EPT
I've noticed there's a good amount of interest in learning Korean here on this board, which would seem rather obvious, but there's a lot of curiosity about Korean just as a language in general, aside from the 15 some threads that have been made with questions/comments about learning Korean, so after I just spent 2 weeks with a second language acquisition (henceforth SLA) expert in Asian languages (primarily Cantonese, but others as well) I figured I ought to make a thread that would answer a lot of these questions. I'm going to try and condense this as much as possible, but I'll go into considerable depth in spoilers beneath the relevant topics. So here's the good, the bad, and the ugly about SLA:
The good
Learning another language is a rewarding task that opens a whole new culture, people, and way of looking at things for you. The other good news is if you're bilingual or if you've spent many years in acquisition of a second language (linguists who study SLA make a sharp distinction between a second language acquired in childhood and a second language acquired in adulthood for reasons I will explain below) you'll find your third language coming to you rather easily.
The bad
Presumably, the task you've chosen is Korean. The U.S government has classified Korean as a category 4 language, a language so different from English they estimate 2200 classroom hours to pass as a competent speaker. I have many issues with this idea, which gets into some serious linguistics jargon. I would be happy to indulge the curious mind but as this post will already be very long I'll stop short. Nevertheless, it is still a difficult language to learn.
Why? Because Korean is what is known as a language isolate, that is, a language with no known relations to other languages, and Korean itself remains something of a mystery to linguists in terms of its history. Korean has a number of sounds, luckily only a few, but unluckily for you, primarily vowels, that are not native to English or other European languages. The consonants aren't hard but drawing distinctions in regards the vowels won't be simple. Korean syntax is not of a particularly difficult variety (not like Turkish) but it is very foreign to English speakers.
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In terms of syntax, Korean will be foreign to nearly everyone unless you're Finnish. Korean employs a case system, a concept foreign (but still attested) in English. What this means is that Korean, instead of employing extremely strict word order (like English), affixes morphemes (small units of meaning like the English plural suffix -s) to words to show what the word is doing in the sentence. English used to use this system, and if you ever remember your 1st grade teacher teaching you the difference between who and whom, that's what cases are, who being used only for subjects and whom for the object of the sentence and other grammatical functions.
In languages with case systems, the word order tends to be more flexible. Korean, however, tends to be Subject-Object-Verb more by convention than necessity though it is supposedly the most common. Native speakers might switch it up to emphasize elements of a sentence by changing the word order. It's nice to stick to the fairly easy SOV word order when learning, and playing with other word orders as learning progresses.
In languages with case systems, the word order tends to be more flexible. Korean, however, tends to be Subject-Object-Verb more by convention than necessity though it is supposedly the most common. Native speakers might switch it up to emphasize elements of a sentence by changing the word order. It's nice to stick to the fairly easy SOV word order when learning, and playing with other word orders as learning progresses.
The ugly
SLA is very difficult. There's no getting around that. Programs like 'Rosetta Stone' (tirade in first spoiler below) and the various language tapes floating around there can't teach you a language. SLA experts agree on three major factors in accurate, fast acquisition of a second language (in no particular order): motivation, interaction with native speakers, natural aptitude. Motivation is a huge part; if you're not trying to learn a language and staying committed and practicing, there's no way you're going to learn. All those interviews with IdrA seem to indicate this is his problem in learning Korean. Interaction with native speakers is the most important thing in learning a second language. Living in Seoul for 6 months with a Korean family and no access to English would teach you Korean very fast, because you're forced to communicate.
Finally, the murky idea of aptitude has been strongly advocated by some SLA experts, others insist it is a product of native intelligence. There is some evidence in linguistic savants and plenty of anecdotes, but it's a factor you can't do anything about. My parents both acquired second languages swiftly and French came rather easily for me, and I knew the opposite situation for some close friends, but it could just have to do with motivation, etc. It's hard to pin down, but people have tried to measure it (like the U.S Foreign Services, State Department, and Department of Defense) in tests like the MLAT and DLAB.
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Don't buy 'Rosetta Stone.' I've heard their ads, the whole 'same way you learned your first language...by matching pictures to words' is such a silly idea I can't even begin to describe it. Blind people learn language, so clearly it's not just 'matching pictures to words.' You learn your first language by intuiting the stimuli around you, by making guesses and generalizations which you refine and deduce from more evidence. There are even claims (in fact, you might even call it main stream) that language is 'instinctual,' that the rules of the various grammars of the world are hard wired into biases of language learning in infants. The truth that everyone does agree on, however, is that you can't go back to learning languages the way you did when you were an infant.
Only buy tapes or programs (still don't buy Rosetta Stone) if you have no other way to learn the language, and you are using them as practice or to get you started off for a serious engagement to learn the language. Otherwise, they are a waste. I can't reiterate enough how much you need to interact with native speakers.
Only buy tapes or programs (still don't buy Rosetta Stone) if you have no other way to learn the language, and you are using them as practice or to get you started off for a serious engagement to learn the language. Otherwise, they are a waste. I can't reiterate enough how much you need to interact with native speakers.
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Some hypotheses state that SLA gets harder as you get older, as more neurons commit to other things, and as fluid intelligence wanes, etc. There is no contention over the drop off in language learning ability after about the age of 6 or 7 after which it becomes much harder to learn a second language, but there is significant disagreement as to whether that ability remains relatively static after that period or whether it continues to decrease at a significant rate.
Of those I mentioned, there are two factors you can control in learning Korean: your motivation, and interaction with native speakers. So, answering the question I started with, how do you learn Korean? Be serious about learning the language; make a Korean friend, or better yet, study abroad in Korea. Actively engage speakers of Korean in their language. Make a conscious effort, and most of them will be thrilled. From what I hear, they have pride in their language, and are impressed by Westerners who can speak it. You'll be surprised by how quickly you can pick it up if you really really try.
