Korean study 1 year retrospective. (Part One)

A started studying Korean in about February 2006, so I am over my first year really. Here are some thoughts of the process so far.

Lots of Koreans ask me why I want to study Korean. Well, I didn't start out with the intention of moving to Korea or becoming a missionary or anything like that, I just sat down one day and thought, "Hay, I am a computer programmer and know quite a few languages. Learning computer languages is easy for me, so how hard must it be to learn a new spoken language?" It turns out that its not easy at all ;). So I set about choosing which language to study. I met a Korean person for the first time at a young adults camp (남현주 - Hyoon chu Nam) and discovered that she was studying Japanese. I though it would be cool to learn Japanese, so I asked her how to say various thinks in Japanese. At the same time I taught her some Afrikaans phrases which just cracked me up as you have to use lots of spit and strong 'R' sounds which I found out later, is almost impossible for a Korean person to pronounce.

At the end of the evening I ask her how to say, 'I am tired and want to go to sleep.' She gave me a phrase something like 'Whatasi Natti' then I went to bed. The following Sunday at church I met a Japanese girl, and though it was a great opportunity to practice my new phrase. So I told her I had learned some Japanese and tried out the phrase - her jaw kind of dropped with her mouth half open for a moment and the said as she replied, 'What did you say?' So I said it again more firmly this time. Fortunately my Korean friend was standing near by and heard my, she quickly came by and say - 'No no, you must be careful how you say it, if you say it to a person directly its the same as "I want to sleep with you!"'. I was so embarrassed and apologiesed to this 5 month pregnant Japanese lady. I think that was more or less where my Japanese studies ended.

About a year ago I seriously wanted to embark on studying a new language so I looked around at church. We had a Chinese church which met in the afternoons and I though about learning Mandarin until I found out that you had to learn thousands of characters to be able to read and understand it! Clearly this wasn't for. I though again for Japanese, but realize that there were hardly any Japanese people I know who I could practice with. The only person I know was a Kiwi friend who had grown up as a missionaries child in Japan until she was about 12. I found out that the majority of Asian looking people were Koreans. So I did a little more digging.

I was surprised to find out that the Korean writing system - 한글 Hangul - was made up of about 28 letters. That sounded great! Only 28 letters, I could learn that! I found this site which introduced you to the letters with sound clips. Its a great start for first timers. In the quiet of my computer room, I started annunciating my first Korean sound. I remember it being so difficult at first, but after a few days of practice it started getting easier and easier. Learning to read Hangul is actually very easy, its possible to read anything after a few hours study - understanding what you are reading, however is a whole other story.

One day I got in contact with Hyunjoo again and mentioned to her that I was studying Korean - she was extactic, and offered to teach me Korean for one hour a week, I gladly accepted.

Our lessons together were more about learning the culture and sharing stories about our different histories than anything else, as I was an absolute beginner and as thick as two bricks. However we had a lot of fun. Then one day, she announced that she was going back to live in Korea. I was lost without a teacher.

Thank goodness a little while later, I met Peter Bae - a Korean missionary pastor from Busan (a major city in Korea.) After chatting with him for a while, he offered to become my teacher, and he has been ever since.

Peter managed to source some study guides from 서울 대학교 (Seoul University) which were a God send. They were intended for adult English speakers who want to learn Korean, and were well put together. We studied together for some time and I started to improve slowly.

The learning curve for Korean is virtually vertical, its like a mountain you have to keep climbing at. The best advise I can give is to keep at it on a daily basis. Its better to learn for 5 minutes a day than to learn for hours one day. I decided to go to the library on my lunch break and do the exercises. It was pretty intense, but I started making progress.