Korean Job Discussion Forums

[vox]

Dear board:

This is partly a request, and partly a rant.

I've been learning Korean for the past few months and I've become pretty powerful in a survival level of Hangeul. I can even compose some sentences of my own. Nothing I learn ever stops becoming useful in further understanding the troubles of my students in making the switch over to English. It just never stops benefitting my teaching no matter what fine point I am examining. I love it.

Well, I did, that is, until this past month. I'm becoming frustrated with making the jump out of beginner levels and reaching for intermediate, mostly because I'm having great difficulty finding accurate, correct, detailed and consistent information on Korean sentence grammar points that would involve clauses or at least noun phrases, situations with more than one verb, that sort of thing. In "levelling up" (as they're so fond of saying) I'm trying to find reliable sentence forms I can use to practice switching verbs and subjects/objects, but in my quest, I have encountered:

-awesome positive help and general language sharing pleasure in the form of conversation practice
-an epidemic of well-intended yet really bad Korean teachers of Korean who can't accurately explain a grammar point of their own language to an English speaker, the first time, without serious back-pedalling involved
-books on Hangeul that don't agree with each other, two of which, sadly, I bought
-Koreans correcting my sentence forms I picked up straight from them then offering to remedy them with lengthier more florid expressions I am almost certain they don't choose themselves, at least not the first time.

I know about the honorifics. I know about Confucianism and the formal, informal polite, and the informal impolite forms. I know explaining their language to foreigners is comparatively new. I know young Koreans don't use correct expressions and the language is dynamic and changing from old to young. I don't need a history lesson. I just need the facts on the grammar currently in use, please, and preferably correct information the first time so I don't have to unlearn afterward.

I think the matter may be that I haven't dug deeply into the really short informal forms, but that's speculation and I digress. Can anyone please help me with some constructive advice about sources?

I'm generally enthusiastic about language learning as I've learned German, French, Portuguese and I've learned to pronounce text from more languages, but I'm considering giving up on Hangeul until its own damn teachers at least start agreeing with each other. I know this issue is not unique to Korea. But if one more teacher teaches me a form, and I repeat it back and they say, oh don't use that use this, I swear I'm gonna dongchim somebody really hard. I'm hoping that my language partners in Hangeul are not the rule across the nation, and that comparatively there is some pure source somewhere from which to study, a source which is simply never wrong about anything in Hangeul.

Koreans often like to cite, with a certain relish I notice, that their language is so difficult to learn. Actually, I have experienced that what I have learned is not difficult in the least. Pronunciation, sentence composition, vocabulary, even suffixes and honorifics, it's all quite easily attainable... if you can get it explained concisely and correctly the first time. But I'm just not finding that to be so once you get out of the tourist phrase book and into some more ambitious stuff, like mixed time references, and infinitive verb forms and such. Now I am out in the sticks (Jeollanamdo) so quality may be a factor.

Anyway, thanks in advance for listening and if you can help a fellow waygookin out, that'd be great.

[thebum]

have you checked out sogang's books? their classes are great, and their books are great for self-study too.

[Hater Depot]

Come to the Galbijim forums. We can answer your questions correctly -- first time, every time.

http://forums.galbijim.com

[SPINOZA]

Vox,

Hanguel - as you can see in this dictionary definition here - is the Korean alphabet. Hanguel and 'Korean' are not synonymous, so to all intents and purposes, simply use the English word "Korean" here. Your queries actually do not concern Hangeul therefore.

I could confidently address your verbs query but it would be laborious. Best I can suggest here is get yourself a book, like Stephen Revere's 'Survival Korean'. Don't be patronized by the title as many expats have been here over 2 years, believe themselves to be beyond the beginner stage, and do not know much of what's in this book. The latter has some excellent work on verbs and stuff like "if", "because", "but", "let's"......in which Koreans, unlike in English, conjugate verbs and adjectives to express these concepts.

It's all rather simple really.

[Fresh Prince]

I've posted this before and I'll post it again. In my opinion the best book for learning Korean as an L3 or higher is, "Elementary Korean, and Continuting Korean" by Ross King and Jae-Hoon Yeon. If your serious about learning Korean that is. It will explain the grammar and pronounciation although not perfectly, better than any book I've encountered.

If your the type that doesn't like to sit down on your own and study then the book won't do you much good. If you are the type that can study on your own then...

While your waiting for the book to arrive, check out this free website, sogang university Korean Program.

[robot]

[Sody]

Hi, where can I buy these books that are recommended? Does anyone know? Please give me a link if you can. I have bought Survival Korean and it's good so far but something tells me it is not as advanced as the other two books. Would appreciate any help.

Sody

[billybrobby]

could you give an example of a question that you can't get a clear answer one? not for somebody to answer, although that will probably happen, but to get an idea of where you're at and what type of thing troubles you.

[demi]

[SuperHero]

[Son Deureo!]

[Ilsanman]

I agree with everything you said, except that it is tough. It is as simple as pie. Just a matter of learning it.

I studied with 가나다 Korean for foreigners and I am up to Advanced 2, but I need to review Advanced 1. It explains grammar well and has a lot of vocabulary, but it requires another accompanying book to practice and learn those things yet again in a different context.

Happy studying.

[Son Deureo!]

[Wangja]

[Ginormousaurus]