How easy is it to learn Korean?

The reasons why people start learning a foreign language are varied. Someone dreams of traveling, communicating with foreign business partners, understanding favorite songs, movies, and TV series. Even watching films with translation, you may not understand the humor or reactions of certain characters if you don't understand the culture and trends of this or that country. So nowadays it is very important to know several languages. Mobile translators are not advanced enough, and sometimes give out such strange translations, especially in the case of Asian languages.

To make language learning seem less of a burden, there are many ways to learn a language. The best way and the best motivation is to combine your interests to learn a language. As you can imagine, not many Koreans are fluent in English, but English is great for making friends. Koreans, for the most part, are better predisposed to English speakers.

Let's explore in more detail the ways and secrets of learning Korean, based on my personal experience. There is a test called "Topik" 한국어능력시험 (Hangugo ninryok shim) that assesses Korean language skills.  The first level is "Topik 1-2" 급 (Gyp). This is the easiest way from a beginner to an intermediate level. It includes a section called "Beginning" 초급 (Chogup). It includes the simplest grammar: present, past, future tenses. It includes topics such as: greeting, pointing to objects, how to recognize directions, etc., which will come in handy when tourists first travel. 

Read and Learn

1. There is a lot of cramming involved.

2. I recommend that you use the basic mnemonic because our memory is better with associations and for such simple words it is great. Think of associations of words, even the most ridiculous, that make your life easier. For example, the word "bag" 가방 (kabang) is consonant with the word in Russian kaban (forest). Imagine that the bag is made from a boar. Is it easy? Seems silly, but that's how you will remember 100500 similar words more effectively.

3. Use the words you've learned in your everyday life. Every day, call the things around you in Korean, such as "toothpaste"- 치약 (chi-yak).

4. There are no accents in Korean! Yes, it's hard for a Russian speaker to imagine that. If you always put the accent at the end, the words will sound right.

5. In Korean, we use intonation more. You have to pull the ending. ?배 가져 왔어요~ (Taekpe kajyo uasoyo~) - came to take the package. 

6. (~~~this icon means stretching the intonation).

7. For all those who, like me, don't put commas correctly. The good news is that there are no commas in Korean! If you see it in the textbook, it's made Russian-language for your convenience.

Dive into the wilderness

Congratulations! If you've mastered Korean up to this level because it's going to get tougher from here.

Topics level 3-4급

Simplifying your life:

1. learn words from context

2. Remember phrases

3. Create phrases

4. Try to think in Korean. 

5. If you don't have a native speaker to talk to, that's okay! Chat with another classmate who also learns Korean.

6. Communicate with yourself.

7. 70% of words are borrowed from Chinese. Words are derived from Chinese. Many words are made up of Chinese characters. For example 愛 애(e) "love". 애인 (e-in) "lover(lover)", 우애 (u-e) "friendship". By memorizing the main part, you can understand approximately the meaning. 

8. Use a translator with Korean explanations. I use Naver disc for example.

Congratulations! You already speak well, but your writing is so good.

Topic 5-6 급. 

1. Let's think back to school. Remember how we were often forced to write essays? It's time to remember that time! But since you and I live in modern society, you can not only keep a personal diary, describing your secret secrets (Erudite Phrases). A good way to do this is to write a text under an Instagram post, blog post, etc.

2. Bonus to your scores will bring the use of complex grammar.

3. How do you learn grammar? Think of 10 or more sentences with that grammar. That way we can memorize constructions that are similar in meaning but different in spelling.

Working on mistakes

• Because the texts got big, I translated the text first, and then wrote it out and taught it. But no I didn't. There was so much homework that I didn't have time to finish it later. Try to memorize immediately, at least approximately, because it is easier to learn from the context, than later individually.

• Often a lot of things that are not used are quickly forgotten. It is necessary to repeat. Yes, we've heard it somewhere. In practice, we sit and cram for hours, then forget. We learn to separate. Study one topic, switch to another, then come back. Systematize it. Start each day with 10 minutes. It's better to teach often and little by little than long and infrequent.

• Start teaching, so you can repeat the topics, not necessarily for free.

• Motivate yourself by listening to music, learning lyrics (guess who didn't listen to k-pop and now knows almost all its songs?). Watch movies and memorize interesting phrases of the main characters. There's a big trend for foreigners in Korea. Watching how other foreigners who don't know Korean well try to speak is not only funny but also very motivating. They know less Korean, but they're not afraid, that's cool. How am I any worse?

  If you like the topic of the Korean language, I invite you to my channel where you can learn more interesting things about life in Korea.

  ---

  Dohyeon Choi

  Student Soon Chun Hyang University

  YouTube