Korean Job Discussion Forums

[littlelisa]

I've been here for about a month and a half. I've been studying Korean on my own mostly, with some help from coworkers and friends here. I'm using books, online videos, paying attention to the language being used around me and asking questions. My Korean's been improving quickly enough that I can notice progress, my pronunciation is good, and my grammar is not so bad. My vocabulary really sucks, but it's getting better. It also helps that I know quite a bit of Chinese, and with so many borrowed words from both Chinese and English, things are OK.

But still conversations are pretty challenging for me. I can understand a decent bit if people speak slowly, and when I can't understand I ask questions until I do, but speaking is hard; I often end up in conversations that start out in Korean and end up mostly in English. :/

I especially want to learn Korean to communicate well with my Korean friends here. They're helping me learn, but I find things are still slow. Maybe I'm just impatient.

Anyway, I'm thinking of taking a class. Have you found Korean classes here useful, or am I better off continuing to learn mostly on my own? Does anyone know of any good classes near JangJi station?

[Kevtron]

I've been having the same problem and asked something similar a couple days ago. If you have the time (which I don't unfortunately due to work) check yonsei university.
I just found a friend who is learning from a professional teacher, kinda hagwon like, but private lessons, which I may try as I need the structure of a class, and I need HW to really be effective at learning.
Sounds like you do better than I though by yourself. Good luck.

[kingplaya4]

Interesting, your description of your Korean ability would pretty much match what I would say about mine after a year and a half here. So if you're not exaggerating, kudos for doing so well already.

Why don't you try ublove or koreanfriendfinder for a language exchange partner? Also, have you found the "Let's Speak Korean" series with Steven Revere and Lisa Kelly? Its not near as good as the Ahn Chakhee series, but the conversations and vocabulary is much more advanced, and you can get the new phrases with repeated viewings.

I fail to see why people would bother spending money on classes unless they are looking for a high fluency in the language when there are so many free options available.

Good luck.

[yingwenlaoshi]

I, for the life of me, don't understand how Chinese can get you very much ahead in learning Korean. Yeah, some words are derived from Chinese, but whatever. It's not like they're exactly the same or anything. I know a lot of Chinese and I don't see it helping me learn Korean. I don't even associate the two. I might see a word and think "Oh yeah. That looks like it comes from Chinese." That's about it.

[littlelisa]

I'm not exaggerating, but I do rely a lot on context to help me out when listening, and without it I'm mostly lost unless it's a really simple conversation. Also conversations tend to be simple since my friends know I don't speak much Korean at all. They also use gestures a lot to help. But it's amazing what context can do for comprehension.

Actually, most tend to speak to me mostly in English. I have one friend who is constantly suprised when I say anything in Korean.. even anything simple like "감사합니다" after a dance or something. There is one girl who has been speaking to me in Korean only.. only a few scattered words in English if I don't understand. But she speaks so slowly and clearly that I rarely have much difficulty understanding her. As the converstation goes on, though, my replies tend to be all in English because of vocabulary I don't know. Most of my friends tend to fit in between those two extremes, of course.

It also doesn't help that I'm really shy about my crappy Korean. I try anyway, and I'm not at all new to language learning, so you figure I'd be used to it by now, but I still have to force myself to try.

I've been following the Ahn Chakhee series for online videos. I'll check out the Steven Revere and Lisa Kelly ones, though, thanks!

[littlelisa]

[butlerian]

[yingwenlaoshi]

[butlerian]

[princess]

Vocab is fine, but you need to learn more than just vocab. You have to learn how to string together sentences. I met a lady here a few years ago who said it took her a year to be able to string together one sentence. Geez!