Korean Language 2 year retrospective

Its been more than 2 years since I started, so its overdue time for the 2 year retrospective.

"Its been 2 years, why aren't you fluent yet?", you may ask. Well, A - I am lazy, B anybody that says they are fluent in Korean after two years of study without living in the country or being married to a Korean is probably pulling your leg.

All languages are difficult, but Korean is more so fore English speakers which has been outlined in my first year retrospective. Yet again I will share some lessons learned about studying a new language.

First and most important lesson. Read, read read read read. Yes, that's right, reading is one of the most important parts of learning a new language. You can listen to the radio all day and not learn a thing. You can watch Movies and Soaps in Korean with English subtitles, and you will probably improve, but not nearly as quickly as you would through reading. With reading you gain Vocab, which is the most important thing about learning a new language, and you see Grammar in the wild - living and breathing as its supposed to be, not listed in some cold unfriendly grammar book with few examples.

Another advantage of reading is you automatically learn the most important bits of information up front, as you will see the same words and structures over and over again, and see the less common less important bits of information less often, which is great.

"Should I only read?", you may ask again. Well to that I say, certainly not, you should be doing everything you can to learn, but reading really helps to reinforce grammar points and vocabulary. In natural written Korean or any language, you often have the same idea put in a different way right next to each other, and similar words with similar meaning are placed next to each other. This kind of helps mushroom out your knowledge as you go.

"What hasn't worked.", good question. Dry text books haven't worked. But that is probably because I am undisciplined and haven't set aside time to push through them. I think with diligence and time, they would certainly be more useful to me.

Watching Korean films and listing to Korean radio has its benefits, but they will normally help solidify what you already know. The feeling of hearing some vocab or grammar in a program you are watching and understanding it is additively pleasurable. I suppose its what keeps me going.

"Do you eat your own dog food?", No I have cats. Seriously, my advices is to study every day, just a little, but I often don't do this myself. I find that I have a few weeks of full out study until my brain wants to explode and refuses to take in any more information. Its then that I take a week or two of very light study until I feel the desire return.

I recently discovered a useful site for anyone who is interested in learning almost any language. Its simply a place where you can chat and find other people who are native to your language who are interested in exchanging info. Feel free to visit SharedTalk.com for more info

"So how long till you are fluent." Interesting that you should mention that. I suppose it depends what you define as fluent. I am probably fluent in Afrikaans by most peoples standards, but a native speaker would mock my English style grammar and stumbling to remember certain words.

Why, just yesterday I was chatting to an old work mate who is Korean. I managed to ask him how he is doing and if he was going to be coming back to work with us and when - all with only one misunderstanding from his side. Most English speakers would be impressed and think I was fluent - at typing anyway - but the fact is the level is very basic, but understandable non the less.

"So what does the future hold for you, young grasshopper?", Dano. For the mean time I plan on continuing focusing on reading and chatting online with the occasional movie or radio listening session thrown in.

I do sometimes get frustrated and feel like I will never understand what these crazy Koreans are saying, but I push on regardless. It still remains very much a hobby with the central goal as enjoyment and not some ultimate all encompassing goal, like being the Korean embarrassed in New Zealand or anything as strange as that.