Korean Job Discussion Forums

[just another day]

[Vancouver]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cThMw0wP94k

she doesn't seem to have any trouble

[Sody]

[vox]

A big factor in slowing my progress in learning Korean is the huge number of very wrong Korean teachers, that is, those native teachers of Korean who simply incorrectly translate English-Korean equivalents over and over again. That might be even my single most frustrating deterrent. There seem to be at times, a lot of well-meaning but dumb people around who just don't check facts. I use loaded language like 'dumb' because there are some unhealthy attitudes around, like enshrining the myth of the difficulty of learning Korean. Also the lack of importance in doing a good job. Anyway it makes for a potent mix.

But you can cut through it.

How I've survived - and begun to thrive - in Korean is like this: first I find a circle of dependable Korean people (those who I ask translation questions I already know the answers to, to check their accuracy)(for me these have been friends I've met through church and social hobbies like hiking partners, travel partners, gaming partners, etc.) then I keep a notebook of expressions of interest to me, and I model sentences after finding someone willing to argue and pick apart one model sentence to strip it to the most exact, exact translation possible. Here's what I've gotten so far:
-honorifics (well anybody can get a book on these)
-past and future to verb stems (same)
-will-do in the polite and the informal (banmal - this is harder to find quickly because it's often separated into two different sections or books)
-negatives to all the above
-can, can't, should, shouldn't, should have, shouldn't have
-verb continuous forms of
-"because", "when/if", and sentences using "that" to open adjective clauses

from there I jumped to studying movie subtitles, and I've started discovering that what's on the hangeul subtitle is often a major departure from the English spoken

(case in point: in Casino Royale, Bond's boss says, 'any thug can kill'. But the Korean says, 'murder is easy.' So how do you really say 'any~?' Now that I have a regular circle of Koreans to ask, that got me going on the expression 'any' which also got me the following:
-anybody
-everybody
-nobody)

Keeping my own notebook of the Korean I wanted to learn first has always kept me motivated. It's kind of like a fusion between grammar translation method and mind-mapping technique, where I mind map the grammar to conversations I want to have.

The first conversations I wanted to have were:
-how much does this cost
-other related store conversation

then after I developed a sophisticated store conversation,

-directing a taxi
-asking directions to strangers

then after that got me the words 'what' 'how' and 'where', I just researched 'why' and 'which' and 'when'. Koreans, I find, generally make the greatest hurdles over linguistic difficulties if you use closely related comparisons. Not so well with blue-sky questions. And they do have a lot of hurdles themselves to get over - some of the electronic dictionaries they sell to each other have words that don't even exist in the English language - like skinship for example.

Anyway the third kind of conversation I wanted to have was various commands to my students, stuff like 'don't do that' 'stand' 'sit' 'send this to so-and-so teacher' 'go to the principal' etc.

I could go on but my point is this: you always stick close to the stuff you really want to be saying(as opposed to pure methodical research of the language by someone else's itinerary) and you should never lose your motivation for Korean. And a little curiosity goes a long way in rounding out gaps in the linguistic areas directly related to your subject path.

Hope that helped

[tomato]

Vox, you seem like a spirited student of the Korean language.
We need more foreigners like you in order to break the stereotype.

What does your signature say?
I can't quite make it out.

[vox]

[SPINOZA]

[vox]

[Keepongoing]

It is becasuse I am lazy

[samd]

[browneyedgirl]

I knew a guy that lived in Cuba for 10 years and he never learned Spanish.

[pest2]

[mysterious700]

Learning the symbols are easy if you have a good guide book. But, I find there are different translations of sounds for these symbols. Some could create confusion. I had a tiny phrase book which had great sound equivalants. I would then ask my Korean co-teachers for their interpretations and they would help me. The trickiest part of Korean from what I can tell so far asides from memorizing vocabulary is pronunciations. Sounds can be longer than in english and sound like they come from the throat area or nasal area. for example bread and room can be confused. knock (as in knocking on a door) and rice cake can be confused. the knocking sound is dok, while the rice cake sounds approximately like doouk with the vowel pronunced louder from the back of the throat. in theory koreans tell me me it is the "d" which is stressed, but i disagree with them. my ear hears differently. it is the vowel sound which changes from the knock sound. bread is 빵 while room is 방. (I think, but I am still new to the language as I have been here for 2 months.) My point is that you can't always go on the official guides or rules. WHat Koreans may tell you or what guides books may tell you may all vary. Personally, I prefer the Romanization system over the McCune system. You have to listen with your ears and ask probing questions. I still have a long ways to go before learning this language. Sometimes, I am enthusiastic while other times I get lazy. I hope learning as much as I can on my own will help if I ever get to take a course. NOt living in Seoul can provide greater opportunities to pick up the language but make structed courses inaccessable.
Consanants:::
ㄱ=g (k at the end of a sylable)
ㄷ=d
ㅂ=b (p at the end of a sylable)
ㄴ=n
ㄹ=l
ㅁ=m
ㅎ=h
ㅍ=p
ㅊ=ch
ㅌ=t
ㅋ=k
ㅅ=s (sometime sh)
ㅇ=ng (silent at the start of a sylable grouping)
ㅋ=k
Vowels:::
ㅛ=yo
ㅕ=aw
ㅑ=ya
ㅗ=o
ㅓ=u
ㅏ=a
ㅣ=ee
ㅠ=you
ㅜ=oo
ㅡ=e
(I am still learning double vowels.)

The word order of all sylables must be consanant-vowel-consanant.

My trick is to memorize two to three symbols a day or two to three words a day. i use a guide book, but then ask koreans what the word is and its pronunciation. any more than that and the brain becomes overwhelmed and you begin to forget. sometimes just one word if it is a long and complex word such as:::
sun pung kee (fan wind machine) - electric fan
cha jan ga - bicycle

hope this helps. anyone who has ideas or critiques of this please respond.

[wo buxihuan hanguoren]

I pick up Korean vocabulary from subway ads, notices on buildings, and the dictionary when teaching.

I'd say my reading skills are pretty good, as for speaking, I don't really want to speak to Koreans so no great loss there.

I have no interest really these days in learning it, and use that time to learn Chinese characters instead.

[tomato]