Language Studies

           I started out the month going easy on myself because I honestly had no motivation to study much but as the month moved on I realized that if I left myself like this I would forget all the stuff that I learned and then I would have to start from the beginning again. So this week I bit the bullet and texted my teacher to let him know that I was ready to go back to taking weekly classes. I also decided to take Korean classes on italki and found a teacher through a series of trial lessons. She wasn't my first choice but my first choice doesn't have the time slots that I need and so I took my second choice. I've scheduled a series of five lessons and I will reassess after that. My Chinese lessons are still on going. 

          I also am focusing on one book at a time where it comes to Chinese and Korean and when that book is done I will move on to the next one. Doing two or more books at the same time was too much load work and made me confused at times. Focusing on one thing and later after it is done reinforcing it with the next thing is much better.

       So now for Korean I am working through Practical Korean after finishing Korean Grammar For Speakers and for Chinese I am working through Developmental Chinese with my Chinese teacher. Quality not quantity is what I am currently going for.

        Basically, when things aren't working change up your routine, don't stop and hope you retain when you have been doing while you get back your rhythm. At least not where language is concerned.

          As you can see from my tracker, there are days when only half a box is filled and that is okay. Half filled means I didn’t do all the tasks in this category but it can also mean I did half of them. I chose to see that I did half of them.

     

          

Book Review: Korean From Zero! 1

Full Title: Korean From Zero! 1: Proven Methods to Learn Korean with an Integrated Workbook.

Authors: George Trombley, Reed Bullen, Sunhee Bong

Published: first published March 20th 2014, This book was published on May 1st, 2014

Publisher: Korean From Zero

ISBN: 9780989654524

Pages: 360 including bilingual glossaries and the answer key.

Extra Information: You can download MP3 files for the book online.

Synopsis: Korean From Zero! is a fun, innovative, and integrated approach to learning Korean created by professional interpreter George Trombley, Korean linguist Reed Bullen, Professor Myunghee Ham, and Sunhee Bong. Using up-to-date and easy-to-grasp grammar, Korean From Zero! is the perfect course for current students of Korean as well as absolute beginners.

Features of the book:

* Integrated Workbook with Answer Key
* MP3 Audio * Online Support
* Over 600 New Words and Expressions
* Learn to Read and Write Hangul
* Extensive Grammar
* 90 Adjectives and Verbs Detailed
* Bilingual Glossaries with Hangul and English ...and much more!

Review: I seriously don't know how to review this book. I've seen a lot of good reviews of this book and I wanted to share my own experience with this book since it was different.

Let me start by saying that I wanted to study this book as a way to review the basics of the Korean language since I was getting into the intermediate territory but still feel a little shakey with the basics. I was studying it alongside Talk to Me in Korean Level 3 (reviewing it) and 비타민 한국어 1. 

So let me tell you what I liked first. I liked the 한글 section because it had some good explanations of how letters can be pronounced when combined together and I think this comes from the fact that most of the people who wrote this book are actually foreigners and had to learn these things like we do. In some of the chapters, there are formulas that you can follow when dealing with certain concepts or verbs or verb conjugations. I liked that they grouped vocabulary words into themes like body, office, sports...etc, and then used them in the chapter. I liked that at the beginning of each chapter you knew what you needed to review and know before going on to this new chapter and the grammar concepts that are coming up.

What I didn't like was that the "Integrated Workbook" was just a few pages of exercises at the end of each chapter. I noticed when I did the exercises that there were mistakes in the answer key or that they didn't acknowledge there was a different possible answer. I didn't like the way they explained the conjugation of verbs. I found it confusing and I had already learned how to conjugate before! Now think how a newbie would feel about that if they were like me. My brain just did not compute the way they explained conjugation. In fact, in all the classes I took and the books I read about conjugation I've never seen an explanation like the one in that book.

The book has levels 2 and 3; I have both books and I'm not sure whether I will go on to study them or not. I have a few days before the beginning of September to think about it. I don't know if I am just going to write off these books or "read" them to get some formulas and maybe some vocabulary and just not seriously study them. 

Because I have read reviews where people loved this book my advice for you would be go to the website associated with the book and download the pdf versions of these books for free, check them out and if you still want to own the physical copies go ahead and buy the books from amazon.

Their Website: Korean From Zero

General Language Studies Update

          I wanted to update you guys on my language studies. This week I did something different. I decided not to take classes at all and focus on studying what I already took in my classes for Korean and Chinese. I also wanted to work a little more on my Udemy classes and my books. 

          To help me do that I first used my journal but realized that I can’t focus and look ahead so I found something that works along side my journal. This tool helps me plan ahead and see what I have to do one week ahead and I can add the tasks to my journal daily. 

As you can see I have this page that has week days and I set it up every Sunday with my mini tasks for my study goals. I was using the calendars previously but the calendars didn’t give me enough space to write what I want. 

KOREAN:

This week I am focusing on these things in Korean:

1. I wanted to look over the subjects I took with my Korean teachers.

2. I wanted to finish specific lessons on Talk to Me in Korean, part of my mini goals for the month.

3. I wanted to finish Korean from Zero 1 this month.

4. I wanted to finish the Vocabulary Building Course, or at least move forward through it. 

5. I want to finish 비타민 한국어 1 

CHINESE:

This week I wanted to focus on these things in Chinese:

1. I wanted to finish at least 2 Udemy courses.

2. Review my iTalki Chinese Lessons and get in more practice.

3. Get familiar with Hanja, with respect to the words learned in the iTalki classes.

Breaking things into chunks really helped me to get things done and see what I’ve been neglecting or what is sucking up my time. 

          My goal now is to take TOPIK I level 2 in Korean at least and HSK 2 at least in Chinese at the end of next year. 

My New Plan for Language Study

          In my previous post, I talked about my struggles as someone who wasn’t exactly intermediate but definitely NOT a beginner. This month has seen my language studies stutter and kind of stop. They definitely stopped for Chinese and they sort of stuttered for Korean mostly because I have an awesome native Korean language teacher who at least is trying to drum some stuff into my brain. So today (Monday, June 29) I sat down to really look at what is going on with me. Why did I stop my Chinese studies and why is my Korean suffering and it is not JUST about the beginner/intermediate struggle. I found some points which I can take action on. Let me start with Chinese, because this one was easy. 

CHINESE:

I realized I had no specific goal that I am working towards. I don’t know what I am doing or where I am going so I set a goal for myself. This month (to be re-assess at the end of the month) I will be focusing on Pinyin and learning it to the best of my ability. The point is that I can read Pinyin so I can go on to HSK 1 books. I might throw in some character writing but Pinyin is my goal.

To this end, I went on Udemy and bought some courses that focus on that. I am also going to look at YouTube videos.

KOREAN: 

1. I like Talk to Me in Korean books so I am keeping those as-is. So for the next month, I will focus on Level 3 as well as reading Easy Korean Reading. There is also a book that I am slowly working through which is about patterns in Korean grammar.

2. I asked my teacher to give me homework. I told him I wanted a paragraph that I could look at on my own figure out what the meanings of the words were and what the sentences mean then answer questions about in Korean. In case anyone is wondering my teacher is the best, check him out on Instagram. He is just the beat and most patient teacher. 

3. I’m going to watch the Drama 날 녹여주오 (Melting Me Softly). I am currently watching it with subtitles on Vik.com. Then I am going to use their teaching mode which they have on most dramas and just focus on the phrases and the words I don’t know. 

4. Now let me talk about what didn’t work. Ehwa Korean is a great book from a great institute but...like Sogang University books just don’t work for me. So I’ve decided to put them away for now. 

5. I am substituting Korean From Zero books instead of the Ehwa Korean books. If those don’t hold my interest I will try a different set of books, God knows I have tons of them from different Universities 😬. 

This is my plan to revive my language studies. My hope is that sharing my struggles can help others with theirs.

Korean Learning: Falou App

          Today I'm going to talk about an application that a lot of people in the Korean learning community on Instagram are recommending without really giving a heads up about what people should expect while using it. This is why I chose to do this review of the application.

The name of the application as you can see is Falou and you can learn more than just Korean as they have other languages there too. 

However, this review is only for the Korean language since this is the one I am learning at the moment.

The application has 3 different types of lessons: situational conversation lessons, word lessons, and what they call sleep lessons which is a recording of conversations you can listen to, to improve your listening abilities. 

Listening Abilities: 

It has different themes and each theme is rated as easy, intermediate, or advanced. 

So far I’ve only listened to the first of the recordings and it is basically the conversations from the first lessons in the situational conversation lessons. I will say that it is a good way to get your ears used to the Korean language.

Word Lessons:

As with the previous category, there are themes to these lessons. This is a good way to build vocabulary and they have a good way of teaching it to you. They depend on repetition and picture association as well as giving you pronunciation. 

  Here they show you the word spelling, pronounce it for you, and give you the picture association. 

Then they give you the word in English and ask you to pick the Korean translation. 

The same thing but in a different way of asking the question, which is repetition. 

Next, they ask you what you hear and you have to pick the right word.

Then they ask you to say the word to check your pronunciation. 

Finally, they ask you which is the correct image for the word spoken in the recording. It is a very effective way to get the words to stick into your brain and get pronounce them.

Situational Conversation Lessons: 

I left these lessons for last because I have found some issues with them, but let me discuss the good things first.

These lessons offer everyday situations that you might find your self in and they give you a conversation to follow first from one perspective and then the other. For example, if you meet someone for the first time, you will play the conversation first from person number 1's perspective then person number 2's perspective so you pronounce both sides of the conversation. The application will not let you move on to the next line unless you pronounce your line as close to correct as possible. The recording of the conversation and the playback can show you where you need to work on your pronunciation and can also show you that you are doing well. It can offer a good boost to your confidence when you hear yourself improving.

How each lesson starts.

The lesson itself. Person A speaks and they give you the response to speaker A. Your speech is recorded and analyzed to see if you spoke it correctly. If you did, then you move to the next line but if you don't they show you where your mistakes are so that you can say it correctly. The snail you see in the picture plays the recording slowly so you can listen carefully and imitate it.

This is a video of a full lesson that I did, as you can see I still hesitate in some places and in some places my pronunciation is not perfect but it is close enough to pass inspection from the application.

Now here are the cons of this application:

1. They mix formal with informal freely, which if anyone knows Korean knows it is not done. In some of the conversations you are meeting someone for the first time and they are speaking informally to each other and that never happens.

2. In a few of the first conversations in the lessons, they use the word 여보세요, which is only used on the phone instead of 안녕하세요, which is what you use when you meet someone and say hello to them.

3. In some of the conversations the words endings used are used by older people to younger people, my Korean teacher was very surprised that it was used in the application as if it was normal. He said that he suspected that the people who put together these conversations were not Korean.

So is this application any good? It’s complicated.

If you are just starting out, then just use the word lessons for now. Until you get a grasp on what is allowed and not allowed in Korean culture when it comes to formality levels. 

If you are intermediate then go ahead but keep in mind what I said above. 

Inspire Me Korea - K-Fashion Box

          This box has a story. It was supposed to arrive last month but it never did. I contacted the curators of the box and they investigated then sent me a replacement and this is what I love about Inspire Me Korea. They are sweet, very helpful and always answer questions promptly. Their customer service is top notch. Now on to the content of the box. 

          I was very surprised when I opened the box and there was no mask sheet but then I looked closely and found out why. There was four small tubes of toothepaste instead. The toothepaste is by a Korean brand called First Salt. The toothepaste is called Grey Salt. It is supposed to be very good for your teethe and gums. I’m really looking forward to trying them out. They were one of the things I looked forward too in the box. 

          Next thing to come out of the box was the glasses. I think they look really cute and I’m kind of wondering if I should give them away to a young cousin or add prescription lenses to them and keep them as a spare for myself. I need to have a think 😬 

          The choker necklace with the silver triangle is an accessory that I probably can’t wear because it is a little too small for me so I’m going to give it away to one of the younger cousins whom I know loves this sort of thing. He’ll be very excited to get it I’m sure.

          I REALLY love the hair clips. They are exactly the type that I like to wear and they are sturdy enough to stay put in my hair. I’ve already worn them a couple of times and they look really cute. 

          Next up is the snacks. I got two this time. One is something I’ve eaten previously by Lotte and the other is something new. I’m going to try them out soon (if I haven’t already by the time I publish this blog). 

          Finally, the two things that I would totally miss if they were ever missing from the box. I’m pretty much flexible on anything but these two items. The first is the Magazine which always has amazing information on the culture of Korea and what is going on in each month and the second is the language card which I always learn from and apply to my studies. 

          As usual, when it comes to Inspire Me Korea I am never disappointed by their offerings and their customer service.

Learning Korean

       I've been learning Korean off and on since the second half of 2018. However, I decided to finally take it seriously these past few months and since I know quite a few people might benefit from this I'm going to compile a list of resources for you all to look at if you are interesting in learning Korean.

          My first bit of advice is that if you can find a class in your country/area then take that class! It makes all the difference to have someone in front of you checking on your progress as you go. If that is not possible then check out the following websites, books and YouTube channels.

Books: These are ones that I have used or that my teacher has recommended.

1.Hangeul Master: The best way to learn the Korean alphabet.
2. Talk to Me in Korean grammar books Levels One - Six. As well as the Workbooks from Levels One - Five. 

3. My First 500 Korean Words by Talk To Me in Korean.

4. The Korean Verbs Guide Volumes 1 & 2 by Talk To Me in Korean

5. My Daily Routine in Korean by Talk To Me in Korean.

6. Korean Grammar in Use: Beginning to Early Intermediate by Jean-Myung Ahn (Teacher Recommendation I liked it better when my teacher used this book then when I studied it on my own)

7. Real Life Korean Conversations Beginners & Intermediate by Talk to me in Korean

8. Korean Q&A Sentence Patterns by Talk to me in Korean.

9. Sogang Korean 1A: Student's Book by Song-hee Kim and Sogang Korean 1A: Workbook by Song-hee Kim (Teacher's recommendation: This was made for a class though so it might be one you want to skip)
10. Korean from Zero: They have three levels so far and they are really good resources.

Websites: These are ones that I found helpful in my search for knowledge.

1. http://www.talktomeinkorean.com/: this site has a lot of free resources including the grammar books mentioned above with audio files and they go all the way up to level 9. There are no workbooks with them though. They also have a lot of video courses some free and some you have to buy but they are totally worth it.

2. http://www.hangulsoup.com/: this site will help you with verb conjugations.

3. http://www.howtostudykorean.com/: this site has a lot of good lessons.

4. http://www.koreanfromzero.com/: You can find free versions of their books on site as well as the audio files.
5. http://www.koreanclass101.com/: I have to admit I have not used their website a lot but I have used their YouTube Channel quite a bit.

Youtube Channels: Some of these are ones that belong to websites and others are ones that I came across that give great information.

1. Talk To Me in Korean

2. Korean from Zero

3. Korean Class 101

4. Korean Unnie

5. Professor Yoon's Korean Language Class

6. Minji Teaches Korean

Phone Apps: These were the ones I used continuously.

1. Naver Dictionary: Very Important that you get this.

2. Papago: Translator, much better than Google translate for Korean.

3. HelloTalk: if you want to ask questions from Native speakers use this app.

4. Talk To Me in Korean app: has all their lessons and video on it.

Finally, a piece of advice. Watch as many Korean dramas, and listen to Korean music so that you can understand how the language sounds and your ear gets used to distinguishing sounds.