Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chaz47]

i have the basic 10 lessons and they are ok... the persistent usage of the "eemneeda" form is a little retarded, but they are helpful... has anyone else had experience with the more advanced lessons... are they worth buying?

i just bought an iRiver and have it tuned to korean lessons whenever i have a free moment... unfortunately i only have 4 lessons left to acquire...

[riley]

Uh, what in the who now?
Seriously, I understand that you're talking about learning from spoken korean, is it from the internet, and how much? Could you add some more info?

[chaz47]

http://www.pimsleurapproach.com/learn-korean.asp

[Wangja]

I have the full set, 32 CD's, but have yet to use it - plan to start racking 'em off to my iPod this weekend. The cost was 200 USD.

[ddeubel]

I considered buying a set of CDs but then took a look out my window ........................miles and miles of buildings, people, language. Thought I could buy a lot of beer and conversation instead. How I learnt a few other languages........

But hey , to each his own and whatever works. So long as at the end of the day you can tell someone to ......................

DD

[ajgeddes]

Just save yourself $200 and download them off a bittorrent site. Get Rosetta stone while you are at it. My friend has the full set of Korean, Mandarin, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, French, German and Italian. So, that's about $3,000 worth for free.

[chaz47]

i usually use Shareaza, i don't know too much about p2p or what have you, how do i get on a bit torrent site... ?

[ajgeddes]

Well, you need to download a downloader. I would get Azureus, as I like it the most. Then a good webpage to start out at is:

http://home.quicknet.nl/qn/prive/romeria/bittorrentsites.htm

[inthewild]

If anyone has actually found the 30 lesson version on a torrent site or anywhere else, please feel free to post it. I checked through 7 sites then got tired of looking... thanks.

I've studied a bit with the Spanish and Mandarin versions, found both pretty decent.

[ajgeddes]

If you want good Mandarin lessons, go to Chinesepod.com. They are short, more natural lessons in Mandarin. Seriously, they rock.

[chaz47]

[Wangja]

[Wangja]

Quiet in 'ere, innit?

[seoulshock]

[noguri]

Yes, I BOUGHT the Rosetta Stone Korean and I think it was worth it...

YES, it does have what the OP called the "retarded" repetition of the "inmida" verb form. If you look at reviews of the Rosetta Stone software on Amazon.com, you'll see the same complaint about Spanish, French, any language. In Spanish, they repeat the present progressive verb tense over and over again. "El hombre esta comiendo pan," and in fact Spanish speaking people hardly even use this verb tense.

I think Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone simplify the verb tense in an unrealistic way, but this allows the language learner to focus on OTHER aspects of syntax and sentence construction. You can learn the verb forms later on, from a textbook.

What I like about Rosetta is that I can SEE the hangul writing and I can click the mouse to REPEAT the sentence over and over again. I am married to a Korean and my in-laws are Korean but I haven't yet figured out how to make them repeat the same phrase over and over again until I can actually hear it distinctly and reproduce it with my own lips.

Same for having beers and conversation as ddeubel mentioned. Of COURSE this is the best way to learn a language but it helps if you have some of the rudiments down first.

I have a Korean textbook Elementary Korean by Ross King that gives clear and lucid descriptions of the Korean phonetic system ad nauseum...when is the consonant sound "released" and when not, depending on whether it is preceeded or followed by a consonant or a noun...I read that for sleepytime material. When I want to hear clear Korean phrases prounounced slowly enough for me to catch them, I break out the Rosetta. This familiarizes me with the pronunciation system much better than any textbook.