Q: What's the best way to learn Korean?
A: Firslty, there is no one way to learn Korean that can suit everyone. Secondly, this blog/website cannot fulfill 100% of what the language represent. However because I tried a lot of ways, I have gathered quite a lot of knowledge about Korean grammar and vocabularies that may not come from a single course or just a single way of learning. I also feel I have made a lot of mistakes, enough to share what is wrong.
The one advise I could give is FIRST LEARN HANGEUL and then LEARN GRAMMAR. The vocabularies is a build up in the process and that could be done in your extra time and is practically build up while watching more dramas. BUT... depending on individuals, watching dramas alone cannot help you grasp Korean fully, because the dialogs could be difficult, twisty and FAST. If you want to progress further, you do need to sit down and study.
I can say that I have not found a course/lesson plan that fits just nice for people learning Korean to watch Korean dramas. Smart phone apps are helpful but they are only showing you phrases and vocabulary drills without good understanding of the grammar. I used audio lessons I purchased from a www.koreanclass101.com and they are pretty good - with conversations samples, vocabulary drills, grammar explanations. The course came with PDF file notes as well. I encourage you to try it out as they have free lessons online as well. However, to gain access to all the lessons you need to pay a fee. I will guide you on the basic and frequently used grammars and vocabularies. I haven't found a lesson that teach the differences of similar sounding words (which is frequent) so I will post something on that. I have so many study books for all levels and I feel I can present them better for our purposes here.
With that let me share with you what you need to learn Korean
1. Interest (Passion) - this hold very very true because there many foreigners living in Korea do not learn enough Korean although they live in the country because the lack of interest while a person living somewhere else in the world can master Korean from pure passion. With this, I hope Kdrama is enough motivation for you as well as the source of your interest.
2. Time - Let's face it, if you have hours for watching kdrama, you have 30 mins every other day to spare.
3. The right resource - I can guide you as well as point you to the highly recommended Internet sources.
4. Practice and repetition - some exercise will do, memorization and listening (and of course watching)
5. Persistence - Imagine people learning English as second language, they make mistakes all the time but its a never ending process. Don't give up but just take it easy and pick it up from time to time.
6. Make a lot of mistakes! Making mistakes is part of learning. Koreans are lenient towards us new learners. Real Koreans, despite being native are still capable of making speaking, spelling and reading mistakes!
By following this blog, I can help cut short time on what you need for drama listening purposes. From time to time, I will point to you highly recommended sources and references.
Q: How different will this blog be compared to other Korean lessons?
A: I am still building this blog and posting each lessons but the following is my vision for this blog.
1. Simple grammar explanations
2. Cultural explanation
3. Drama scene samples
4. Recommended vocabularies for dramas - with romantic references - mostly not introduced in other lessons
5. Frequently used ones to be introduced first, not necessarily easiest ones
6. Words that sound similar explained
Q: Do I need to learn Korean to watch Kdramas?
A: No. Subtitles will suffice.
Q: So why should I learn Korean to watch Lee Min Ho?
A: This is all up to you. A child loves the mother although the mother's language is more advance. But a child learns to understand the decode and understand the mother more when it learns her language. Ehmm..what I 'm saying is, its an ego boost and you can grasp the drama better with more understanding.
For me, the ability to understand is like decoding secret language and I feel like an intelligent person, really. About the subtitles, translators of kdramas are actually pretty good, make no mistake but sometimes the real message or the gist of it does not come out 100% true to its meaning. Moreover, the culture behind and even idioms proverbs are not reflected fully. When you get these, it can be pretty FUN.
Q: Do I need to learn Hangeul to learn Korean?
A: No but without Hangeul, it will only take you to a certain level.
Q: So, why do people learn Hangeul?
A: Read 7 reasons to learn Hangeul below
1.Because it's easy
When I started learning Korean, I didn't know that Hangeul was the easiest part. because I didn't know that it is actually the most systematic and scientific writing IN THE WORLD! I thought it was like Chinese writing which thousands of characters representing every single bleeping word. I thought that if I learned romanized Korean, that would be enough. Hangeul is phonetic based similar to the alphabet. It took me less than an hour to learn the consonants and basic vowels and then built from there on with writing and reading simple words.
*As a person growing up reading roman letters, you will still find it hard to read fast. My brain have to translate the sounds in the beginning. I still struggle to read new and long words. Therefore, in this blog, I will also present lessons in romanized version.
2.Because it's fun
Your whole life if you only know English its kind fun to be able to read another writing. Plus, you can show off to friends and family. Haha..really...
Its also COOL when you can actually read those little notes in the drama scenes or when you watch a variety shows like Running Man, texts for comedic impact appear so often.
3.Because romanization does not represent words properly
There is a standardized romanization system for the Korean language but depending from which country you are, the sounds are only how you think it should sound.
4.Because you can understand how root words become conjugated words.
Hangeul is so systematic, it has way of explaining how saranghada become sarangheyo or saranghamnida or how dwida(to become) becomes dweyo(hey, why isn't it dwiyo?) or boda(to see) becomes (bwayo).
5.Because you can search words in dictionaries
Korean-English dictionaries are in with the Korean definitions in Hangeul. I think that's enough for a reason.
6. Because if you need to find word meaning but its a conjugated word, you need at least make out the root word to search in the dictionary.
7.Because most lessons are in Hangeul
Yes, including this blog (but only in the beginning). I will also provide romanization to help you along.
Q: How long do I need to learn Korean?
A: Not overnight, not a month of course. I do wish I have an exact answer but I don't.
A student coming to Korea to study go through a year of intensive course and they are expected to speak fluently by the end of that but this is because they have to listen to all their lectures, finish assignments, make presentations and write their thesis in Korean. We drama fans don't need to go to that extent.
Yes, you would learn short sentences but for longer sentences it will take a while and especially if the dialog is fast, it can be challenging.
You don't need 2 hours a day to learn. I would say if you're a working person, 30 minutes a day, 3-5 days a week. Within that 30 mins, you can learn several grammar rules. From day to day you would find that you forget what you learn previously because you absorb something new. Revisit them and listen more of the dramas, you will get it. As long as you keep the pace.
Dedicate each day to learn either grammar and vocabularies. 100 nouns, 100 verbs and 100 adjectives to begin with. If you think that's too much, you probably have 500 Facebook friends and you can still remember each of their names. So, think of it as learning a new friend's name.
I need to emphasise that achievement will be different for every individual and without the traditional classroom, you may not understand 100% without subtitles. A non Korean person with advanced Korean can never be perfectly fluent because there is always something that person do not know about, maybe dialect, slang, idiom or cultural reference.
The general rule for us kdrama fans would be, for beginner level, 6 months with weekly study. The more time you invest the better you will be. I will offer shortcuts and if you follow with me, I'm sure you can take away something useful.
