The common legend is : to really learn a language you need to go to the country.In a sense, that's true... in a sense, that's not.
So lets analyze the situation.
Why do people in a foreign country don't speak the language ?
1) Foreigner tend to stay with people from there own country : French with French, Spanish with Spanish, Chinese with Chinese... So they only speak their mother tongue2) They jump on everything in the mother tongue : films, books, web sides... So good for listening and reading comprehension
3)They don't really try to learn the language hiding behind the "It's so difficult anyway".
Why is there in the foreign country about the language that you don't have at home ?
Everything that represent the language itself : the native speakers, the movies, TV, radio, books, advertisement, music, real need to know it...Except the "real need to know it" everything else can become yours at home without so much troubles. The only thing to do is to replace the "real need to know it" by "the real desire to know it no matter what".
When you are serious about that and ready for the learning process, forget everything about silence.
What I mean by that is that you will have to live in your target language, having it all around you, swim in it, as long as you need to make it your.
That for, get movie, get music, find a good radio on internet, (for Korean radio see here) and let get started. 24/7. Nearly I'm not listening to Korean while sleeping, but I'm not sleeping that much anyway.
The most part of the Korean I learn was from listening, movies, radio, songs ( For Korean lyrics see here). You will catch nothing at the beginning, but then a word, then two, then a sentence... I don't understand everything yet, but I truly know that I'm on the way.
The reading is more difficult but it will come by itself by working on it step by step anyway.
So let get started and stop worrying, there really is no difficulty that can't be erased.
Aja aja, fighting
my name is Ronnie, and I'm a Singaporean who has been learning Korean for 5 years, and I've written and published a book entitled "Curse of Jeju Island" (화산섬의 저주). It's a vampire fiction loosely based on the aftermath of the Jeju Massacre in 1950 (제주도민 학살 사건). You'd be able to find out more from my personal homepage:
ReplyDeletehttp://ronnieng.blogspot.com
the story synopsis is as follows:
Korea was under the colonial rule of the Japanese Empire between 1910 and 1945.
During the Japanese occupation, thousands of Koreans were used as test subjects (guinea pigs) in secret military medical experimentation units, such as Unit 731, Unit 516, and many more. Towards the end of the colonial period, the Japanese military scientists were working on a new project, which was a "vampirisation process" on humans through genetic alteration.
If the project proved successful, the "supposedly-dead" could remain alive through parasitic life sustenance - a biological mechanism that mimics the blood-sucking vampire bats and leeches. The Japanese Army paid some poor hapless Korean parents to allow the medical officers to perform the experiments on their children. However, the Korean parents involved in the transaction believed that the experiments were merely another series of medical trials, and were not aware that it was actually a vampirisation process.
Theoretically-speaking, the success of this project would allow the Japanese Imperial Army to utilise the "undead" as "immortal soldiers" to fight through the end of World War II. The project, however, didn't seem to yield any immediate nor apparent result, as the Korean children in question didn't seem to show any physical sign of becoming "vampirised". The medical officers could not find any sort of cell mutation nor behavioural change in these children.
The project was finally abandoned, when the Japanese Army were forced to surrender to the Allied Forces in 1945 after the American dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All documents and project facilities pertaining to the said experiments were destroyed, so as to eliminate evidences of the Japanese Imperial Army's atrocious deeds.
The children grew up normally - some of them joined the US-led South Korean Army (known as the Regiments), while some of them embraced communist ideals and became the insurgents (known as the Guerrilas). The two remained at war until the "Jeju Massacre" , which claimed the lives of more than 60,000 people. Their bodies were then sealed in the volcanic cave of Mount Halla. Amongst these 60,000 people were some of the test subjects who were earlier involved in the vampirisation process. The vampirisation process only became effective when these dead bodies were laid in the cave.
The geological conditions (temperature, mineral make-up, etc) of the volcano cave helped to promote the vampirisation process, and their genetic structure mutated to resemble the feeding patterns of bloodsucking creatures such as bats and leeches. Thus these group of the dead were resurrected to become vampires, as they acquired the ability to shapeshift into bats, and back into their human form. They are now doomed to roam the streets of Jeju seeking living human prey and continuing the battles that they once fought in life. Thus, the bitter feud between the two mortal factions – The Regiments (former soldiers) and The Guerrillas (former rebels) – has now become immortal.
Today, we meet Han Mirae, a young Korean girl who is caught in a love triangle between Jackie Chang, a swashbuckling vampire hunter from Singapore, and Shin Taewoo a powerful vampire of the Guerillas. And, we meet Kim Hyunsuk, the Regimental, who abducts Mirae in order to set a trap to kill the other two.
Can Taewoo or Jackie save the girl in time? And who is Mirae's real love?
Could Seiji Inada, being a Japanese vampire hunter, somehow be linked to the vampirisation project conducted by the Japanese Army several decades ago? Hhhmm... It very well could, especially if his father, Kazuhito Inada was one of the soldiers involved during World War II...
That sounds interesting, I will have a look for sure, I'm a big fan of vampire stories :)
ReplyDeletehi
ReplyDeletei interesting ,why your bloger most post about of korean.your program about of korean in university?
No, I'm studying Physic at university. Learning languages is a hobby. I like especially Asian languages, I've been learning Chinese and Japanese for a bit. But I promised someone that next time I see him I will speak Korean. So that's why I'm so interested in Korean and I need to finish learning it as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm also getting tired about not being able to read Chinese characters so I will go back to that soon I guess.