Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yaya]

I'm no language expert (and neither is samd as shown by his posts) but I'd say a beginner in a language can get the teacher or tutor to point to objects and the student say the names for them in the target language, like apple or chair or car.

One reason Koreans are so poor at foreign languages is that the Korean teachers use so much Korean to explain stuff.

[t-hype]

[whiteshoes]

Don't forget about the "Critical Period Hypothesis." Which basically says that a language learner only has a small window to learn a language fluently. Usually it requires the learner to learn the language before the age of 12.

Now, some people to achieve fluency after that point, but generally it's much easier for a young person to just "pick up" a second language. Generally the advantage for an adult learner is the adult has already developed learning strategies which they can apply to their second language.

With that in mind, I'd recommend the OP find either a tutor who speaks English or finds some other way to get the information with English as the main mode of instruction.

After all, this is Korea, not China. If we were talking about learning Korea, you can be immersed in Korean here, but it's pretty well impossible to get any Chinese immersion here in Korea.

Just my two cents...

[jomiro]

i agree...
if one wants to learn korean, its more than do-able.

but chinese or any other foreign language for that matter is being taught in korean. i havent heard of any hagwon that teaches foreign languages but uses english to explain the terms, grammar and vocabularies.

not to say, china is the best country to learn chinese. period. learning it from books only gets you so far. but the practice will show you how much of the studied language youve actually understood and can apply.

one more thought tho.. there are a few parts of the city that are supposed to be more chinese than actually korean. you could try hang out there and find some chinese buddies to talk to. that should get you some practice, once you are far enough to speak to chinese ^^

(also, be aware of the fact that theres different dialects throughout china. the chinese you most likely will is putonghua (commonly spoken). everyone in the north will understand you and you can understand them. but once you go further down south, the dialects start kicking in and theres just no way for you to understand every word of what is being said to you....)

[freeridden]

First of all, using 狂牛病 as an example for your argument hurts what you are even trying to say.

I studied Chinese with tutors. 95% of the time, my tutors spoke Chinese, and I am glad that they did.

It depends on the learner and the teacher. After all, you have to start small and build on what you know. Having some Chinese tutor speaking English to you the whole time will do absolutely nothing for you. There are other ways to explain things without using English. Why do you think Koreans cannot speak English? Go to almost any elementary/middle school and you will see Korean teachers speaking all in Korean in an English class.

[Yaya]

[pugwall]

My feeling is that Chinese study is mostly about personal study. Learning 500 characters and basically giving yourself 聽寫 tests. You dont need somebody to hold you hand through that. If you get 500 down then everything will fall in place. Your voca study is most important in studying Chinese and can be independent of everything else. Make some flash cards and get 500 characters down.

You dont need to study first in English, the first stage of immersion are hard and make you want to throw your toys out of the pram a lot but when you improve you will be thankful.

Also try http://chinesepod.com/ Chinese pod is a great tool for learning. If you mix up flashcards, class time and Chinese pod you will fell progress at the 6 month mark. 慢慢來

[t-hype]

pugwall,
you're lucky to have found studying by yourself to be so effective.

but you do realize there is such a thing as learning styles, right? it's silly to pretend that everybody can use the exact same method.

anyhoo, as much as reading any language (chinese included), i think it's pretty easy to get a head start on that individually but language is ultimately about communicating and you can't communicate in a vacuum!

improving communication in language definitely requires interaction, if not with native speakers, then at least with other learners of the same ability (but hopefully higher) so that you're constantly in the practice of giving and receiving input... which of course is where 'immersion' comes in handy!

[pugwall]

I agree, thats why i suggested a mix between three methods. Immersion in class,personal voca study and listening through Chinese pod. I cant really see the benefits of learning Chinese in English as grammar is not really difficult.

Anyway good luck!

[jomiro]

[pugwall]

I studied for a year and a half in China. I worked really hard and studied hourd everyday. I studied one semester at a university. I then wen to an academy for a while. Finally I studied as a HSK academy with Korean 16 year olds and passed with level 7. Im now in Taiwan hence the traditional characters. Ive grown to hate simplified as they are grotequely ugly and not really that much easier than traditional. If I was to give advice to a new learner it would be to learn traditional and simplified at the same time. Traditional to read and simplified to write. If you learn the traditional you get a better understanding of the meaning of the characters and the feel of the language. A lot of the simplifications were too radical and not logical.

If you study personally for minimum of three hours a day including weekends and also have classroom time and chinese pod time I think in Korea you can still make progress. Its a marathon, not a sprint. Studying Chinese to any level of fluency is a four year project at least. Anyway 加油

[t-hype]

sounds like reasonable advice...

i really, really wanted to start at hagwon this month but it looks like i'll have to wait until september because of weird schedule stuff and summer vacation...

i'm considering doing some online lessons until then. we'll see. my chinese friends' english is so much better than my mandarin it's an uphill battle...

[Lumberjack]

Gonna study Chinese from the zero. Any updates on how to find an English-speaking tutor or hagwon? Please.

[Chaparrastique]

[auriol]