Comparing Korean, Japanese and Chinese

Which language is the most difficult? It's hard to say. Each language has its advantages and disadvantages when it comes to learning them for the English speaker.

With Korean, the writing is the easiest (and therefore the reading) because the phonetic script, Hangeul, is used. But the disadvantages are that the grammar is the hardest to learn out of the three (Korean grammar is said to be 10 times harder than Japanese grammar even though they share many similarities), and the pronunciation of Korean words is difficult. 

With respect to the Japanese language, the writing system is very difficult because you have to learn Kanji and two other writing systems. But the pronunciation of Japanese is easy. 

Now with Chinese, the grammar is easier than the other two, but one has to learn Hanja and one has to learn tones. 

So in the end, it's really hard to say which language is the hardest to learn. And besides I haven't tried to learn Japanese or Chinese so these comments are just based on my observations as an outsider. 

 

Learning vocabulary and phrases

I've found that learning both individual words and phrases is helpful. I have been learning vocabulary from a Korean children's book for learning English. I use it to learn Korean of course. It's been great. I probably cannot recall most of the words I've learned but if I come across the word somewhere else with the English definition, I can memorize the word faster on this occasion. The book has 600 words. The words are basic words that a beginner should know. I am also going through a phrase book, "Surviving Korean" and many of the words are familiar and do not take very long to learn because I already encountered them in the vocabulary book.

I have found that it's really useful to learn these words. "Surviving Korean" is good because the word is demonstrated in very simple sentences. 

I have started to learn phrases today. I am learning from another children's book for learning English. The sentences are really simple. Some of them have colloquial phrases. 

I recognize most of the vocabulary in the sentences now because I studied the vocabulary book. 

So it's more a matter of memorizing phrases than memorizing vocabulary. 

I repeat the phrase aloud 40x. I read the phrase very slowly the first few times and then I speed up and eventually say the phrase very fast. I try not to read the phrase after the first few times.

Most of the phrases are simple, but if I come across a complex one I memorize chunks of it. 

I don't worry about parsing the grammar of the sentence overly. I just concentrate on memorizing the phrase. 

I am sure I am going to immediately forget most of the phrases I've learned but I think if I come across the phrases in the future and try and learn them, the learning phase will be much quicker. In the sense, future learning of the phrase is revision. I don't have to make as much effort to memorize the phrase again. 

And if I come across the phase in reading I can understand it and not stress too much about the grammar of the phrase which I tend to do when I am translating a phrase for the first time. 

It does take a long time to repeat a phrase 40x. But I think it's useful. I like this book because it goes beyond the usual conversational phrases such as greetings, ordering a meal and so on. I am sick of these types of phrases actually. Almost every book I have studied has these phrases repeated. Then I get stuck in greetings, grow bored and then don't go past greetings. 

The children's book I am studying from has interesting characters like Mr Fox. 

So I have to just persist with this kind of thing as I am having trouble finding an environment I can immerse myself in and have COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT. 

That is the thing. Watching TV can be considered "immersion" at a pinch I guess, but the content of it is incomprehensible so it's mostly useless. 

Also, I like these books because unlike movies with English subtitles, they don't stray too far from the literal meanings of the words. There is less interpretation done by the translator. 

So the English subtitles thing might be really damaging for me and harming my efforts to learn the language. I don't mind a translation that is far from the literal translation but so long as a word-for-word (or close to it as possible) exists somewhere. 

Because literal translations give a clue as to how Koreans think when using language. 

So that's my pet gripe about English subtitles. There should be an industry where there are literal translations given for the benefit of the language learner. If they provided these for my favorite dramas, I would buy them in a flash because this kind of thing is EXACTLY what I am looking for. 

So I have to just keep memorizing phrases. One day I will wake up and realize that I can SPEAK Korean fluently because I have learned so many phrases. I hope that day happens soon. 

Korean grammar is SOO different to English grammar. This is what makes the language so hard. You can't rely on learning a grammar rule and making substitutions as much. You have to rely more on just memorizing phrases and then hoping the grammar sticks in your brain eventually. Repetition then seeing the same phrase in another source are the keys. 

Of course using mnemonics helps when learning new vocabulary. I found that using mnemonics really helped me with the study of vocabulary words. 

I think after a certain stage, one's learning just accelerates. This happens when one has x number of vocab words under one's belt and y number of phrases. After that, learning depends just on exposing oneself to the Korean language. You will pick up more of the language like a sponge. You don't have to make such a big effort. Unlike the initial stages, you will retain phrases without having to do rote memorization, just by the virtue of coming across the same phrases many times in different reading materials or on TV, movies, radio etc. 

I really am impatient for that day when that happens. That will be when I can read for pleasure. Improving my vocabulary then is a matter of looking up a word or two that I am unfamiliar with. And I won't have to memorize phrases. 

Then I can concentrate on being an advanced learner of the language -- college level user of the language. 

It's much harder for me to do that than for people like The Korean (Ask the Korean blog); I am not immersed in the language like The Korean was. 

Oh well. I did try. I got language partners but I found them pretty much USELESS. They didn't try and provide comprehensible input, spoke about boring topics and just forgot most of the time to speak in Korean and lapsed into English (when it was their turn to speak in Korean). 

I can't help feeling sore about some of the partners. I felt I was making much more of an effort than they were. I really need a language partner or teacher who is gentle and understands the theory behind language learning techniques and is enthusiastic about applying these rules. 

I have to say Korean is a rubbish language. The rules in informal speech are plastic. Even Koreans don't know how to use banmal correctly in speech! What kind of language is that? It lacks the grammatical sense that English has. For example, a sentence in Korean can read either as  "tiger scared" or "tiger is scary".  In English, it's impossible to be confused as to the meaning. Korean grammar rules are bad; they don't make sense some of the time. I prefer English grammar. I prefer English as a language. It's a lot more logical. 

Colloquial Korean is the worst! It really tries my patience parsing the grammar of it. 

I just can't wait for the day that I have reached late intermediate level and can read Korean fluently. That would be good. At this point, I am not a fluent reader. Every sentence stumps me. And I am talking about simple Korean readers. I also need to find easy material. The children's books are good because the level is kept low. When they teach adults, they don't do this. They skip these early steps. 

I just wish I was a genius. Then it would take a month to learn a language fluently. Can you imagine how great that would be? There is a Korean genius - Kim Un Yong - and he learned about three other languages (other than Korean) by the time he was five or so. He appeared on Japanese TV and showed his fluency in these languages. 

"Shortly after birth, Kim began to display extraordinary intellectual ability. He began speaking at 4 months, could converse fluently by 6 months, and was able to read Japanese, Korean, German, and English by his second birthday. Furthermore, it took him about a month to learn a foreign language ..." (from Wikipedia).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 SO CUTE

It would make life so much easier if learning Korean was a breeze. Korean is one of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers and I suspect in general for everyone (except for the Japanese - almost the same grammar - and the Chinese people - many words are the same in both languages).

"By the age of four he was already able to read in Japanese, Korean, German, and English. At his fifth birthday, he solved complicated differential and integral calculus problems. Later, on Japanese television, he demonstrated his proficiency in Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, German, English, Japanese, and Korean. Kim was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records under “Highest IQ“; the book estimated the boy’s score at over 210.

 Kim was a guest student of physics at Hanyang University from the age of 3 until he was 6. At the age of 7 he was invited to America by NASA. He finished his university studies, eventually getting a Ph.D. in physics at Colorado State University before he was 15."

I think his real IQ is much higher than 210. It's probably immeasurable. At least 1000 or something. 

Who taught him these languages? Was there a native-speaking teacher? Did he use books? Without being exposed to people speaking these languages, how did he know how to pronounce words correctly and have the correct intonation? Back in the 60s there wasn't the availability of language-learning materials as there are today. Did he use the immersion technique - an accelerated form of it (instead of immersing oneself for six months for example, he immersed himself for a month)? I doubt that he was immersed in these languages in that he had a native speaker talk to him for at least a couple of hours a day. But he must have been fluent if he was able to speak in these languages on TV. I wish there was a recording of that on Youtube. That would be great. It would really motivate me to learn Korean and try harder learning it. 

I think we need to study those people who have been able to learn a foreign language and be fluent in it (speaking AND writing) in less than six months to find out what is their secret to learning languages and attaining fluency in them. If they say they learned by memorizing vocabulary and phrases then I would do the same. If they said they did a lot of listening and reading, I would do the same. If they said they studied grammar most of the time, I would do the same and so on ... 

Of course it would not necessarily mean that my learning improved as it could be that these geniuses have very different wirings of their brains so that whatever method they used wouldn't work for normal people, but still ..... 

I am interested in getting Rosetta Stone. This fits in with my style of learning which is highly visual. I like looking at pictures. Seeing English translations distracts me and makes me focus on English. It's just the cost. Is it better to invest that money in say paying someone to speak in Korean, making trips to the hinterland where there aren't many English speakers ... or something else? 

I want anything that SPEEDS up my language acquisition.  I am interested in minimizing the TIME spent learning. So I am investigating the most EFFICIENT and most EFFECTIVE ways of learning languages.

 

A response to an article by "Ask a Korean".

I read this article on a blog called "Ask a Korean":

http://askakorean(dot)blogspot.com/2010/01/koreans-english-acquisition-and-best.html

QUOTE

The Korean's English Acquisition, and the Best Method to Master a Foreign Language, Guaranteed

Dear Korean,

My name is The English Teacher. The English Teacher has a question for The Korean. The English Teacher read .....

ENDQUOTE

 

MY COMMENT: (I wanted to add the following comment to the comments in Ask a Korean's blog but my comment was too long and wasn't accepted so I am putting the comment here.) 

I think rote memorization definitely has its place but I don't think it's possible to be fluent in speaking and writing without immersion (unless you are a genius). The Korean obviously had immersion but does not really see the value of the immersion that he had. He had immersion by attending classes in school for some 6 hours a day, then the immersion on the playground during lunchtime, immersion by visiting friends who spoke English, immersion by joining clubs, immersion by general interaction with native speakers outside the classroom, immersion by all the signs in English he passed by every day, immersion by watching television even if the watching was passive ...

You don't have to be gifted to be fluent in speaking in English after attending an English-speaking school in America or similar countries. There are many examples of people who became verbally fluent after one or two years of attending school after emigration.  

It's the IMMERSION that got those kids to be fluent, not memorization. Some of those kids were not studious but they still became fluent in SPEAKING.

Now writing and reading comprehension are a different ballgame altogether. It's pretty impossible to become a great writer in a foreign language and have good reading comprehension without doing study that involves rote memorization.

But if a person already is fluent in SPEAKING, reading and writing in the second language become infinitely easier. Why? Because most of the grammar has been acquired and can be reproduced in writing so long as one is literate.

But if there is no studying (memorization of vocabulary and study of grammar including study of spelling), then the writing is not going to be very good -- like a first grader's. The person will be a poor speller, not use long and complex words to express themselves articulately in writing and so on.

But if speaking fluency is mastered then the rest of the stuff is much easier to pick up (increasing one's vocabulary to cover those in literature like Brothers Karamazov, learning SAT-level grammar, and being able to have good spelling will become easier).

The fact that immersion brought The Korean up to a much higher level in a very quick way is attested to by the fact that he only needed closed captioning (and not Korean subtitles) when watching the Simpsons. If he had not picked up English grammar and many vocab words through immersion, he would not have been able to understand The Simpsons half as well as he did.

So IMMERSION is really necessary for 95% of people to bring them up to a moderate level of fluency in speaking and writing. But writing requires extra -- it requires also memorization and "forced" study.

Without immersion, not many people become fluent -- as I've said those geniuses or polyglots (not the ones who study all day but the ones who pick up languages effortlessly without really trying) are the only ones who do not need immersion: they probably only need to hear the word once or read it once and it's locked in their brain forever.

For us ordinary mortals, it's impingent on us to immerse ourselves as much as we can and if we also want to read Korean books and media as well as write in Korean, we have to apply ourselves diligently to study.

Obviously The Korean had motivation to excel in reading and writing as getting into a good university was a priority for him. So that's where the memorization is very important. Especially in his case as he didn't have much time to cram all the English he needed to do well in the verbal SAT -- he had two years to do that while American-born students have 18 years.

But The Korean DID spend some time learning English when in Korea. Admittedly, not very much and not really the English skills he needed for speaking. However, this education DID ready him (prepare him) for the input he received when he immersed himself in English (when his parents took the family to the US). It made a large part of the input he received COMPREHENSIBLE and set him up to acquire English relatively quickly - more quickly than someone going into the environment cold.

However, it's still remarkable what people can achieve once they are exposed to an immersion environment. Adults who go to Korea to work as 3D workers, adults who marry a Korean and live with the Korean in-laws ... adults like these pick up Korean very quickly. In a couple of years they are fluent.

I don't think the majority of these people actively study as such. Of course, without study their reading comprehension and writing are probably very poor, but if at a later date they needed these skills the fact that they were verbally fluent would help them learn these skills faster than someone who did not have these skills.

But these examples show how IMPORTANT immersion is for speaking fluency (and for writing fluency with the caveat that the person do the necessary memorization of vocab and study of grammar to supplement the immersion).  

If The American had been in Korea and was spending all that time studying English instead of going to school, I doubt he would have achieved the level of proficiency that he did in America after two years. Why? Because staying in Korea, he would not have been in an immersion environment. For one thing, he would not have had as many English language TV programs to watch and they would have mostly Korean subtitles (not English cc). And even if he had English closed captioning for this TV series, he would be struggling to understand it because his English listening skills would be less than optimal for understanding a show like that because he would not have the immersion environment to bring them up to scratch.

So immersion was probably the MAJOR factor as to why his English improved phenomenally once he was in the US but The Korean doesn't realize it and instead attributes it to studying those lists and flash cards.

I too studied English grammar and spelling and memorized vocabulary from 19th and 18th century literature, but that was more for scoring highly in university entrance exams. I didn't really need to do these things for just becoming fluent in English in speaking, writing and reading.

I don't think the intensive study the Korean did was responsible for his becoming fluent in English -- though it WAS responsible for him acing the SAT exam.

So he needs to consider the two things separately --  what it takes to acquire speaking fluency and some writing fluency (enough to write an email to a friend) and what it takes to score well in the verbal component of the SAT and write high-quality essays in English.

In Korea, it's VERY HARD to get comprehensible input for the nascent learner of Korean. VERY DIFFICULT. So comparing the exposure to the second language that a Korean gets when he/she goes to America and the exposure an average English speaker (ESL teacher typically) gets doesn't work. That's why many Korean language students are not fluent in Korean after many years of living in Korea and studying Korean. This shows how important IMMERSION is.

Of course there are those Koreans who go to America and come back to Korea without having much verbal fluency. I think these people are in the minority. If they were exposed to immersion but weren't able to pick up English speaking skills then there is something wrong with them -- they are just at the bottom of the curve when it comes to acquiring a new language. That is, IF they were truly exposed to an immersion environment. (Some people say they were but many really weren't -- they spent all their time speaking Korean and had very little interaction with others who didn't speak Korean and didn't even watch much English language TV.)

My experience is that IMMERSION is crucial for speaking fluency. The more immersion (and the input should be comprehensible so there is no point having the TV on 24/7 if you are a beginner and expecting to absorb the language that way), the faster you will become fluent (in your brain) in that language. Writing fluency flows on from speaking fluency. Without speaking fluency, it's very hard to have writing fluency (why many Korean students who have never been overseas are lousy essay writers though their grasp of English grammar might be OK).

And Korean English teachers are NOTORIOUS for having poor speaking fluency. Because of this lack of fluency, they are not good at grammar (they cannot write one page of prose without making atrocious mistakes in grammar and syntax), but still teach grammar to the Korean students. Because they pass Korean tests in English grammar they think they are capable of teaching grammar. Or they might have done a master's course in Education in an American university so think their grammar and writing skills are hot stuff ....

The reality is that they are passing on their poor English onto the students. Korean grammar books for English grammar are notoriously bad ....  

And the vicious cycle goes on. Not to say that those who come back from doing Home stay in an English-speaking country are much better in writing -- often their essay writing is of low quality -- but at least they are much better at speaking than those Korean English teachers who have never experienced immersion.

What to do for those who cannot get an immersion environment even though they try? For example, they live in Korea but can't get Korean people to speak to them in Korean for at least a couple of solid hours a day?

Watching dramas, other TV shows, dvds from the dvd store, listening to mp3 files are all substitutes. But these are not as good as natural immersion in a school, work or living with in-laws environment. And English subtitles have a perverse effect on learning. 75% of the time, the translations are not direct and the order of the words are changed a lot to fit what  English speakers are used to so even there learners are not learning direct translations and therefore miss out on a lot of vocabulary (and grammar).

Article that influenced me

The article that influenced me a lot is a summary essay of Stephen Krashen's book.

This is the link to the article: 

http://www(dot)languageimpact.com/articles/rw/krashenbk.htm

I really believe this is true what he says about learning a language. The only area that I differ from him is that he doesn't make it clear that he is talking about speaking fluency mainly. 

One can be fluent in speaking but be illiterate in that language. That's why grammar study is important for those who want to be fluent in writing. 

However, it's best to be fluent in speaking first. This helps one to be fluent in writing. Without speaking fluency it's very difficult to be fluent in writing I think. 

I must have spoken Korean when I was young! I don't remember. But there is a recording of me as a young child singing in Korean. Obviously, I picked up Korean because I was immersed in it. 

I have to accelerate that process because I want to have speaking fluency in a year. I don't want to be hesitant when I speak and always be translating in my head ... because that's the way I am communicating now.

I don't want to waste my time too when I am learning Korean. I want to learn the most effective method FOR ME. Everyone is different as I have said and has different interests. Therefore something that is interesting for another person might be boring for me. 

I also worry about speaking too early. Krashen said one shouldn't speak until one is fluent and comfortable in speaking -- that is, not thinking too much about how one is going to say something but just saying it spontaneously. 

I also worry about people correcting me. At the moment when people hear me speaking Korean they tend to correct me especially about pronunciation which is kind of annoying. I guess it's annoying for THEM to hear Korean incorrectly pronounced but it is demotivating for me and their corrections don't help me. 

I will be speaking pidgen Korean in the early stages so will sound strange to Koreans but this is all part of the learning process. That's another reason why I don't want to speak too early -- people want to correct me and it discourages me and stresses me out.

I will have to remind people not to correct me. I don't want to speak too much but sometimes speaking in Korean is the only way I can get people to speak to me in Korean. 

Taxi drivers are pretty good. They don't try and correct me too much. They just try and understand what I am trying to say. 

I might have to pay someone to give me Korean "lessons".  However, I don't know whether it's going to work out. I would like to pay someone like Biryong because I think he's a good teacher. He knows what I need and he is fun to talk to. Some Koreans might become officious in the teaching role and just try and talk at too high a level for me. They might bore me to tears and try and correct me .... 

The main thing is to keep up my level of interest. I have noticed I HAVE improved. I understand incrementally more of what I am listening to. For example, TV is not as unintelligible as it was to me. I am picking up little "snippets" here and there. 

I think I should keep up the cycle of studying vocabulary and doing some structured listening and then watching TV and watching dramas and movies. Even I am understanding signs more. I think widening my vocabulary is useful. Of course I am going to forget some of it if I don't come across it often or soon after learning the vocabulary I've learned, but I do retain some of it and when I come across the word in a TV show etc it sticks in my head. I am picking up nuances in grammar too. I was pleased to notice I was doing this. For example, I picked up when someone was using the past tense and it was with a colloquial ending too -- "gunyo" I think it was.

Listening to dramas is helpful for picking up colloquial speech. There are a lot of colloquialisms in Korean that show up in the ending of the verbs. 

It's a bit of a mind wrap because in subtitles the verb appears in the middle but in Korean you have to wait for the end of the sentence to hear the verb. It makes matching words in English with Korean a bit difficult. 

It's funny but when I speak in English I sometimes find myself stating the subject word first even when it's not really normal to do so eg. asking a question. I did this even before I was interested in learning Korean. 

The thing I don't like about Korean is the Confucianism. I don't like the fact that you have to speak a different way to elders than you do to younger people. It's not just the Westerner in me that is reacting in this way -- I just feel fundamentally it's wrong. On the other hand, it is what makes Korean society "charming". But I find it restrictive in other ways. If you are dating a man younger than you, you can't call him 'oppa' for example. So it sets up awkwardness in these situations. Also, I find that some older people tend to use status on you. For example, my cousin who is much older than me by about twenty years at least asked me to call him "oppa" and then "cousin oppa". It kind of demoted me when I called him oppa and this was especially irritating to me as we disagree politically and calling me oppa made me feel like I was younger and more immature and had to defer to him in his opinions. 

I don't know. When I hear myself say oppa it reminds me of those girls who use the oppa term frequently on fan sites of their favorite Korean idol. I don't see myself as this giggling helpless girl who calls most men in her life "oppa" and enjoys doing so. 

I might just have to quietly dissociate myself from doing this if I can get away with it. With my cousin it's hard as he asked me specifically to do this. I think it's rude to call a much older person by their first name though that would be my preference. How about just "cousin"? That would be OK. 

So yes, it is charming in a way that there are these special terms that one uses depending on relative ages of speaker and listener but it is also restrictive, and in the end, I don't really like the system. 

There is too much emphasis on age in Korean society. In one way it keeps society cohesive and retains order in society but in other ways it's restrictive and backwards. It introduces all forms of 'ageism' -- not just against young people but against older people as well. It separates people on age and categorizes them into groups based on age, and I don't like this. 

Of course I don't want Korea to be westernized (too much) otherwise I would be living in the west if I preferred the western way of things but I don't like restrictions like this. 

On the one hand it's good that I read the article about Stephen Krashen's theories, but on the other hand, it has introduced anxieties about learning Korean. I am worried that I am not getting enough comprehensible spoken input. As I have said, it's hard to get comprehensible input for native speakers of English. If I wasn't a native speaker of English and wasn't good at English, it would be a different story. 

If I was a 3D worker, I think I would pick up the language VERY quickly. Most of the 3D workers who have been in Korea for a long time are fluent in Korean. They astonish me with their fluency. So it's not about academic skills -- it's about exposure to the right environment. Not saying 3D workers lack academic skills by the way, but many English teachers who come to Korea have academic skills and have a motivation to learn Korean but after some years are nowhere near as good as the 3D workers. 

The problem with dramas is that the situation is not immediately applicable to ME. The characters in these dramas are not speaking to me. So they aren't really communicating with me. I also do not have to try and understand either as I am not the person who is receiving the communication. I am an eavesdropper and not an active participant in the communication. Of course I can use the dialogs I hear as a model for communication when I later speak Korean a lot more. 

I realize there were many opportunities to learn Korean in the past. I remember a man who wanted to meet me and walk with me to the station when I lived in Hongdae. He didn't speak much English and he was interested in befriending him. He seemed lonely. I was lonely too but felt awkward because I felt socially we weren't in the same world. But I should have overcome that thought and made a friend of him. Perhaps if I had I would be able to speak Korean by now. Not that I want to use people that way. But he was sweet. I was just reluctant about engaging him because I didn't want to hurt his feelings. But he was REALLY interested in me. I need to keep an eye out for those people as they are nice and genuine and like me. 

I am LONELY. But bored with a lot of people I meet. I especially don't like people who find out I am from Australia and have a lot of interest in me for that reason. I can't blame them ... who's to say I wouldn't be the same if I had grown up in Korea and had not traveled much or spent much time overseas? But personally I find the responses that people make are cliched. They are predictable. They always say the same thing. They always wonder why I am in Korea. They always say Australia must be an enjoyable place to live. They are enthusiastic about that nation. They think it's a kind of paradise. They really have no idea. I don't like Australia for many reasons. I don't like the hot weather. I don't like the dry climate. I don't like the bush -- it's dry and brown and sparse. I also do not like the lifestyle. I don't like the culture much. I don't like much about Australia. I have had a lot of bad experiences there from almost Day One that I went there. I have been trying to escape from there for a long time. 

So it's hard to hear people say these things to me all the time. My cousin is an example. He is always waxing lyrical about how great Australia is and what wonderful experiences he had in Australia. He practically forced me to eat Australian beef for lunch the last time we met even though I am semi-vegetarian and I think I told him this last time. He is a Buddhist and doesn't eat a lot of meat for this reason so I think it was too much his doing this. His infatuation with Australia seems to have made him forget his values. I don't agree with him a lot on other things as well. I have mentioned the political differences we have. We just have completely different ideas about everything. 

That's what's annoying about these people. They gush about Australia and have many misconceptions about it. They seem naive. They are like this about foreign countries in general but particularly about Australia. 

If Australia is so great why am I here in Korea? They have to think about that. 

Anyway I am sick and tired of hearing the same comments about Australia with almost everyone I meet. 

Korea has many problems and aspects about it that I don't like but on balance I prefer the culture. 

Many people think Australia is a paradise because there is less competition especially less academic competition over there. But this indicates a fault in thinking of Korean people. Saying you want to go overseas and raise your children there because of the lack of academic pressure compared to Korea is kind of admitting that you want to settle for mediocrity. It also indicates that people aren't willing to think outside the box. Academic success is only one kind of success. If you are not cut out for academic success you should accept it and find out what avenue in life your future success will lie and go for it. But to think that Australia is a paradise because there is less academic pressure is ridiculous. These parents will apply the same academic pressure to their kids as they do in Korea, but they will just be more optimistic about the outcome because there is less competition. It's like saying you want to settle in a nation that encourages mediocrity. You want to be a mediocre person and you want to achieve success academically because there are loads of mediocre people you are competing with. You are the king of mediocre people in other words. And once again, they ignore the fact that there are all sorts of forms of success, not just academic success. 

If they think like that in the first place and don't think their child is capable of succeeding academically, these parents should think of other ways of getting their child to succeed in their life and career. 

What is the use of giving up culture, family ties, millennia of history and so on to settle in a nation of STRANGERS who do not share your history, culture or even the same race just because you do not think your child can succeed in the hothouse environment of hagwons and striving for the ultimate goal of SKY university entrance? In my opinion people give up too much when they emigrate to another country. There may be less academic competition but there is also non-acceptance (treatment of migrants as second-class citizens especially if they are of a race that is different to the race of the dominant ethnic group or come from a nation that is considered "inferior", discrimination and subtle racism which in my opinion is worse than overt racism), cultural dislocation (finding it hard to find people who share a similiar culture to yours and feeling isolated as a result or show a tendency to hang onto cultural 'ghettos'), difficulties in social life (finding a suitable marriage partner; feeling dissociated from people of the same race or ethnicity as yours often because you have internalized feelings of inferiority about your nation of origin and ethnicity that the dominant race/ethnicity show all the time -- often subconsciously and not overtly) including work difficulties and so on. If you are ashamed of what you are and where you come from, you are less likely to seek people of the same ethnicity as a marriage partner. 

But people do think like that. And the parents are very ambitious for themselves and end up hurting their kids immensely.

So for these reasons I find the Korean tendency to look up to western countries silly and ignorant. And this is made worse by the fact that Koreans espouse a strong nationalistic spirit. There is nothing wrong with that but when you actually note how many Koreans are willing to abandon the "mother country" completely and settle down in a western country, the nationalism seems hollow. In the one breath they are shouting "Dae Han Min Guk" and in the other breath, they state they would love to migrate to a western nation. If one is so nationalistic and patriotic why would one want to move to another nation and become the citizen of that nation? It doesn't make sense. Note that Ahn Jung Geun's descendants migrated to America. It seems many Koreans can't wait to forsake their country and live and raise their children elsewhere mostly on misguided notions about what their future lives will be like. (My parents for example.)

Enough ranting.

Back to language learning. 

I no longer find the Korean language ugly as I used to think it was. Sometimes I actually prefer the sound of Korean. And even a few times I have thought it sounded elegant and nice. 

To be honest I thought it was an inferior-sounding language for a long time. I was even ASHAMED of it. I didn't want to be Korean. I didn't want to hear Korean spoken and I was embarrassed when my parents spoke Korean in public to each other. Partly it was because I didn't understand Korean I know. But I have changed a lot. I have come to RESPECT the language. I think it's nice and I am getting used to it. It sounds normal to hear and a decent language to pronounce. Especially the connecting words "Kunde" "Kuraeyo" etc sound natural to me and sound like those words with that meaning should. 

Some words are incredibly ugly though. Some words when spoken together sound guttural and make the speaker sound unrefined. A lot of "ch's" "j's" "k's" "jang's" in speech make it sound like this. But it depends a lot on the speaker. When I like the actor speaking the lines, everything that comes out of his mouth sounds elegant, refined and nice (LOL). 

In fact these days I prefer the sound of the Korean language to English or to any other language in the world. The only other languages that I like the sound of are German and Turkish. I try to avoid English when I can because I don't want to think about the west. I change the channel when English speakers come on.

I also do not like to watch westerners speak Korean. It gives me an inferiority complex somewhat. 

I don't mind 3D workers on TV speaking Korean though. It's just mainly westerners I don't like listening to. I can't really explain this. 

I also try and avoid westerners whenever I can when I am in Korea. I don't know why I do this. Before I was interested in learning Korean I tried to befriend them. But now I don't. 

I have lost interest in all things western I guess. I am immersing myself in Korean culture. I feel annoyed that Koreans do not appreciate what they have. I think personally Koreans are happier than other people. They probably do not think they are and will rate themselves low in happiness. But they just do that because they have no basis for comparison. They do not appreciate what they have and hanker for something they don't have, for something that is foreign. It's a pity because some of them end up missing the forest for the trees. 

I don't mean that people should be COMPLACENT, but sometimes Koreans don't understand what they are doing to themselves through mistaken notions. They tend to think in black and white. Korea is black and a place to escape from, and the west is white, a paradise to run to.  And they often have no experience (except for a superficial kind of experience) of living in the west. I DO and so am in a better position to judge, IMO (I'm not saying this in an arrogant way but just stating a fact). 

I think it's because of MATERIALISM. They forsake so-called spiritual values like sense of community, sense of belonging, sense of being part of one nation and one people, sense of IDENTITY for something transient (money). No money can buy those things (things of spiritual value) once they are completely lost.  Even some parents want to rid their children completely of their former identity and encourage their kids to marry into another race and produce mixed-race children. After time and after many generations, their descendants are not recognizably KOREAN. 

That is sad for me. Why are so many Koreans like this? Are they ashamed of being Korean? If they loved their parents and honored them, why do they try and eradicate any trace of Koreanness in future generations? Don't they feel they are losing something precious? 

And at the same time, Koreans are fiercely proud of their nation. So it doesn't make sense. The really proud ones may not emigrate but they don't think less of other Koreans for abandoning their homes, lives, roots and going elsewhere. Some might wish they could do the same. 

Unless you are in trouble, for example, you have committed a crime in your country or are escaping a really difficult situation, then you shouldn't really emigrate from your home country, I mean the one that you were born in and the one where the people share the same ethnic heritage as you have. So I don't understand the emigration mentality. Go for a holiday by all means but do not make the drastic move of tearing up your roots. I think western media has influenced many people. They have grown up with Hollywood and American TV shows and been saturated with American culture. Don't they see it as shallow? 

Don't they see advantages and a sense of familiarity and safety and warmth in Korean culture? 

And the importance of family, especially extended family .. is it worth giving this up and just being a nuclear family in a strange country where the people do not accept you and think of you as inferior? Obviously some people do. They think about money 24/7 and would sacrifice ANYTHING for money. I guess it comes from having twisted values. They do not change their thinking for anything. Even if they see their children suffering because they are having problems being accepted or are not adapting to the new culture. Witness the family of Choi Seung Hui. What a tragedy. If the family had not had such shallow values and not emigrated to the US, the tragedy could have been avoided. But because the parents were selfish, greedy and stupid, they destroyed the lives of their children (his sister is also destroyed because she is forever marked as the sister of a mass murderer),  and they destroyed the lives of so many other people (the victims of the shooting who were mostly tragically young and their families). The two people ended up destroying hundreds of people.

I am surprised not more happenings like this occur. I am not at all surprised it was a Korean young man who did it. Even if I had not read about his family I could have guessed what they were like and my guesses would have been correct. I feel bad for Choi Seung Hui even though he killed so many people. In my eyes, the parents are responsible for the killings -- the son not so much. They came to the US to take from it and not to give to it, and as a consequence of their selfishness, many Americans were hurt and destroyed by their actions. 

How could the parents not know their son was suffering? That he had "problems" (social autism, trouble fitting in etc)? That he was going through mental hell. The ironic thing is that before the shootings happened they probably thought they were good parents. (They seemed proud that their daughter got into Princeton.)

This kind of event should have brought many Koreans to their senses. It did some but there are many others who still see the west with rosy eyes. Their wish is for their kids to emigrate to the US. 

I feel sorry for the kids of these people. I think their lives will be better in Korea. However, the parents don't understand this. 

 

 

Learning Languages - Introduction

This is a blog about learning languages - Korean specifically. This blog enables me to keep a record of my progress, my ideas about learning languages and just some experiences about learning Korean.

I started learning Korean about eight weeks ago. I think I've passed the beginner stage and am into the early intermediate stage. I have a good handle on basic grammar which I acquired after studying Korean Grammar in Use. The book was a good introduction to the Korean language. I probably cannot use the grammar to communicate well at this stage but it was helpful studying it all the same as it helps with reading comprehension. 

 

 

 

 

 

This brings me to the next point. There is a lot of confusion surrounding the topic of the best way of learning a language. I believe this confusion arises because people are talking at cross purposes. Some are talking about what it takes to be a fluent speaker and others are talking about how to be good at reading and writing. 

The different language skills require different methods of study. 

There are those people who are verbally fluent in a foreign language, that is, they can hold a conversation at normal speed with a native speaker. However, it's possible that these people are lousy when it comes to writing and even reading in some cases. This is because these people have never studied Korean reading and writing. They haven't learned the characters well and haven't studied grammar (which involves studying spelling). Therefore, even though they may be fluent in speaking, their reading comprehension and writing skills may be poor. 

Conversely, there are those who have studied grammar and spelling and are quite good at reading comprehension and doing written translations but are hopeless in speaking (and in some cases in listening). 

So you have to be specific about what you mean by "fluent".

In my case, I hope to acquire the skills of speaking, reading, writing and listening.

At the moment, none of these skills are good in my case. My speaking is very bad. My reading is all right and my writing is basic. My listening is gradually improving. My spelling is OK for my level and for the time I have spent studying.  

I have brought the point about different methods of learning for different skills because I am facing that situation myself. 

If I just do immersion and nothing else, I am not going to be good at writing. I find this with Korean students of English. Many who spend a year abroad improve their speaking skills considerably, but cannot write an essay and they do not enjoy reading. They spend all their time communicating verbally in English. They may pass as very good English learners but if you dig and probe further you will find their reading comprehension and writing abilities are very poor unless they have devoted an equal amount of time in improving these other skills. 

You'll find that there are many Korean students of English who are good at reading comprehension and listening but are bad at speaking and writing. The reason for this is that English grammar is not taught well in Korea. You might be surprised to learn this as Korean students always boast that their knowledge of English grammar is very good because they were taught English grammar in depth in school. It is true that Korean English teachers do focus a lot on English grammar in schools but they do not teach it in a systematic way and in a good way. They teach what they think students should know. You will find that Korean books on English grammar are very different to the English grammar books you find in English-speaking nations. And the quality of the teacher is also important. I have worked in hagwons where the teacher did not correct mistakes in grammar in exercises and so obviously had a poor grasp of grammar themselves. 

In addition to this, Korean teachers speak English in a grammatically incorrect way. Students pick up the mistakes unconsciously and the teachers' mistakes become the students' mistakes. An example of the way the mistakes spread from teacher to student is found in Konglish (though not strictly grammar). Teachers often are unaware that they are teaching Konglish words to their students and students believe that Konglish words are proper English words. Of course, students pick up Konglish from other sources than their teachers, but this is just an example. A native teacher would likely pick up straightaway that the student is using Konglish words and point this out to the student. 

Because grammar is often learned subconsciously and intuitively through listening to properly spoken English (or whatever language you are trying to learn), if a student is not exposed to large quantities of input like this, they will not acquire grammar skills that they can use intuitively when they speak or write. This is reflected in the student's poor speaking and writing skills.

So, to summarize, for writing, one needs a lot of spoken input (and correct input too) for the student to be able to express themselves fluently in speaking and writing. For writing however, this kind of spoken input is not enough. A proper and thorough study of grammar is required as well. This is where many Korean students of English show a lapse. They might feel confident about speaking and can pass for pretty good fluent speakers of English but when it comes to writing an essay, they often fall woefully short. Writing requires high-level grammar and spelling skills and this is why many native speakers cannot write good essays. 

To repeat, one's goals need to be defined properly before choosing a method of study. If one's goal in learning a language is just to be able to converse with native speakers and be able to communicate with others so that daily living is possible, then no in-depth thorough study of grammar is required, and reliance on immersion will probably suffice. 

On the other hand, if one's goal is to be proficient in speaking, reading, listening and writing, then some study of grammar is necessary. 

Not only this, but the ORDER of study is very important. 

If acquiring all the four skills is important, then the recommended order of learning should be like this: 

1) Immersion: putting oneself in an environment where one is exposed to comprehensible spoken content for many hours a day (Stephen Krashen). 

2) Concomitantly to the above, one should be memorizing vocabulary for common words. As one learns vocabulary, one hears the same words being spoken and this hearing of the same words reinforces one's learning of the words. 

3) An overview of grammar is useful at this stage. Studying grammar should be undertaken with the understanding that the study of grammar itself is not enough to be fluent in speaking and writing at this early stage. The purpose of studying grammar is not so that one can do perfect translations backwards and forwards, but to just familiarize oneself with the new language and why it is spoken in the way that it is. It enables the acquisition of language through the immersion method, but is not the primary method of acquisition in itself. A primer in grammar that brings the student up to intermediate stage is preferrable. An advanced grammar text at this stage will probably deter a student from learning further as it introduces too many complexities at this stage. 

4) If one has acquired enough basic vocabulary and some basic grammar and understanding of spelling, then one can do some reading for fun. However, the reading should be easy enough so as not to stress the reader and make it a big chore. It should be easy enough so that the reader is not reaching for the dictionary for every second word. The sentence difficulty level should be such that the reader understands the gist of the sentence without necessarily understanding every word or being able to parse the sentence grammatically. This is for fun and for the learner just to see what progress they have made and what stage they are at. Of course, the choice of material is of central importance. If the subject matter is something that is highly interesting to the reader, the reader will benefit a lot from reading the material than if the reader has very little interest in the subject matter. Fairytale stories are usually well-liked by most readers who are at the beginner/intermediate stage. (It's usually only when you have reached the intermediate stage that the reader will enjoy reading. The beginner is probably too much in over their head when it comes to reading.) 

By what do I mean when I talk about immersion?

In many situations, it's not possible to get oneself into a typical immersion environment, one where native speakers are interacting with the learner for at least 4 hours a day. In those cases, substitute methods can be helpful. One of these methods is watching videos and TV programs. These also have the benefit that the learner can pick and choose material that they enjoy and therefore will be more stimulated to listen and observe than if they had not picked enjoyable material. 

Ideal situations for immersion are working side by side with native speakers, living with native speakers (relatives, spouses, housemates) who speak the target language exclusively, and attending school with native speakers where the target language is spoken all day including in the classroom. 

5) More structured forms of exposure to the target language are listening to audios of the target language, perhaps audios from CDs that come attached to a textbook. 

CARE WITH WATCHING FOREIGN LANGUAGE MOVIES

Problems can arise if one is too passive when watching a foreign language movie with subtitles. One can focus on just reading the subtitles and switch their minds off from the spoken language. The spoken language becomes more or less "noise" to them. 

So one must be aware of this and make an effort to listen closely and try to match up the spoken language with the subtitles. If one can pick up a word or two from each spoken sentence and match it up with the subtitle word, that is making progress and the watching of videos becomes a useful activity. So try and be an active listener and watcher in other words. 

If motivated, one can use an online dictionary like Google Translate (a very superior translation tool I have found) while watching a video and can pause the video and look up  a word in the dictionary and try to match it with its counterpart in the other language. One can build up quite a good vocabulary this way. There is natural repetition of vocabulary in videos so learning this way makes the words stick in one's mind. 

BOOKS FOR LEARNING VOCABULARY

I personally find children's books for learning vocabulary useful. They often have fun simple exercises where the vocabulary is repeated and after completing the exercises you find that many words stick in your brain. I learn Korean vocabulary from a book for Korean children learning English. This book has got many pictures and many useful exercises that if I do, drills the vocabulary into my head. The book I am studying teaches basic everyday useful words that I need to know and contains 600 vocabulary words. It's a good start. The vocabulary I have learned prior to this was picked up from grammar books but these books do not really focus on vocabulary per se so I was missing knowledge of many basic vocabulary words. The vocabulary book helped fill this gap for me. 

Unfortunately, this book is a standalone book and not part of a series and so I will have to find another vocabulary book that has new words for me to learn and doesn't repeat the words I have learned already too much. If the book I have learned from was part of a series that would be ideal as each book higher in the series would introduce me to new vocabulary all the time and successively more complex vocabulary. 

LEARNING PHRASES

While learning vocabulary, it's also useful to learn phrases. Phrase books that have a word and then have a sentence or phrase containing that word are very helpful. The phrase helps one to remember the word and learning the phrase itself is useful. However, useful phrases that are commonly used in everyday life are required. Also, simple phrases and not complex sentences involving multiple ideas are the most useful ones. 

Some people recommend reading and memorizing phrases as a method of learning. They advise you to read and even record the phrase and then listen to it many times until it gets stuck in your head. If there is a CD accompanying the book with a native speaker reading out the phrase aloud this is even better. 

This method is good if one cannot be an environment where one is naturally immersed in the target language. 

This method does involve much repetition. It might take the hearing of the phrase a minimum of twenty times before it sticks in one's head.

The problem with this method is that it can be a bit boring. Also, if one's pronunciation isn't very good, you might be learning to say a phrase incorrectly. 

WHEN ONE HAS ENTERED LATE INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED STAGE

When one has acquired a good vocabulary, say about 4000 words of vocabulary and has good listening and comprehension skills, one can be said to have entered the late intermediate or advanced stage.  At this stage, one can spend more time doing reading and studying grammar.

While doing these things, the immersion must continue, either the natural immersion or the artificial immersion (videos, audio CDs etc). 

So the process is one of constantly trying to pick up new vocabulary, trying to find a way to immerse oneself, learning enough grammar to make the input one receives more comprehensible and keeping up with the reading (if one wants to be proficient in reading and not only in speaking). 

Note that I have said very little about PRODUCTION (speaking and writing) at this stage. 

One will be ready to speak when one has acquired enough vocabulary, grammar (absorbed passively and intuitively through listening to spoken language) and phrases to express oneself relatively effortlessly. 

With writing, it takes a little more effort than this. One has to read a lot and do some translations and study grammar a little more in depth. 

SLOWING DOWN AUDIOVISUAL MATERIAL

In the early stages, listening to material at its normal speed can be bewildering. Therefore, if one can slow down the material it will be helpful. I find that the ipods, ipads and tablets are good for this. I have a Samsung Galaxy Player that can slow down the video and the audio. The pitch is a little affected but the audio is still comprehensible. If I try and do this on the computer (I have a mac), it becomes a little more complex. I have to use Audacity to slow down the audio, then slow the movie down in iMovie, then import the slowed audio into iMovie and then export the new slowed-down movie. Needless to say, the process can be very time-consuming. So I try and use the Galaxy Player if I want to watch the movie in slo-mo. If it's just the audio I want to slow down, the computer will suffice. 

STEPHEN KRASHEN

I find his theory of language acquisition to be the best one out there. It matches with my experience and with my observations of people who are fluent in a foreign language. However, one must be wary that he is mainly talking about SPEAKING fluency and not WRITING fluency. It is not enough to immerse oneself (in the spoken language), one must also study grammar formally and do tons of reading in the target language if one wants to write well. 

The material must be enjoyable

This is very important and so I am stressing it here. That's why finding a hobby you like to do is helpful. If one can attend classes in that hobby (yoga, cooking, crafts) where the target language is spoken, one will be very motivated to pay attention in class and pick up the target language. 

A LIST OF ACTIVITIES

Cooking classes (this includes Youtubes of cooking instructions)

Dancing classes

Sports classes (swimming, skiing, inline skating)

Hobby groups (biking, hiking, public speaking) 

Volunteering (local library, orphanage, animal shelter, political action groups) 

The range of activities is really broad. It depends on the individual as everyone is different in their tastes and interests. 

As for me, I have very little luck being exposed to a natural immersion environment as I don't attend school and any workplaces I work in English is spoken (to me at any rate). So I have been watching Korean dramas. I am constantly on the hunt for dramas I enjoy. I have a bank of many Korean dramas with English subtitles and it's a matter of finding time to watch them. Sometimes, I watch for fun and don't watch for the purpose of consciously learning. If I like a drama I will watch the segments over and over again. Other times, I will watch and study the drama; I will look up words in Google Translate and try to find words I know in the spoken dialog. 

I have been watching many sageuks. These are my favorite dramas, especially the ones that set in the ancient period, pre-Joseon era. Unfortunately, the language used in those dramas is old-fashioned. Also, the vocabulary is not that useful as everyday words aren't used as much as they are in contemporary dramas. 

However, I enjoy watching these dramas and because enjoyment is a big part of motivation, I will keep watching these dramas. 

If I come across a boring drama albeit one set in contemporary times, I am less motivated to learn Korean from watching the drama. So that's not good for learning.

Another problem I have is that for my level the actors speak too fast. I might have to watch the dramas in slow mo on my Galaxy Player more. 

I really enjoy studying Korean. I can spend big chunks of time in a day learning Korean. I can study from morning to night. I think a big part of that is that I enjoy watching dramas. I also enjoy studying vocabulary and using those children's books to study from. I also do not mind studying grammar so long as the grammar book is a good one, and the grammar book I have been learning from is excellent (Korean Grammar in Use). I have supplemented this book with "Using Korean" but this is mainly for light browsing. It explains some grammar points particularly grammar points about banmal and how the different speech forms are used in everyday life in Korea that the "Korean Grammar in Use" book does not touch on much. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The "Using Korean" book is really more for the advanced student so I am not studying that book in depth. It's more a reference book to which I turn to if there's something I don't understand and the "Korean Grammar in Use" book doesn't have an explanation for it.

I have a lot of manwhas that have both the English and the Korean in it. I am struggling a bit to read them so I know I haven't really picked up much grammar intuitively and need more immersion before I can read comfortably. 

And my speaking is no where near natural. I am consciously translating from English when I speak. I do not spit out Korean phrases that I have memorized and internalized. I guess that's because I haven't really been in a natural immersion environment. 

As I have said, this is hard for me as many people in Korea can speak in English and will prefer to speak in English when they communicate with a native English speaker. It's not a conspiracy where Koreans are trying to use you for language practice, it's just that English learning has been a large part of Korean society for many years now that most Koreans are comfortable communicating with a native speaker at a basic level and it is more convenient for them to do this than lower their speaking level to match a beginner's/non-fluent Korean speaker's level. 

The task ahead is to do engage in hobbies and join groups and classes in which I will have more opportunity to be exposed to everyday Korean in a natural environment. I will have to find something I really enjoy doing or learning. 

WATERSHED

I believe that once I pass a certain level, it will be a watershed event for me. Once that level has been achieved, I think my Korean acquisition will accelerate. It is like my learning of English. Once I had acquired a certain amount of vocabulary and had read x number of books, my English improved tremendously. I was able to write essays well and felt that nothing I read was beyond my level of comprehension, even dense literature books. 

SUMMARY

This blog post primarily seeks to clarify the different types of fluency in a language that exist and the different methods of learning that are required to achieve these different fluencies. 

This blog post was not written very well, I realize, but it's not meant to be a formal essay or a dissertation. 

It's just an informal post that I wrote with very little planning. 

I think the point I have made is an important one because there are many competing theories of language acquisition out there and understanding the individual's personal goals goes a long way toward working out what theories are applicable for you. 

In the main, I think Stephen Krashen's theories are the most reliable ones but even so Krashen doesn't make a great distinction between writing and speaking fluency. 

In a normal child's development, speaking comes first and then reading and then writing. In an adult's case, the order of development can be different because of demands of work, school and life. 

In my case, I have to learn reading comcomitantly with learning to speak. I am having difficulties finding an immersion environment in Korea which is frustrating for me. I guess this situation is a double-edged sword. The fact that English is widely spoken helped me to settle into life in Korea relatively easily. But it means that I am going to have trouble picking up speaking. 

Also, I am having difficulties finding time and resources to join clubs and activities I enjoy. Because I can't read Korean well (or understand it), I have trouble browsing Korean websites and finding the groups or clubs I want to join. 

Because I am spending many hours watching videos, I am staying inside the apartment a lot and this kind of restricts my social activities and my desire to expand them. The only people I meet and chat with are people who are good at English and they naturally have little desire to speak in Korean with me. 

The only chance I have to speak in Korean is with taxi drivers and with shopkeepers, service staff and so on, but these encounters are very brief and also they have not introduced new material to me. 

I have tried language exchange partners but the partners are at a much higher level to me and it kind of annoys them to speak in Korean to me so the language exchange is one-sided. In that case, I am bored because I find that the topic matter I speak about with these people is kind of boring. I am constantly trying to find interesting subject matter to talk about instead of the usual "What did you do on the weekend?" but my language partners often make no effort. So I am bored speaking with these people and in English so it's a waste of time for me. I am giving these people a free language lesson and am being bored in the process. If the person wasn't boring, that would be different. I wouldn't mind talking to that person in English as it would be like talking to a friend. However, the people I have come across are really boring and talking with them reminds me of why I left language teaching in the first place. And also with these people I have to constantly remind them to speak in Korean as they keep lapsing into English. It turns out that for 5% of the time we speak in Korean and 95% we speak in English. So I don't really want to continue with those people. When they speak in Korean, they make no effort to dumb down the level for me and just speak at their normal pace and use complex language. So I understand about 2% of what they say. I get very little benefit in other words. It's the same as listening to the TV when the news is on -- when I do that I understand the same percent -- about 2%. 

I have kept a couple of language partners who have the same interests as me and are also willing to help me with non-language related matters. As I don't speak Korean well, it's useful to befriend these people who help me with practical matters. And I enjoy talking to them in English. But they don't really want to speak in Korean with me so I have given up with that. 

At this stage and because of time constraints I am going to do just self-study. It's pretty sad because I am living in Korea but that's the way the cookie crumbles. 

Self-study is more flexible in terms of time. The main problem is that I can't check up on my progress. If it was more structured I would know that I am learning 200 new words every day for example, but right now, some days I learn zero new words, other days I learn 100, 50, 200 .... 

And my method of learning is a bit haphazard. I went through the Grammar in Use book about three to four times now and wanted to go through it a couple more times mainly concentrating on listening to the dialogs from the audio CD, but I gave that up halfway and started to learn vocabulary and watch dramas. 

Then I have lots of books that I bought that have phrases and also many manwhas. I don't know if I have the discipline to go through them systematically and stick to the order I have set myself. I have finished the vocabulary book because I found that the most useful to me at this stage but now that I have completed it I am at a loss of what to do. I don't really want to learn the phrase book that I have as learning the phrase book is a bit boring. But I don't think I have much choice. And when am I going to listen to the audio CD of "Korean Grammar in Use" again? And then I start reading a few pages of a manwha book and then abandoning it after a short while. 

Also finding dramas I enjoy watching and getting them ready for watching on my Galaxy Player is really time-consuming.  Sometimes I spend the whole day downloading, hardsubbing and getting the movies into the right format for watching on the Galaxy Player.

I am also running out of enjoyable dramas to watch. I found some on the internet but they are in a format which means I can't download them to my computer. I don't want to watch them online but am forced to. 

Also, I worry that if I try and use Korean in work situations (later on when I become verbally fluent or near fluent) that people will speak in English back because they will realize I am not a native speaker of Korean.  Many foreigners report that this happens to them which defeats the purpose of devoting so many hours to studying a foreign language.

Also this beginner's/early intermediate stage is frustrating. It drags on. I feel very annoyed that I understand so little of the language. 

SUBTITLES 

I often find myself falling into the subtitle trap and this is compounded by the fact that the translations are very different to the original meaning of the words. If the translations were more direct then it wouldn't be such a problem but I find that the translators take a lot of liberties with the translations. I guess they are not translating to teach a second language but to make the dialog more enjoyable and natural for the viewer. 

But for a language learner, sticking to the original meaning as exactly as possible is more helpful. It also gives a sense of how Koreans use language. If they can translate almost exactly, it would be a big leap in helping me with learning Korean. Even with word order, they can stick to the original without making it difficult to understand. For example, "Face, what's on it?" instead of "What's on your face?" Koreans use the first construction. Even though it's written in a different order to what I am used to, I can still understand the meaning, and if I see the order this way, I get used to putting the topic/subject word first and the verb last as Koreans do. In other words it's possible to write direct translations of the Korean and still make it comprehensible -- with a little finesse. Word for word it doesn't have to be a direct translation but as close to the direct translation as possible without making the meaning confusing. For example, "the man to his daugher, what did he say?" is still understable, as understandable as "What did the man say to his daughter?" This is the main gripe I have with subtitles and why they aren't as useful as they could be. 

 

 

I translated a news article

It wasn't very good. I still don't know what the correct translation is. I found it surprisingly difficult. I thought it would be easy and so selected it.  

I think I will stick to Metro articles. They are more fun.

I like the lifestyle articles the best.

What a bummer. I was on such a high with the Essentials stuff. I really found that useful.

At least I know there is a lot of vocab to study. Too much. It's not easy. Korean sentences are all back to front. You don't know what the subject is. I hate the really long sentences too.  

I'll take a break now.