Almost finished third review of the book
I have almost done the Conjugational chapter for the third time. I am being better at writing the definitions down and getting a clearer rendition of the translations and also understanding the grammatical term better.
I am working out difficult sentences and this feels good. I understand Korean grammar better now. They use many adnominal clauses.
The Galaxy Player dictionary is excellent. Because I can find many words in the dictionary, the meanings of sentences is getting clearer.
I am starting to pull things together.
On the next reading, things will be faster. All I have to do is memorize the meanings of the grammar terms really. I can read the sentences much faster the next time round because I've parsed them all.
So it's a matter of memorization.
And then once the grammar term is planted in my memory, I won't have trouble understanding the term in some other context.
That will be good.
I have to read the difficult chapters again for sure like Quotations, Particles and Nouns.
I think one or two more readings is sufficient. The charts really help as well. I can glance through things quickly and get an overall idea and not be bogged down by too much detail or get sidetracked by examples.
I am also concentrating on spelling this time round when studying the Conjugational chapter.
So I am really going through it thoroughly and properly and making sure everything is crystal-clear and tying up loose ends.
Things are much clearer now. It is much better than the first time when I didn't know much vocabulary.
Korean grammar is really complicated but it's something that everybody who studies Korean has to deal with so that's what I have to do.
Of course I won't be fluent in the language just studying the grammar but it helps me understand sentences. I feel better when I can understand the grammar of a sentence.
And I am getting better at reading Korean too. I am learning heaps of vocabulary.
Overall things are on the up. I quite enjoy studying Korean too. The book is quite fun.
I have to make my own interpretations though because often the book is very muddy in its interpretations.
There are just so many grammatical terms so that's why Korean is hard.
I have to persist that's all. Of course things will be hard but that's why it is a good feeling to get on top of it. There is definitely light at the end of the tunnel. I want to try using some of these grammatical terms.
I want to practise. I guess that's what the Workbook is for. I think the Workbook is now manageable.
Actually, I should go through the book two more times. One of those times, I should do the Workbook.
So finish the Conjugational Chapter and at the end of that, it means I've gone through the book two times. I've gone through some of the chapters three times. For example, I've gone through the Conjugational Chapter three times, also the Nouns chapter, the passives chapter.
However, I will say I've gone through the book two times.
Then I will go through the book once more, starting with the Quotations chapter, then moving onto the Nouns chapter, then the Particles chapter, the other shorter chapters, then the Conjugational chapter.
During this round, I will do the Workbook.
Then I will go through the book one last time, memorizing the grammatical terms.
Or I will do it the other way around: memorize the chapters and then after doing that do the Workbook.
Or I can do everything at the same time: try to memorize the chapters and do the workbook at the same time.
Then for the final reading, I do revision - light reading and review, trying to make sure I memorize everything. I won't spend too much time doing this review. I will look at the charts a lot and not get bogged down in the details of the examples.
I am still not sure how to handle this. I suspect memorizing the terms is more important than doing the workbook exercises.
I didn't really like the exercises in the book. At least they give answers.
I think I will memorize the book first and then do the exercises.
Or do both. Doing the exercises might help me memorize the book. I am not sure.
Sometimes, I study the grammatical term too quickly and I don't remember what I've learned. Perhaps I should do the grammar exercises and then try and memorize everything.
Perhaps, I need to go through the book several more times to really imprint it in my mind.
I don't know how I am going to memorize the grammatical terms. I really don't. How do I test myself?
Perhaps the Workbook can help. Maybe I should do the Workbook at the end of reviewing the whole chapter. This will test my knowledge of the grammar. This could help.
I might do it this way. At the end of doing this, I am sure I will have forgotten many of the terms. So then I have to go through and memorize and remind myself of the grammatical terms I've forgotten.
I think I will also do a vocab review.
I might go through the book, just looking at the vocabulary. That will be useful as well.
So it's a matter of going through the book several more times. But remembering to give myself time to memorize the grammatical terms and sort out the ones that are close to each other in my mind.
If I work out the difficult chapters, I will make a big step forward. I know which ones are the difficult chapters.
Anyway, I am getting much better at parsing sentences.
I have made a big leap in my knowledge but of course there is tons more to learn.
I have to just concentrate on mastering grammar.
Remember the goals of learning the grammar book is so that I can recognize any of the grammatical terms I come across in my reading.
I can instantly translate all grammar terms. I can translate back and forth. Actually translating from English to Korean is a bit tricky.
My writing is much better though. It's better than my speaking actually.
I have to then learn vocabulary and my Korean will be much better. After that, I have to shadow as much as possible and then I will be fluent in speech.
I suppose I could just do the shadowing from the beginning but I am the type of person who likes to understand everything I read or hear.
I am anal to the tenth degree. That I do admit.
So I want to understand Korean grammar thoroughly. The more explanations, the better.
I really want to understand everything. The exercises will be helpful, I think.
I should really try my hand at them.
I think my writing will be quite good.
But my speaking is not that great.
And my listening isn't either.
But Korean is a very hard language to learn for English-speakers.
The vocabulary and the grammar are hard.
Thank god it's not written in Chinese characters.
I just have to persist in learning this difficult language. The grammar is very complicated because there are many ways of saying the same thing.
Perhaps I should classify the grammatical terms this way - according to function. Then I would have at my disposal various ways of expressing the same thing.
That is a thought. Then it would also help to demystify the grammar. I can then work out also the slight differences in usage between almost identical grammar terms. I can work out the nuances. The KGU book is good at explaining some of the subtle differences in usage.
Of course I will make a big leap when I actually interact with Korean speakers and learn at a hagwon.
I really want to just immerse myself in speaking at some point and not worry too much about grammar and the like. I want someone to help me find the words for what I want to say.
For example, I remember when I was thinking of learning Korean two years ago, I wanted to say in Korean, "Please be gentle with me when teaching Korean," and "I am a beginner in learning Korean."
Can I say those things in Korean now?
Ummm ... not really.
"budeureoun taedoro hangugeoreul gareuchyeo juseyo."
"choboja haksaeng ibnida."
"hangug mareul baeugoki shijak haeyo."
"o gae wol dongan hangug mareul kongbu hago isseoyo."
"o gae wol dongan hangug mareul kongbu hago issneun haksaengi ibnida."
I still can't use the complex grammatical terms I've studied in speech. I can't use quotations/indirect speech very well.
I have to practise using them I suppose eventually.
I lack confidence.
I think I need to acquire expressions. That's the trouble. It's hard to acquire expressions for me.
I think I need someone correcting me. Mrs L isn't a very good teacher for that kind of thing. She's good at teaching basic vocabulary maybe but I think I've gone past that. She doesn't want to talk in Korean too. That's the problem I have. I get on well with her but find her sometimes annoying. I really don't like how she tries to learn English from me. I don't think she's improving that much because she doesn't see me that often. Also, I don't think her English has really improved. She needs to do more study herself.
Also, she's not picking up enough expressions from me. Her grammar is just awful too. She can't conjugate verbs well. She needs to get the basics of grammar right. Her writing was quite bad for someone who already learned English although that was some time ago.
But I could tell that she isn't good at grammar or at writing. For basic conversation she's not too bad.
Anyhow, I get tired of her very quickly and I don't like her parsimonious attitude of avoiding speaking in Korean. And when she speaks in Korean, she translates it into English which isn't helpful for me. I think I got very little out of the lessons I had with her.
I got nothing very useful out of her.
And she taught me some incorrect things as well.
I think the grammar book is better and interacting with other people. I need to get someone to correct me as well. I really don't want to pick up more vocabulary though through speaking with people. I find the vocab doesn't stick in my head when I hear it for the first time. I prefer to see the word on paper first to learn it. I am much more of a visual person than I am an aural person.
I think it's best if I just persist in this way and get recordings of people.
I am understanding the sageuks a little better after doing this study but not too much. Mainly the repeated words I understand better.
But when I do not concentrate, I am not getting it.
I think it's mainly lack of vocabulary.
I think once I do masses of listening, with looking at the sentences written down on paper at the same time, my Korean will improve a lot. It's a matter of getting this material though. I don't know where to find this kind of listening. I need lots of it and slower stuff as well. Movies and dramas are too fast and besides dramas often don't have Korean subtitles.
So I need specially recorded stuff. I will have to make my own recordings I am afraid. Hang on I have the Essential books and there's plenty of spoken stuff there. So I can use that. That will take up a lot of my time. Then I have the books I bought that have CDs and so I can listen to them. If I listen to the recordings several times each - maybe at least six times, it will take a while to go through them all.
How many times should I listen to the recordings? Each session, I should listen to the recording about six times.
Then I should repeat the session at a different time. So it will be a total of listening to the recordings twelve times.
Then when I exhaust the material, I will get somebody to read the stuff and I will record them. Then I will mirror.
So that will take a while. The IL book has tons of sentences. It will take a while to shadow them all.
So I just have to keep doing this.
Get my ear atuned to the words in Korean.
So first of all, train my brain to read Korean. Then train my brain to understand spoken Korean. Then finally, speak Korean. Get someone to iron out your mistakes. Be ruthless. You want to sound very natural and fluent. You don't want to make grammatical mistakes or make pronunciation errors. You want to sound fluent and have good pronunciation and show you know many expressions and have excellent vocabulary and can express yourself well using high-level complicated grammar. You have to be able to use different forms of speech levels too and be able to use honorifics.
Honorifics and speech levels are slightly different too.
So you want to be able to express any thought that pops up in your head.
Be familiar with the commonly used vocabulary.
Once you pick up more words, start reading a lot.
I think you can move away from the fairytales. The teenage books are OK. They have the sort of common vocabulary you need. The grammar isn't too hard. You will have to persist with a dictionary.
Once you've translated a few books using the dictionary, you will be much better I think.
And once you've translated about two hundred newspaper articles, you will be VERY good. Each effort will ensure that the next reading becomes more comfortable. You won't have to look up as many words each successive time.
So I think this is all great. I think I can continue in this fashion. Just pick up a lot more vocabulary. You really need it. There are about twenty thousand words you need to know in order to be able to read the newspaper. So you have to memorize or familiarize yourself with tons of new words. The best way is to read newspapers and online articles. They contain many words that are used in everyday situations commonly by people. Anyway if ordinary people know these words you need to know them as well.
Things are really improving I feel. I have gone a long way since when I first started studying. Of course I am no where near being fluent in Korean. That will require a lot of practise, a lot of shadowing and a lot of correction by people.
But I think I've made a big leap by studying this grammar book. Actually, I think I picked up a lot more vocabulary by studying this book than I did studying the vocabulary books.
I don't think I will study any more drilling vocabulary books. The best way is to acquire the vocab from newspapers. Articles and newspapers are rich in vocabulary which I need to learn. I can also have a look at Using Korean which has some useful chapters. Their grammar part isn't very good though.
I can read some of the sentences though and translate and acquire more vocabulary that way. The good thing is that the sentences are translated in that book.
So I need to acquire as much vocabulary as I can. It will be painless to learn if I see words repeated. After a while, you see the words repeated so many times that you just pick them up. Some of the long words are a bit hard though.
But it will be a matter of reading newspapers and making those lists in the notebooks.
And learning tons of new vocabulary. I really need to do that. I want to read interesting stuff though. I find reading the news interesting. Instead of reading the news in English, I will read it in Korean.
So just immerse myself in reading as much Korean as I can handle and looking up all the words I don't know.
I shouldn't be too anal at it. Try and pick shorter articles and articles that are already translated too. I think articles that are a maximum of two paragraphs are the best.
I lose interest when the article is too long.
An easy article too. There are some easy articles in the free newspapers.
I will look at those. That way I can also pick up expressions in Korean. I am definitely better at reading and comprehending than I am at listening and comprehending.
I just have to pick these things up the best I can.
I have a feeling Mrs L is annoyed when I try and speak Korean. I get the impression she doesn't want to teach me Korean. This is what I got from her the last time. It doesn't matter. If I am sincere in my desire to learn Korean I will learn it.
She has a funny attitude. She should be more about give and take I think.
I think I will just keep learning and learning and mastering the grammar on my own because it's something that others cannot teach me.
If I can do the exercises and get them right including the spelling, it shows that I am getting there mastering the grammar. I think my writing will be much better than my speaking. I find writing much easier because you have time to compose sentences and can make revisions. You can plan what you are going to say.
Speaking is hard because you really do not have time to translate in your mind.
I also see words in English. If there is a Korean word I am picturing in my mind, it is spelled in Romanization. I pronounce words according to their spelling in Romanization.
I don't know whether this is a good thing. Korean words are harder to read than words written in Romanization. Although I don't like to read long sentences written in Romanization. I don't like the current Romanization method at all. I prefer the older style of Romanization.
The problem with the newer style is you can't work out the syllables that easily.
Anyhow, I've made a lot of progress. I think I can finish the chapter before the end of the year.
Then I will study the book a couple more times which will take approximately another month and then that will be it. No more grammar study - well at least not intensive grammar study. I will do occasional brief review though. I need the reviews because it's easy to forget the stuff in the book there is so much of it.
I need to spend more time on the complicated grammar terms. And I need to look at it and make sure it gels in my mind. I sort out the differences between very similar terms. This is important I do that.
So after the parsing stage, I will concentrate on doing this.
I am still in the parsing stage. I just have to be patient though. I can't skip the parsing stage because the parsing stage helps me understand the grammatical term better.
So after the parsing stage is passed, then I do the memorization part. I will use the charts I've made in this stage. Then I do the exercises in the grammar book. The charts are helpful I think. I should somehow make things clearer by underlining more. So that at a glance I can see how the grammatical terms are organized.
I have to make more charts I think where I group like terms together (like as in have the same meaning or same usage).
I have to also look at KGU to make sure I know the little rules that help distinguish between similar grammatical terms.
I might make annotations to the IL book when I check out the KGU book.
Wow, I have definitely made big progress. I have learned a lot of words, rather painlessly I might add by studying the grammar book.
So harvest as many words as I can after I study grammar. I think you should concentrate on that and not worry so much about speaking and shadowing. Too many things done at the same time confuses you. So just concentrate on reading newspapers and online articles. Make lists in notebooks.
Keep doing this.
So where are you going to get the vocab from? Newspapers, IL book, teenage book, online newspaper articles. The main source will be newspapers. So you might have to make clippings. I think that's the best. Maybe make a scrap book with newspaper clippings? I think that could work.
And after you've done about eighty newspaper clippings, pause and look back and see what progress you've made. Don't be too anal about it. You want to read as many articles as possible. I think by the two-hundredth mark your vocab should be much better. If it isn't then you might have to adopt a different method of study.
I don't really want to read storybooks. I think the Somerset Maugham short stories are too difficult.
The newspaper articles are good because they have a wide range of stories and items and topics.
The fairytales weren't that good because the range wasn't wide enough.
I really am getting better at learning Korean I think. I have made definite progress. Are there ways I can improve my learning method though? I don't think so. Just master the IL book. You have to know that book thoroughly so you might as well spend time studying it now. It will give you confidence when you read now. I think you can read Tintin better after studying IL.
I don't want to read Tintin to tell you the truth. It's not that interesting. I prefer newspaper articles. I like online articles too.
I don't think the online Korean lessons are helpful. They are all over the place.
I prefer to just study the newspaper articles for vocab.
So that's my method of study. I think I've made progress when I think back to the days when I first studied IL. I could hardly handle it. Now that I've worked out some innovations: using the Galaxy Player dictionary, making my own annotations of the meanings of the grammar terms, writing the definitions of new words down, making the charts - these have really advanced my learning.
The big leap was making my own definitions of the grammar terms. I have to be more active in writing my own translations of sentences too. Finding the common link that ties all the sentence examples together is the key to understanding the grammar term.
And then revising, revising. Each revision I retain a little more.
The good thing is I don't have to study another grammar book after this. This will be it. I might look at UK but that will be just to fill out some areas not to study from scratch. I don't like UK as much as I did in the past. Some things it explains better than the IL book does but I find it lacks coherence as a whole. I cannot use it as a grammar reference book.
Posted by honeybearsmom
at 10:49 PM EST
