Get into Gear for Korea

WARNING: Silly puns will litter these posts about learning Korean! If you are allergic to daft humour, look away now!

Right, now the weak have fled, please join me in this latest update on learning a language from scratch.

The month of prep

It’s been two weeks since that magical Tuesday when I started on the path of learning Korean with my 13-year old daughter. I feel that I should take a few steps back and let you know some of the considerations I have in mind whenever I learn a new language.

It sounds obvious, but it’s definitely easier said than done. I am going to break it all up into nice bitesize chunks.

Choose your language wisely

Know why you are learning it. If you are intending to take it on longterm, you will be together for a while.

You need to spend a lot of time studying your new language too, if you are to succeed. It will become part of your life. It needs to be something you feel comfortable with and something you are happy to continue so that the motivation for learning never leaves you.

Finding my motivation

Korean was chosen for me by my daughter, so I need to motivate myself to learn it. This is something that I am conscious will need to be from a genuine place. I cannot fake this and I will need to want to continue. After all I am in this now for a year!

I started reaching out to other people who are into Korea, its language, culture, music and entertainment. They were keen to share links to all sort of stuff that will help to keep me going. I recommend seeking out groups for any language you want to learn on social media. It’s amazing what people can share with you online. Finding lyrics and subtitles helps a lot! Here’s my favourite Korean song so far:

Naturally I also promised myself a trip to Korea with my daughter at the end of the year. This is a nice way to round things off and gives us some goals.

Language learning materials

I like to take time to look through language learning materials before I start the actually learning process. Many commonly studied language have a lot on offer. Korean is definitely no exception.

It can feel a little overwhelming to look at so many things and to decide on what works best. My search of materials came up with so many places to start. I also needed to take into account the fact that I am studying Korean with my daughter. They key is to find materials you like.

Friends can help

I took some time to talk to Lindie Botes. She has been through the learning process with Korean and a number of other Asian languages before. She’s a friend of mine and someone I have been pleased to have speak at the Polyglot Conference!

I will be updating more next time on all of the materials I plan on using. Right now I feel it’s important to set some goals I can reflect back on next time to update you (and myself) on my progress.

Goal 1: Starting to write Korean

For starters we are watching these videos to get to grips with the Korean alphabet:

We will practise the writing with Judith Meyer’s Scripting Hacking book too:

I am also going to sign up for the talktomeinkorean.com courses, so I can get some structure to my studies too.

Goal 2: Complete Michel Thomas Method Korean

From now until the start of 2021 I will learn the Korean alphabet and complete the Michel Thomas Korean course, like my friends at the Polyglot Conference this year!

Look out for my next video and update on how I do with those goals!

What are your language goals?

If you sign up for italki and buy a coupon for language lessons through them, you can use the Promo Code below at checkout to get $5 OFF your order! So a $10 coupon costs you just $5! Use Promo Code: RICHARD

Categorised in: Korean

This post was written by Richard