How many times should I shadow the sentence in the book?

I am not sure about that. How many times should I shadow each sentence? Ten times? Twenty times? Until I can say it automatically without thinking? Or would that be a waste of time considering the high memory attrition rates?

Am not sure about this. 

"Using Korean"

I want to try shadowing "Using Korean" to see whether it's any good. If it's better than "International Learners", I will shadow that book instead, although I will have to shadow both books eventually.

With forgetting the material I've shadowed, at least I am getting plenty of speaking practice by shadowing. Some words are becoming highly familiar to me because I've said them many times. 

Actually, there is an advantage in shadowing without the audio. With the audio, I get too caught up in mimicking the speaker exactly and I get quite obsessed by it. It then becomes frustrating to do the shadowing. With the IL book, which doesn't have the audio, I relax more while doing the shadowing. I focus more on the grammar and the meaning of the words themselves. 

So I think doing both - shadowing with the audio and without it - is useful for different reasons. 

I may not remember the exact sentences, word for word, later after I've done the shadowing but while I am shadowing, I am picking up grammar and vocabulary and improving my pronunciation, which are all good things so shadowing isn't a complete waste of time. 

I think the chunks idea with the scenarios and the dialogs in the scenarios are a better way of getting one to register the sentences in one's long-term memory. 

I can't wait until I make this program. It will be good for me as well as for other people. There will be translations underneath the TL sentence. There will be the exact word-for-word literal translations as well as the colloquial translations. Then there will be the romanization for the languages that need it. And there will be a small definition key. The definition key doesn't have to be extensive because there are the literal translations under the sentences. 

What else is needed? Not much else. Then there will be the chunks that are unique to the language being studied. Perhaps a special section will be set apart for these sentences. 

There can be special boxes for slang words.

So this book can be quite comprehensive. A lot of resources for the learner. They really do not need to learn anything else. It is a one-stop place for the learner. (I would recommend the learner to learn to write the characters of the TL.) 

What else is required? Really nothing. The person has everything they really need right there. 

I think this would be a fantastic book. Really fantastic. There would be how many scenarios? Not sure. 

What about the instances of where you can say something multiple ways? There will be the need for repetition then ... Or a special note can be made about this in the book. So when there is anything extra that needs to be told to the reader, these boxes will be available for that.

I think the English-->TL idea is so important. I think the reason why many of these sentences I'm shadowing are not adhering is because they have little/no immediate relevance for me. That's why immersion works fast - because of the relevance factor. 

Still, it's better than nothing and I don't really enjoy immersion situations though I haven't really tried them I suppose. 

I think I will just have to struggle with what I am doing and I will try and get through the book quickly. Then I will try review the situation - retrospectively check what progress I've made. I will alter the plan accordingly.

I don't really have time to think of the chunk situations unfortunately. Thinking up the chunks will take a long time I think. Maybe I should just aim low. Just think of three or four common scenarios and go on from there. Then keep going until I've reached the goal of 10,000 sentences or whatever the goal is. 

I think that might be the best way to go. There are too many endless varieties of possible sentences ... picking the most useful situations is the key. Also picking a wide variety of situations is important. I don't want the chunks book to become a tourist phrase book. 

That's the problem. A book like that becoming a tourist phrase book. 

How many pages should there be? I think about 1000 pages spread over three volumes. 

I think a person can handle that. 

The person listens and repeats and assimilates. Keeps repeating until the sentence becomes automatic. That's the key. 

Forgetting

I did a quick review of the sentences I shadowed in the Essentials Everyday book and found that I've forgotten a lot. This is discouraging. I don't know what to do about this. I don't want to shadow all the sentences again. The only ones I remember are the ones I've actually used, have needed to use in real life. What to do? Really tired of this. I spent a lot of time shadowing. Maybe I went through it too fast. Possible. So what is the limit I can shadow everyday and remember the sentences I've shadowed off by heart? I think I can shadow about twenty sentences .. So every month, I would have shadowed 600 sentences and these sentences I would know off by heart. Then after a year, that would be 6000 sentences. I think that's reasonable. After three years, that would be 18,000 sentences.

I really don't know. What should I do? I am in a hurry to learn because I need to use it in my everyday life (I want to be independent) and in my job. 

I really don't know what to do. I will just have to try my best and study for four hours every day and see how much I can learn in four hours and go on from there. 

It's really disappointing. I still think it's useful to shadow. Although the attrition rates of recall seem to be high I am retaining stuff and probably on doing review, things will stick in my head more firmly. At least, I am understanding the grammar better. 

The grammar study is going really well with the shadowing. 

I think the problem is that many of the phrases are not really relevant to me. That's why they aren't registering in my long term memory. It's different to the work immersion situation where much of the language one would be exposed to would be relevant. The situation would be rich in context too. I am picking up more vocabulary because I am sounding out the words which aids in the acquisition of vocabulary. 

Shadowing the International Learners book

is going terrifically well. I can handle five pages at the one session, which is about 50 sentences. It's really fun to do, and I am just amazed at the complex sentences I am able to translate into Korean. I even am getting the grammar. Krashen is entirely correct about picking up the grammar innately when learning through "immersion" or in my case through shadowing. Just parrotting sentences is very helpful. It's a breakthrough! I feel great. So this is how people learn ... I understand now how children learn languages.

It's amazing really how difficult the sentences I am shadowing are. I am really talking in Korean! I am no longer just struggling with saying the simplest things. I can communicate quite complicated concepts. Wow! Shadowing is the way to go! I am all for it. Get translated text, get the pronunciation rules under one's belt, and away you go! 

It is self-reinforcing this process. Because of the sense of achievement in being able to translate a sentence into the TL that one receives, one is motivated to keep shadowing and translating more sentences. 

And I'm actually able to use it in real life. When the Woori Bank woman rang me I had to speak in Korean to her because she couldn't speak any English. Even Mum who overheard me through Skype said I spoke Korean well. So just in a week, I have achieved so much! Imagine what I can achieve in 26 weeks of shadowing! 

This is great. I can really advance far with this shadowing business. I really want to shadow the Using Korean book. I will shadow selected chapters. I will skip the confusing chapters like the Honorifics chapter. I will mark the chapters I'll shadow and just go for them. Wow, it's totally working out ... Wonderful. Great. Magnificent. Terrific. 

I really like learning Korean now. It's just so great. I have discovered a great learning process. 

I wish I had done this earlier. I would probably be fluent by now! 

Anyway, it's not too late to start. I am shadowing well. I've got to listen to the audios though so my pronunciation doesn't go off the reservation. 

I really enjoy this method. I even watch TV or a video while I shadow. Shadowing is not at all hard work. And I am understanding so much. It's really great. I can't wait until I finish the book. Should I revise it? I will probably some of it, but I think I can recall the stuff I've forgotten if I do revision. It's just so great. I think I can become fluent in one year of doing this. This is how those people become fluent. By doing shadowing, well at least, a form of shadowing. They do it through immersion activities. Immersion and shadowing are similar activities. Shadowing has advantages and disadvantages compared to immersion. 

It's very interesting, I must say. I really enjoy doing this. Got to conquer this language. 

And I can use the same method with other languages. Just got to find a book with thousands of good sentences and great translations. That's the way to go. Preferably a grammar book like the International Learners book, and a phrase book, and away you go. 

Rinse and repeat with other languages. And then you are a polyglot before you know it. You don't really need to know the writing systems in order to be fluent in the languages though knowing it helps. I think the romanization is poor or missing in a lot of the language material for Korean that I would have to learn the writing system. 

I want to learn German, Turkish and Japanese. Japanese because the pronunciation is easy. German because I like the sound of the language. Turkish because I have particular affection for that country. 

Just a few hours a day of studying and in six months you will be fluent in a language. Say you study four hours a day everyday for six months doing shadowing, that will be 4x6x30=720 hours. So it takes 720 hours to be fluent. In four hours, you can shadow 150 sentences. That will be 150x180=27,000 sentences shadowed. That's more than enough to be fluent in a language. Maybe you can learn a language in three months! 

If you study full-time, it will be even quicker to learn a language. Say you study 14 hours a day, you can shadow 450 sentences. In a month, you will have shadowed 450x30=13,500 sentences. That's enough to be fluent. So if you are determined, you can learn a language in a month!

But you would have to have all the learning materials decided ahead of time so you don't waste time hunting around for them and collecting them. 

Ideally, for Korean, I would have at hand from the outset, the KGU book, the Essentials Everyday book, the Essentials Business book, the International Learners book, the Using Korean grammar book, the WOW comics, the teenage book, the migrant book. And I would be in business after that. 

I think I can do it! I really love shadowing and learning Korean. 

Back to study. I wish I could do it full-time! 

I've hit a hard patch. It uses indirect speech and "daero". The sentences are like this: "I did everything you asked me to do so why are you complaining?" 

If you are really determined and are organized with all the material you need you could learn a language in a month. In twelve months, you will have learned twelve languages! But as I have said, you would have to have all the learning materials available to you and organized in such a way that all you have to do is go through it. I think a lot of the time spent "studying" is devoted to organizing the materials for study. For example, it took me days to make separate tracks of the audio files of the Essentials Everyday book.

That's why working out the best system of study is very important. It reduces a lot of the time wasted. 

I think I get it now. I think the studying will be rapid. I am picking up a lot of things. I do think I will have to revise a lot of the stuff. Also, this sort of study is not designed for acquiring skills in reading, it is for becoming fluent.

Gaining the ability to read newspapers requires a different set of skills though being fluent really helps a lot. 

You need to build up your vocabulary in order to read newspapers. I think that's the most important thing. You also need to understand grammar otherwise the article you are reading becomes a jumble of words. This is especially so in Korean where you can write many of the words in various orders and still mean the same thing. 

But once again, this skill I think can be acquired in a relatively short time. How? By becoming fluent in speaking first (you get an innate understanding of grammar), and by just plunging ahead and doing the reading and looking up words and translating from the TL to the NL. 

I don't think you need to read easier stuff because you would have covered easier sentences during shadowing. The trick is to know all the words and understand how they relate to each other. Once you've done that, you can read that sentence. I suspect that as you practice more, the easier it gets. Then you reach the point where you are reading fluently and the only thing you are doing in the way of studying is looking up the occasional word you don't know. 

Reading comprehension is quite hard. Now I think it's harder than speaking actually. I really struggle with reading. 

Newspaper reading is for advanced learners of Korean. Maybe I am being premature in trying to understand newspaper articles? Am not sure. I do find the easier stuff boring to read. I prefer more adult-oriented reading material. 

There should be some transitional material .. Or I should just try and find easier articles or get the Korean Herald translated articles ... I should also look back at past reading materials to see whether they are easier to read or not. This will help me to check my progress. I seem to be progressing so slowly in reading ... it's discouraging ... Maybe that's because I am tackling really difficult material ... 

Don't worry about reading too much. Concentrate on speaking. You can translate a short article every now and then. 

You just have to reach a certain proficiency in reading by mastering easier material and then you can tackle the harder stuff. Like when you were learning English. You learned easy material first - children's books and the like. Then you read tons of these books. Then you ran out of stuff to read and started to read older children's books and then the newspaper. Then you started on harder material like 18th/19th century literature novels. When I read those novels, most of the time was spent looking up vocabulary; the grammar I mostly understood although for long sentences, the grammar was difficult to understand.

But I mostly concentrated on vocabulary. 

So I think you need to follow the same method with Korean. Read easy-intermediate stuff and then progress to harder stuff. 

I think I will stick to easier articles like the ones found in "Metro". Short interesting lifestyle articles. Translate them and learn the vocabulary and then move on. You will come across the same vocabulary in the future, and that will help reinforce your knowledge of vocabulary. So just do this. Try and find easier articles to read on subjects that interest you. 

I prefer just three paragraphs or something like that. I think by reading a lot - reading a lot of easy stuff initially - your reading skills will improve. 

So just read a lot of easy material. In time, you will have to look up the dictionary less and less for these easier articles and your reading speed will improve. 

Then when you are ready, choose harder material. So just practice with lots of easier material. Scan newspapers for easier material. I am back to the OCR problem again! I really wish I could do OCR for newspapers. When I can afford it, I will buy Abbyy or the other OCR software that's about the same price. 

Then I can just scan the article and then manipulate it like an online article. 

I can do many of these. About one or two a day. In about a month, I would have done about 40??? That would be a lot of reading practice. I would learn about 20 words per short article. So after a month, I would have learned about 800 words. That's OK. I am learning vocabulary through shadowing as well. So maybe I would be learning about 1500 words in a month. After six months, that would be 9000 words. I already know a few thousand words, so I will be very near my goal of 20,000 words. So it's steady studying. Don't overtax yourself. Just go for the easy stuff at first and work on progressively harder stuff as time goes on, and then later on when you've read many articles, don't be afraid to try the much harder stuff.

 

Korean at a Glance

I think I will forget about this one. It's a little too old-fashioned. Many of the phrases are not useful. I think I will just go with the Essentials and Migrant books. They are more up-to-date.

I will just completely forget about the Barron's book. 

Okay ... I also need to start on Using Korean eventually. I don't like some of the grammar explanations in that book. Just use it for the shadowing of the sentences. It's more up-to-date, with a lot of useful tips about current colloquial speech, so just approach it from that point of view, and don't forget to focus from English to Korean. 

I think I will shadow it concurrently with the other books. It's boring shadowing just the one book. I will skip some chapters though. 

Some of the chapters are not good for shadowing and are confusing. I might go back to them later though. I will go straight to the chapters which will be useful to me. 

So the plan is to do the Everyday Essential Korean book, the Migrant book, the Essential Business book (these three will provide me enough phrasebook type of sentences), and simultaneously shadow the International Learners book, the Using Korean book, and the teenage book. 

For fun, I will shadow the WOW comics if I have time ... 

So I am going to be REALLY busy for the next three months shadowing. I hope I become fluent after all of this shadowing. 

I think I am getting better. Certainly. I pick up more words when people speak in Korean. 

And this way of studying is FUN. 

I learned the value of this method from watching a Youtube video by a polyglot who specialized in learning Taiwanese dialects. He did shadowing as his main learning activity. He just got phrase books (or books with good phrases) and shadowed them. 

I think that's the best way of becoming fluent, just mimicking native speakers. Just absorbing the sentences in Korean as they are and not worrying too much about the grammar, accepting that that's how they express certain meanings. 

So it's going great. I feel I am no longer wasting my time. I am just shadowing! 

International Learners

There are about 400 pages of International Learners to shadow and translate. How long will it take me? I think if I do about ten pages a day I can complete this in a month. Is that too fast? I will be doing the Essential Korean Everyday and KGU simultaneously for the audios. I find the mp3s tremendously helpful for pronunciation and intonation, and the improvement in these things carries over when I "shadow" the IL book. 

Maybe if I do five pages a day, it will be better? I don't find the book very difficult at all. I've done four pages already in about an hour or less. 

I think I can do about 8-10 pages ... I think it will take me about a month to do the book or about two months. 

That's great. I can finish the Essential Korean book and IL book in a month. I might also do the Business book as well. Oh, I forgot, I have to finish the KGU book. 

I don't really like the speaking in that book. I don't like the young-sounding woman. She sounds childish and silly. They also tend to speak quite fast. I much prefer the Essentials Everyday speakers. 

I think I will leave the Korean at a Glance and the Migrant book for a while. I already have done a lot of phrase book shadowing and translating with the Essentials Everyday book. 

I will do the Migrant book definitely but I will leave it for a bit. I think I will do the Korean at a Glance book, but I will see how I go. The romanization in that book is really good. I will see whether I need it or not. I am learning a lot from the International Learners book. I will see how far that book takes me. 

Then "Using Korean" after I've become better at speaking and reading. Also, at some point I will have to do the WOW comics. I think I will wait until I get recordings for those. 

It's coming together. I think the teenage book is important to do too. I will write the Korean underneath the English. That book has many colloquial expressions. So that book is good for shadowing and translating. 

I think I will try and do 8 pages of IL a day. That will be 8x30=240 pages a month. In about 1.5 months, I should have finished the book. 

I think this is the best way to study it. I think I will just do five pages. It's a bit tedious and I don't want it all to become a blur. 

Wow, I am learning a lot. I never thought I could translate into Korean, but it's not as hard as I thought. 

It's quite cool actually. Picking up a lot of useful vocabulary this way. Also, picking up some useful phrases too. 

It's all coming together. Just have to persist with it.

I think five pages is enough. Am learning SO MUCH this way. It's all coming together. It might even be better than the Essential Korean, not sure. 

I went skimmed through "Using Korean"

and found that the book is VERY GOOD. The explanations are sometimes hard to read and understand (for example, I got thoroughly confused by the explanations in the Honorifics chapter), but the sentences are very good. I have to think English to Korean. When I think like that, I don't get intimidated by the Korean sentences.

I actually look forward to learning the Korean sentence. I don't care too much about the grammar. I just want to say the sentence and say it well. 

The book is difficult and there are many sentences, but so long as I don't lose sight of the fact that I am going from English to Korean, I should be OK. 

Korean at a Glance is kind of similar to the Migrants book and to the Essential Korean book. 

There aren't that many colloquial Korean sentences in that one. 

Maybe I am being too ambitious tackling Using Korean at this stage. I don't know. Maybe I should tackle it after I've studied the International Learners book. 

The International Learners book explains things very clearly for the most part. I find that book quite OK. 

I tried shadowing and translating the IL book - well, not really shadowing as I don't have a recording - and it went well!

Really great. Doing the listening to the Essentials Everyday mp3s has really helped me with my pronunciation. I can read aloud semi-fluently after a few tries. I can even translate back into Korean which is a terrific feeling! 

I am not so fussed about the grammar either. I just concentrate on English -> Korean. That really really helps. It gives me a new perspective to learning. 

I am really learning fast I think. 

It is very very helpful. I can say quite complicated sentences. I can guess the meaning of the words because the translations are given. 

I think I will "shadow" and translate these sentences. Afterwards I will shadow Using Korean. But the IL sentences are good because they follow a grammar point so the translation is "easy". 

It's really really helpful. When I get sick of the Everyday Essentials book, I can shadow the IL book. By concentrating on English to TL, I feel I can translate ANYTHING. 

It really is fun studying the IL book. 

I think I've made good progress.

I really do. Just do your daily study everyday and everything should be all right.

Just go with the flow when studying. When you find that it's easy, that means the study method is right. I think I have found the right method. I think my listening is also getting better. 

I am really happy that I am on the right track with learning now. 

I can learn one chapter of the Essentials Everyday a day. I have seven more chapters to go. So in a week I will be finished with this. I am itching to shadow "Using Korean" but I don't have the recording. I might be pronouncing it all wrong and saying things with the wrong intonation. 

Should I finish the KGU book? I am halfway through it. I didn't do the translations. I will do the translations from now on. I will do translations for everything I shadow. 

I think I might try "Using Korean". I have renewed enthusiasm for this book because it has colloquial speech, the stuff that Koreans use everyday in normal casual conversation with people they know well. I don't want to know just phrase book sentences. I want to branch out. 

I think I will go for it. Oh-oh, I don't have the recordings ... I can just sound it out the best way I think it is said. Later on, when I have money or I get a kind Korean person willing to help me, I will get the recordings. I am eager to start shadowing this book! 

I only have the recordings for KGU. Actually, I have the Essentials Business book but it's too difficult right now and I will be sick of the Essential series after I finish the current book so ... 

Don't know what to do. The KGU book is OK, just not that many useful phrases. 

I think the Using Korean book will be more useful. 

Got to think about it. 

It's getting hard

By the time I get to the eightieth sentence, it gets hard. I start getting fidgety, wanting to have a break. This morning I have been studying for 4 hours. I've had enough. Want a break!

Need to take frequent breaks because I get fatigued. Always remember to go from English to the TL. 

It's really going well. After the shadowing, I will do reading comprehension. 

I just tried reading the WOW Ugly Duckling comic and it's great! It's at my current reading level. It's colloquially translated. Sometimes the translation is far-off but I can understand the literal meaning because my reading skills have improved. Also, because I am reading from English to Korean, I am not too fussed about the grammar. I think it's really worth shadowing and translating those books. At least, just shadowing. 

I don't have to look up the dictionary very much because the translations are there. 

The WOW comics are good for shadowing and studying. They are fun to read as well. I will get someone to read the comics and make separate tracks. I will repeat and I will learn a few new vocabulary. This will be fun. The comics are in colloquial Korean which is very helpful. 

I remember when I was learning English (reading and writing) as a child, I read many books. I found reading hard at first and then I got better and better. I looked up many words in the dictionary. I started off with the children's books in the library. I read them ALL, and then moved onto the books for older children - the books without illustrations. I read them without too much difficulty. 

So when learning Korean reading comprehension, I should perhaps do the same. I have the WOW comics, the fairytales, the fables to read. Then I can read all the easy children's books teaching English that are on my shelves. Then I can read short stories for children. These do not have really long sentences. Then I can read progressively more difficult stuff culminating in the newspaper articles and online articles. 

I think I should build up in this way. I am getting better I think. The WOW comics are really fun to read. My reading skills have improved a lot just with a little shadowing. I am not so obsessed with the grammar. 

I wonder when I should fit the shadowing of the comic books in ... The Using Korean and International Learners books are priorities though. The Using Korean book will be a great source of chunks. Very good colloquial language. So am getting there eventually. 

Getting there. This year I will be fluent in Korean! I will be speaking and reading Korean fluently. Only simple stuff I will be fluent however. But with a little extra work, I will be able to read well and write well too. 

So it doesn't really take that long to learn a language. Once you hit on the right technique, it's actually quite fast to learn. There you have it. The key is to read from English to Korean. 

When I read the Ugly Duckling the other day, I found it a bit hard. It was because I was going from Korean to English. Today, I went from English to Korean and found it much easier. Quite enjoyable to read. My pronunciation too has improved when I read. I just want a recording. A recording would be great. 

Mnemonics
I find that if I get the first syllable of the word, I can recall the whole word usually. The first syllable is what gets me started. So when I make mnemonics I will concentrate on the first syllable.