Korean Job Discussion Forums

[philinkorea]

my situation is that ive been in korea a year and 5 months. my first year in suwon i attended a korean class which was too advanced for me so i quit, then i got a private tutor who was no good.

in my second year ive been to a saturday class but found it inconvenient. i work split shift during the week but have some afternoon stuff on tuesday and thursday id rather not quit.

is there a cool mon wed fri class afternoon out there or maybe somekind of online course i can do. what advice would you give. its embarassing to learn bugger all in 2 years, pretty disgraceful. my standard is politeness and reading and writng alphabet, although comically when i use my korean i get the nice koreamn response of 'wow you can speak korean so well'. please someone advise

[tomato]

Hello, Phil Walker!

In my experience, adult foreign language classes in Korean move ten times too rapidly. You're probably better off flying solo.

For grammar, there are a lot of good books at the bookstore. Just tell them, "�ѱ��� ������ ã���ϴ�."

For vocabulary, get an electronic dictionary and never leave home without it. Read the signs all around you. If you see a sign with only one word which you don't know, look it up.

Think in Korean as much as you can. If you come to a word which you don't know, look it up.

Word frequency charts are nice, but what is frequent for you might not be frequent for most other people. If you have a special area of interest, you might be interested in learning the terminology for that area of interest.

Last but not least, stay away from other foreigners, stay away from Koreans who speak English, and seek the company of Koreans who don't. (Sometimes I feel guilty ordering books from Amazon and participating on this forum.)

Here is a thread based on a similar topic.
Check it out if you haven't already:

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=24200&highlight=

[Mashimaro]

[tomato]

Hello, Mashimaro!

There is a word frequency chart for Korean written language published by Yonsei University. A few years ago, I ordered a copy for 70000 weon.

You can order it on-line, but I don't remember the specific URL.
The publisher's name reads �������б� ����������߿�����.

On the chart, there is a column which tells you what portion of all the words in the chart have accumulated.

Learn 4 words, and you can read 10% of Korean written language.
Learn 7 words, and you can read 20% of Korean written language.
Learn 13 words, and you can read 30% of Korean written language.
Learn 27 words, and you can read 40% of Korean written language.
Learn 78 words, and you can read 50% of Korean written language.

Unfortunately, the margin drops rapidly:

Learn 233 words, and you can read 60% of Korean written language.
Learn 614 words, and you can read 70% of Korean written language.
Learn 995 words, and you can read 75% of Korean written language.
Learn 1660 words, and you can read 80% of Korean written language.
Learn 2924 words, and you can read 85% of Korean written language.
Learn 5777 words, and you can read 90% of Korean written language.
Learn 14520 words, and you can read 95% of Korean written language.

The list goes up to 64666, which accumulates to 98 and several decimals.

I'm shooting for the 85% mark.

[marista99]

any tips on electronic dictionary purchase? where to buy, how much to spend, brands, etc? that is a really good idea but there's such a price range there.

so far (only 2 weeks or so, but even so...) I have found studying on my own to be fine. I have real motivation to do it (being illiterate is no fun) and plenty of people around (ie everyone) to ask when I have questions or can't pronounce something.

the kids I teach, especially, LOVE to help me with my Korean. they get such a kick out of the fact that their teacher is clueless about Korean. and they're touch critics on pronunciation--I once spent 5 minutes repeating the Korean word for "balloon" over and over until my 13-year-old "teacher" was satisfied.

[tomato]

Hello, Marista!

I'm very happy with a Sharp RD-6200.
It has Korean-English, English-Korean, Korean-Japanese, and Japanese-Korean.
So it's good not only here, but on visa runs too.
Only if you have as much esprit de corps with your students as you seem to, I wouldn't advise going on a visa run.

It also has a voice which can say anything in ��� which can fit on the screen.
I tease my students by programming the voice to say "Lisa babo" or "Robert michin nom."
Then the students grab the dictionary out of my hand and retaliate in kind.

[chronicpride]

Tomato, that's some world-class advice that you put down on this thread.

Never even thought about the frequency chart thing. Put this thread in the FAQ, pls(if we had mods ).

PS. Can anyone recommend a good english freq chart site?

[marista99]

[Mashimaro]

[chronicpride]

Any confirmation on that URL or book title? My Korean co-worker couldn't find squat when scouring the net for it.

[jazblanc77]

zzzzzz

[chronicpride]

Yeah, Declan is great. I'm using a language exchange partner, in addition to Declan. I need a live teacher to keep me in line, if I get lazy with studying.

[tomato]

The title of the word frequency chart is ���� �ѱ����� ���� ��.

The publisher is �������б� ����������߿�����.

Sorry, I can't find an ISBN number.

[marista99]

[jazblanc77]

zzzzzzz