Studying in blocks

I am bad at multi-tasking. I think I am best at concentrating in one area for a solid period of time and then doing something else also for a solid block of time but not mixing things up. That is my way of studying. At the moment I am doing too many different things and it's confusing me. 

I think the best method for me is studying grammar, studying vocabulary, reading and watching dramas and building up vocab, reviewing grammar, building up vocab, watching and reading, and then doing conversation immersion practice --- maybe while studying vocab at the same time. Then doing reading and watching and building up more vocabulary. I think having an excellent vocab is the key. Immersion is not that hard. Not as hard as I thought it was. Immersion might be more useful after you've built up a lot of vocabulary.  

It would be nice to master a language to a high level
I would like people to say that I have native speaker ability. That is my wish. I want people to say I am fluent when speaking Korean. I know that speaking is my weak spot. My strengths are writing, reading and spelling. I have a long way to go I know. Persistence and high motivation is the key. Maybe I did conversation practice too early, before I had built up my vocab to a sufficiently high level. I did this to see whether my grammar would improve - as an experiment more or less. I think I will stop the conversation practise after four or five weeks and concentrate on vocab. I was really curious about immersion but now that I have experienced it, I am not that curious anymore. I can always return to conversation practise in the future. I think picking up a lot of vocab is important. Knowing enough vocab so that I can handle a newspaper article, and THEN doing conversation immersion might have been more useful .... 

Learning vocabulary

What you can do is compile your own vocabulary lists. Read a book you are interested in or watch a drama you are interested in and make lists. You don't have to do the memorization while you are making the lists. You are just watching or reading in a relaxed fashion and making lists. Once you have made a list for the chapter or for the episode (if it's a movie), then sit down and commit the words to memory. Try and get the right form of the word, that is, note whether it is a noun, verb etc. Then after memorizing the words, read the same episode again or read the same chapter again and see how much you comprehend. I think you can easily learn about 150 words a day if you are studying full time. In about 100 days or less (3 months) you will have learned about 10,000 words. If you study furiously like some of those people on YouTube do, you can learn about 200 words a day, maybe 300 words a day. Then you will learn all the words you need in 30 days (9000 words). So you could have done a month's worth of intensive vocabulary study. Either buy vocab books that have exercises for practising recall. Or you could make your own lists by watching or reading something. You would have to study intensively though. The selecting your own words is a more time-consuming method than the one where you learn from vocab books, but the first method has the advantage of context. 

So you can really learn to read and understand grammar (basic) in about six weeks (1.5 months) - 2 weeks to learn grammar (and listen to mp 3 files) and 4 weeks to learn 9000 words.  So you can have a pretty good handle on a language in about 6 weeks really. You will be able to read a newspaper and story books and understand quite well what's going in a drama. You can catch the gist of what the news is about when watching TV. You will be able to follow a person's conversation if not be able to participate. 

You might not be able to read manwha though - manwha contains heaps of colloquial speech. 

You probably won't be able to converse well.

But then after the 1.5 months, you can do INTENSIVE immersion with interacting with Korean speakers (5 hours a day) and learn Korean conversation in about 4 weeks of this. 

So it IS possible to learn a language in about 2.5 months but it would require marathon sessions of study every day, just studying Korean and doing nothing else.

It would also help if you had a genius brain because you would only have to see a word once with its definition and you would remember its meaning always. A genius would probably have photographic aural memory. They would be able to hear a sentence once and can repeat it exactly without a mistake and with the correct intonation and everything. If they knew the meaning of the sentence, the genius would be able to use the sentence themselves in future. And this is just after ONE exposure. 

Geniuses have an easy time I have to say. Even if they learn using the didactic method, they can still become fluent. They don't need that much exposure to the communicative method to pick up the speaking and grammar.

Needless to say, I wish I was a genius!

But I think some intelligent people also learn languages well and have good pronunciation - if they are determined to learn that language and are persistent. Then these intelligent people become super-good at the language and sound almost like native speakers. This is when they are highly motivated to learn that language and it becomes a hobby for them. Then there is no stopping them. They also become very good at reading and writing. They are usually good in all four areas. They don't make common mistakes in speech that the average learner does - eg. dropping the 's' in plural words or not saying the third person singular correctly. They also don't mix up 'she' or 'he'. These intelligent people are very detail-conscious. I have come across some very intelligent people who are very good at English even though they never spent a day in an English-speaking country or didn't spend any time in an English hagwon.  

Learning from something you're interested in

QUOTE:  

"Also, I’ll tell you right now that the best way to learn vocabulary is to do it contextually. What does that mean? It means taking material that you’re actually interested in reading/listening to and using that to extract vocabulary from to learn, as opposed to going off of some kind of list. Check out Tim Ferriss’ awesome post that delves a lot more into the matter, he talks about learning Japanese through learning something he was genuinely interested in, Judo: How to Learn Any Language in 3 Months."

This is so important. And I've neglected this a fair bit recently. It IS important to learn from something you really enjoy. I enjoy watching King Gwanggaeto the Great so I studied an episode watching it and looking up Google Translate for words. I was motivated to study like this because I really wanted to watch and understand this drama.

I think I might go back to doing this. I might pick an episode I really like and make vocabulary lists.

My ear is not picking up sounds. I remember certain words I learned from childhood with familiarity. I am not remembering words in Korean in the same way.

What do I enjoy doing? Watching King Gwanggaeto rather than reading fairytales. The fairytales are a bit tedious. I don't really like the WOW comics very much though I think they are not that difficult to read. With the sageuk, I have the advantage of hearing the sound of the word. Sometimes though, I can't find the word in the Google dictionary.

I learned "mul kogi" for fish from that sageuk. I think I will go back to doing this. Really study a few episodes intently. Just skip the parts that are too difficult to find the English and Korean words for.

The words are not pronounced that clearly because some of the actors have very gruff voices. They shout a lot too. 

I think I will do this.  

 

 

How many words do you need to know?

Quote:

 "Right, let’s get down to brass tacks. According to the above study, for Spanish: Learning the first 1000 most frequently used words in the entire language will allow you to understand 76.0% of all non-fiction writing, 79.6% of all fiction writing, and an astounding 87.8% of all oral speech. Learning the top 2000 most frequently used words will get you to 84% for non-fiction, 86.1% for fiction, and 92.7% for oral speech. And learning the top 3000 most frequently used words will get you to 88.2% for non-fiction, 89.6% for fiction, and 94.0% for oral speech."

http://howlearnspanish(dot)com/2010/08/how-many-words-do-you-need-to-know/

My guess is that you need to know 10,000 words to be able to read the newspaper without too much difficulty.

At the moment, it's impossible to read the newspaper. I think I have about 2000 words under my belt at the moment.  

Also,

Quote: 

"How you intend to use the language in question (Spanish or whatever the case may be for you) is very important in determining which words you should focus on, primarily this comes into play with regards to whether you’re more concerned about the spoken language or the written language. Most language-learners are far more concerned about being able to actually speak to native speakers of the language than they are with anything else, though there are exceptions (people who wish to be able to read certain specific technical journals, such as an engineer who only wants to be able to read the original German or Japanese instruction manuals and schematics for the devices used in his field and does not need to be able to actually speak the langauge) as well as certain special needs (someone who is most interested in spoken language, but they also need special emphasis in a certain area, such as the businessman who not only wants to speak basic everyday Japanese but also needs to learn certain business terms that are specific only to his job and wouldn’t be common anywhere else)." 

What are my goals? I haven't really defined those clearly yet. I think this is important.

My goals are a bit high ...

I want to be able to read the newspaper.

I want to be able to have a conversation with people. 

I want to be able to understand Korean dramas and sageuks without too much difficulty.

I want to be able to communicate with people to convey my needs: 

 - when something in my apartment is broken

 - when I want to rent another place

 - when I want to go somewhere

 - buying stuff

 as well as be able to make small chat.

Just be able to engage in normal everyday conversation.

Relatives can talk to me in Korean and I can understand.

 I want to speak Korean in the workplace.  

I think I need to learn 10,000 words.

I don't want to read high-level Korean literature.  

It's a long road to hoe ahead of me .........

Unlike the 3-D workers, I have to be proficient in reading and writing. Perhaps my writing will never be top-notch - I don't know. But I want to be able to read anything I like without difficulty except for high Korean literature.  

 

Don't stress out!

If people don't work out, they don't work out. It's not your fault and it's not their fault. You can always find more people. You can always put the conversation ad up again. Or just ask people you know .... But I think that I have had enough. I don't think I will do it again after one or two months. I need a break from this. Or I need to get people to all come in the one day ..... 

Anyway, the best thing is to relax. You've let people know what they need to do. Let them talk about what you like. Just gently test out alternative activities and see how they like them. If they don't really take to them, don't push them.

Just have a wide range of activities on hand. And you can always turn on the television and talk about what's on telly.

I think people want to meet you because they rarely get a chance to have a one-on-one with a native speaker. It is different for them. It's a good way to learn. With the poor English speakers, you can do more language exchange. You can teach each other activities. With the good English speakers, you can just let them talk for 40 minutes or so in Korean and then in the last 20 minutes, you can let them talk in English about whatever they like. People LOVE talking about themselves so just give them feeders. Look sympathetic and understanding. Remember, people think you are a good conversationalist if you are a good listener. So just make some small interjections just to show them that you are listening. They love to have an audience. So be a good audience. And this way, they will be happy to come and talk to you and interact in Korean with you.

Try and introduce something fun or topical that matches their interest. Don't be too impatient though and expect miraculous results overnight.  

Just patiently and determinedly and calmly does it. Be focused like a top-notch tennis player. Never lose sight of the goal. Don't let your emotions go up and down like a rollercoaster. Just keep a cool head no matter what.  

I will relax about the conversation sessions

I realize I was stressing myself out too much about the conversation sessions. I think I have gotten myself into a groove now. I know which people I enjoy talking to. I am realistic as to how much Korean I am going to pick up by listening to Korean conversation. So long as I understand the gist of what a person says, it's all good. The learning process is SUBCONSCIOUS. I didn't really comprehend this and got overly stressed. So just relax during these conversation sessions. If I am relaxed, the teacher is relaxed too. I think I had better cancel with some of these people today and not leave it too late. I am confused about the times too. I had better send text messages.

I need to find some interesting topics to talk about. I don't know whether the teachers will accept the "games".  If I can find something like "GardenScape" but in Korean, that will be fantastic. I will pick up vocab fast that way. 

So just pick up something from the web. If the person isn't that interested, don't force it. So long as they talk for 45 minutes in Korean, they have done their jobs. If they need a lot of cueing from me, then drop them. They are not natural talkers and need too much prompting for my liking.

I think 6 hours a week is enough. I don't think I will do more than this. It cuts into my schedule too much if I do more than this. I might cut Mrs Lim down. I will have Seokcheol once or twice a week. The young man once a week. The science teacher once a week. The Sat lady once a week. Mrs Lim once a week. I find I am hassled when I have two hours back to back like I did yesterday ...... I think 7 hours might be too much.

I really have too many people actually. It's hard to remember all their schedules and so on.

 

 

Importance of memorizing vocabulary

I think this is the foundation of learning a language - learning the vocabulary. The vocabulary is the flesh that dresses the skeleton - the grammar. If you have a wide range of vocabulary you are going to learn very quickly. I think I will have to study vocabulary a lot more. But I will learn at a faster pace than what I was doing before. I will learn vocab but not do spaced review. Some of the books have spaced review built in. I find this isn't that helpful and really speeds down the learning process. It is taking ages to learn 300 words from a book with spaced review. It took a few days to learn 600 words from a book with no spaced review.

I will also study vocabulary separatedly when I do reading. I will look up all the vocabulary I don't know and try and learn the words. Then and only then will I attempt to read a passage.

Romanization is also very important. I am remembering things with Romanization. If the Romanization is clear in my head, eg. "sogae" (introduction), then the word is easy to remember. If the Romanization is not clear, eg. jajeongkoh, the word is hard to recall. So I will write the Romanization down in such a way that it will be easy to remember and read, and when I recall a word, I will bring up the Romanization.

This is because I am still not familiar with Hangeul. It takes a long time to read Hangeul for me. Some of the letters are not that easily distinguishable from others.

I have to really concentrate on writing the Romanization of all the new vocabulary and to write the Romanization clearly.

Korean words are difficult to pronounce. They are not like words based on Latin at all. I think it's because some of the words have Chinese origins and others have true Korean origins.

Still people are ringing up about the ad. I think the ad should have been brought down by now. The expiry date has passed. I think I have enough people and I don't want to do conversation practise every day. Maybe I should get them to meet me at Starbucks every day or so. I will have a bottle of juice or something. I will go to Starbucks or Coffee Mama for the lessons.

I will really study vocabulary hard. It will make the conversations easier to understand as I pick up more and more vocab from studying. At the moment, the conversations lack context (I am not learning conversation in a work or school environment) so the vocab I hear will be harder to pick up the meaning of ...... 

So it's a matter of increasing my vocabulary every week.

Of course the vocab that is used by the teachers won't be high level vocab. I will pick up high level vocab when I study newspapers. There are some English translations of Korean newspaper articles (online). These might be useful. But from the grammar point of view, not that helpful as the translators take great liberties when translating.

I would like as exact translations as possible. The fairy tales and Aesop's tales are good for this. I find the translations match closely in these books.

So I will take a break from grammar and concentrate on picking up vocabulary.

I also need to read a lot more. The problem is I need translations still so I am restricted in reading materials.

The Saint Marie books are too high level for me. I also might get the teachers to read aloud to me. I can then get an idea of pronunciation from that.  

I won't accept any more people no matter what.

I won't accept any more people no matter what. These people rang me first so I think I will stick with them. I really won't accept any more people for interviews. I am spending so much time arranging these lessons. I think that's it. I will see these people for lessons once or twice a week time permitting and encourage the ones who are good to come more often. I really want to relax and enjoy myself during these lessons and speak in Korean!!!! I want to listen to Korean and I don't want to work at these lessons. I wonder how these people will take to the suggestion for us to play games. Mrs Lim won't mind. Seokcheol might find it a bit immature. I am a beginner let's face it though, so translating academic articles is beyond me. 

The science teacher might find it funny, fun or strange -- it's hard to fathom with her. The Sat lady might find it weird. The young man who lived in DC will probably like it.

This shows to them what my level is like. I think they think my level is much higher than it is.

I still can't say the days of the week well. I still can't say the Korean numbers well.

I am really low in speaking and in listening. I am struggling with the strange grammar forms that are found in spoken language. The grammar that people are using is quite different to the grammar I have learned in books.

So I am really struggling here. But I am determined to try this experiment and will give it two months before I stop. If it goes well, I will continue. I will find more people by .... advertising again????? I doubt the same people will answer. This is going much better than language exchange. I really found the language exchange hopeless.

I hope I've learned something in the past 7 hours of immersion I've had. Yes, I've had 7 hours so far. I can't notice anything really different ...

But would that be realistic to expect a lot in 7 hours? Say someone did this for 6 months - they would have 26x7 = 162 hours of practise listening and speaking. That is 26 times what I have spent so far. Do you think they would be fluent after that? I can't say. Of course there would be some improvement after six months but I couldn't really say that person would be FLUENT. Maybe I am not watching enough contemporary dramas. They bore me to death. KBS World bores me now. I am not that interested in King Gwanggaeto the Great as I used to be. I don't really watch it avidly anymore when it comes onto KBS World. I don't watch KBS World for anything really. I am sick of reading subtitles and catching bits of silly dramas.

I don't know what to do ... maybe I should take out a Korean movie, but there aren't many good ones out these days. Manwhas are too difficult to read. The language is the most difficult I have come across. Banmal is so hard.

I guess I just have to do more STUDY. I think the study will really pay off. I don't regret studying English vocabulary. That really helped me in the future. So it might be the same for studying Korean vocabulary.

 

 

I think I am happy with the people I have right now.

I don't think I will take on any more people. I think I will get rid of the math teacher and the scouting lady. I am getting confused because there are too many different people. And the good ones I want to see twice a week. I think after this week, I will fire the math teacher and the scouting lady and I will just stick with the two men, Mrs Lim, the science teacher and the Sat lady. That's it. I can give the men twice a week slots or the Sat lady or the science lady extra spots. That is how many people? Five people. I am getting confused by all of these people. I might even cancel before I start with the scouting lady and the math teacher. I think I might ring them up tomorrow and cancel with them. After I hired them, I found the two men whom I am happy with. I don't really want to have a lesson with the math teacher. She didn't speak in Korean with me and really failed the interview. I don't have much in common with the scouting lady and she doesn't want to be paid so it puts her in control of the situation which doesn't suit me.

I will ring them up tomorrow and give some excuse. I will say that on Tuesdays and Thursdays (math teacher) that I really do not need anyone. That I have someone at 9am and that I am busy after 10. I will tell the scouting lady that I am busy on Wednesdays and Fridays in the morning. I will ask Seokcheol to come either once or twice a week: on  Thursdays and Tuesdays, and I will ask the young man to come on Fridays in the morning and Wednesdays. 

I think that's best. So I will ring these people tomorrow. It's best if I cancel before we have a lesson. If we have a lesson and cancel it's more awkward and hurtful to cancel then.

I think I am making the right decision. I don't really need someone who speaks so little English -- it is helpful somewhat as it means we have a lot of immersion but I have nothing in common with her and don't feel comfortable talking to her. 

The math teacher I don't think will work out and honestly she failed the interview. Also, it was arrogant of her to insist that I come to her apartment. 

The teacher who works at hagwons teaching Chinese students made me feel bad the way she related to me so I think it's impossible to continue with her. 

The science teacher doesn't have good English. The Sat lady doesn't have good English. So these people are good enough for that. Mrs Lim is amusing and she makes me laugh and she makes an effort so I will stick with her. I don't mind she is trying to learn English from me. I will just remind her that we are going to speak 100% Korean for the 45 minutes and I will do some structured activity with her. The field trips are good. Although they are more helpful for her than they are for me. But in the future, I can make the field trips more helpful for me. 

We can play games like name the dead actor/actress game. We can do all sorts of fun things. Just try and be inventive and creative. 

It's good I have found these people. But KEEP your distance. Develop the friends you already have. So when the teaching ends, you won't feel so let down. Because remember, there will be a time when the teaching period finishes and you have to move on. It's OK if you become good buddies with them but you have to find your own buddies elsewhere too because these people have their OWN lives.