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And the introduction:
1) I've finished my summer assignment
2) I'm basically stopped from going out with friends, because there is major medical shit going on right now.
3) I want to learn korean because i do 
So the logical course of action is to go all out.
Efficiency aside I got a book. It's looking less and less likely I'll make the course due to budget constraints at the local CC. (community college) Those enrolled get priority tt
From the honorable chill, in order to learn korean one must:
1. Go to Korea and don't be lazy or ignorant.
2. Start attending college-level classes.
3. Get a tutor.
4. Get language exchange friends.
Rosetta stone, websites, and books won't teach you shit.
1) A bit out of the picture right now, obviously
2) Working on it
3) Very very possible. I know a ton of koreans. I have a fairly select group on facebook. And 9 kims >.> If not one of my closer friends, I have the connections to where I could get a tutor. They exist. Although more teaching english to koreans, at least in this area.
4) Assuming they won't revert into english, I know a TON of korean friends per above. Although language exchange would be a good step to take once I"m vaguely comfortable.
At least I hope I'm thinking correctly.
In one sense, a book doesn't teach that well. I've taken Spanish for 5 years, got all As in Spanish, but still don't feel very fluent. However I never really got immersed at all. I tried to avoid speaking in Spanish rather than embraced it. In another sense the classes provided a format so that i had to learn, and I knew what to learn. At this point I would consider I can communicate on a basic level in Spanish easily, and on a higher level with much difficulty. Although there are pervasive vocabulary issues.
My thought is to initially get a book, if the course does not work out, and work through it. Try to talk to korean friends, get better, etc. Courses look sort of far off. Except there is a fairly large school 20 miles to the south on weekends. Problem is that it requires basic knowledge to attend. It's all taught in korean. I'd improve quickly once I reached that threshold, but I need to obtain that threshold. Same with talking to friends
So my plan is to get a book, and try to work to that point. With friends etc. So to close out.
1) Am I just stupid for trying this?
2) What book(s) would you guys recommend?
3) What other resources would you utilize?
4) Who else here is learning korean? Group improvement ftw!
5) Any native korean speakers, or learners that would be willing to meet on Teamspeak/vent/skype once a week or so? Some sort of a TL.net korean language learning group?
The last part could be very helpful, but I just thought of it at the end of this blog, so it is yet to be seen
  
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I think a book won't help you fast enough alone. You will want to watch the korean channel news, and use google translate to make your web browsing experience korean. You will have to watch your favorite shows subbed in korean. You will have to write in korean to your friends and use google translate to turn that into english. Like if you want to get anywhere good at a language, you need total immersion. Like watch korean porn immersion.
This way you'll improve fast enough to even think about going to a Korean school.
Rosetta stone is great because it tries to engage all your senses, but if you're only spending twenty minutes of every day on another language, you won't pick it up very quickly.
I've never really tried to learn another language for very long though.
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I have a book for beginners, a korean gf and a korean pen pal, and I'm learning at a slow but steady pace I suppose...
It really comes down to dedication IMO. Learning languages is not hard.
Source: Speak 5 languages fluently, learning korean as 6th.
PS: u miss-spelled hangukmal
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Err, what exactly is "major medical shit"? Interested, XD
And I know almsot nothing about the Korean language itself, but I learned Chinese for several years and I consider myself to be pretty fluent in speaking. Basically, you just need to speak a lot and listen a lot. TV, dramas, even kpop (lol).
Just using the language is all you need (well, to become fluent).
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I find the Korean language very hard to learn, even though I am half-Korean.
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On July 04 2011 15:57 krndandaman wrote:1) only if you aren't devoted to it completely. Like, Korean is a very hard language to be fluent in. The basics are easy peasy but if you want to be anywhere remotely competent in communicating in Korean it's hard as ****. 2) any kid books/ fairy tales in Korean. you can try reading the famous ones that have been translated in korean. such as cinderella, snow white, etc. 3) I'm a Korean-American so my experience in learning Korean is prob different from yours so idk if this will work. I already had the basic foundations down as a kid but I only recently became fluent in Korean. Basically, I hung out with mostly koreans on SC, changed my computer to Korean language settings, translate any Korean I see with google translate or http://endic.naver.com/ (I swear Naver dictionary is a god-send), watch alot of Korean shows/dramas (NO SUB.), read korean news, use Naver over google if possible, I live with Koreans in a dorm at boarding school, etc. Basically I immersed myself into Korean surroundings. Now I do kind of regret only having exclusively Korean friends atm but I'm sure I'll make friends from different backgrounds once I go to college. 4) I'm still improving my Korean to be more advanced. I'm considered fluent though. 5) maybe?
listen to this man, he's totally correct about everything he said. i've went through practically the same process and it's worked oh so well.
however, if you have not a korean background, you'll need the essential basics to start doing all that. perhaps a book will be enough, but if u have some access to koreans as u mentioned in your post, frodoac, u might want to look for some noob-level courses or a tutor. after that, proceed to follow the steps krndandaman listed.
you don't need to go to korea to be decent at korean: luckily, there's enough stuff written/spoken in korean in the net for you to be able to learn (specially in a sc related background!); korea is no longer a hermit country. only case i can think of where you would go to korea to learn its language it'd be either if you're very rich either if you're a korea junkie, in which both cases i cannot help you.
however, you need to work hard and keep trying to learn more every day. if u do not do so, you'll get stuck in a very basic level forever. never give up (learning korean can get frustrating at times because of the apparent stagnation in the learning process), be willing to leave your prejudices at home and accept a new process of thinking and expressing (korean works in such a different pattern than western languages that u can't just create solid sentences in korean using only grammar adaptation processes, you need to think like a korean to speak a natural and good sounding korean), and never think of it as a tool to reach all the media/information from korea you're so willing to acquire, but as knowledge itself [e.g. u should not think "knowing korean is good because it allows me to understand proleague casters" but "knowing korean is good because it opens to me the doors of a new country and its culture (including proleague casters)"]
ok that's all i think. gl on learning it and do never give up.
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I heard alot of speaking a language properly is having a good accent when doing it.
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Hello,
I've been teaching myself Korean for the last 16 months.
This is how I recommend learning Korean:
1) Learn hangeul at http://www.indiana.edu/~koreanrs/hangul.html
2) Become familiar (don't memorise, just get a feel of how it works) with the trickier pronunciation rules at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Korean/Advanced_Pronunciation_Rules
3) Download mnemosyne (http://www.indiana.edu/~koreanrs/hangul.html) and whenever you see a new word, add it to your flashcard database. (I can give you sections of mine if you want, so you don't have to spend time typing new words in).
4) Use this excellent grammar textbook so that you can use the vocabulary you learn to make sentences: http://www.kickasstorrents.com/basic-korean-a-grammar-and-workbook-t146944.html
- endic.naver.com is your best friend (learn to type hangul right after you learn to read it)
- set a number of words that you will memorise each day (between 5-10, depending on how much time you have), and never skip out a day. Make sure that you always have lots of un-memorised words in your mnemosyne database, so that reaching your set quota for each day is easier
- ignore the advice of watching lots of Korean dramas. It's useless, until you are good enough to understand most, or all of the subtitles. It can be useful later on if you just need to become better at hearing full-speed Korean.
I like your idea of a Korean study group! I'll PM you my skype details. If you are serious about learning Korean well, then I will be happy giving you some of my time to help.
Cr4zyH0r5e: While hangungmal is not the correct romanisation, it reflects the pronunciation much better.
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Calgary25991 Posts
Can you get a tutor? I just had some university student teaching me for $20 an hour. It was great.
Hangungmal doesn't reflect the pronounciation at all. Hangukmal is perfect.
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ok, thanks.
Probably can. Looking into it through connections atm.
Major medical shit is screws touching spinal cord.
I actually recall thinking that about the pronunciation. It's one of the stupid old romanizations for stupid white people that can't pronounce anything correctly.
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On July 04 2011 19:23 JGodbout wrote:Hello, I've been teaching myself Korean for the last 16 months. My advice is invaluable. This is how I recommend learning Korean: 1) Learn hangeul at http://www.indiana.edu/~koreanrs/hangul.html2) Become familiar (don't memorise, just get a feel of how it works) with the trickier pronunciation rules at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Korean/Advanced_Pronunciation_Rules3) Download mnemosyne (http://www.indiana.edu/~koreanrs/hangul.html) and whenever you see a new word, add it to your flashcard database. (I can give you sections of mine if you want, so you don't have to spend time typing new words in). 4) Use this excellent grammar textbook so that you can use the vocabulary you learn to make sentences: http://www.kickasstorrents.com/basic-korean-a-grammar-and-workbook-t146944.html- endic.naver.com is your best friend (learn to type hangul right after you learn to read it) - set a number of words that you will memorise each day (between 5-10, depending on how much time you have), and never skip out a day. Make sure that you always have lots of un-memorised words in your mnemosyne database, so that reaching your set quota for each day is easier - ignore the advice of watching lots of Korean dramas. It's useless, until you are good enough to understand most, or all of the subtitles. It can be useful later on if you just need to become better at hearing full-speed Korean. I like your idea of a Korean study group! I'll PM you my skype details. If you are serious about learning Korean well, then I will be happy giving you some of my time to help. Cr4zyH0r5e: While hangungmal is not the correct romanisation, it reflects the pronunciation much better.
1) Have known for 2 years.
2) Know
3) Would be a good idea, probably.
4) Soooo dense with grammar.
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5003 Posts
Cr4zyH0r5e: While hangungmal is not the correct romanisation, it reflects the pronunciation much better.
Pretty sure there shouldn't be an n in there o_O
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On July 05 2011 01:38 Milkis wrote:Show nested quote +Cr4zyH0r5e: While hangungmal is not the correct romanisation, it reflects the pronunciation much better. Pretty sure there shouldn't be an n in there o_O
Yeah. That was just a stupid romanization I copied from somewhere, because I'm too terrible to type it >.>
Hangukmal is actually how it sounds, if my ears aren't dead
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Meh, when said at a fast speed, when a ㄱ is followed by a ㅁ, it basically automatically becomes ㅇㅁ. We romanise Korean for people who can't speak Korean, and "hangungmal" is better for those people, as we don't use glottal stops (I think that's the right term..) much in English
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I guess. This was a Macalester or whatever they call it.
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Hmmm. What qualities should I look for in a tutor. I just got off of skype with a friend, and he sent me a list of like 30 people. None of them are that used to teaching korean though. All seem to be the other way. In any case I might be able to get info on those who teach korean from them ...
SF bay area korean immigration hub (ftw?)
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Yeah. Most of these people are korean american, but have learned korean from birth :/
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1019 Posts
serious interest in any kind of language requires total immersion (aka going to the country of subject). Passion is probably the most important personal quality - because I'm sure everyone knows that learning a new language is incredibly difficult. My best suggestion is to ultimately study abroad or visit the country at one point or another in your life, there really is no other way to become totally fluent without doing so.
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EPT
