Learning in chunks

There's something to be said about learning language in chunks. That's how kids do it. They don't understand the parts of speech, grammar and so on but they can be fluent. I think that's the only way to be fluent. To learn phrases. So when I do shadowing, I have to be alert for phrases. Don't focus so much on the individual words but think in phrases. That's the way to do it. And listen a lot. You'll hear the same phrases over and over again.

So there is a drive on many fronts: 

• The drive to learn as many chunks as possible and speak these chunks fluently. 

• There is the drive to acquire as much vocabulary as possible.

• There is the drive to remember as many grammatical forms as possible. 

Those are the main drives. 

The vocabulary acquisition can be measured by how many articles, books, materials I process using vocabulary acquisition methods. Don't neglect mnemonics when learning vocabulary. Mnemonics is very very important. They will lock the word in your long term memory.

It's not that hard to learn 200 words in a day if one has the time. So in about one month, you should have learned 6000 words. 

How long would it take to learn 200 words? Well, if you spend five minutes per word, that will be 1000 minutes. That is 16 hours a day, I think. And I think five minutes is a long time to spend learning a word. 

Maybe a better figure would be 3 minutes. So 600 minutes. That will mean 10 hours a day. So that is doable. I will have time to do shadowing as well. So I have to try and keep to this figure of 3 minutes per word. Three minutes per word involves thinking of a mnemonic. Writing a sentence with the word in it, looking up the dictionary. Repeating the word several times a day. Using visualization. Reading the phrase I've learned with the word in it. So I think 200 words a day is doable. Then afterwards, you can do some shadowing. Shadowing doesn't take too long. Try and listen for chunks. That will be hard actually. The English translation may get in the way. That's why learning languages through pictures is better. Because the English doesn't get in the way. 

Learning individual words is also helpful. But learning phrases is the best way of becoming fluent. I wish I could do shadowing soon. But I will eventually have to move away from shadowing too. 

The problem with shadowing is that one is relying on English too much. Even reading Korean might be a problem. Try and listen to the sounds. Try and pick up "chunks" or phrases.

I will have to learn intensively for the next six months. Just relax. You've made a lot of progress. Korean is a difficult language to read. Try and get to the point where you recognize 98% of the words in any text without looking up any words. 

By then your progress will be rapid. You want to get to the point of reading where you don't want to parse all the time. 

By the time you've translated and parsed 100 newspaper articles (easy and difficult; short and long) and shadowed all the sentences in them, and then translated and parsed one Tintin book and then done the shadowing for it, and parsed and translated the grammar book and shadowed the sentences, and then done a lot of shadowing of the essential mp3s, and then done revision of the grammar in the IL book as well as the grammar in the KGIU book ... my Korean - meaning my ability to read, my pronunciation of words and the ability to say a few phrases, will be pretty good. 

I will be especially pleased when I can read an article of a newspaper easily. That will be a thrill. I really hate looking up words. I hope my method of study will help me remember words. I think the words I learn from newspapers are repeated many times in articles. So learning from articles is a way of revising stuff I already know. 

I also must not neglect listening. Not just listening of stuff I want to shadow but listening to contemporary dramas. 

So this is the make and break stage. Reading newspapers won't be such a chore as it was before. I can understand a lot now. I really can. I can translate articles a lot more. And then I can work on speaking. So it's not only about reading and translating, it's about speaking and listening and memorizing words and phrases in my aural memory as well as in my visual memory. 

I have to learn all these phrases, maybe about 5000 of them. That will be great when I've learned so many phrases. 

And then I can work on being more fluent by practising with Koreans. It will be a pain because many of them aren't that interesting to talk to. 

I can watch variety shows and things like that and try and understand them. 

It will be great once I can understand a show on TV completely. That will be great. 

So the key is to learn tons of vocabulary - not just sight recognition of the word but the spoken form of the word. Keep an eye and ear out for "chunks".  If you catch a chunk, that will be golden. 

So try and learn common collocations and phrases. Don't worry about learning whole sentences. 

Don't worry too much about the different speech levels. 

The news articles will be a good source of vocabulary. Tintin books won't be too bad. And then you can do the teenage books as well. The manga like St Marie, forget about. It's too colloquial. 

I should really be good by the end of one year. I am understanding more, and listening is my weakest point so maybe my listening isn't too bad. 

If I were able to study as much as I had wanted, I would be doing vocab study and shadowing by now. I would have made the vocab lists of the grammar book, done the self-testing of the grammar words, done the workbook, made the categories of grammar words, and I would be at the stage where I am writing sentences for the words and making up mnemonics. 

And then I think in six months, I can learn 20,000 words. If I learn 200 words a day, then in six months, I will have learned 200x6x30=36000 words. So after three months, I should have learned all the words I need and more. When I mean "learned", know them to a sufficient level so that I can learn them for good the next time I "learn" them. Some words will stay in my long term memory if I use mnemonics for them. 

I will get better and better at understanding written grammar too. So probably my reading and writing wouldn't be too bad but I won't be fluent. The only way to become fluent is to shadow. 

I will just have to shadow as much as possible. I will do TONS of shadowing and then reassess my methods to see if I am making progress. I will test my newspaper reading too occasionally. Right now, I am having trouble because I don't understand near enough higher-level words. 

I need to learn these words as quickly as possible. But you've made progress. You were at the stage where you didn't know many simple words. 

You are at the stage of learning intermediate-level words. 

So when you practice speaking, don't obsess too much about the meaning. Try and get the intonation down pat. Try and get the pronunciation right. 

I think you will make it. You will be better than the FSI people because you will be able to read and write fluently as well as speak fluently. Once you learn many "chunks", writing will be easier. Chunks will help you write, speak and read. Chunks will be helpful for understanding grammar too. 

So looking up words, doing mnemonics, doing tons of shadowing and trying to pick up chunks and doing tons of free listening as well will all help. Also, try and get your reading up to speed. Test yourself with simple stuff when you get back to your apartment. Also, try translating Tintin and see whether it's easier with the better dictionary that you have and also with your knowledge of grammar. 

I think your understanding of Korean has improved so much. You can't expect miracles of course. And watching sageuks isn't really helpful for your Korean. Watching contemporary shows is good for your Korean. 

I love learning grammar though. It's a good feeling when I have a handle on it. When I approach it as learning vocabulary, I feel the pressure is off. 

So just approach it like that. And try and "simplify" it. The book makes it more complicated than it is. 

So concentrate on learning as many chunks as possible. If you learn ten chunks a day, after a year, you will learn 3500 chunks. That's a great many chunks and you will be effectively fluent. So try and learn as many chunks while you are studying. 

Is there a systematic way of learning chunks? 

There is a lot of pressure on me

but I think I am going about things the right way. Learning grammar really has helped me. I think I've made a lot of progress in the last 6 months. I really need to concentrate on finishing the grammar and following the study plan. Once I learn vocabulary, that will be fun. Maybe I should approach the learning of grammar the same way that I learn vocabulary. I should just try and memorize the meaning of the grammatical words by using mnemonics.

I am in love with mnemonics again. Words that I remembered using mnemonics I never forget. 

I think it's useful to make my own mnemonics. Now that I have got the right pronunciation, it's easier to make mnemonics. 

Don't make too complicated mnemonics. Even though you might forget the word a short time later, the next time you learn it, the learning time is quicker and you are more likely to remember it. 

So don't give up on mnemonics.

Also, use the words you learn. Again, you might forget it a short time later, but it will be easier to lock into your long term memory the SECOND time you learn the word. 

So hurry up and finish the grammar exercises treating the grammar words as words to learn. Then move onto vocabulary. And learn masses of vocabulary. Just learn and learn lots of words using mnemonics. You will probably need to do shadowing at the same time. So concentrate on the grammar book and shadow that well. Translate the newspaper articles and the Tintin books. And take it slowly bit by bit. You will get there. Pay someone a small fee and record them. Keep good records of the recordings. Put them in a playlist and label appropriately. You might use "Get Info" to label them well. 

And then it will be fun. You can check your progress because you have a list of words. Then you can do listening practice as well by watching TV and favorite dramas. As you do shadowing more and more, your understanding will improve. Your vocabulary really improved after you studied the grammar book and looked up all the words in the dictionary. 

Some of the newspaper articles are quite high-level and use specialized vocabulary, I think. But don't be overly impressed with people who can speak Korean fluently. You will be able to read as well. And write well. 

The speaking will come in time. People will be impressed at your ability to communicate. 

 

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.