 2%.
I have kept a couple of language partners who have the same interests as me and are also willing to help me with non-language related matters. As I don't speak Korean well, it's useful to befriend these people who help me with practical matters. And I enjoy talking to them in English. But they don't really want to speak in Korean with me so I have given up with that.
At this stage and because of time constraints I am going to do just self-study. It's pretty sad because I am living in Korea but that's the way the cookie crumbles.
Self-study is more flexible in terms of time. The main problem is that I can't check up on my progress. If it was more structured I would know that I am learning 200 new words every day for example, but right now, some days I learn zero new words, other days I learn 100, 50, 200 ....
And my method of learning is a bit haphazard. I went through the Grammar in Use book about three to four times now and wanted to go through it a couple more times mainly concentrating on listening to the dialogs from the audio CD, but I gave that up halfway and started to learn vocabulary and watch dramas.
Then I have lots of books that I bought that have phrases and also many manwhas. I don't know if I have the discipline to go through them systematically and stick to the order I have set myself. I have finished the vocabulary book because I found that the most useful to me at this stage but now that I have completed it I am at a loss of what to do. I don't really want to learn the phrase book that I have as learning the phrase book is a bit boring. But I don't think I have much choice. And when am I going to listen to the audio CD of "Korean Grammar in Use" again? And then I start reading a few pages of a manwha book and then abandoning it after a short while.
Also finding dramas I enjoy watching and getting them ready for watching on my Galaxy Player is really time-consuming. Sometimes I spend the whole day downloading, hardsubbing and getting the movies into the right format for watching on the Galaxy Player.
I am also running out of enjoyable dramas to watch. I found some on the internet but they are in a format which means I can't download them to my computer. I don't want to watch them online but am forced to.
Also, I worry that if I try and use Korean in work situations (later on when I become verbally fluent or near fluent) that people will speak in English back because they will realize I am not a native speaker of Korean. Many foreigners report that this happens to them which defeats the purpose of devoting so many hours to studying a foreign language.
Also this beginner's/early intermediate stage is frustrating. It drags on. I feel very annoyed that I understand so little of the language.
SUBTITLES
I often find myself falling into the subtitle trap and this is compounded by the fact that the translations are very different to the original meaning of the words. If the translations were more direct then it wouldn't be such a problem but I find that the translators take a lot of liberties with the translations. I guess they are not translating to teach a second language but to make the dialog more enjoyable and natural for the viewer.
But for a language learner, sticking to the original meaning as exactly as possible is more helpful. It also gives a sense of how Koreans use language. If they can translate almost exactly, it would be a big leap in helping me with learning Korean. Even with word order, they can stick to the original without making it difficult to understand. For example, "Face, what's on it?" instead of "What's on your face?" Koreans use the first construction. Even though it's written in a different order to what I am used to, I can still understand the meaning, and if I see the order this way, I get used to putting the topic/subject word first and the verb last as Koreans do. In other words it's possible to write direct translations of the Korean and still make it comprehensible -- with a little finesse. Word for word it doesn't have to be a direct translation but as close to the direct translation as possible without making the meaning confusing. For example, "the man to his daugher, what did he say?" is still understable, as understandable as "What did the man say to his daughter?" This is the main gripe I have with subtitles and why they aren't as useful as they could be.
Posted by honeybearsmom
at 5:46 AM EDT
Updated: Sunday, 11 September 2011 10:37 AM EDT
