Hi. Soooo, I’m determined to get something “practical” out of my drama addiction, and I came up with the bright idea of learning Korean. And that’s not all… I want to learn it in 6 months. I got the idea from Adam Wik’s blog, and I wanted to try it myself, because I spent 2 years on and off dabbling in Mandarin and still can’t speak any better than a 2 year old, so I plan to tackle Korean first (which seems “easier”), and then use the skills and practices I gain during the next 6 months and apply them to Mandarin once again at the end of the day.
I love challenges and competitions, so this is just the impetus I need to get started. If you’re learning Korean, too, feel free to join or just browse for ideas or leave some words of wisdom of your own.
Some resources I’ve gathered so far (for free, of course) are as follows:
- Guide to Learning Hangeul (Korean alphabet) I got from another thread here.
- Place to find native speakers in real-time to practice with (language exchange)
- Site where others (native speakers) will correct your writing
And, finally, in order to start off with a bang, there’s a challenge within the challenge. Learn 1,000 vocabulary words in a month. Here’s the list. Learning 34 words a day will give us 1,000 words in 29 days, with one/two days for review. If you have Anki, you can use the spaced-repetition-system and import a ready-made list.
Other than the 5-minute video I watched on how to read hangeul, I don’t know anything at all except for what I think I hear in the dramas I watch (one word phrases like ajumma or saranghae). It looks like my first month of “speaking” will involve asking my language partner to read my vocabulary list to me so that I can practice the words. LOL. That ought to be interesting…
I’m excited that I’ll finally get to say what should be said how it ought to be said and look forward to understanding what’s being said before the subtitles are done (or if there are no subtitles at all).
Cheers and good luck to you all!!!