Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tomato]

Hello, Sister Sarah!

Someone else recently asked a similar question.
Maybe the responses on that thread will help you.

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=25790&highlight=

[mithridates]

I have some more advice.

Two of the best books you can use when studying another language are The Little Prince and the Bible...Tintin and Asterix are quite good as well but the Little Prince has been translated into so many languages, is a relatively simple story, and has pictures. If you know The Little Prince you may wish to buy it in Korean, and if you don't buy it in English or French if you know that. There are also quite a few French textbooks in Korea that have Le Petit Prince in the advanced section.
The Bible is good because it's free and can be seen online, printed out quite easily, and everybody knows a few sections of it.
The tricky part is that most Korean bibles use a rather archaic translation, so go to
http://www.holybible.or.kr/
and select the
tovywnsdj (saepyojuneo? - new standard)
(I'm on a Mac, Korean input looks odd)
version. This is the one that is written in normal Korean like one would see in a newspaper.

The last piece of advice is this: if you have a relatively small dictionary, the Korean-English section should be anywhere from 50 to 300 pages. Let's say the K-E section goes from page 20 to page 180. Find a small notebook and write down all the numbers from 20 to 180. When you have five free minutes pick a page, cross out the number on your notebook, and just glance at the words and think about them. You don't have to memorize them all or even most of them but it's actually quite helpful to see which words are more common, how some of the most complex ones are made up, and so on. The word 'minju' - people + rule means democracy and you'll be able to see all the words based on that. Look at maybe three random pages a day and take it easy, maybe write down anything that looks interesting and do searches with it online at google.co.kr.

[Zyzyfer]

I'm mostly self-taught. I had a couple of lessons from a friend on reading early on, but once I started to get the hang of the sound of Korean, I rapidly absorbed all sorts of words and formed some basic Korean. While I haven't really improved much at all in the last year or so, I think I could accomplish a lot by just plopping down with the dictionary and looking up those odd words that I keep hearing again and again.

This might be harder in Seoul, but I learned a lot in the classroom and in city life, since I lived in a smaller town. There's basically no English going on in the city, whereas my current location is Englishville in comparison. So I often learned words from observing interactions between my students or simply by listening to conversations around me. I'm currently at the phase where I've got to start learning the hard stuff, though...verb conjugation, particles, mad vocabulary increases...bleh.

[manlyboy]

If you're in-country, does that really count as "self-taught"?
I studied Indonesian at university for three years before I actually went and lived there. I learned more in six months in-country without taking a lesson than I learned in three years in classrooms. I never thought of it as being self-taught though because I was learning through the stimulus provided by the native speaking environment.
If I'm speaking to someone in Korean and they don't quite understand what I've said because of mispronunciation or whatever, and consequently they correct my mistake so they can understand more clearly, they have unwittingly become my teacher and I can't honestly call the newly acquired knowledge "self-taught".
If I'm listening to two Koreans converse, and I pick up something new through simple observation, did I just teach myself something or did they teach me?
It's not something I've thought about much before, but this thread just got me wondering.

[waggo]

Studying Korean is like playing a game of 'Snakes and Ladders' except there arent any ladders!

[Thomas]

There's actually a really good grammar guide (with a blue cover)... I don't remember the title but if I dig it out sometime I will check. It covers lots of grammatical rules in pretty easy fashion with lots of examples. It's a thick book with a blue cover. It's much better than a lot of the "introduction" books... it's designed for adult learners in Universities.

[rakuan]

[sistersarah]

thanks for even more tips.

the studying is going good, i think. i'm doing a lot of memorizing right now of sentences and vocabulary and such. my bf assures me this is a good way to do it, and sooner or later, things will just "click".

one thing i was doing today, was turning the volume all the way down on the TV and trying to read the subtitles ( i think i was watching "family man") and trying to follow the subtitles....seeing how many words i could pick out, how much i could follow, and also just trying to improve the reading.

[insamsaram]

it is totally possible to learn the basics (and beyond) of grammar, vocab, and conversation doing self-study. just depends how motivated you are and how much focus you can give.

I've done 90% self-study for the past couple of years... mostly slow pace due to having a full time job and living in a city with virtually no koreans.
but, I moved to seoul last week and can get around with some ease and speak better than most foreigners I have met here. some of them can speak well but most simply have not made the effort.

with a korean boyfriend, you have a great opportunity (and motivation if you expect to impress the parents). just do it regularly and try to use it constantly even when it seems inconvenient. once you know pronunciation decently, you can talk and think to yourself in Korean when you are alone or around English speakers. I find it necessary to be around English speakers some, particularly for the sport I play, but try to avoid them generally.

this free online course is excellent and covers most of what you would need: (korean.sogang.ac.kr) it is a total course...even to the intermediate and advanced levels. just practice it with people you see.

[mithridates]

More advice for anyone who wants to seriously study Korean:

Assuming most of you are english teachers, plan a short trip to China or Japan or some other place near the end of your contract. Store most of your stuff at a friend's place (someone who will keep it for three months) and then after your short vacation, come back to Korea and live in a goshiwon for three months, maaaybe up to six if you're Canadian and feel like you need the extra time. Just hang out and meet people, find books to read, meet people in coffee shops, just spend a few months relatively on the cheap and study the language really hard then. You might want to spend the extra money on a course as well if you want but not if you don't wish to.
If you pay 300 000 - 400 000 a month you'll have a really nice goshiwon that includes everything - food, internet, etc. and won't need to spend much more else except on whatever extra you might want to buy. Add an extra 20 to 30 000 a day for various things and the three-month stint will cost you two or three months' salary at a hagwon. You miiight be able to do it for cheaper but it might not be that much fun.
After that go back to your own country, chill for a bit, and if you decide to come back you'll be quite fluent when starting the next contract, and will be able to concentrate on other things.

PS this works best with single people.

[Mashimaro]

[rapier]

How about this! learning by memory-association..downloadable course:
http://www.unforgettablelanguages.com/frames_a20.html

[wrago]

I recommend Integrated Korean by Hawaii University Press. I used the books in grad school before i came here.

The text provides explanations in English - also has a website with audio to go with the conversation and narrative sections of each chapter.

[sistersarah]

rapier....i thank you for your good intentions. really. but were you joking? did you read this? i'm laughing out loud...should i be?

[rapier]

Hahahahahaaaaaaaa!! Its the thought that counts...
yeah I didn't check it much before posting, but I did think it was a bit funny anyway..
Oops!! back to the drawing board!!