Ask TL Staff Anything - Page 451

On July 30 2013 07:25 KadaverBB wrote:


You're not staff, you don't get to answer questions in here!!!!!

On July 30 2013 07:24 imallinson wrote:

I just started trying to learn again after giving up when I went to uni. Driving a bright red Skoda Fabia.

On July 30 2013 22:27 itsjustatank wrote:


sadly not a tank

On July 30 2013 06:35 LosingID8 wrote:
used to drive a 1995 toyota camry. those things are built like a tank.

On July 30 2013 22:56 SirJolt wrote:


I drive an off-white '86 Humani Corporis. I try to take good care of it, but the thing is wreckage. The suspension is ruined, but I still offroad whenever I can.

Going to need to upgrade soon.

On July 31 2013 03:19 CaucasianAsian wrote:


I'm in no means fluent, nor am I in any way very good at the language, and there are many non-native speakers who are much better than I am.

I started learning Korean about a year ago. I listened to www.TalkToMeinKorea.com for the first level there.

There are 6 levels (Beginners 1/2, Intermediate 1/2, and Advanced 1/2. (According to the Test Of Proficiency in Korean aka TOPIK)

I have taken Beginners 1 in University I studied Beginners 2 on my own, and just recently finished Intermediate 1. I have just started Intermediate 2, so I can hold basic conversations (simple topics like plans, relationships, events, etc...) with some grammatical mistakes. (i.e. difference between 하는지 and 하는 것 [sample sentence: 어렸을 때 한국이 어디 있는지 몰랐는데 그냥 한국 사람들이 스타를 잘 할 수 있는 것을 알다. translated as: When I was younger, I did not know where Korea was, I just knew Koreans could play star well).

It wasn't until very recently when I started having more personal conversations, meeting people and only speaking in Korean.

My proudest moment was about 2 months ago when I was getting a taxi back to my home, and the taxi driver and I had a full conversation about why I study at my current school, future plans, girls, and a tiny bit about politics.

I still can't listen to the news and understand it, and I probably won't be able to for another 6 months. But I can understand general concepts. I still have a problem of translating everything I want to say from English -> Korean, instead of it being fluid and think in Korean.

I would definitely recommend taking classes. Online resources simply don't give you enough immersion into the language, as a large portion of the language and the way they think / speak is given directly from the culture I have just started learning Hanja as well, which has been a phenomenal help, as it really helps you learn how words are connected to each other. (i.e. 미 which means beauty, and 국 meaning country. 미국 - beautiful country aka: USA, or 민 meaning people, 국 (once again country), 국민 (country + people = citizen).

Although, reading hangul (korean alphabet) can be learned on your own, the biggest mistake you can do is to romanize everything, as it will be a huge hindrance on your progression. If you ever have the chance, come to Korea and take classes here. It's a bit expensive, but it is by far the best way to learn any language (going to the actual country! shocking right?!) If you are interested, rated as the best language school is Sogang University. Change all your computer settings to that new language, and try to use as little English / your native language, in your everyday life (i still have this issue sometimes).

If you think fluency is being able to order food in another language, and survival language skills are good enough, then 2-3 weeks will teach you how to read the language, say hello, goodbye, very brief introduction, order food, etc... But to me personally, I want to be able to have academic discussions within a language on a various amount of topics, and learn / work within the Korean language, so even though I have very little issues now with using everyday Korean, I have a long way to go, and probably won't reach the level I want to be at for a long time.