Learning Korean 한국어 배우기

Learning Korean

Since Japanese and Korean are very similar in many ways (vocab, grammar, identical syntax) I study Korean in Japanese. Although I often look up a word in both Japanese and English because some nuances can be explained better in one language than another, grammar doesn’t make sense to me if it’s explained in English.

At first I self-studied Korean using Japanese textbooks, but after clearing the Intermediate level, I gave up textbook study in order to improve my conversation ability. The grammar etc. that appears in Advanced textbooks is not useful for everyday life, so there’s no point in using them unless you just want to study for the TOPIK or have gotten your conversation down to a level where you can speak about a variety of topics without fault.

The thing that sucks about trying to improve your speech is that you have to speak. Not a problem if you live in a country that uses your target language of course, (which is why I picked up Japanese quickly) but you’re ultimately limited to finding someone else to converse with if you want to improve.

With the 韓流 (hallyu) boom, there are tons of Japanese people learning Korean now! But the majority of them are 아줌마 빠순이… (aunties obsessed with stars or drama). A very popular goal in Japan for learning a foreign language is “자막 없이 드라마 보고 싶어요~”　「字幕なしでドラマ観たい」”I want to watch dramas without subtitles!”.

There’s a decently popular Korean textbook series in Japan called 「できる韓国語」or what I would translate as “You can do it! Korean!”. The back of the first intermediate textbook says it’s perfect for ppl who want to b able to watch dramas without subtitles, but lemme tell ya, it takes a lot more study than just intermediate 1 to b able to understand a drama… grammar is pretty easy to learn, it’s just a matter of learning enough vocabulary. If you think about it, dictionaries are quite huge for a reason.

SO, on that note, I think that studying grammar up to the intermediate level and then switching to focus on improving vocabulary is the best course of action for an effective study time vs acquisition ratio.

When I was studying Japanese (I no longer study, but I still learn things), I learned all the important grammar in 2 years of college and then after that when I moved to Japan I spent 1 year studying kanji. Just kanji.  But learning kanji means learning both vocabulary sets and roots, so I learned 2,000 kanji in a year and my Japanese level skyrocketed because I could recall the kanji in my head and then combine them to make new vocabulary words therefore improving my conversation ability radically.

Knowing kanji makes learning Korean 5 million times easier. Learning Korean to a Japanese person is like learning Spanish to an English speaker. While the grammar is different, the roots of words are very similar, so you can understand many words even if it’s your first time hearing/reading them. Knowing the Korean reading of hanja means you can attribute their reading to a Chinese root word that you already know. You can basically make up words instead of looking them up in a dictionary. Nice, huh?

 Study Tools

In order to build vocabulary, I print bilingual news columns off the net (check links on side of this page) and then read them on the train. When I can get away it I write blogs in Korean on lang-8 and then can have native speakers correct my mistakes. Very useful and corrections usually come back within half an hour!

If you’re interested in improving your listening, besides watching dramas or movies, you can listen to podcasts like Talk to me in Korean OR upload something you want recorded to rhinospike.com and native speakers will make an mp3 file for you of whatever you uploaded. Maybe useful for practicing a speech too.

Although I’m embarrassed that I own an Apple product (cracked IPhone), the amount of available applications makes it bearable.

audioboo.fm has an app for recording mp3s – very useful for rhinospike.com on the go!

뉴스캐스트 News cast from Naver is a collection of current Korean newspapers (some bilingual or in English) that you can customize and browse through easily.

영어회화패턴 study card is really good for making your own vocab lists. (영어의 공부에는 안 되는데...) It's nice because you can edit the lists without having to connect to the computer. However, the pre-made vocab lists have "interesting" Engrish.

Talk to me in Korean also has their own app where you can download the podcasts and PDF files. It's a bit less than what I would expect for a paid app, but I think it contributes to a good cause.

Let me know if you have any favorites for studying!

  

A Poor Stereotype

I am very white. I never thought much of this fact until I moved to Japan about 5 years ago. Now I’m aware almost every day (sometimes I forget, but ppl remind me when they feel it necessary).

I’m also blond. Swedish roots blond.

However, I think that’s where my Americaness stops. I perceive myself as a very poor representative of American culture, but since I’m blond and white, people in Asia are very glad to label everything I do as being pure American.

I personally think I make a very poor representative of America as demonstrated by the chart below:

On the other hand, I am the perfect stereotypical Texan:

Which happens to make me a poor representative of Texas because I don't know any other Texan girls like me. 

But regardless of whether I think I’m a good representative or not, people in Asia think I’m perfect.

For example, over the weekend my Korean boyfriend and I visited his 이모, (aunt) who lives near us in Tokyo. She offered me some coffee, but I declined, so she offered me some orange juice instead. When I accepted she said

“Ah, Americans LOVE orange juice!”.

Having lived in Japan for almost 5 years, I’m not surprised by culturalism much any more, but I can’t even pretend to understand how she formed this idea. Maybe if she had come to my house and I had several cartons of OJ in the fridge, or if every time she met me I drank OJ… but no. We only drink soju together. 


I think this is comparable to giving someone a present and telling them "You love your present!". 
I'm not sure if that supposed to make you feel inclined to agree, or if someone is just asserting their belief out loud. loudly. about you. 

However this assumption is saner than others I’ve been on the receiving end of.
I was eating with a friend of a friend for the first time, and in the middle of dinner she gasped and said「うわ！サラさんって右利きですかっ！？」(Whoa! You're right-handed?!).

Studies show that up to 90% of the world's population is right-handed.
With a statement like that, it would statistically be more likely for someone to say "Whoa! You're a girl?! I've never seen one before!" in relation to roughly half the population being of one sex or the other.

Anyways, this lady was surprised because 「外人はみんなサウスポーやっと思ってた～」(I thought all foreigners were southpaws (aka lefties)).

Of course, you CANNOT live in Japan and expect people to assume you speak their language. White people speak English. Only. Period. However, if you do say something like 「こんにちは」(konnichiwa), then  people will immediately comment on how awesome your Japanese is. While they feel that they're complimenting you on your hard work and discipline to learn their language, you feel you're being belittled by being overly praised for something mundane.


In Japanese eyes: "Congratulations! You are the first to decipher the most complex language in the world without studying it for 18 years!"


Non-Japanese perspective: "Wow! You can tie your own shoes and feed yourself! You're a big girl now!"


There's no point in even mentioning that you know well over 2,000 kanji. This does not compute. I once had a long talk with a lady about the JLPT 1 that I had passed back in the day, when it wasn't the N1 (2007), and she later sent me a LONG txt msg. All in hiragana. Including her address. In Hiragana. 
She also spelled 「こんばんは」as「こんばんわ」 which is comparable to using the wrong "their / there / they're" in English.


The whole reason why kanji exist in Japanese is because the language is incomprehensible without them. Maybe if they had a few more vowels and final consonants to throw in the mix you could work hiragana out, but you might as well just speak another language instead then. 


In conclusion, regardless of whether I'm cut out to represent America and or Texas, everything I do here is "because I'm American/ White" so I long ago decided to try and change people's perceptions by being "culturally inclusive". As in, I believe you should adapt to the country you live in and not expect people to bend over backwards to fit your cultural needs.

Tourists can be forgiven because they spend their money and leave, but if you're going to live in a country, you better speak the language.