I am worried

I shouldn't be. But I saw someone speaking on Youtube and their Korean is fantastic. His method of learning is different to mine. He learned from teachers in a classroom. So he got a lot of spoken input. He also spent one year in Korea studying. Altogether he spent four years studying. He spole really fluently just like a Korean.

He could write very well as well. I think he is as good as someone can aspire to. He was very intelligent as well and had the same views that I have about Korea. I liked the intelligent way he spoke. 

I admire his determination and his interest in Korean. He really mastered Korean. I could have done the same while I was living in Korea but I had other priorities. 

I think I can reach that level in one year. After the formal study of learning grammar and vocabulary I will learn how Koreans express themselves. Bb really helped me a lot with his corrections. I could see how far I need to go. He is a really great teacher. Very intelligent. I really owe him. 

I want to learn to speak very well. I think I need to really learn how Koreans speak by listening to them and doing the shadowing of the translations. I think once I master speaking my writing should get better. So it's grammar and vocabulary and then shadowing and then trying to speak and write to express myself. I think this will really work out. 

I need to really concentrate on how people speak. I can't wait until I do the shadowing. 

I am starting to catch little grammar words in speech which is good. 

I really will improve a lot once I do shadowing. But I have to do the grammar work book first. I have to do all the vocab study too. 

The vocab study is quite involved, more than I thought. I have to really use the words in sentences and learn the common collocations. I have to study the definition in the lists. So there is a bit of grammar and vocabulary involved. 

So I have to look up the dictionary again when I make a list of the words from the text book and work book. What a pain. I don't like that. At least I have a better dictionary now. It really helps a lot. Studying vocab in this way helps me to study grammar too. It's a lot of using grammar rules and learning new words and expressions. After all of this, I will get a Korean person to correct and I will record them and then I will shadow them. 

I will really do a lot of study. It will be fun. I think my learning will improve exponentially once I study the vocab and I do the shadowing. Then it will be a matter of interacting with people so that I get real-time responses and have to think on my feet. 

But before that, I have to do tons of shadowing and stuff like that. I hope this plan works. 

What brain work is involved? How can I speed up the process? 

I think studying relevant material is important. The teenage book is good. It has a lot of expressions people use in casual speaking. 

Then newspapers are quite good I found. Very very good. It's a very good exercise in translating them. But I really do need a good grasp of grammar. 

So I have to make the "reverse" list. English meaning to Korean grammar words.

That's a priority. I really don't want to do the workbook but I know it's good for me. 

After I do massive amounts of shadowing, speaking and listening will be more natural. Understanding will be more automatic. So the skill of shadowing is really important. 

I really have to study hard. Very very hard. 

I think I can be fluent like that guy in the Youtube video in another year. Another year of intensive study. That guy spent his whole time studying. And he had Korean people (teachers) teaching him. So it should be expected he should be that good. I think if I studied full time by myself I should also be that good but in a shorter time span, maybe after two years. 

Shadowing is very useful I realize. But you have to comprehend what you are shadowing. I knew movies could be helpful but they spoke too fast and I couldn't get the English and Korean scripts together on the same screen. So I had to give up. Korean subtitles aren't enough. I actually need the Korean words. And then also they need to speak slowly. 

So those are the important things: 

1. Translated script

2. Slow speed of speaking

The things I can use are the text book, the work book, the Essential series, any book that has translations of the sentences under them so my sentences. 

Also movie scripts are good too. I might think of getting these movie scripts. I am worried about the quality of the translations though. 

So I have to collect as much material as I can. Anything I translate can also be shadowed. So basically things that have been translated and that I understand the grammar of. 

So:

+ text book and work book of IL

+ KGU

+ Essential Series

+ Teenage book

+ Newspaper articles I've translated

+ Sentences I've composed

+ Movie scripts

I need to understand the translated sentences as well. So I can only shadow after I've thoroughly studied everything and understand what they mean. 

I wonder if there's enough colloquial material in what I've written. I suspect not. What kind of colloquial materials are there? 

The teenage book has colloquial material. 

Also I can translate an easy manga like Old Boy. I think I will do that. 

I will then get someone to practise Korean with and ask them to correct me. 

Then my Korean will improve even more. I will then spend time listening and practising and shadowing. So it will be a mixture of shadowing, using what I've shadowed with others in conversation and refining what I've learned. 

So there is so much to do. It really takes full time study to get better. 

Language learning though is fun because of the challenge aspect of it. You know what the goal is. It's a race to reach the goal. If I was very good at languages, I would learn a language a year. 

I wonder if it's possible to learn a language just by shadowing? You would have to be prepared to swallow a lot of ambiguity though. 

I think it's possible but you wouldn't be able to read and write. So yes. But a lot of confusion at first and you would have to have really good materials with close exact translations. 

I think when I did the shadowing of the KGU book, I really learned how to pronounce Korean and speak with the correct intonation. 

Remembering vocabulary is a matter of reading a lot. After some time, you get to recognize the words because you've read them so many times. So read tons of newspaper articles. Short articles are the best. And then read about 100 of them and translate them well. As an exercise you can translate back and forth. That's a very hard exercise though isn't it? 

I am starting to understand grammar in what I read. 

 

I am worried

I shouldn't be. But I saw someone speaking on Youtube and their Korean is fantastic. His method of learning is different to mine. He learned from teachers in a classroom. So he got a lot of spoken input. He also spent one year in Korea studying. Altogether he spent four years studying. He spole really fluently just like a Korean.

He could write very well as well. I think he is as good as someone can aspire to. He was very intelligent as well and had the same views that I have about Korea. I liked the intelligent way he spoke. 

I admire his determination and his interest in Korean. He really mastered Korean. I could have done the same while I was living in Korea but I had other priorities. 

I think I can reach that level in one year. After the formal study of learning grammar and vocabulary I will learn how Koreans express themselves. Bb really helped me a lot with his corrections. I could see how far I need to go. He is a really great teacher. Very intelligent. I really owe him. 

I want to learn to speak very well. I think I need to really learn how Koreans speak by listening to them and doing the shadowing of the translations. I think once I master speaking my writing should get better. So it's grammar and vocabulary and then shadowing and then trying to speak and write to express myself. I think this will really work out. 

I need to really concentrate on how people speak. I can't wait until I do the shadowing. 

I am starting to catch little grammar words in speech which is good. 

I really will improve a lot once I do shadowing. But I have to do the grammar work book first. I have to do all the vocab study too. 

The vocab study is quite involved, more than I thought. I have to really use the words in sentences and learn the common collocations. I have to study the definition in the lists. So there is a bit of grammar and vocabulary involved. 

So I have to look up the dictionary again when I make a list of the words from the text book and work book. What a pain. I don't like that. At least I have a better dictionary now. It really helps a lot. Studying vocab in this way helps me to study grammar too. It's a lot of using grammar rules and learning new words and expressions. After all of this, I will get a Korean person to correct and I will record them and then I will shadow them. 

I will really do a lot of study. It will be fun. I think my learning will improve exponentially once I study the vocab and I do the shadowing. Then it will be a matter of interacting with people so that I get real-time responses and have to think on my feet. 

But before that, I have to do tons of shadowing and stuff like that. I hope this plan works. 

What brain work is involved? How can I speed up the process? 

I think studying relevant material is important. The teenage book is good. It has a lot of expressions people use in casual speaking. 

Then newspapers are quite good I found. Very very good. It's a very good exercise in translating them. But I really do need a good grasp of grammar. 

So I have to make the "reverse" list. English meaning to Korean grammar words.

That's a priority. I really don't want to do the workbook but I know it's good for me. 

After I do massive amounts of shadowing, speaking and listening will be more natural. Understanding will be more automatic. So the skill of shadowing is really important. 

I really have to study hard. Very very hard. 

I think I can be fluent like that guy in the Youtube video in another year. Another year of intensive study. That guy spent his whole time studying. And he had Korean people (teachers) teaching him. So it should be expected he should be that good. I think if I studied full time by myself I should also be that good but in a shorter time span, maybe after two years. 

Shadowing is very useful I realize. But you have to comprehend what you are shadowing. I knew movies could be helpful but they spoke too fast and I couldn't get the English and Korean scripts together on the same screen. So I had to give up. Korean subtitles aren't enough. I actually need the Korean words. And then also they need to speak slowly. 

So those are the important things: 

1. Translated script

2. Slow speed of speaking

The things I can use are the text book, the work book, the Essential series, any book that has translations of the sentences under them so my sentences. 

Also movie scripts are good too. I might think of getting these movie scripts. I am worried about the quality of the translations though. 

So I have to collect as much material as I can. Anything I translate can also be shadowed. So basically things that have been translated and that I understand the grammar of. 

So:

+ text book and work book of IL

+ KGU

+ Essential Series

+ Teenage book

+ Newspaper articles I've translated

+ Sentences I've composed

+ Movie scripts

I need to understand the translated sentences as well. So I can only shadow after I've thoroughly studied everything and understand what they mean. 

I wonder if there's enough colloquial material in what I've written. I suspect not. What kind of colloquial materials are there? 

The teenage book has colloquial material. 

Also I can translate an easy manga like Old Boy. I think I will do that. 

I will then get someone to practise Korean with and ask them to correct me. 

Then my Korean will improve even more. I will then spend time listening and practising and shadowing. So it will be a mixture of shadowing, using what I've shadowed with others in conversation and refining what I've learned. 

So there is so much to do. It really takes full time study to get better. 

Language learning though is fun because of the challenge aspect of it. You know what the goal is. It's a race to reach the goal. If I was very good at languages, I would learn a language a year. 

I wonder if it's possible to learn a language just by shadowing? You would have to be prepared to swallow a lot of ambiguity though. 

I think it's possible but you wouldn't be able to read and write. So yes. But a lot of confusion at first and you would have to have really good materials with close exact translations. 

I think when I did the shadowing of the KGU book, I really learned how to pronounce Korean and speak with the correct intonation. 

Remembering vocabulary is a matter of reading a lot. After some time, you get to recognize the words because you've read them so many times. So read tons of newspaper articles. Short articles are the best. And then read about 100 of them and translate them well. As an exercise you can translate back and forth. That's a very hard exercise though isn't it? 

I am starting to understand grammar in what I read. 

 

Looking up vocab

is definitely a killer. It takes so long to do. It is really interminably boring to do. I do not remember the vocab either. I must have looked up the same word about four times.

I really do not like learning Korean vocab and the words are hard to pronounce what's more. I really wish vocab learning would come to me. Unfortunately, memorization is about the thing everyone has to do when they learn a foreign language. I think that when I finish the grammar learning it will be better. Then I can concentrate on vocab.

A thought came to me. Am I spending too long on grammar? 

Maybe I should just worry about vocab. Vocab is really important. 

Is the grammar I am learning useful? I don't know. I don't think it's that useful. Learning vocab seems more useful. But some of the words are really hard to remember. 

I think I am creating a bank of words now that I should learn from studying this textbook. 

I think I will make a list and learn from that list. I should spend a long time, just repeating the words and testing yourself again and again. 

I think repetition is a painless way of learning. Also, it helps if I hear the word. 

So I will use this method. Actually this is a fun method. I don't have to think too much. I've already looked up the word. I have an idea of how it's pronounced and so it's just time to repeat it about a million times. If I repeat the word enough, it should stick. I should repeat the word at least thirty times I think. Listen to the word as you repeat it. I think this will work. That's basically what Pimsleur does but they have spaced repetition. I can't do that. Also I am not forced to recall the words. I might just do a test for myself though and then spend a few moments revising the difficult words. 

I can't wait until I've learned all these words. I am sick of grammar frankly. I might just do the workbook quickly after I've finished the vocab in the workbook. After that, I will switch to studying vocab, first starting with the words in the textbook and the workbook. I will make a list in a notebook. Then I will revise that list. There might be about a thousand words I have to learn, maybe two thousand. I don't think there is more than two thousand. I shall learn these two thousand words really thoroughly. 

I will then go through some online newspapers and learn more words from that. 

I will study very hard until I get twenty thousand words in total. It will be a lot of repetition I suppose. But I will drill those words in my head. 

I think I will have to return to grammar study at a later date. I am bound to forget some grammar terms. Each time I study it again, I understand grammar better, and I pick up new things I hadn't noticed before. But I think I should start devoting some time to the learning of vocab. Without vocab there is no way you can read the newspaper or a magazine article. 

I wonder if I have improved or not. I am itching to see whether I am better at reading the Tintin books or not. There is some hard vocab in that book. If I can read that book, my reading will be middle school level which won't be bad at all. Still I want my reading to be university level so there is a lot of study involved. In time it will be all about studying vocab, masses and masses of it. I won't be worrying about grammar because there is only so much grammar to learn. Vocab - the sky is the limit.  So I have to think about that. Once I get stuck into learning vocab I can listen and understand better. This will help with speaking and communicating. 

This might be a hard method of study - an academic way of studying but it's the one I like best. I think I am good at reading and writing. Maybe not so good with speaking but the opportunities to speak are so few. 

So I will just try my hardest. Once I reach a certain level of proficiency in speaking I can speak with Koreans and make friends with people who do not speak much Korean. Then my Korean will really improve. 

The computer is really slow for some reason. 

Going well

I finally managed to get the dictionary onto the computer. It's a good dictionary but you have to type the whole word in properly, an approximation isn't good enough. I prefer the Galaxy Player dictionary but it's not available for the Mac computer. I like to type on the keyboard of the computer instead of using the keys on the Player.

Anyhow it took me 4-5 hours to get the darned thing. I had such a headache. Every time I try and buy something I always encounter problems. I anticipate them and I dread doing stuff like that. 

I was really frustrated. 

Now I am studying the textbook again. I am studying Nouns. I am looking at the spelling more. 

There are some difficult parts in that chapter. 

I am halfway through that chapter. After I've finished that chapter, I should revise Verbs and Conjugations again. 

I should look up the words in the work book. My least favorite activity. It's easy but so TEDIOUS. 

I don't know how long it will take but

I will just take it leisurely. I have gone past the part where I was trying to understand the very difficult grammar terms.

So the revision part is much easier. Now I have to concentrate on recall. The more I practise recall, the easier it is to retain the material. So I have to practise recall. I won't stress out too much about the workbook exercises. They are easier than I thought. 

The key to retention

is to do recall soon after studying the grammar term, say after you've studied the next term, go back and review the previous grammar term. I did it and it worked! I retained a lot more than before.

Also, the other thing I need to do is to sound out the grammar term loud a few times so that it is retained in my auditory memory. So say the term a few times loud, maybe about six times until it has stuck in my auditory brain. 

So these are the modifications I will introduce to make my study more useful, make the time I spend less wasteful––to get more out of studying. 

I need to think of these little tricks. I need to make my studying more efficient in other words. 

I do enjoy this way of study. It forces me to recall what I've recently learned and the process of recall helps me retain the information better. 

Also, I've broken up some long chapters into manageable chunks. I will see how that goes. 

So all these innovations will make my review much better. 

I want to know the terms that I came across for the first time in the book as well as the terms in the KGU book. 

I want to know instantaneously how the grammar terms are used and so on. I wish I had the other book, the KGU book, because I want to revise that. I want to spend less time looking at the spelling examples and just get the main gist of the grammar terms. 

Oh well, I can't carry a whole library around with me I guess. 

I have the workbook and I think the workbook is good enough. I think if I had brought just the textbook and some notebooks it would have been better. I could have revised and revised the textbook, making lists for memorization and categories and vocab lists. The vocab lists would have helped me a lot with the workbook because if I learned the vocab lists I wouldn't have to look up so many words that are in the workbook. 

But still, I wanted to try the workbook so it's OK. I think I will revise the textbook more though. I want to get a better handle on the textbook. I feel as if I've parsed the sentences but I haven't got a good grip on what each grammar term is used for. I have a vague memory but I would fail in a test of recall of grammar terms. So now that I've parsed the sentences, I have to revise the grammar terms. 

I've done a quick review of Particles. I feel like I am getting on top of Particles.  Probably three more readings and I will have a really good knowledge of them. Particles is thankfully a short chapter.

Now, I will tackle Nouns and I will tackle them the same way I tackled Particles. I will go through each section and then pause after a section. I will do attempted recall of recently learned grammar terms and I will sound out the grammar terms as well. 

Then next I will tackle Conjugational Endings. The fact that I've divided up that chapter makes it easier to learn I think. I might start from the second section. 

Then after Conjugations, I will tackle Auxiliary Verbs and then the other minor chapters. 

I might have to make memorization lists too. 

So after I've gone through the whole book, of course spending more time on the difficult chapters, I will review the book again, this time, just concentrating on the difficult chapters: Nouns, Particles, Conjugations, Quotations, Verbs. 

Or I will do it the other way around. I will do the difficult chapters and then do review of the whole book. 

I am not sure. I will then do review of the difficult chapters. 

Then after that if I am confident I have a good handle on the grammar terms, I will go back to the workbook, doing the vocab in that book. 

I really hate doing the vocab work. Conjugations has got really hard vocab. I think some chapters have easier vocab and fewer vocab. 

Going through the vocab will take at least a week if not two weeks.

Then I will rip through the workbook, doing all the exercises. It should be quick and easy because I've really revised the textbook. Spelling should be easy too. 

So just rip through it all. 

Then after I've done the workbook, it's time to review. After I've done the workbook, I will know my weak areas and I will concentrate on them during the review. 

I will do review of the entire book until I am satisfied that I have complete knowledge of it, and then I will rest. 

Oh, before I rest, I have to do testing. But before I do testing, I have to write out the grammar terms. I will do this for the Nouns, Particles, Conjugations chapters only. 

I am happy that I am at last getting on top of Quotations. It's making more sense to me these days. I was really afraid of them but not that much anymore. 

So I am knocking down the ones that frighten me one by one. I feel as if I am getting on top of Particles as well. It's not as bad as I thought. 

And then I will tackle Conjugations. 

Nouns is not that long. 

And I can always do Quotations again. 

I am getting better with the speech levels too which is a relief. So doing all this revision is really helpful. 

And I will review irregular verbs as well. As they are set out in IL, they are easier to study than in KGU. That book really confused me. 

The IL book shows them all in a single table which is helpful. 

I've modified my study
so that I do a quick review of the item before the last one. This involves trying to recall the grammar term and its usage etc. It's quite effective.

Going back to doing quick reviews

The more reviews I do, the more connections I make. There are connections between Particles and Conjunctives. I think I have to do lots of quick reviews before the information settles in. I did the exercises along with the study of the book when I was learning KGU. I think doing the exercises distracted me a little. There was a lot of focus on spelling in that book. I think the author should have presented the rules of spelling early on. I don't like how the author explains irregular verbs in that book.

I realize there is so much to memorize. It's not really sinking in! Sigh! What to do? I have to spend more time on the hard-to-remember parts which I am doing but still ... I have to revise TONS more times, I really do. It doesn't work to be too systematic about studying IL; I tried that with KGU and there are some gaps in my knowledge and parts that I am not really sure about. 

I must concentrate on the difficult parts but there are so many of them! That's the problem. Conjugations is so very long. 

I have to focus on Particles, the difficult part, near the end of the chapter. Conjugations - conjugational endings. Nouns - the last part. Quotations - the last part. Irregular verbs. Adverbs. Numbers. And that's about it. The other stuff isn't that hard. Actually Auxiliaries and Passives/Causatives aren't that difficult. 

I realize that I forget things as soon as I learn them. It helps to see patterns and connections though. 

I will just revise and revise the book. There is no point doing the exercises in the workbook and then forgetting the grammar term soon afterwards. Then doing the workbook has accomplished nothing. The workbook should be like REVISION I suppose. I only do it after I am sure I know the material back to front. There are some terms that have stuck in my mind so I know it's possible to remember these terms. 

There are so many of them, that's why I find it hard. I have to tease out the differences between them. I have to revise and revise the hard-to-remember ones until I am very familiar with them. I guess I have to be so familiar with them that I can translate back and forth. 

That's what I have to do. 

The problem with Korean students is not that they study English grammar too much, it's that that's ALL they study. Studying English grammar is essential to sound and write like a person who knows the language. I defy you to find a person who is fluent in speaking and writing another language who hasn't studied the grammar. 

It's the fact that Korean students STOP there that they can't communicate in English well. They have to study masses of vocabulary and shadow and shadow. Can you imagine if they read tons of books, like more than two hundred books and read about five hundred newspaper articles and shadowed about three hours a day that they still wouldn't be able to speak English well? Of course not. 

It's because they are lazy and dependent on others to "teach" them English that they do not learn to speak English well. 

I have to do the same; make sure that I study EVERYTHING. Grammar is important, so is shadowing, so is reading a lot, so is looking things up in a dictionary and memorizing words. 

Korean grammar is really difficult. The good thing about it is that there aren't too many exceptions. English is full of exceptions. 

I have to read and read after this. Studying the grammar book is good because it forces me to read. 

I think my vocab has improved a lot though the aim of the current study is not to acquire vocab. 

So after I memorize grammar terms I must understand that that's not enough. I won't be able to make even ONE proper sentence when speaking by doing this. This is when SHADOWING comes in. But because I have studied the grammar shadowing will be very effective; more effective than if I hadn't studied grammar. I will pick up expressions very fast. So I have to try that. I will shadow this book, IL. I think it's important. This book has got all the translations. It's only effective to shadow stuff I have the translations of. I will shadow and shadow. Shadowing is basically listening and speaking or repeating. Reciting. 

Shadowing is what will make me fluent. The more I shadow, the more fluent I will become. That's all there is to it. I will be speaking correctly because the sentences are grammatically correct and I will be hearing the correct pronunciation and intonation. 

So shadowing tons. The quantity matters more than quality in this respect. And this applies when it comes to learning vocabulary. Just learn tons. And then I will be much much better than a Korean person speaking English when I speak Korean. 

The clue is to shadow as much as possible. I will forget about grammar for the time being ... maybe. No, actually I will be revising grammar when I do the shadowing of the IL book. 

And I have to shadow the KGU book. 

And the Essential books. 

Then I might do the Tintin books. 

I might get readings of the WOW comics. 

I might get readings of Aesop's fables too. 

So there is a lot to shadow. I might have to listen and repeat ten times in total or twenty times in total. Each sentence I mean. And then maybe do the whole book again. Shadowing will be coming out of my ears. And also reading lots. Sitting there with my dictionary reading. By then grammar should pose no problem to me. I will make lots of lists. Maybe each time I study, the first part should be spent revising the vocab I wrote down the previous time I studied. 

So reading lots. Reading Korean makes me dizzy though. Lots of listening and repeating. Making lots of lists and memorizing the lists. 

Doing this for many hours every day and eventually you will get it I think. Maybe you can find an even better dictionary than the one you have. The dictionary you have is excellent though. I like the electronic format too. Perhaps you can find a really top-notch dictionary and from that you can learn many new words. You won't have trouble finding words in that dictionary. 

So just learn and learn a lot; shadowing and speaking and listening and READING. You cannot become good at Korean without reading. Maybe you have to read about five hundred articles and about a hundred short books, comics before you are good at reading. I think I will have to do this. I have a much better dictionary now so reading won't be the chore that it was before. 

So I am not neglecting any area. I will be able to read and I will be able to speak fluently and understand what people are saying. I will have excellent vocabulary and will rarely have to look things up. I will have picked up tons of expressions and use them in my speech and writing. I will have excellent writing skills and can write about anything I want. My writing will be very professional. I will be able to express myself very well, in a sophisticated manner. I will have tons of vocab at my fingertips as I have said. I will be picking up more vocab though as I go along; my vocab acquisition will never end. I will sound natural when I talk. I will shadow and shadow so very very much. I will be the best Korean speaker ever! I will be very very good at speaking Korean. People will be amazed at how good I am and this is all a result of studying by myself! 

I am studying the basics and spending a lot of time on them, but they will be the building blocks for advanced skills. Acquiring advanced skills and being polished in my presentation will be quick because I will have gained a lot of confidence by knowing the basics back to front. 

I will have so much high-level vocabulary that people will be amazed. I will memorize a lot of vocabulary and shadow so much that I will have repeated tons of vocab. Reading Korean will be as effortless as reading English. I will really have mastered Korean and my delivery will be very natural and fluent and have minimal mistakes. 

I will correct myself continually and listen carefully to people. I might spend a short time paying people to converse with me and correct my speaking but I think this is most cost-efficient when I have done a lot of learning on my own. There is no point paying someone to correct mistakes that I can easily correct on my own by studying. 

So study on my own and then tons of shadowing and then finally correction. People will be so FLABBERGASTED when they next meet me and talk with me. I will speak relatively fast because I am a quick thinker. I think I do have OK verbal skills because I talk English very quickly (too quickly actually and people have complained) and so I think I can gain the same sort of speed and fluency in Korean. 

My strengths are the ability to acquire large amounts of vocab and my determination to do lots of shadowing and my ability to acquire expert knowledge of vocabulary. 

I really think I can be good in Korean grammar. Perhaps I will get Samuel Martin's book because after I finish IL, I need another book that has even more grammar than IL. I want a really comprehensive grammar book–a tome. 

I wish there was something like the English grammar texts, the advanced ones, for Korean grammar learning. 

I think I can be quite good at it. After I get a good grasp of grammar, I will immerse myself in reading and getting vocab and shadowing. It will be a lot of hard work but if I shadow a lot, speaking will be automatic after a while. I will then be able to express myself without struggling for words because I have shadowed so many expressions there is a bank of expressions in my head that I can use. 

It will be so much fun. 

I really like studying Korean grammar. Vocab I don't like. Shadowing is not fun. Grammar is FUN. Reading isn't fun because of the loads of vocab I don't understand. I should really read easy pieces and then move gradually onto harder ones. 

I should read articles from local newspapers. They have fun articles, not too serious, on a broad range of subjects. So I will work on them. I hope I find a Korean boyfriend/husband who can help me with this. It will be really good if that happens. They will be tremendous help to me especially if they speak English well. They can translate stuff for me and I don't have to look up the dictionary so much. But I know that in six months, my Korean will be TERRIFIC! People will be so amazed! Maybe I can use my method to teach others. I know many people want to learn Korean. 

I can write a text book perhaps. It has to come in about three volumes because there is so much material in it. The Sogang textbook is TERRIBLE. 

I think I can re-write the IL book and then get a Korean person to help me make sentences. We can work together to translate them, and we will have a vocab key. So the student will find my book much better than the IL book. However, creating exercises won't be easy. Writing such a book will take massive amounts of collaboration with a Korean speaker. 

Maybe I can write the textbook and the Korean speaker can do the bits I can't which are making up example sentences (and translating them, with my help), creating exercises to do. I will be good at organizing the material and explaining in English the grammar. I will be good at making the book easy for foreigners to understand and learn from. 

I will put the actual translation and then the colloquial translation underneath the Korean sentence. 

This really helps non-Korean speakers understand Korean grammar I think. 

The book will be COMPREHENSIVE. I am a perfectionist so I like to include everything. 

It will be a massive undertaking. It can only happen after I become really fluent in Korean and have found somebody I can collaborate well with. 

I think the book might sell really well, maybe in the thousands? If I sell two thousand of these books (three volume set) at $120 a volume, I will make $240,000 or about half of that–$120,000 which is not bad and I will keep getting loyalties for it. I can even sell it from my own website.

There are LOTS of ways of making money I think. Actually, $120 is too cheap. Rosetta Stone sells for about $500 bucks. I might sell the whole series for about $250. It really depends on the market I suppose. There may be about 1000 students who are serious learners of Korean in Korea. And there may be many more overseas. So let's say there is a market of about 5000 students. And I sell the three-part volume with a CD-ROM for shadowing at $250 a pop. That will be how much? Gross will be $1,250,000. If say the expenses are 50% then I will make about $600,000. That's good money. It will be the Rolls Royce of Korean grammar study. I think I will be very good at that. 

The person will have an excellent understanding of grammar, have very good vocabulary, be able to read many sentences, be able to speak well with good pronunciation, will have good knowledge of expressions–what more could they want? There will be additional exercises on CD-ROM too. So there are many many drills. 

So there is tons there. These books are good for people who want to do self-study. 

I think this book should sell extraordinarily well. I will need a top-notch Korean person to help me put it together though. I think I will have to be fluent in Korean myself if I am going to promote this book. I will use myself as advertisement. 

I will give lots of handy tips about how to study Korean. 

TIP: blah blah blah

There will be an introduction to students on how to learn Korean. 

There will be so much help. Foreign students will be so happy there is this book guiding them. 

I think this will be a good start. 

There will be lots of explanations. I don't think it can fit into the one book. There has to be about three volumes. Maybe I will create a separate workbook. I think that's what I will do. So if I do this, I might be able to fit all the material into one or two volumes. I don't want the student to be carrying a book the size of an encyclopedia so I think two volumes is the way to go. 

So two thick books and they have to be bought together I think. Then there is the workbook with additional exercises on CD-ROM.

So the person will be studying tons and learning tons and organizing the information in a very systematic and helpful way. There will be so much help for that person. The literal translations will be very helpful to the person learning Korean. 

I really look forward to helping others learn Korean. 

I want to lend them the value of my experience in studying Korean. 

I think it will be fun. But first of all, I have to acquire 20,000 words and know them off by heart and I have to shadow so much and I have to study and memorize the grammar book and I have to do the workbook. When I do the workbook, I should not be looking things up to find out about how the grammar term is used. Maybe just for checking. I should do the exercises easily and well. The workbook will be REVISION as I have said. 

So I will revise and revise the textbook. It needs A LOT of revision. Maybe I need to revise it eight more times! But the revisions are quick. 

Learning the language

Revision is not too bad. I like revision. Though the problem is finding some stuff that I want to find such as the possessive pronouns. I am SURE I saw it in the IL book but I can't find it anymore! What a nuisance. Maybe it's in Particles. I didn't check Particles. 

I like revising. I know I have to revise difficult parts about a hundred times before I get it however. Like some of the Conjugational stuff I revised about seven times and I still forget them!

There is so much packed in the Conjugational chapter. Some of the terms are very close to one another. You add "yo" and the entire meaning changes.

I am confused by the many ways you can say the same thing in Korean. "Even though" is one example. "If" is another example. "in order to" is another one. There are a few more.

I would like to do the revision again but I have to do the vocab in the Workbook unfortunately.

I really want to finish the vocab. I wonder if I can do the workbook later on and just do the revision now as I really hate doing the vocab in the workbook.

I don't want to do vocab and workbook, vocab and workbook ... I want to do all the vocab at once so I can concentrate on the grammar. If I do the vocab at the same time, my ability to concentrate on the grammar is not good.

That's why the first few readings of the grammar book were so painful–I did not know the vocab. And knowing the vocab makes understanding the grammar much easier. There is no way of getting around it.

Got to do the vocabulary of the grammar book!

Looking up words though is easier. I am looking up words as I find the ones I need to look up on the page. One by one. I think that's the best way.

I don't like scanning the page though.

I really need to revise the grammar book a few more times I think. Not counting the times I revise the book while doing the workbook, I think I have to revise the book about three more times. At least. I think after that my knowledge of the grammar will be automatic. Teasing out the difficult parts though will take some time. I have to train myself to dwell on the more difficult parts. I am not good at that. I skim through everything really fast.

I am still not getting some parts stuck in my mind. I have to revise over and over again, in a systematic fashion. The order I like best is Quotations, Conjugations, Nouns, Particles and then the rest.

I think those are the really important chapters.

The Conjugations part is so long though.

I think it takes me about four days to revise the book in its entirety by reading through it.

I think I will sit with paper in hand and do the difficult parts. Actually write out the difficult parts I think.

If I do the revision like that first a couple more times before I tackle the workbook, it might be better because I am then using the workbook as just a revision exercise. I will be using the workbook to test my knowledge and I won't have to refer to the textbook as much. I will be confident about doing the exercises too.

Right now I wouldn't be able to do the exercises without looking at the textbook.

I've forgotten a lot of the grammar. The point of learning the grammar is to MEMORIZE it.

So aims are:

* I've memorized all the meanings of the grammar terms

* I've memorized all the spelling rules

And to do that, I have to revise, revise and revise. The workbook I think is a way of helping revise and test my knowledge really.

Applying what I know is important. Also doing self-testing is important.

If I knew all the vocab, learning the grammar book would be SO easy. I could revise that book about six times and finish it all including the workbook in two or three weeks.

It's the vocab that's slowing me down.

I really hate the vocab; I really do.

Why does there have to be so much in the workbook?  

It's too boring

doing the vocab work. I hate it. I think I should do the exercises and then do the vocab work. The vocab work is going to take DAYS to do. The worst case scenario is tht it takes about ten days to do. Each page takes five minutes. It's a real pain. I can't say how much I hate this work. Should I do the exercises at the same time or is that too distracting, stopping and starting, to look up words? I don't know. I will see how I go. Maybe I am tired and that's why I feel this way. It makes me dizzy looking up all these words. I really don't like to do this. And it's frustrating when a word has multiple meanings. I don't know which meaning the book is referring to. I wish the authors had made things easier by providing a definition key as I've said before. I would really like them to do that. I think the authors consider very little the feelings of the student. It's like an exercise for Korean students. And they often use words that aren't in the dictionary.

I don't think I will worry myself over words I can't find the meaning of. I will just ask someone about the meanings. I will circle the words that puzzle me and then ask someone later. It won't take them long to explain things to me. 

I think I had better stick to the original plan of going through the book and just writing out the vocabulary. 

I think it's the best way to learn grammar. 

Later on, all the word looking up will be useful because you will have really increased your vocabulary. 

I think there must be about 4 times 600 pages = 2400 words in that book I don't know. So this will help improve my vocabulary a lot. I think there are about 10 times 400 = 4000 words in the text book. So after doing both books I will have increased my vocabulary by about 6000 words. I need to learn 12,000 more words and then I am all set. 

So many damn words to learn! I hate it and I'm not seeing many patterns at all. 

I really don't like the fact that Korean borrows so many words from the Chinese language. 

It really is mind bending to pore over the dictionary and read so fast, scanning the page for words I don't recognize. 

I think I need to do some other activity at the same time, watch a movie, or take a break every hour/half hour or so because it's very difficult. 

I really need to take a break from study. I will study in the evening for about three hours or four hours until midnight I think. The next four hours I will get myself organized. Study shouldn't take up the most important hours of the day. 

I might just take it easy and not get anxious about it. Just think of it as vocab learning. This will help you read newspapers because the language is general and is of a higher level. So don't stress out over it. Just do it occasionally and have frequent pauses. The subject is boring and you are really tired. You just have to make the best of it. 

You don't understand the grammar yet I can tell because as you scan the sentences you don't really understand them. But after I go through the text book while I do the exercises.Then I will be much better at understanding the sentences. 

So just keep doing the vocab work. At least I can do the vocab work without carrying a lot of books; just a dictionary. 

I am getting better at looking up words. I also dislike typing Hangeul letters that much. 

I don't like this part of the studying and I didn't think it would take so long but it does. 

I have to just keep studying and studying and eventually I will get it. Don't rush. Just be consistent from day to day. A few hours study is what's required. Just say it takes five minutes per page, then since there are 600 pages, it takes 3000 minutes. This translates into 50 hours. This is a lot. If you do 5 hours a day, it will take 10 days to get all the vocab down. 

I think this is better than looking at the book. I like to do things systematically. 

I don't like to do too many different things at the same time. I think the testing thing is a good way of learning grammar. 

I can't wait until I reach the revision part.