Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ghost]

Most of you folks work 30 or more hours a week, one assumes, but how many of you find the time to actively study Korean on a daily or regular basis, and how much progress have you made in the language?

Last year in Taiwan, initially ghost tried to learn Mandarin by the self study method, but with no one to correct the complexity of the tonal pronunciations, ghost went the University route, and invested 5 months to learning Mandarin at the Chinese Language Program at one of the local Universities, studying 3 hours per day (10-1pm) every day, and then working the afternoons and evenings teaching.

Ghost found that learning simple Mandarin conversation quite easy, as the grammar is very easy, in that there are no verb conjugations....the verbs always stay the same in Mandarin, it is the context in the sentence which tells you when the verb happened or will happen.....or the use of ``le`` for the past....but ghost found Mandarin characters too time consuming to learn (it would take years....yes years of effort to get just to an elementary reading level!) so it (ghost) just concentrated on learning conversation, to the dismay and disappointment of some of the Taiwanesse language teachers at the Institute...but ghost stood its ground in that regard. Ghost also learned to read and write ``Pinyin`` which is understood by most educated people - especially in China, because Taiwan uses ``bopa mofa`` characters (a different phonetic system, which ghost did not like as much as pinyin)...

What about Korean...one hears that the grammar is quite complex, but that learning the characters is relatively simple and not too time consuming? With Mandarin, ghost was able to take care of most of its daily needs after about 4 months in Taiwan, and knew all the numbers, asking for directions, and general simple conversation with regard to school, work, sport and similar.....how about Korean, how long does it take (on average) to gain some semblance of ``conversational fluency.?`

Ghost will be working 9-5 as a teacher trainer in Korea (near Seoul) and would like to know whether there are places where it can study in the evening after work? and whether others have done or are doing the same? (either studying before or after work?)...also how much do the programs cost.

Ghost would like to devote about 3 hours per day (5 days a week) to learning Korean.

Thank you for some feedback......

ghost currently substitute teacher, Montreal French school board

[SuperHero]

sogang university is the place to be. I'm there from 9-1 monday to friday.

You can also use their online study site.

[yesnoyesyesno]

with an attitude like that he will be fluent in a year. I have studied mandarin, japanese, and korean and mandarin was the hardest for me.

[Mashimaro]

I'm more interested in how many people feel the need to refer to themselves in the 3rd person

[Qinella]

Jeez people get over the 3rd person schtick.


The ghost may find that, like the Qinella, it's possible to have a basic conversation after two months of study. Basic basic basic! Where is the ghost from, how long has the ghost been here, what job does the ghost have, 등. As for proficiency in the language, the ghost has heard correctly that it is difficult to accomplish. Does it take serious effort? No, not really. Just like, pay attention.

People the Qinella knows who've had massive success in the language have been immersed completely. This means speaking Korean all day long. No English-speaking acquaintances. Those who have English-speaking friends tend to struggle, as does the Qinella.

[Mashimaro]

[Fresh Prince]

If you are serious about learning the language it will come to you. If you are going to spend 3 hours a day and can stick with that, I'm sure you will be fluent in a year.

If you sit down with a decent book, you can probably teach yourself the writing system in less than a day. Most people I talk to say that they tought themselves in only a few hours. I learned the writing system in about two days in between doing chores, and packing to leave, back at home. If you are in Canada, pick up the book "Elementary Korean," by Ross and Yeon.

I found that university courses were more expensive than I wanted to pay here, so I can't comment on them. I decided to take the decidedly cheaper, teach yourself and become a nuisance to the natives method. Working at my own slow pace I was surprised at how much I absorbed and found myself speaking basic sentences in only a couple months.

Just being in Korea helps a lot but asking lots of questions and making a lot of mistakes is part of the learning process. It's really not that bad.

[Peeping Tom]

My vote goes for Yonsei University. It's a very intense course, but you'll come out a much better speaker. They have evening classes (M,T,Th) from 6:30-9:00.

[Son Deureo!]

[PRagic]

Some people have a very liberal definition for 'fluent'. I majored in Korean, and wouldn't have considered myself fluent after one year here. I would say that if you only studied Korean here for one year, and made a point of using it, you would be base-level functional in one year. I get the biggest kick out of it when I hear people say, "Yeah, so I was talking to these Koreans in Korea about...,", but knowing their level of proficiency, I know it's a load of b.s.

To be considered fluent, one has to be able to speak in-depth about one or more particular subjects of expertise. Ordering a cup of coffee, bartering at the market, and giving directions to a cab driver don't cut it.

[SuperHero]

People may want to take a look at the actfl scale of language skills and the parameters used to measure each ability level.

ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines

The image below comes from Language Testing which also has descriptions of the levels on the ACTFL scale.

[Mashimaro]

Yep, like others have said speaking fluent Korean after a year of study (3 hours a day) is a fallacy. If one was already fluent in Japanese it would be more realistic, and the OPs chinese background would no doubt help.. but still fluent in one year? no way..

[oneofthesarahs]

I study about an hour a day, on my own. I bought one of those "teach yourself" books. I've been here about two months, and I find myself making very little progress, but I'm not close enough to any cities to take any real courses.

My greatest resource has been the K teachers at my school. They love teaching me random words and phrases in Korean, some of which stick and others don't.

Anyway, I've always been bad at learning languages. I took Latin for three years and still suck at it. I've been studying German for a long time and stink at speaking it but am okay at reading it. Languages and I just don't get along.

[tzechuk]

I've been here 6 years - never once received any formal Korean training.

I have a Korean husband who speaks very fluent English, native level French and German, so we do not communicate in Korean.

I learned to read Korean after having been here for 2 months by looking at road signs (looking at the Korean words and their corresponding English letters) - I know, bizarre, but that's how easy it was to learn to read Korean for me.

As for speaking it, I learned solely by listening and asking my husband what certain things meant - of course I am not fluent, but I am definitely good enough that I impressed the immigration officer who phoned us back in July when I applied for my permanent residency visa. The officer and I had a conversation entirely in Korean for about 15 minutes - he asked me everything under the sun.

Point is - you can learn Korean really easily if you really want to.

[Fresh Prince]

Good point. The ACTFL guidelines are a much better way to describe language acquisition than the word, "fluent." I imagine it has a different meaning to different people.

"Elementary Korean," by Ross King and Jae-Hoon Yeon is a really good resource. There are 14 chapters and the book is designed to be a self-study textbook. The authors intend that completing this book together with the companion book, "Continuing Korean," the student will have an intermediate-low to intermediate-mid proficiency level if combined with actual practice.

Two of the chapters in, "Elementary Korean," are dedicated to reviewing previous lessons. If you can complete 1 chapter a month you can finish the lessons in this book in one year.

If you are more motivated, can teach yourself, and are a fast learner, you may be able to complete both books within one year and reach the intermediate proficiency level.