Korean Job Discussion Forums

[itiswhatitis]

I meet with my Korean tutor at a study room. It's going well cus I can work at my own pace. Of course everyone is different, but from people's experience is level 1, 2 and 3 (out of 6 levels) about the same level of difficultly or is the curve different for each level? I'm finding it easier now that I'm in the routine and no iron will is now required to study (second nature). I'm kind of waiting for the next road block...ha ha. We are almost done the level 1 book and will be starting level 2 soon. We started from the beginning again to make sure that I wold not miss anything.

The very beginning was hard for me but now I find that so long as I put in the time that there are no problems. I wonder how long this will last for.

I'm using the Sookmyung Women's University text books btw.

Thanks in advance.

[metalhead]

Of course not! Why would any language get more difficult as the level of difficulty increases? It gets easier and easier, level six is so easy sometimes I think it would just be easier to start on that level.

[nicwr2002]

[World Traveler]

Here's your answer, OP:

[optik404]

I went to Yonsei KLI, for myself, it got hard around lvl 3. The vocabulary killed me. Then the Hanja in lvl 4 destroyed me.

[World Traveler]

Yeah man, I feel you. It keeps getting harder and harder the more one advances.

[Fox]

[World Traveler]

What about all the dialects, slang, and conjugations (on top of the massive amount of vocabulary)? There is a lot of that. The guy who wrote that quote is pretty smart (he has a doctorate in linguistics from a top university), so I'm going to side with him here.

[Drew345]

I'm at a point in level 3 where I need to just spend a month (or few) and memorize about 2-3000 vocabulary words if I want to progress any more. Daunting, but no way around it.
Yes, with Korean, it keeps getting harder and harder. At least more and more time is required to make progress at the intermediate level. Seems like it should get easier, but sadly, gets harder.
I think there is something like a "forgetting" rate for languages. Like, the amount of time you need to put into to avoid slipping behind; or the number of times you need to use a new word to avoid forgetting it. Korean seems to have the fastest "forgetting" rate of most any language; hence more and more time required in study the higher you get.
That's my theory anyway.

[Fox]

[Kepler]

"This (unplanned, naturally-occurring) method I used to finally get from intermediate to fluent Korean was basically this:

"- Never use English anywhere ever with anyone. For every Korean that wants to use you for language practice there are ten that don't, and there is no reason to spend one's time chatting with the former when you are the one who has made the effort to save up and make your way to the country. The person may be really nice, may want to hang out and buy you dinner, doesn't matter. You can hang out with that type of person after you've become fluent and have been in the country for years and don't particularly need the practice anymore.
- Read about six hours a day, with dictionary, write A LOT.
- Always have Korean TV on at home.
- Meet with friends in the evening as much as possible. If no friends are around to be had, head off to a random bar and make some there or talk with the bartender."
http://www.pagef30.com/2013/02/how-i-learned-korean.html

He quit his job so that he would have time to do all this.

[Leon]

Give yourself something to work towards, such as a test. I recently had to take a Korean reading test for my graduate program and it because of the deadline I advanced much more in the three months before the test than I had previously. I've been studying for about two years and I can read the newspaper, albeit slowly and deliberately with a dictionary.

If you are at level 1 or 2 then you probably aren't ready for this, but after a little more time learning the basics go and buy a newspaper in Korean and try to read some of the articles. I find this is very helpful for learning authentic Korean, plus since its the news, if you're confused you can find the story in English, read that first, and that way you should have a basic idea of what it should say to help guide you.

[hiamnotcool]

[Fox]

I do not understand posts like the one above at all. Are people here really so insecure that they need to sarcastically snark in response to reassurances that it will not take ten years to be able to read a book in Korean? Is a bit of positive encouragement backed by anecdote really that threatening?

[spaceman82]

It definitely got harder for me as I progressed, with Levels 3 and 4 being the toughest, but that was partly because I was trying to work while enrolled in a full-time program with full-time students. Overall, as long as you can dedicate time to it and review vocabulary often, it shouldn't be that difficult in itself. There will just be more and more you're learning in each lesson, which will take up more and more of your time.

In regard to reading novels, I can't say what is typical and will have to defer to the research cited above when it comes to deciding what a "normal" Korean-language learner will be able to do after ten years; however, it didn't take me that long to be able to read a novel with some effort. Reading one truly effortlessly will probably take a lot longer (I assume that means understanding every line perfectly without any effort whatsoever), but Korean reading does seem more straightforward than Korean speaking and listening for the most part, overall.