Learning will get easier

Learning will get very easy once you reach the advanced level.

I think you've done well learning by yourself. 

You got spooked and derailed reading the "How to" site. Reading what other people do can make you go off-course down unproductive paths.

So just stick to your game plan. 

That's the key. You KNOW you have to learn the vocab in IL. 

You know at some point you will have to complete the IL workbook. 

You know that you have to memorize the grammar terms the same as if they were vocabulary to be memorized. 

You KNOW ... and so on. 

So the way I'm going about things is very systematic. 

I don't think it will harm me to study grammar first. I have a basic idea of pronunciation. I will do shadowing of the KGU book to get my pronunciation up to speed. 

But I won't do any more than that. 

I also did that as an experiment too. 

So I am glad my curiosity was satisfied. And I solved a problem - of how to get separate tracks for each sentence. 

So that's that. I can set that aside. 

You can't learn fluency, grammar, reading skills, vocabulary, writing skills ALL AT THE SAME TIME. It's just not possible. 

And writing skills - I mean formal writing skills - are learned differently to speaking/conversational skills. There is a lot of OVERLAP, I have to admit, but there are differences. With writing skills (I don't mean online chatting with friends), you have to use a formal register. You need a very large vocabulary and you have to be familiar with MANY collocations. And you have to be very good at grammar. And you have to have read a lot of formal writing such as is seen in news articles. 

So don't compare yourself to others. The ones you see that are fluent on Youtube may not be able to read the paper fluently. Or it may have taken them years. And their writing and spelling may not be crash-hot. They might be limited in the vocabulary they know. You can hide your lack of writing and reading skills with fluent speech. 

So just remember that all the formal stuff you did, such as learning grammar and vocabulary from the IL book, is NOT WASTED. 

And remember, just do one activity at a time. Don't be hassled by others who try and make you feel inferior or inadequate because they can speak well. 

You can too. Just stick to your plan. 

Chunks are great for SPEAKING FLUENCY. But they're not that great for writing and for reading. 

You've got to know grammar and you've got to know many words before you can read fluently. 

I think you can hold off the speaking/fluency part a bit longer. Finish the grammar study. Do vocabulary study - getting the vocab from the IL book first. Then move onto news articles. 

Then after you've done a few news articles - maybe about ten or twenty - move onto speaking. Speaking involves doing the chunks, making recordings and shadowing a lot. 

People might say that you are doing things backwards but you've always wanted to read stuff from the beginning. That's kind of more important than speaking really. I think picking up speaking will be easy. If those migrant workers can do it, then I can too. It's just a matter of shadowing a lot. 

So I estimate it will take about two more months to finish the grammar study. Then it will take about one month to do the vocab from the IL book. Then it will take three months to translate and learn the vocab of 100 news articles. 

Then it will take six months to do the chunks and the shadowing and become super-fluent, knowing slang and everything. So how long? About another twelve months. 

That's the order of doing things. So don't worry about immersion and stuff. 

If you learn another language, you can learn to be fluent first by translating the chunks. Then you can learn grammar, vocabulary and other stuff. 

But you do need to learn grammar. If I hadn't learned English grammar and vocabulary, I would be semi-illiterate, like many Aussies I come across on the net. 

And those learners become lazy. They just stick with speaking and don't do study of grammar, reading and vocabulary-building and formal writing. 

I think it's easy to pick up speaking fluency. You can do this any time. What you can't pick up is ability to read newspapers and communicate at a high level. You can only do this by studying grammar and studying lots of vocab. Once you have enough vocab and grammar under your belt, it becomes easy to listen and understand Korean. Already you are understanding a lot of what you hear. You are picking up grammar particles and stuff like that. What is limiting you is your lack of VOCABULARY knowledge. The sageuks you enjoy watching actually have high level Korean words/vocab. They're not like the modern dramas. 

So ... once you pick up enough vocab, learning to be fluent by listening will be easy.

So don't drift away from your game plan. I'm afraid that going to that language site made you deviate from the original plan. 

So don't really worry too much. Just go at your own pace. And don't worry about what others say too much. 

When you do the KGU shadowing you understand it better and get more out of it this time around because you know grammar much more than you did before and you know vocabulary much more than previously. 

So don't worry about chunks too much. Just add to your collection every now and then when a good chunk comes to you. But the chunk study is for later. 

In the future, when studying another language, you should focus on translating your own material. Instead of translating a news article, you should translate some pages you've written in English. Looking up words and so forth.  The stuff you've written should cover a wide variety of things. And you should look up grammar books and get collocations from the dictionary.

An excellent dictionary is a must. I wonder if there's a better dictionary than the Player. There might be some very good electronic ones out there. I think I might enquire about electronic dictionaries. I might have to buy an expensive one. Probably have to go to TechnoMart. I'll bring my Galaxy dictionary to compare with. If the electronic dictionary I check out compares favorably with the Galaxy one, I'll get it. 

The Galaxy one is good but 3 out of a 100 words I look up the dictionary for I can't find. 

So, yes, I think I will follow that approach: go from English to the TL. It's a counter-intuitive approach but a very helpful one. You waste less time learning stuff you don't need. You go and learn the stuff you really need and will likely use in the future. 

So I've got to think about this approach to learning. I think it's a revolutionary way of learning languages. 

Most people go from translating TL to NL. But NL to TL I think bears a lot of fruit. But you really need a teacher for this. A bilingual teacher. 

Most of those polyglots are good at both directions and they practice translations in both directions. 

Tintin is good for those sorts of NL to TL translations but not 100%. Sometimes the dialogs are very different. You can only trust the material if the translations are EXACT. The Essentials books are good for that. 

Sometimes though exact translations sound funny. So you might have to know the idiomatic phrase in Korean. This is hard. You really need a Korean bilingual teacher for that. Movie scripts might be good. 

So there are lots of strategies for becoming FLUENT. But just stick to the original game plan and you will reach the fluency part soon. Just be patient. 

 

Envy

There is a bit of envy I feel. I shouldn't really compare myself to those out there who are fluent. I am envious of migrant workers who are fluent in Korean after one year. Also, I am envious of non-migrants who study Korean and are fluent in it.

I really shouldn't compare myself to them. They got fluent after like four years. They didn't do much else. They studied full time and they attended those language institutes. 

So I think after four years of full-time study you should be fluent in the language. 

I think I am doing all right. Realistically, if I study five hours a day, I will be fluent in Korean in six months, and I will be able to read newspapers and most material online. 

So that's great. I will be teaching myself too! And I won't have much contact with Koreans. 

So stick to your plan. 

Studying Korean grammar from advanced books really has paid off. I mean it doesn't help me to become fluent that much, maybe a little, but it helps me to read Korean and understand it, especially formal stuff, not banmal. Banmal is hard. 

So forget about banmal for the time being. 

I think I should complete the study of the grammar book. The chunks idea is great but maybe I should do it side by side while I am doing other activities. 

And maybe start translating your own material. 

So .... 

SHADOWING

• Shadow everything. A bit like the US government FSI? program. This is mainly listening and repeating. The key is to edit the mp3 files so that there is a separate track for each sentence. And shadow easy stuff to hard stuff. So start off the KGU and end up shadowing IL. Advanced shadowing is shadowing of movie scripts.

• IL book, KGU book, Using Korean, Essentials Everyday, Tintin, WOW comics, movie script, my own chunks, slang, idioms.

• Spend more time on KGU, Essentials 

CHUNKS

• Mine sources for good chunks

• Make your own situations

• Keep a journal - about learning languages

• Concentrate on collecting the material in English, the Korean translations are secondary. Good quality chunks is what's important. 

• You should aim for 3000 chunks

• Separate the commercial chunks from the personal chunks

VOCABULARY

• Follow an order. Do the newspaper articles first as a priority. Don't try to translate everything. Just focus on these. Don't do Tintin yet. Do the mnemonics at the same time. Make your own sentences. Look at collocations.

• Do the vocabulary from the IL book. This is a good source of collocations.

• For later, you can do shadowing on the articles and the sentences you've made up. 

GRAMMAR

• Finish the list of grammar terms

• Finish the testing of grammar terms

• Finish the grammar workbook

STOP THE GRAMMAR STUDY AT THIS POINT (YOU CAN DO REVISION LATER BUT DON'T SPEND TOO LONG ON GRAMMAR). 

It's hard to do everything at once. I think you should just follow a flow-chart or work-flow chart. 

If I'm able to do all these things, you will become very fluent in Korean and you'll be able to read newspapers and be able to express yourself in writing. 

GOALS

• Be able to read newspapers with ease

• Be able to hold conversations with Koreans with ease, and be able to look after yourself. 

• Be able to write and chat online with Koreans. 

Korean slang

I looked up Korean slang on the Internet and found some good sites. I made a list. I want to get a book. You really need to understand Korean slang or else you cannot understand what people are saying when they talk casually. I think half of what they say is slang! I mean in casual conversation. I know that I had trouble understanding manga because of the amount of slang that was in it.

There is a site called Lang8 which I think is a free forum, and people correct what you write. 

I think this is just what I need. It's like having a teacher! 

I really need to get the chunks list out there. 

I need to get the most common expressions. 

And mix it up with English slang, Korean slang and idioms. 

I wonder if there is a book of Korean idioms. That would be cool if there was. 

I learned a lot of idioms from studying the IL book. But I am wondering if that's not somewhat old-fashioned. 

The dictionary on the Player is great for idioms. I should really try and find them. 

Yes, so I have to think of useful CHUNKS! 

Chunks in English. 

That's the theme, and get EVERY chunk translated. I will be good at Korean and really will be able to express myself. 

I've got to think of situations. 

Like buying a cell phone. 

Like getting the toilet fixed. 

Getting a leak fixed. 

Getting a burst water pipe fixed. 

Getting air con installed. 

Getting a parcel sent to your home. 

Ordering a sofa bed online.

There are many situations where you need to speak Korean well. 

Translating my own stuff

This is a unique and exciting idea. Most stuff that teaches you a language you have to translate other people's ideas and thoughts. They may not be the same thoughts as yours and you might not usually express yourself that way. The authors might lead a very different life to yours and have different personalities, interests and opinions to yours.

So there may be a very bad fit. And this is true for me in a lot of cases: IL, KGU, Essentials. 

Even after studying for six months, I still do not have the language to communicate MY wants, needs and opinions. 

So how about working on translating your own stuff? 

I think "chunks" go someways towards that, but sometimes I want to write a narrative or a dialog/conversation. I want to talk in my own voice. 

And the chunks are limiting in a way. They have to be general. 

Even the migrant's book which has many useful bits and pieces is far removed from my needs. I can't imagine having to say some of the things in that book. 

If things don't have personal relevance for me, I am likely to forget it. 

Soooo ... I have to make it personally relevant for me. What about translating what I write in the blog? 

Or write a diary? That's what that Korean guy who lived in America suggested I do. I scoffed at his idea because I really didn't want to write a diary for learning purposes, especially if someone else was going to read it, and if I DID, then it would be a very bland one, and so would be very boring to write. Also, I did not feel my Korean was good enough. 

But wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to express myself, like I have here, in Korean? 

It would be liberating. But it will be difficult. Because some expressions don't travel well. 

For example, "It would be liberating." How could I say that in Korean? 

Maybe something like "I am would feel freer." or "I would have much freedom." 

I think a lot would be gained by translating my own words. I should write unaffectedly at first though in English because if I am conscious that I am going to have to translate something, the writing becomes very stilted. The words don't flow. 

I suppose really I should read a lot. And then I would get an idea of how Koreans express themselves. The thing is that Koreans express themselves very differently to English-speakers. 

Real 180 degree way. Although there are the same grammar elements for the most part. 

It will be hard to do. But there will be real benefits. Because you are likely to use the same language in the future.

Why not create short scenarios or dialogs? Write them up in English. Translate by looking up the dictionary and getting someone to correct them? Like that thing you wrote and that bbensi corrected. 

Yes, that's very valuable. And you can write more specific stuff too. 

I wish I knew Korean slang. 

 

 

 

I did a run with the KGU book

And it went OK. I had to stop because my pencils have a very hard tip and it was difficult writing on the smooth paper. I need to get a very black pencil like a 2B pencil. I think I am picking up a lot this way though I suspect I am going too fast. I am going through each sentence about six times and it's very very helpful. The intonation is getting better though not native-like and I have trouble with some words like "kollyoyo" or "keollyeoyo".

I really need to go through the book several times before the chunks stick in my head. I think I have to pay more attention to the English phrase to see what the meaning of the Korean sentence is. There is a lot of useful stuff there, though not really colloquial, mainly school stuff, language school in particular. 

I think if I go through the tracks that I (laboriously) made about three times in total, I would really have absorbed most of it, and will be fairly good at speaking. 

Plus there is the other stuff, I mean the Essentials book. The Essentials book will be pretty good too. I don't know whether I should do the romanization. I think I should as it helps me remember vocabulary. For example, I remember "kollyoyo" now. I am using the older style romanization to see whether it suits me better and it's quite OK actually. I am not getting too mixed up with "eo" and "o". A little bit but not very much. For example, "today" is "onul" and "yesterday" is "eoje". 

I should try and remember the romanized spelling. That will help me remember chunks. 

Now when I do the actual shadowing, I should concentrate not only on the pronunciation but also on memorizing the whole sentence itself. 

And try and implant it in your aural memory as well as your visual memory. 

I don't have a problem with vocabulary in KGU, thank goodness, because I went through the IL book which has a lot harder vocabulary and more of it. So that's a good thing about going through the IL book. I don't remember a lot of the IL vocabulary but a lot of the easier and common words that appear in IL also appear in KGU and I do KNOW those words.

So, get used to remembering chunks. I think the only way to do this is to do lots of repetition until you're sick of it. 

I think I am getting better really. 

I am probably going too fast. 

When I go through the book more times in the future, more phrases will stick in my head. 

I also have to get the chunks from that book. 

That book is really good. It's at the right pace too. I am glad I made those separate tracks for sentences. It makes shadowing much much better. 

I am really shadowing like I should, and I've noticed my pronunciation is better. 

I wonder how long it will take me before I'm very good. 

I think studying vocabulary from newspapers is a good idea. 

I should mix up my study a bit so that things don't get boring. 

So the different tasks are: 

# Shadowing (at the moment it's shadowing KGU. I have to shadow it about a total of three times. But after I do the shadowing this time around, I'll shadow Essentials). 

# Grammar study: make the grammar testing list. Make the grammar categories for conjugational verbs. Do the workbook. Look up the vocab at the same time as you do the workbook. 

# Vocabulary and translating study. Go through newspaper articles that have rough English versions. Translate and look up words. Look up word collocations. Also make vocabulary list for the IL book. Write collocations. Make up your own sentences. 

# Chunks - mine stuff for chunks. That means mining KGU, Essentials, resources on the Internet, news articles, migrant worker book, WOW comics, Tintin books, Japanese language books, GTO manga books, Korean language books, "Using Korean", movie script books

* Find Korean slang/colloquialisms/idioms and collocations. 

Now videos ....

I don't think I will study them right now. They are good for later when I am better at listening and I can use them for listening practice. I think they take up too much work to study intensively, for example, looking up words for, and studying the different subtitles. 

I think videos are definitely good for listening, but I am doing a lot of listening with the mp3 tracks that I use for shadowing. 

Videos are good for later when I am more advanced and fluent. 

So I've started attacking things on different fronts. When I am in America, I think I will just do translations of online articles. I enjoy that a lot. 

So I will do more intensive stuff later on. It's hard studying because I need the computer and I need to repeat stuff out aloud. I can't really do this in public. 

Anyhow ... I think I've learned a lot in the last six months. I have really gotten good at grammar. I've picked up a whole lot of words. I can read and understand better. I can actually translate newspaper articles - WOOHOO! But I take very long to do that, having to look up every second word, but ... at least I am translating! Before when I tried to translate the news articles, it was IMPOSSIBLE. So studying grammar has really paid off and helped with my reading. 

I have to keep revising grammar though. 

Anyhow, my weak points are: 

# Lack of high-level vocabulary - the stuff you find in serious news and serious stuff on the web. 

# Lack of fluency when I talk. Don't know enough chunks. 

# Poor pronunciation when I talk

# Very slow at reading Korean. I find Hangeul still hard to read. 

But I've made progress. When I read the WOW comics, I can go through them relatively fast. I don't find them easy still but I feel more comfortable reading them and don't feel so confused about the grammar.

I think learning some grammar really boosted me. 

So I think I have to mix up my study to make it interesting. 

I think when I start improving my Korean, I can start chatting with Korean people - not just text chat but speaking-chat - and when I do that and do it a lot, my Korean will really get better at an exponential rate. 

So got to keep going and don't give up. I feel that I've gotten over a slump. Or a hump? Anyway, I've made a massive gain. Mainly from studying that IL book. It really helped improve my vocabulary and grammar understanding, though it didn't do anything for my pronunciation and fluency. 

And that dictionary is really indispensable. 

You could tell Mrs L was surprised at and impressed with my writing. There weren't many mistakes in it, and I could express my thoughts. I think my writing level is high for my general level. 

I am not good at speaking though, but i haven't really done shadowing and I haven't done the chunk work. 

I think I will keep at it. 

So remember FOUR things: 

1. Shadowing

2. Grammar study

3. Vocabulary study

4. Chunks 

Now, with the vocabulary study, I am thinking about whether I should write stuff in notebooks or write them on the computer or what ...? 

I think a notebook is better. I had better get a fat notebook for IL. I think for Tintin, notebooks are better too. A medium size notebook for each book of Tintin. 

Now, what about other vocab? Online news should be on the computer I think ... And what about other things I will get vocab for? There are newspapers as well. I think I can do them online as well. 

Actually, it's best to get everything online if at all possible because you can manipulate things online and your handwriting can get messy and stuff. Yes, I had better start putting things ON THE COMPUTER. I think that's the best thing to do.  You can print off lists as well. I think I had better start soon.

The other thing is you had better start LEARNING the vocab as you go when you make the lists. That's the thing. You're not really learning the vocab. And then you forget and it pops up again! 

So get into the habit of making mnemonics STRAIGHTAWAY when you are studying vocabulary. Don't move onto the next word until you've made a mnemonic. 

Now that your study is more focused, you can now do this better. I don't think you should study from dramas. 

If you have subtitles for a drama, that's good for mining chunks. 

I think you should concentrate on getting your chunk list together. 

Because you have to really think about what you'll say in the future. 

Now when you mine chunks from sources that have Korean translations, should you write down the Korean down? 

I think that's too much work. I'm not good at typing Korean ... 

But it might be worth it, not sure ... 

I think it's quickest to mark things with a pencil. Get 2B or 4B pencils and use them. 

I wonder how long it will take me to get all the chunks I need and will use in the future ... 

I have to think about things ... 

Anyhow, the Korean study is going very well. 

If I could do things again, I would have started on the IL book earlier, I would have gotten a better dictionary from the beginning, maybe bought a phone dictionary, or used the one with my phone, or a really good electronic dictionary, maybe even one with talking(!). 

I would not have bought so many books, and I would not have done vocab study from the Voca Training books or from the other books, mainly phrase books. 

I think the Magic book was good. So I think Magic, KGU and IL textbook and workbook. If I had done that, I would have finished all the grammar by now. I would have finished it all in three months I think, and I would be doing vocab and shadowing work. 

I am glad I made the separate tracks, as I've said, because that's a big leap forward in my study. 

Now I feel I can shadow anything because I have the tools to make separate tracks. 

I am starting to feel tired though because my body clock is still attuned to a different time zone. 

Anyhow, I think the tracks thing and the chunks thing are all big leaps forward in my learning. 

The other stuff is just straight-out learning. 

So things that make a big difference in my learning: 

# A good dictionary

# Chunks

# Separate tracks for sentences - one track per sentence

# Good grammar book - International Learners

An idea came to me .. instead of translating things that other people have written, what about translating stuff YOU want to write. 

That's like the chunk idea kind of. 

I'll write another post on just this topic. This is an important idea. 

 

I don't like getting the obvious chunks from the books that have common phrases
because it feels like copying. Well, it IS copying I suppose. Anyhow, the chunks business won't be resolved overnight. It takes a long time. Let's go over the slang chunks. The slang chunks were fun. I should really get insults as well.

It's slow getting the chunks down.

I'm sitting in a hot room. This room gets so hot. I hate it. And it makes working so tiring. I really don't like living here with my mater.

I can't wait until I leave here. I don't ever want to live here again. 

Anyhow, I think the going is rough. I really have to work things out. I have to stop working. I've done the tracks. 

Going through Tintin is really hard. It's rough going. Translating anything takes forever, really. Am not really in the mood for translation. I think though that Tintin is at my level. Absolutely. Not too easy and not too hard. 

I just have to persist. I tried reading Tintin out loud and I was so SLOW. I really have trouble reading Hangeul. I wonder if I'm the only one. It's hard reading that stuff. I don't like reading Hangeul and I don't like Hangeul. It seems easier than Thai though. 

Anyway, not having a good day. It started off bad because I had a big breakfast. I should really start off with a light breakfast. 

I am getting stuck in my study. It was better when I just had the plan to learn Korean grammar. Then things were really easy. Oh well. 

I will have to resume and get my focus back. I don't like it when there is too much material. 

I don't really like my new study plan. It seems iffy. I have to count and make sure I get enough chunks. 

I made a slang chunks page. Where shall I get more slang? From movie scripts? 

I should stick with the ones I know. I am worried that I am going to have a lot of stuff from these books I already have. For example, the KGU and Essentials books. There is a lot of stuff there that's useful to know and is mandatory. 

I just don't like Korean because the endings vary so much. Makes things really confusing. 

I don't like that. I don't like how there are different speech levels. Just not getting used to it at all. 

I guess I should do listening practice and that should get my speech levels up. My reading is disappointingly slow. But things are getting a little bit better. I am picking up chunks here and there. 

I need to offer the reader really good chunks. Maybe I should give up on the idea of illustrations? It's too hard doing all these drawings. 

I feel pessimistic now. I just want to get the CD out there. Without the illustrations, I can't charge much for it. I think I will just get rid of the illustrations idea because they're a bottle neck for me. 

I should just go for the other stuff. Really concentrate on getting great chunks. You can do an illustration or two but not for every chunk. It's just too hard. You are going to have trouble thinking up a million different drawings. How are you going to do that? I want to put out this one fast. What you can do is put a drawing here and there. Not for every chunk but for some selected chunks, and do the line drawings. You don't have to fill out everything with color. Just do the line drawings and forget about it. Just draw stuff that you like. I really like that kind of thing. 

I think the most important thing is to get the stuff out there. 

Get the chunks down and get the mp3s down. Get the person to repeat the chunk or read the chunk with the speaker at the same time. There shouldn't be too long a pause between each reading because what the student will do is read along with the speaker. 

Then get the same stuff read at a normal pace and then move on. 

That's the thing. So you can include some drawings if you like. 

So the person isn't looking at just a boring page. 

And then include lots of tests. 

You can include the cultural notes if you like. 

But leave the drawings out for the actual chunks. It's too distracting I think. 

The person can just read and listen to the mp3. 

I think the English sentence should be read first. Then the Korean slowly six times and do this for like 500 chunks and that's it! 

Sell that, and see how the response is and then if it's good, duplicate it for other languages. 

The main thing is that you think up excellent chunks. There is no getting around this. 

Just think of fantastic chunks and fun chunks and engage the reader. 

Put a lot of intonation in the reading, a lot of expression and emotion in the reading. 

And make it really work! 

So I think I will just aim for 300-600 chunks. 

I don't know whether I will do tests or not. I think the person can do their own revision really. 

Yes, I think I will do tests. But they will be simple ones and only test things ONCE. 

Not too many bells and whistles. How is it better than Pimsleur? Well, it doesn't break things down like Pimsleur does which may be a disadvantage. It's quicker to learn than Pimsleur. It gives the romanization. 

It gives the slow reading from the beginning and then the faster, more natural reading later. 

And more useful expressions, dare I say it? There's about 300 expressions. 

It also has a catchy name called "CHUNKS". I explain how it works too. 

It also is less expensive than Pimsleur. 

The person can actually repeat the mp3 if they want to listen to it more than six times. 

So there is that option. 

I think it's OK. I will charge a lot less for it than the other stuff. The repetitious reading is quite unique I think. The romanization is unique as well.

There are similarities with Pimsleur however. 

Anyhow, it's quite good, my program. It really hangs on the quality of the chunks. I really need to be inspired by the chunks. It's important for me. 

Also, I might have to mine movies and dramas for chunks. 

Slowly does it. Do one book at a time. No matter how boring. It's all useful. 

You will distill things down later. It's important to get as many chunks as possible. 

I wonder if the reader will find it interesting or not. I think they will take to the idea of listening to the recording multiple times. They are saved from breakng it down like I had to with the Essentials book and the KGU book. 

It's a bore mining books for chunks. But you need to do it. Just keep at it. And do it persistently. I don't know who I will ask for translations and I am still unsure of what speech levels I'll use. I hate this. I will think about it later. The important thing is to get the chunks down. 

I really wish 90% of the sentences were four words or less. More than four words and it becomes hard to remember things. It really does. I should try and keep things short. I might even break up the repetition into shorter phrases. I could do that. For example, an eight word phrase can be broken up into two shorter phrases. 

That's an idea. I don't have to worry about the longer phrases then. But I might have to have two different sets of mp3s or even three sets. I am not sure about this. Or just include everything in the one mp3. That could work. Read out the whole sentence. Read the first part of the sentence and repeat that. Do the same for the second part of the sentence and then put everything together and repeat that. Then do the quick reading. The quick reading I want to put on a separate mp3 track. 

I think I should do that. 

So I'm getting my ideas gelled. Be practical and ditch too many time-consuming difficult-to-implement ideas. Just go with the ones that are easy to accomplish. 

You can improve on it later. As far as I know, there's nothing like this. The slang is a good idea. It really catches people's attention and introduces the idea of fun. 

So the next step is to mine for thing. If you don't want to write the Korean, don't do it. You can always do it later. So finish the Tintin book, and do the Essentials book and do the Migrant book. That will be enough. 

I can get the slang thesaurus as ell.

The thesauras might be a good source of slang. I should really look at the books in America. I might buy a dud that's the thing. I don't want a really LONG book. Most of the slang is really irrelevant.

It's a headache because each English-speaking country has its own slang. 

 

Tintin revisited

I translated Tintin, and it was - shall I say - TERRIFIC! There was a big difference learning with the Samsung dictionary and there was also a big difference because I learned grammar. These things are wonderful. I learned a few colloquial phrases mainly because they were in the dictionary. I could translate long sentences because I had studied grammar and I wasn't stumped by word endings as before. It's going very very well.

So the pay-off for studying grammar is big and the dictionary makes a WORLD of difference. 

I am so glad I tried out the Samsung dictionary. 

And the Tintin books are going to be a good source of chunks. I shouldn't have gotten the Broken Ear one because the characters speak with Spanish accents. I think I will get one of the later ones, like the Red Sea Sharks or The Calculus Affair one.  For some reason his name is Professor Sunflower in the Korean version of Tintin. 

But I am now getting grammar at last so this is wonderful. 

I should also study the Wikipedia pronunciation key. That's very helpful. I prefer the old style romanization. I wish they hadn't changed. Oh, well. 

I am going to reassess things now. 

I did a bit of mining for slang and colloquialisms. The slang wasn't as good as I thought. I might have to look more at longer lists of slang. 

I don't think I can fill it chock a block with slang. I should also do a search for idioms. I searched for colloquialisms but it wasn't that productive. 

I think I'll do a search for idioms and mine everything I can. I can mine Tintin without translating it, I think. 

It's a lot of work actually typing stuff. I don't know whether to write the Korean or not, probably not worth it. 

The Essentials book is boring. It's tedious mining that for chunks. I won't bother writing the Korean. I will just mark the sentences with a pencil and add them later to a Page document. The same with KGU. I can also mine the Migrant workers book, and underline or mark the chunk sentences. 

But for Tintin, I have to write down the chunks in a Page document. Note the page number. 

So it's really working out well, I think. I will just have to try and get as many potential chunks as possible and winnow the list. I have to also be observant and record any chunks at ANY time really. I really have to do this. Record them in the notebook and later add them to the CHUNKS list. 

NEW STUDY PLAN

New study plan

1) Mark the chunks in the KGU book with a red pencil

2) Write down the romanization under the chunk in the book and on the Page document. Write down the approximate track for each chunk sentence. 

3) Optional: Write the chunks down on a Page document including the romanization and the track number. Maybe write the Hangeul as well. 

4) Mark useful chunks in Essential Korean with a red pencil. 

5) Make a Page document with chunks and write down the track number of each chunk. Optional: write down the romanization. 

6) Go through the migrant book and extract the chunks putting them on a Page document. Mark the chunks down in the book with a red pencil. 

7) Mine the Tintin book for chunks. Write down the chunks on a Page document and write down the Korean next to it. Write down the page number as well. 

8) Mine the IL book for chunks - mark with a red pencil and make a separate list as well, write down the Korean and write the romanization as well. Write down the page number.

9) Mine the WOW comics for chunks. Write down on a Page document the chunks. Mark or underline the English sentences that are chunks in the comic itself. Write down the Korean and romanization. (When you get the readings get the person to read right through and also read the chunk list.) 

10) Mine the other books for chunks: Japanese book, GTO comic books, Korean phrase books, Korean language books. Mark the chunks in the books themselves and also make a separate list of the chunks in a Page document. Also note down the page number where the chunk is, write down the Korean sentence and the romanization.

11) Mine slang books for chunks and make a Page document with these chunks. (Later, get the translations and get the readings of them.) 

12) Make separate mp3 tracks for each sentence for any mp3s you have, using Audacity. 

13) Get the readings and recordings done for everything including the IL book. (WOW comics, IL book, teenage book, Tintin book, chunks in the Pages documents) 

14) Get the translations and readings of chunks that have no translations for them. 

15) Make your own chunk list separately - chunks that come to you. 

END OF PREPARATION

Learning chunks and studying

PRELIMINARY

* Learn the pronunciation rules; learn the McCune-Reischauer romanization method.

1) Learn the chunks from KGU and also listen right through

2) Learn the chunks in Essential Everyday and also listen right through. 

3) Learn the chunks in the WOW comics and listen right through. 

4) Learn the chunks in the teenage book and listen right through. 

5) Learn the chunks from the Tintin book and listen right through. 

6) Learn the chunks from the Migrant book and listen right through. 

7) Learn the chunks from your own spontaneous list. 

8) Learn the chunks from the slang mining list. 

9) Learn chunks from any other list. 

READING

1) Start translating online news articles again. Make vocab lists and make chunks lists from them. Get recordings. Memorize the mnemonics. Translate about a hundred of these articles.

2) Memorize the grammar terms from IL by making a test. 

3) Make categories of grammar words. 

4) Go through the workbook, looking up words as you do the exercises. 

5) Make a vocab list of the words in the IL textbook and the workbook. 

Write your own sentences; make grammar notes of the words; make up mnemonics; write down the romanization.

6) Translate Tintin.

7) Mine other sources for useful vocab eg the teenage book, WOW comics. 

8) Start reading for fun. 

Always make vocab lists and make mnemonics for new words you encounter. 

 

COMMERCIALIZATION

1) Go through all the chunks and make a final 3000 chunk list. 

2) Re-write the English sentence so it's as colloquial and slangy and natural-sounding as possible. 

3) Think of more great chunks. 

4) Think of scenarios for each chunk. For the cartoons/pictures.

5) Get the chunks translations checked and also get the reading for the chunks.

6) Get the illustrations done. Learn how to do quick illustrations. Some of them will be colored; some of them will be in black and white. 

7) Put it together in a CD-ROM. 

8) Write down instructions on how to learn the chunks

9) Think up cultural notes and pretty touristy notes and illustrations and photos and add them. 

10) Devise testing for the chunks. 

11) Do a logo, cover design and anything else you need to do. 

12) Hand it over to a designer/computer technician to make it into a CD-ROM. Preferably someone Korean????? 

13) Make a website for it. Add a blog to the website. Add photos to the website and tips on how to learn the language, and news about Korea. 

14) Advertise this through other forums. 

GOAL: I've sold 1000 of them in six months after they go on sale. I've sold them for $280. 

The CD-ROM has tests in it. I've made the tests after each lot of fifty and then after each lot of the next fifty. So there are two lots of revision tests for each chunk. 

With the CD-ROM, I've written down the Romanization. 

This study plan has a good balance of grammar, vocabulary learning and shadowing.

The key ingredient that is in the mix is the CHUNKS. Chunks weren't in the study plan previously. Now chunks are in there now. I am directing the shadowing part to cover the CHUNKS. 

The chunks are there for FLUENCY. Fluency is important for speaking, reading and writing and of course, listening. 

They are most important for speaking and for listening. They are quite important for writing and moderately important for reading. 

But they are vital for speaking and listening. 

So I'm very glad I hit on the chunks idea. I have to be patient gathering up the chunks. 

In my study plan I didn't include the video-watching. 

I am worried about that. 

But I shouldn't do too many things at once. I also need to organize my study so I do the high-priority things first. 

I can do some further study later. I think that drama watching isn't that important right now. It will be after I've learned a few chunks. Watching videos is mostly for listening practice. It's not really for getting chunks from. It's too hard to get chunks from watching videos. Movie scripts are good for getting chunks from. 

I shall just mine everything I have for chunks. Also, just say I have a conversation with someone, I will think of any chunks that come up in the conversation. 

When I write the study plan above, it might not be in the actual order that I do the study. For example, I might do the reading and the grammar study simultaneously as I gather up the chunks. 

But now I know what I have to do, I can relax a bit. 

Also, it does appear that I have to do the mining for the chunks early. Where can I get the colloquial slang books? I can't afford them right now. I will try and find resources on the net.