Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tottenhamtaipeinick]

I finally worked out how to use Rosetta Stone, I had to download the setup.exe file again.

Well for a beginner I can not understand what the hell this program is aimed at with level one. The activities jump right in the deep end. I can understand what they say as it is fairly obvious but does this strategy work???

I mean the start by saying 'the boy is running' 'the girls are eating' etc. Yeah I can understand it but knowing what every part of the sentence means is too much. Does any find this course seems to be like a crash course of learning Korean in 2 weeks?

It is fun but will it help me in the 2 mths left before I go to Korea or should I just use pimsleur??? I have both atm

[Chet Wautlands]

Use both, but also make sure you are reading and writing.

Rosetta Stone is interesting, but I'm not sure how well it works... But I've also never heard of anyone saying that they relied on only one source for their Korean learning. Use many sources and self-assess regularly. Are you learning practical Korean? If so, keep going.

[Riker]

Rosetta stone is terrible. It routinely gets low marks on reviews. I personally dislike it as well.

Good marketing though.

[wormholes101]

I wouldn't use RS for learning practical Korean. In 8 years here, I've never had to say the "The boys are running".

[comm]

Rosetta Stone is very good for becoming familiar with the language. Once you start listening/speaking/clicking pictures, it gets kind of addictive (for me at least) and you spend an hour with it without getting bored.

There isn't much explanation, but it's great for spending time with the language that doesn't require actively memorizing.

Think of it as a system for flashcards with sound (plus a pronunciation check). Sure you'll need more explanation, such as which particles do what, but it's still useful

[crossmr]

are you using the latest version?
the 2nd version was terrible, just rapid fire images with text and nothing else.
The third version is quite good. There are multiple activities per section that go into the various aspects from vocab to a little grammar focus, etc.
Make sure you expend the menu below if you're using the third version and do each activity for each level.

[tottenhamtaipeinick]

I am using V3.3.5 I think it says. Yeah it said the boys and girls are running or eating or drinking bloody juice for 35 of the first units which was strange.....

I just finding reading korean extremely boring as the characters look nearly the same though I think thats because I learnt Chinese with traditional characters. So i want something interactive as I am always so busy and like to learn korean while relaxing.

Does anyone know any other interactive courses or is this it?

[crossmr]

[mimi belle]

The program is a bit repetitive. Some of that is built-in but the other problem is that Rosetta Stone & Pimsleur have formulas which work better for European languages like Spanish, French, Italian or even German. Of course, you should still use them if you have access to them, but there are problems when using them for Korean (or Japanese or Chinese). For example, in Korean, there is usually no difference between conjugating he vs she vs it. So learning all the variations of: "he is running/she is running/they are running" is silly. In Spanish or French, these would be all conjugated differently. There's also stuff that isn't clear in Rosetta, like politeness levels.

I've heard the language in the Pimsleur series is a bit too formal. I haven't used the Korean series but I've used it for other languages and liked it. The listen-and-repeat method is nice and makes languages easy.

I think Rosetta works well when combined with a traditional grammar book. A lot of people recommend Korean Made Easy (Darakwon) or Integrated Korean (Klear/U Hawaii). Also, you can focus more on certain exercises. The writing or reading ones for example.

Since you know Chinese, you'll move through Korean pretty quickly and you might find some of the logic similar, although the grammar isn't. Sino-korean numbers should be a breeze for you and the concept of counters. Try to pick up a Hanja book at some point. Might be interesting for you. http://www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hanja

Livemocha.com is a lot like Rosetta Stone, but it's free and it moves quicker. There are mistakes though and the language is a bit too formal but good for simple words.

Talktomeinkorean.com is free. If you start with the beginning episodes, you'll learn some basic things like how "yes" and "no" are different than in English. You can download their lessons as mp3s or pdfs. The dialogue is more casual and everyday than Rosetta or Pimsleur.

On youtube, check out Let's Speak Korean. It's a program from Arirang tv.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ruthnp75#p/a/u/0/aRkCvr_m0sI

[young_clinton]

I would advice doing Pimsleur comprehensive I and II first including practicing the readings. Get it all down real well, then jump into RS. Pimsleur is a much better intro to Korean than RS.

[samd]

I posted this in your other thread on downloading RS but it got deleted and you must have missed it.

RS is questionable in general, but RS Korean is the worst of all!

Pimsleur Korean is almost as bad!

Don't use either one!

If you want an interactive computer based course, use this instead:

http://korean.sogang.ac.kr