[MANNAM Korean] The Best Way to Learn Korean for Newcomers (3)

The Best Way to Learn Korean for Newcomers

 Guest Author:    Jason Yu (from the Green Tea Graffiti)
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How Learning Korean Can Be Fun – Noraebang!

One of the best ways to learn Korean may turn off some old-school teachers. Namely, it’s going to the noraebang (karaoke in Korean). Put those books away and break out the microphone. It’s time to go to a noraebang studio with your friends to belt out your favorite K-pop songs.
Before going to the noraebang, it’s best to learn Hangul (see step #4 above). Without knowing Hangul, it’s impossible to read the Korean lyrics when singing. At the Korean karoake, there are no English-Romanized lyrics. Some people may remember their favorite songs through rote memorization. Reading Hangul means you can jump in and sing any song, regardless if you know it or not.

Is noraebang the best form of studying Korean? You bet!

When selecting your first K-pop song, choose a slow ballad or a tune you are familiar with. Pick songs you know because you will be comfortable with their speed and tempo. The same goes with slow ballads. The speed of the song will be slow enough that you can pronounce each word when singing.

When your level of Korean escalates, give faster songs, such as electro-pop or hip-hop, a shot. Showing off by rapping Epik High will get you mad K-pop street cred with the audience watching.

 My Short Personal Story – A quick look on how I learned Korean

Quick confession: I came to Korea in 2010 to expand my language ability and… K-pop. Yeah, I’m one of those K-pop people. I first got into K-pop back in 1997, when SES, HOT, GOD, and the first generation of K-pop idols debuted. Although I became interested in Korea because of its music, I learned that Korea is more than just K-pop (this is for another story in the future!)
Seven years ago (2005), I finished up my second year of Korean language courses in university (go Cal!). Learning Korean was to be my fifth language to master. Yet after not using Korean for almost five years, my two years of Korean study were nearly forgotten. By the time I came to Korea, my Korean was almost non-existent. I had the language level of a Korean Kindergartener.
Since I did take two years of Korean a long time ago, I had one important thing going for me: a strong foundation. While it was still hard to relearn Korean, I did it faster and more efficiently because I understood the basics of the language. And I did it without cramming at the library or studying 12 hours a day. Coupled with a passion to learn Korean, the process of catching up was pretty fast.

I learned Korean through speaking it daily, watching Korean dramas, listening to K-pop, and of course, watching Korean Youtube learning channels like SweetandTasty.
While I am still not fluent in Korean, I would say I am quite comfortable in the language. I can talk to people freely, understand them, pay my bills, watch Korean TV and dramas, read Korean books, and even crack jokes (although my Korean jokes are not that funny). I can also do some rap and fast-paced Korean songs at the noraebang, too.
It’s been an awesome two years of Korean learning thus far! We’ll see where next year takes my Korean learning.

Wrapping It Up – Never give up

Learning Korean is a pretty exciting experience. Whether you are learning Korean because of 2PM and SISTAR, or learning it for your personal thirst of languages, remember to learn it for yourself. And if my Harry-Potter-reading friend and I could both learn Korean, there’s no doubt you can, too!
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source: http://sweetandtastytv.com/2012/07/08/guest-post-the-best-way-to-learn-korean-for-newcomers-by-jason-yu/

[MANNAM Korean] The Best Way to Learn Korean for Newcomers (2)

The Best Way to Learn Korean for Newcomers
 Guest Author:    Jason Yu (from the Green Tea Graffiti)
 __________________________________________________

How to Learn Korean – The best ways to tackle the language

Every time I see new language learners cramming their faces in their books, I shake my head. If I study six, eight, ten hours a day, I’ll become awesome at a language. The theory goes: the more I force my eyeballs to read this language book, the more fluent I will become. While the thought is nice on paper, it rarely works.

There are more efficient ways to learn a language.

The best secret to learning a new language is to build a solid foundation.
While learning all the curse words and slang may be cool from the start, if you don’t know why sentences and phrases are formed, you’ll be reduced to only knowing canned phrases (remembered phrases). And that’s not good when understanding language, much less Korean.
You have to understand why and how Korean works.

So how do we build this foundation? Here is what worked for me:

1)  Learn the 100 to 150 most commonly used verbs

2)  Learn the 100 to 150 most commonly used nouns

3)  Learn the 100 to 150 most commonly used adjectives

4)  Learn Hangul (the Korean writing system)

5)  Repeat phrases often

6)  Focus on speaking and listening

7)  Learn the subject-object-verb (SOV) word order

Learning Hangul is important in learning Korean.

Let’s go over the seven steps above in more detail:

1)  Learn the 100 to 150 most commonly used verbs:  Learning basic verbs, such as “to eat” (먹다), “to buy” (사다), “to play” (놀다) and so forth, will go a long way in communicating. Even if you don’t know how to form sentences, just saying “eat” will be understood by Koreans that “you want to eat.”

2)  Learn the 100 to 150 most commonly used nouns:  As with verbs, learning nouns will help you understand the topic when people speak to you. Even if all you hear is “blah blah blah school blah blah blah,” you’ll know that the person is talking about school (what about the school, however, is anyone’s guess).

3)  Learn the 100 to 150 most commonly used adjectives:  Adjectives are what make sentences more interesting. You can also tell a person how you feel, which is very common in Korean. “This kimchi (spicy vegetables) is spicy,” “I’m feeling tired today,” and “My weekend is very busy” are just some of the common phrases in Korean with adjectives.

4)  Learn Hangul:  Hangul is the Korean writing system. Unlike Japanese and Chinese, Hangul is very easy to read and write. Within a couple of hours, it is possible to learn the entire Hangul alphabet. Learning Hangul can help you sound out words when hearing them is not enough.

5)  Repeat Phrases Often:  Repetition is key when learning a new language. Linguists say that it takes an average of 6-10 times of repeating a word before it sticks in your head permanently. With enough repeated phrases, you can learn a lot of phrases in a short period of time without studying a book.

6)  Focus on speaking and listening:  When you first meet someone new, you will be talking with them. This involves speaking and listening. All interactions with people involve verbal communication. Thus, it is important to know that these two skills are the most important in first learning a new language. It’s not to say that reading and writing aren’t important – they are – but talking will always be the first way to introduce yourself to another person.

7)  Learn the Subject-Object-Verb Word Order:  In Korean, the word order may be difficult to master at first for Westerners. It uses the subject-object-verb word order. So a sentence like “Min-soo kicks the ball” in English, will be “Min-soo the ball kicks” in Korean. This reason alone is why Japanese have an easier time learning Korean, since both languages share the same word order. Similarly, English and Chinese share the same subject-verb-object word order, thus Chinese becomes easier to pick up for Westerners.
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By following the steps above, a good Korean-language foundation will be built. From there, learning slang, colloquialisms, grammar, and jokes becomes much easier. A good foundation shows that you know the structure of the Korean language.


source: http://sweetandtastytv.com/2012/07/08/guest-post-the-best-way-to-learn-korean-for-newcomers-by-jason-yu/