A New Journey in Asian Languages

Recently I have been becoming more and more interested in the Korean language, and so I have decided to embark on learning it. Over the years studying Japanese, there were many times that I said to my self “If I ever study a language again I’m going to do it THIS way not the way I learned” and I am frantically trying to recall what those things are. I remember a few of them:

• I don’t want to learn what I call “教科書弁” or textbook language. Japanese (and other Asian Languages) have respect levels, and textbooks teach you the most polite version that is rarely used in everyday speech among friends. While it certainly may be rude not to use in many situations, when watching TV, listening to music, or talking with friends you will not understand much if you only know the formal forms.
• I want to avoid taking a traditional class, mostly for the above reason but also because I want it to be something I do in my free time for fun not out of obligation. (I apparentlyhave a twisted definition of fun.)
• Rather than study, I want to USE. I have been feeling lately like the more Japanese I study, the less I can actually use, which is becoming quite frustrating. I assume (hope) it is just a plateau that I will eventually get over, but the most rewarding part of learning a language is using it, not answering a flashcard correctly.
• There are multiple tools such as Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone that I have always wondered how good they would be if I was starting from scratch with them.
• I really want to learn by studying music, which is what gets me into a language in the first place. Watching TV, movies and eventually conversing are enjoyable and the way I wish to learn.

I only started in earnest about two weeks ago. I have some demos of Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone to test out, and I bought a textbook about a month ago that has mostly been taking up space on my desk so far. So where am I at? In short- frustrated.

• I am spoiled by previously studying what must be one of the simplest languages in existence to pronounce: Japanese. I simply cannot hear the sounds of Korean, no matter how many times I replay it.
• Pimsleur teaches polite form, which is fine at this juncture as I want to just get used to the sounds, but so many of the words sound so similar (especially due to the polite endings) that I just get confused and frustrated.
• Rosetta Stone is what I started off on last night, and it seems to drop you off a cliff into being able to say full sentences that are recognizable to the software pretty quickly. I got frustrated and gave up, but I do hope to give it another shot.
• I stated my reasons above for not wanting to take a class, but I do learn best from a teacher, and I need a foundation in the language before I can really get going. By forgoing the initial classes, I make the first steps harder.
• There are far fewer online resources for studying Korean than Japanese. I guess the difference in GDP and amount of export culture affect the scale of tools available.

So what now? Giving up is always an option of course, after all I am doing this for ‘fun’ but giving up so early just seems cheesy. So I need a different plan of attack.

• I think I will start by learning the Hangul (Korean alphabet) I initially wanted to hold this off until I had the sounds and maybe 50 words or so under my belt, as it is hard to read when you don’t know the words, but hopefully I can get an idea of how the language is structured so I know the morphology of the sounds.
• Try out smart.fm and see what it has to offer. Smart.fm is really an awesome thing, I have played with it for Japanese, but since it is all user-generated content you are never sure of just how focused/useful the lists are. Also the vast majority do not have sound.
• Look for resources of others learning Korean. A tutor or study group would be nice.
• Convince my friend Mina to leave the desert and move out to become my personal tutor.

I thought it might be a nice idea to record my thoughts about this as I started this journey. Hopefully what starts off rocky leads to something fruitful.