What are your thoughts on this?
Me and wanting to learn Korean
Blogs > blabber |
blabber
United States4448 Posts
What are your thoughts on this? | ||
Scaramanga
Australia8090 Posts
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Astrogation
United States477 Posts
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Nitrogen
United States5345 Posts
On October 20 2008 14:14 KimTaeYeon wrote: I'm Chinese, and I'm choosing to learn Korean over my native language (Sichuanese). I really don't see the problem in this though, your life and interests shouldn't be restricted by your ethnicity. this ^ learn whatever language you really want to, plus if you learn korean you could say you were trilingual. ^_^ | ||
Ack1027
United States7873 Posts
I'm fluent in reading/writing/speaking korean. I'm taking chinese right now at my uni. It's pretty interesting and I have a lot of reasons. My friend who is chinese, but like you doesn't know his native language that well is taking korean because he's really interested. It's cool cuz we get to compare our courses and stuff and help each other out. Anyway, point is you should have solid reasons for wanting to know korean and not purely starcraft-founded ones. If you do, go for it. If you're afraid of people thinking negatively of you cuz you don't know or want to know your native language first then that's kinda dumb, but I agree with it somewhat because I believe you should know/practice your heritage to a certain extent. | ||
Elric
United Kingdom1327 Posts
If you are honestly serious about learning a language then you should carefully decide which one as you will spend a shitload of time/money on it. And let's face it, Korean is pretty damn useless except in Korea. There are 1001 more reasons, primarily career development based on why you should learn a different language. For me, despite the obvious disadvantages, Korean and Korean culture appealed to me so much more than Chinese... and to learn a language you need every scrap of motivation you can get. If you can successfully brainwash yourself like I did, then good luck. But.. yeah.. think about it long and hard if you are serious. Even though I'm in Korea now, there are (a few) moments when I question my decision to spend a good part of 2 years learning Korean/being in Korea. Anyway... about learning Korean.. I'll copy and paste some posts from a little while back............ + Show Spoiler + On June 09 2008 07:47 Elric_ wrote: Hey guys, I'm learning Korean too, been at it for ~4 months (check my blog! /plugplug) I'd really advise against Rosetta Stone (definitely do NOT buy it). It's completely overrated and useless imo if you're a complete beginner. Instead, I'd suggest buying one of the many Korean course books published by universities. Let me explain.., quite a few big universities in Korea teach Korean to foreigners and have developed their own set of course books for this purpose (e.g. Beginner IA, IB, Intermediate 2A, 2B etc. etc.). These materials are meant to be used in a class room environment. However, they are still fully usuable for self-teaching as they all (the good ones anyway) come with an INVALUABLE audio CD. I am currently using the Sogang University set which I recommend heartily though I haven't tried any others. As Snowbird mentioned in a blog reply, alternative university sets are sogang, korea university, kyunghee and yonsei. Your biggest problem however is which you can actually get hold of. The easiest and cheapest way, naturally, is to get your Korean friend to buy them when he goes back. Otherwise, you are looking to pay at least £25/$50 per bookset. If you don't have any nice Koreans handy, google your nearest local language bookshop and start hunting. I've also found oriental language schools to stock these as they use them in own Korean language courses. As a last resort, shop around on the Internet for them, but I've found this method to be the most expensive as the shipping charges (books are quite heavy) are steep. Final thing, when you are buying the books, consider buying several sets at once for a possible discount (e,g, the whole beginner collection). Hope some of this info helps. Korean-learners 화이팅!!! On June 09 2008 08:09 Elric_ wrote: Compared to Western languages yes. (I've studied French up to an ok standard and learning Korean has been a significantly harder process.) Compared to other Asian languages no. Good points first: - Korean is not a tonal language. There are no inflections in syllables which is fucking amazing for an Asian language. If you don't know what the hell I'm talking about just take it for granted that this is a Very Good Thing. - Korean grammar is really logical. Grammar rules are pretty damn strict. When you come across "irregulars", you soon realise that they aren't really irregulars in that they are total anomalies that fit nowhere. In fact, they just follow a slightly different set of rules, making them more of a separate category. - Pronunciation of words again is 99% regular. Its not like English where words like "although", "through", "bought" all have different sounds for the "-ough" letters. In Korean, its exactly what it says on the tin. You can therefore learn the pronunciation rules of Korean characters and then be able to pronounce every single Korean word, ever... (except you won't know its meaning of course..) - Americanized words! Rejoice! There are actually quite a few English words that have been phonetically translated into Korean so they sound roughly the same as English! = less words to learn :D. E.g.s .. ice cream, date, sports centre, interview etc. -Chineseesezzsed words! If you know Mandarin (or even just a little Cantonese in my case), the same thing as above applies. You will be laughing your way through some of the vocab! Bad points: - Sentence structure. ARGH. This is the biggest challenge. Western languages and most major Asian languages follow the order Subject-Verb-Object. However, Korean (and Japanese afaik) follow Subject-Object-Verb. Additionally, words in a sentence describing location and time must also always come at the front. No biggie you might think, just swap 'em around! However, the strict structure + medium-long sentences means that sometimes I feel like I'm trying to fit together 3 jigsaws together at the same time in my head. - TBC.... (thats the big -ve anyway) ----- 4month late addition----- - Word meanings. Korean words normally come from Chinese or "Pure Korean". The problem though is that often you have multiple words meaning the same thing. BUT, one particular word (e.g. the Chinese derivative) should only be used in one situation.. and the other (Pure Korean) word in another. This can get confusing. On top of this, there are sometimes multiple words that have the exact same meaning but have different levels of formality. So for some English words, you need to learn a different Korean word for it for different situations. | ||
Luddite
United States2315 Posts
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GHOSTCLAW
United States17042 Posts
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liosama
Australia843 Posts
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aqui
Germany1023 Posts
On October 20 2008 17:23 liosama wrote: leave the 'best' language till last i say :D aah, thats why so few people learn german on tl. | ||
MrHoon
10183 Posts
Its easier to learn Korean if you know basic Chinese/Japanese. And honestly, Korean isn't a hard language. Writing it is rather gay though, I get bitched at by everyone because I write Korean like a 3rd grader (although some argue writing is easier) | ||
clazziquai
6685 Posts
I need to study more -.- | ||
kefkalives
Australia1272 Posts
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alffla
Hong Kong20321 Posts
im chinese too lol actually i thought about it haha my parents were likle lolz ur koreans gonna be better than ur chinese soon!! :D:D## cuz my chinese is really noob i went to canada when iw as yougn then back to HK but i didnt give a crap about chinese only englihsl ololz but i still had chiinese class regularly so its not too bad for me also the chinese helps when learning korean haah. u might pick up some chinese while u learn korean too! HF GOGOGO | ||
aqui
Germany1023 Posts
On October 20 2008 20:34 kefkalives wrote: I have polish heritage and a strong yearning to learn polish. Its kinda a downer, given that i've read that polish is in top3 hardest european languages to learn, but im still debating wether or not i commit to the learning experience. polish is a very beautiful language though. | ||
Schnake
Germany2819 Posts
On October 20 2008 20:34 kefkalives wrote: I have polish heritage and a strong yearning to learn polish. Its kinda a downer, given that i've read that polish is in top3 hardest european languages to learn, but im still debating wether or not i commit to the learning experience. Just try it! You will figure out pretty quickly whether you like the language or not. And if you do like it, even better. | ||
Rekrul
Korea (South)17174 Posts
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clazziquai
6685 Posts
On October 21 2008 06:30 Rekrul wrote: it doesnt matter what the fuck you are or what the fuck youre supposed to be if you want to do it just do it you retard lmaoooooooooo | ||
ish0wstopper
Korea (South)342 Posts
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Hans21
Germany1 Post
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