Learning Korean

Kbooks

Korean Books!

1
8 months ago
by JR in

Big thanks to Amanda for sending me a nice collection of Korean books. The books arrived a few weeks ago, but I have just now gotten them in the bookcase.  I look forward to working my way through most of them this summer.  JJ has already laid claim to the comics, and she figures she can get through the whole set in a day or so on the beach next week.  As for me, I will probably start with 잭과 콩나무 (Just about my level :) )

Talk To Me In Korean Level 3

0
1 year ago
by JR in

Recently started my Korean studies once again.  I starting working on Level 3 at Talk To Me In Korean and have started back with the Sogang series as well.

I have enjoyed working my way through the levels but feel that there is probably too much English used in the lessons.  The large amount of English used does make the lessons easier, but I wish that they put me more outside of my comfort level.  The website does have a few other options that contain little to no English, but these are little bit out of my league at my current level.  I made it through the first five lessons of Level three with ease, and all of these lessons introduced material that I was already familiar with, but it was a nice review since it has been awhile since I have hit the books.

Lesson 1- Too much or very (너무)

Lesson 2- Linking verbs with -고

Lesson 3- Using 앞 ,뒤,옆,위,밑.

Lesson 4- Shall we…? + I wonder… – -(으)ㄹ까요?

Lesson 5-Approximately, about – 쯤

My plan is to try to quickly go through the lessons that cover topics that I am already familiar with until I am update with the lessons from Level four that are currently being released.

I am using a few other resources to assist me with my studies, but will touch on those in another post.

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Once Upon a Time in Korea…

3
1 year ago
by JR in

I am using  Ku Kim-Marshall’s book Once Upon a Time in Korea to practice my Korean reading skills.  It is a collection of children’s stories that have fairly easy Korean vocabulary.  I am currently reading 혹 달린 할어버지 (The Old Man with a Lump)  Here is an excerpt:


옛날 어느 마을에 한 할아버지 살았습니다.  이 할아버지는  아주 착했습니다.  그런데 이 할아버지 턱 밑에는 혹이 하나 달려있었습니다.  세수할 때나, 또밥을 먹을 때 아주 불편했습니다.  그러나   할아버지는 혹을 떼어낼 수가 없었습니다.  그래서 할어버지는 언제나 슬펐습니다.

Once upon a time there was an old man who lived in a village.  This old man was very kind-hearted. But this old man had a lump that was attached to the bottom of his chin. When he washed his face and ate food he was very uncomfortable. But this old man could not remove the lump.Therefore this old man was very sad.


I also downloaded Talk to me in Korean‘s workbooks for level 1 20-25 and level 2 1-10. I did pretty well on them but had forgot some of the vocabulary that I had learned.

I also cracked open Sogang’s 2A and started to work on chapter one again. I have finished about half of this book but have forgotten a great deal of it.

Other Korean Language Activities:

  • Started sending messages to Korean friends on Facebook in Korean.  I should have been doing this a long time ago but always revert to English.
  • Working on a letter that I am going to send to my Father-in-law.  I will probably use Lang-8 and JJ to help check my work before I send it.

Word Champ

2
1 year ago
by JR in

Fellow Korean language enthusiast and blogger Amanda from Amanda Takes Off left a comment about learning vocabulary through WordChamp.com. I started an account last night and can already tell that this is going to be a great resource for studying Korean..

The main benefit of Word Champ will be gaining new vocabulary through flashcard drills.There are plenty of Korean word lists and I have created a few lists based on words that I have forgotten from the first couple of Sogang books. The only downfall to the Korean lists is that I have found very few with pronunciations added to the card.

I still am in the process of learning all the features and you can gain more features by becoming a member for $10 a year but I don’t know if it is worth it yet. I love the fact that it keeps up with your scores and let’s you know how many times you missed a word while going through the drills. And speaking of drills, you can practice your list in a number of ways.

  • Pronunciation
  • Reading Practice
  • Flashcard Review
  • Translation
  • Listening Comprehension
  • Dictation

I have been concentrating on flashcard review drills but have plans to go through all the different drills before I retire a batch of cards. I look forward to exploring the site more extensively and hope that it will be just one more way to study Korean effectively.

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