How to succeed in a Korean course
1) The best way
The
best way to learn a foreign language is to immerse yourself in the culture and
live with native speakers, which is often expensive and time-consuming, if not
downright impossible. So, the second
best way is to simulate the situation as much as possible -- and this, YOU
have control over. During regular academic quarters, you will be asked to
complete mini projects that will expose you to Korean people, language and culture. You will also be asked to meet with at least
one language exchange partner (native Korean speaker) to practice Korean twice
a week. The UW Korean Language Program’s
language course schedule is usually really packed so the role of language
partners is crucial. When
getting a language partner, find someone who attended or graduated from at
least high school in Korea
2) Before starting a new chapter:
This is actually a good time to test your current
comprehension of all the lessons covered in the past. First, read the
“Conversation” sections of the textbook, as well as the “Narration,” without
using any references to see how well you understand what you are reading. When you see
a new grammar pattern, GUESS what it may mean and move on. Once you go through all the texts, go back to
the beginning and read them again; this time by checking whether your guesses
were accurate or not. It helps to have a
general idea of what’s in the new chapter when the teacher explains them in
detail.
3) Learning the vocabulary:
a.
Take one sheet of notebook paper and fold it vertically in half TWICE (making four even columns).
Take one sheet of notebook paper and fold it vertically in half TWICE (making four even columns).
b. Neatly write the Korean words in 한글 (Hangul) in the far left column and
write the corresponding English translations in the 2nd column. Repeat the procedure on the 3rd
and 4th columns (Korean on the 3rd and English on the 4th).
c. Fold the sheet in half so that just the
1st and 2nd columns are showing. Get yourself some scratch paper and start
copying the Korean words once or twice or 30 times, as you pronounce them
aloud.
d. Fold the sheet one more time so that you
can only see the English. Write the
Korean translation while looking at column #2 (English).
e.
Check the words you missed, and practice just those on scratch paper. After a while, try writing the entire Korean words again while looking at column #2 again. Repeat until you can write all the Korean words on your own.
Check the words you missed, and practice just those on scratch paper. After a while, try writing the entire Korean words again while looking at column #2 again. Repeat until you can write all the Korean words on your own.
f.
Do
the same for the 3rd and 4th columns.
g. Don’t forget to
use on line resources! Listen and
repeat!
http://depts.washington.edu/llc/olr/korean/index.php (You Speak Korean!)
http://depts.washington.edu/llc/olr/korean/vocabulator/korean.html (You will hear a ‘ding’ if
there is no sound associated with a word; you will see ‘no picture’ if there is
no picture associated. If you would like
to see all words associated with pictures, you can take three to five words and find an image in the UW image repository (http://imagebank.washington.edu/) for each one. Label the pictures and email them to a Language
Learning Center
4) Learning the grammar:
It is always
a good idea to learn a grammar point in a real sentence. Our textbook is full of prime examples of
each grammar point.
a. 
Just
like when you memorize the vocabulary, get a loose leaf and fold it in half
vertically.
Just
like when you memorize the vocabulary, get a loose leaf and fold it in half
vertically.
b. On the left half, copy sentences with
the new grammar pattern and number each of the sentences.
c. Write the corresponding English translation
for each sentence on the right half.
d. If you know all the vocabulary already,
get scratch paper and try translating the English sentences in Korean without
looking at the left half of the study sheet.
e. Flip the folded study sheet to show the
Korean side and compare it to your translation.
f.
Mark
any errors, and find out why you made the errors.
g. Keep practicing until you can translate
from English to Korean with no problem.
h. Don’t forget to
use on line resources! (links to follow this guideline below)
5)
Other:
a. It always helps to think of the answer
on your own, then turn to a resource for the answer, rather than asking for the
answer without thinking first.
b. It is a good idea to do the homework
AFTER studying the grammar, rather than doing the homework while learning the
grammar.
c. Reading the textbook aloud is fun and it
helps you to remember the sentence structures.
d.
By
knowing your weaknesses (e.g. verb conjugation, listening comprehension, etc.)
and by vigorously attacking them (!), you learn ACTIVELY, not passively, and
you can use your study time more efficiently.
Active learning helps you remember and understand things better.
6)
Useful Study
Links:
Hangul
(Korean alphabet) helper.
At
the following site, you can create your own vocabulary list, and the site will
generate a test for you. Site created by one of our former students!
Haewon Cho suhnsengnim’s alphabet sites:
(If you have trouble hearing the difference between 가, 까, and 카, this site is a must!)
For
sounds and sound rules in the Preliminary chapter of “You Speak Korean!”
Eunyoung
Won suhnsengnim’s practice sites:
http://www.quia.com/pages/hangeul151.html Good for Preliminary Chapter, and Lesson 1
http://www.quia.com/pages/hangeul152.html Good for Lesson 2 ~ Lesson 7
http://www.quia.com/pages/hangeul252.html Mixed; Lesson 8, Vol. II
Excellent
site for practicing listening basic Korean sounds by yourself. The quality of
the sound files is not great, but it still helps. Go to “Introductory Korean” to begin!
This is a very good site for
reviewing the early part of our book Volume I.
Contained within the site is
http://langintro.com/kintro/grammar/senttyp.htm - if you want to study/review basic sentence structures and markers. You can
also visit http://langintro.com/kintro/grammar/grammar.htm
What
they call “informal” style is our “polite present”. (You have not yet learned what they call the “formal”
style). The site has what’s called an AUTO -CONJUGATOR! If you need to review how to conjugate verbs/adjectives in 어/아요, check it out! (http://langintro.com/kintro/grammar/autoconj.htm)
This
site helps you study/review fundamental features of the Korean language
(like the troublesome markers). They have a pretty crazy vowel distinction
between ㅔ and ㅐ, but you don’t have to buy
into what they say because normal Seoul
<Korean for fun> is also fun! The site
provides basic words such as food, drinks, etc. and audio files. Most of what
they provide is pretty
much from the first volume of our textbook. (Lesson 10 Styles of Speech might
be of interest to you.) http://www.learnkorean.com/k4fun/funindex.asp
This site is made for Korean
heritage children, but it is very useful for beginning non-heritage learners as well. It contains simple vocabulary, animated traditional and
modern short stories, some rap songs. You can also
find an opportunity to get international pen pals (you might want to find out
about the age of the pals first!). The site also introduces many interesting
Korean culture links as well as game rooms and story. Explore and find out what each room has in store for
you! If you choose to listen to stories,
try out English (for translation) and other language versions. (You will need to register for this site, but you can do so as
a U.S.
This site introduces what is
quite comparable to our textbook Volume I. Find “Korean language study”, and run the
‘pretest’ (which tests your knowledge on basic expressions, grammar and reading
abilities) and review what is available under ‘preliminary’ (basic consonants,
vowels, and pronunciation rules). Among others, I liked the [adolescent/adult]
category, but you can also explore children’s menus.
A little advanced?
Check this site out (Intermediate College Korean by Clare You and Eunsu
Cho):
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