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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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 Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 5:14 pm Post subject: |
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| World Traveler wrote: |
| Fox, how long ago did you come to Korea? Did you say something like only five years ago? It's crazy you got so good in such a short amount of time. |
Is five years really that short a time? Besides, I still have plenty of work to do before I reach my goals. I just don't want people thinking they'll never get past "low intermediate" without paying someone money.
Anything you can do in a classroom, you can do outside of a classroom. Anything. |
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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| Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 5:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Fox, last night I paid my Korean tutor 55,000 won (for two hours and fourty five minutes of time). We meet often. I've spent so much money so far. I guess I should put more emphasis on self study. But for me Korean is a damn hard language. I tried to learn it but failed, so now I am trying new approaches (every approach I can think of). |
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Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
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| Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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| I'd recommend using anki, http://ankisrs.net/, which is a spaced repitition flash card program that is free. It has helped me actually keep the words that I learn. Use study books in the beginning, a class is helpful in the beginning as well if it is free because it can help give you some motivation/accountability, plus it can be more fun I think. Try to read actual materials, like newspapers, after you get better. Have a reason why you are learning the language and know that reason. |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 5:19 am Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: |
| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
This is partly good advice if your intent is to make it to intermediate level (low intermediate) in Korean.
At some point classes become necessary for advancing your proficiency. Classes can mean one - on -one tutoring with a teacher or attending language classes. That investment will pay off in the longer run if you want to reach a proficiency level that nears fluency (conversational fluency). |
Well I haven't taken the official test yet, but I'm doing practice tests for my Advanced TOPIK test in October, and I'm testing at a high 5/low 6 level (~70% on each section, which is the marginal cutoff). I suppose we'll see how I actually do (every test is different), but I'm not convinced classes are ever required.
Where ever my proficiency is, it's past "low intermediate," and I've never set foot in a classroom. |
Great to hear. You found what works for you and that is great.
My point was that classes can really solidify what you have in terms of proficiency and allow you to go further. That is just my opinion as a learner of Korean and as someone who saw many expats trying to learn that language.
Good luck on the test by the way. I took it a few years back and it was an interestign experience. |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 5:30 am Post subject: |
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| World Traveler wrote: |
| Fox, how long ago did you come to Korea? Did you say something like only five years ago? It's crazy you got so good in such a short amount of time. How did you do it? I know you said you studied a lot of hanja. What else? |
Seriously WT, I will echo Fox here and say 5 years is not a short time in terms of language acquisition.
This once again comes back to motivation! Sorry but it does.
I became fluent in a few years (less than 5) because my motivation for learning was very high (in fact it was a core motivation) and that drove me to put in the effort and time to learn (in whatever way worked for me), to get past the inevitable setbacks and frustrations and to keep diving into situations where I was forced to practice. My wife was of some help but frankly speaking her family and my Korean friends helped a lot more, especially her father and mother.
I used every occasion to reinforced learning and that led me to progress pretty fast. Daily usage and lots of it was another key as were numerous learning mediums (TV, Music, Reading, Conversation, Online tools...).
At a very low level I did something that had a huge impact on my progress. I like to play chess, back then in my area there was a park where older Korean men hung out and played korean chess, cards, baduk...
So I picked up a changi (K-chess) set, got the rules and headed to the park. I started playing with the old dudes every Sunday morning and that really boosted my Korean language ability because it was a organic way to learn the language.
There are tons of opportunities to do this in Korea but again, it all comes down (how fast you progress and how far you go) to motivation.
So, WT, pick some activities you like and go out do them with Koreans or in a place where you will have to use Korean. Some join hiking clubs for example. |
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12ax7
Joined: 07 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 6:33 am Post subject: |
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| elavndrc wrote: |
| Watch some TV - variety or dramas. Variety can be easy because you can pause and look up the words appearing on the screen, and a lot of times it's slapstick so that will be easier to watch. |
I simply can't stand Korean TV dramas and variety shows. I prefer watching Korean movies. Far more interesting, in my opinion.
When I first came to Korea, the textbooks weren't geared towards teaching everyday Korean, the kind everybody uses. They were concentrated on teaching utterances in the most formal speech levels through grammar translation. Those books have ruined the motivation of countless learners of Korean.
Thankfully, there are many good textbooks available now for those who want to begin learning on their own. For example, Steven Revere's Survival Korean and Survival Korean: Basic Grammar Skills are two very popular ones for beginners. |
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tmax500
Joined: 12 Feb 2010
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| Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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| 12ax7 wrote: |
When I first came to Korea, the textbooks weren't geared towards teaching everyday Korean, the kind everybody uses. They were concentrated on teaching utterances in the most formal speech levels through grammar translation. Those books have ruined the motivation of countless learners of Korean.
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"Teach Yourself Korean", which had the older version of romanized letters (with squiggles) and jumps up in levels too fast, was fairly bad compared to what's available now.
"Assimil Korean-French" is very good book (although I'm not sure if they have an English version). |
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