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Calgary25954 Posts
On January 20 2011 01:12 Scruffy wrote:Show nested quote +On January 20 2011 00:57 oBlade wrote:
Yes, it's totally possible, but as a matter of quality, I'd advise you to know as much Korean as humanly possible before coming. Your experience will be multiplied a thousand times without having to invest that much more money. I've already started conversational Korean like two days ago. I already know a good bit of common phrases (like can you speak english?). Its funny, the audio thing I have says that in Korean, you are basically saying "speak English can? (I think)" if you actually translated it. I am going to take Chill's advice and learn Hangul as best as I can. I might get a tutor or like trade tutoring (Korean language for accounting). There are many Koreans at my school (Auburn University Montgomery), since the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama is in Montgomery. I could at least try my language skills with them.
Language exchange won't help you. Hire someone with experience teaching Korean, not just a student who knows Korean. Trust me.
Edit: Let me clarify. If you just want to learn Hangul and pronounciation, you can probably do language exchange and be fine. If you want to learn some grammar and expressions that basically let you talk, language exchange won't cut it. I've probably logged 100 hours of language exchange, and it's useless compared to the 25 hours of tutoring I've gotten. It's like 10% vs 90% of what I've learned.
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On January 20 2011 02:37 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On January 20 2011 01:12 Scruffy wrote:On January 20 2011 00:57 oBlade wrote:
Yes, it's totally possible, but as a matter of quality, I'd advise you to know as much Korean as humanly possible before coming. Your experience will be multiplied a thousand times without having to invest that much more money. I've already started conversational Korean like two days ago. I already know a good bit of common phrases (like can you speak english?). Its funny, the audio thing I have says that in Korean, you are basically saying "speak English can? (I think)" if you actually translated it. I am going to take Chill's advice and learn Hangul as best as I can. I might get a tutor or like trade tutoring (Korean language for accounting). There are many Koreans at my school (Auburn University Montgomery), since the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama is in Montgomery. I could at least try my language skills with them. Language exchange won't help you. Hire someone with experience teaching Korean, not just a student who knows Korean. Trust me. Edit: Let me clarify. If you just want to learn Hangul and pronounciation, you can probably do language exchange and be fine. If you want to learn some grammar and expressions that basically let you talk, language exchange won't cut it. I've probably logged 100 hours of language exchange, and it's useless compared to the 25 hours of tutoring I've gotten. It's like 10% vs 90% of what I've learned.
Ah ok, that makes sense. Next mission: Find a tutor that doesnt charge too much 
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Yes. Do make sure to learn Hangul -- it's super easy and many of my friends myself included have learned it in one night.
Also 5k should be more than sufficient as living costs in Korea are still very much reasonable and on the cheaper side in East Asia.
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haha yeah~it directly translates as
"영어 말할수있어요?"
"English speaking can?" aha
and one up on the learning korean idea, hangul is arguably the most efficient written language in the world which translates to being one of the easiest written languages to learn.
god, i'm learning japanese these days... i finally committed 46 letters to memory, only to be faced with a whole nuther 46 letters in their other alphabet wtf
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On January 20 2011 19:33 prodikl wrote:
haha yeah~it directly translates as
"영어 말할수있어요?"
"English speaking can?" aha
and one up on the learning korean idea, hangul is arguably the most efficient written language in the world which translates to being one of the easiest written languages to learn.
god, i'm learning japanese these days... i finally committed 46 letters to memory, only to be faced with a whole nuther 46 letters in their other alphabet wtf
lolol and everyone struggles more with katakana than hiragana.. but everyone learns hiragana first
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On January 20 2011 19:33 prodikl wrote:
haha yeah~it directly translates as
"영어 말할수있어요?"
"English speaking can?" aha
and one up on the learning korean idea, hangul is arguably the most efficient written language in the world which translates to being one of the easiest written languages to learn.
god, i'm learning japanese these days... i finally committed 46 letters to memory, only to be faced with a whole nuther 46 letters in their other alphabet wtf
You haven't even touched kanji yet. Try 2000-3000 more characters.
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I finally found a tutor. He is in my "Managing People" class in grad school. Woot.
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I have no idea how much more this would cost (I'm leaning on the cheaper side) but If you're going to Korean, I suggest visiting Jeju-do. The beaches are freaking amazing, and the restaurants are wonderful. If you love seafood, that's also a plus.
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personally, if i had 5k, i would try to organise so that i can actually live and work in another country (2+ months). i would somehow secure a job (impossible? teach english?) before going, and get a local to help me get cheap room somewhere.
for example, if you wanted to come to england, you could get a room for £300/month, no security deposit, flight for £1k? , get a job as labourer/porter/waiter, then have 3k to keep you afloat until your fist paycheck. stay there until you're satisfied, maybe saved up enough to move onto some other country :D (goodluck on paying for air fares out of england tho)
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On January 21 2011 12:40 Aberu wrote:Show nested quote +On January 20 2011 19:33 prodikl wrote:
haha yeah~it directly translates as
"영어 말할수있어요?"
"English speaking can?" aha
and one up on the learning korean idea, hangul is arguably the most efficient written language in the world which translates to being one of the easiest written languages to learn.
god, i'm learning japanese these days... i finally committed 46 letters to memory, only to be faced with a whole nuther 46 letters in their other alphabet wtf You haven't even touched kanji yet. Try 2000-3000 more characters.
haha, damn i know. i tried this last year. felt a bit overwhelmed after the first 46 and since i had no motivation other than "because i feel like it" i just stopped. then i started bulgarian since i know a bulgarian, now im onto spanish... damn me and my "try everything, finish nothing" ways!
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I'm fairly sure, (don't quote me on this), that you won't need a visa if you aren't going there looking for work, but as a tourist/sightsee-er for under three months. Aside from that, the rest of the advice in here is good. Learn some hangul and some basic korean phrases, have a game plan, etc.
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http://www.micheloud.com/FXM/la/la/korean.htm tells you a bit on the language. (I had to lol when i saw one of the resource books at the end. ["Making out in Korean"])
But really, reading and writing are fairly easy. Fluently speaking, and understanding spoken Korean takes forever because it really is limited by the vocabulary you know (as with any language), but you may be pleasantly surprised by how many "modern" words are borrowed from English, so you will know if you sound it out.
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I might postpone a wee bit to give myself more time to learn Korean, plan the trip, etc. All the advice is really good though guys, thanks.
I am assuming if I went over there to teach English I would have to know sufficient Korean to communicate with the students.
*Also updated the OP with some more info on my tutor.
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Yeah, you'll learn that korean is subject object verb.
Aka Sally apple ate.
Or nuke ghost launched 
or wisdom yoda spoke X D
If you want a language learning buddy pm me and hit me up on skype. i'm no good either, but we could work together ^^
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EPT
