New Author – James Turnbull
We have a new contributing author on zr5.net. His name is James Turnbull. James has a blog called The Grand Narrative. The blog covers Korean social issues and Korean language.
One of his latest post is titled, Learn Korean Vocab with Hot Korean Women. It is very informative post and it is actually fun to study with hot Korean women. 
I am sure that James will be a very valuable member to Zr5.net family. Please make him feel welcome as he will be posting his first post in couple of days. 
sollee and 2 others are discussing.
sollee 9:26 am on November 16, 2007 Permalink |
had visited mr. turnbull’s blog..it’s true.. his blog is very informative..
yes,..i tried to study korean voc. but i get so frustrated coz i find ir really hard…
do you find it hard too?
AzureWolf 10:50 am on November 16, 2007 Permalink |
Welcome James! Good to have you on board. Perhaps you can give direction to Andy’s random posts. =P hehe
I found the best way to learn vocabulary is to do all the work yourself: build your own flashcards, find your own resources, and look for your own way to learn it. Sounds simple, but how many of you rely on a precompiled list that you did not build yourself? Not saying it can’t be done that way, but it’s more inefficient and harder.
sollee 3:33 am on November 17, 2007 Permalink |
azure….tnx for sharing your experience on learning a certain voc…..i guess another way is to use sounds, like what some korean students who study in the phils.do to learn english or filipino…they have list of words and listen to them first instead of reading them…w/c i think is right ,,until they become familiar with the sounds then they will start reading already….but if you are a resourceful person like what azure suggests ..it will be easier to invent ways on how to learn a certain language….but i would use “slow cards” not “flashcards” hehehe to those complicated korean letters..j/k..
James Turnbull 9:06 pm on November 17, 2007 Permalink |
Thanks for the welcome guys, and the nice comments about my other blog. Andy and I are having a few technical issues with the blog, but my first post is written and all ready to go up as soon as we get those out of the way, and I’m looking forward to getting started.
Just one small thing about your second comment sollee, you said “those complicated Korean letters,” which I don’t understand. There’s only 40, which makes learning Korean much easier than Japanese or Chinese, which has thousands of characters. I’m lucky I ended up here rather than there!
sollee 11:27 pm on November 17, 2007 Permalink |
you have a good point there james…..maybe i just need to familiarize myself with those korean,chinese,or japanese characters….esp. to those korean’s as you find them easier to learn…..that’s the reason why you chose to post korean voc. in your blog right?…..bec. of what you said now i am motivated to learn those 40 characters..tnx james..
AzureWolf 11:14 am on November 18, 2007 Permalink |
@sollee
Actually, listening (and seeing/pictures) first is the right way to do it. But I partly agree with the not reading part. You should not create a handicap for learning a language. Cut the translator out, as it will permanently slow down comprehension and kill your potential to master the language.
So what am I saying? You should not read another language with another. In this case, don’t use English to read Korean. When you are learning the alphabet, see it and HEAR it. Do not see it and then see it in English. If you wire yourself like that from the beginning, you will always have this mental order whenever confronted with the language: Korean –> English –> Comprehension. That translating phase is killer. You want Korean –> Comprehension.
In the case of English, it will make it harder to get the pronunciation right since the Korean letters aren’t 100% translatable into English letters.
That’s how you learned your ABCs, that’s how you should learn Hangul (see, didn’t even say Korean ABCs for that, lol). Also, don’t waste time going in order. You will bore yourself. Learn the alphabet while you learn words and their meaning. It will keep you interested and improves your alphabet at the same time.
I’ve had great success with a little program called Anki (http://repose.cx/anki/), but I had to build everything from scratch since the creator only has Japanese cards (and with english, boo!). The only downside is that the online version (which syncs with your desktop one) doesn’t store the sounds you created, so it’s not useful if you like to learn during your commute. If you decide to give the program a spin, lemme know and I’ll send you my introductory flashcards with sound so you can see how much better and easier it is to learn with sounds rather than weird twisting and bending of English (I still don’t know wth weir is supposed to be, lol).
sollee 10:42 am on November 19, 2007 Permalink |
Thanks a lot to all those good points you mentioned…..I do agree with you that we should not create a handicap for learning a language……I like those techniques you shared with me..thank you..hey i’ll just let you know when i will need those lessons..ok?..God bless Azure…
My New Career as a Journalist « The Grand Narrative 11:45 am on November 19, 2007 Permalink |
[...] thing I have managed to do before I go, and will do so once while I’m on vacation too, is become a contributor to the blog ZR5 Asian News. To be specific, I’ll be using my Korean skills there to provide information about Korean [...]
andy 9:22 pm on November 19, 2007 Permalink |
AzureWolf: what random posts?