Why You Need To Learn Korean: A Language On The Rise

 


Why You Need To Learn Korean: A Language On The Rise

With the 2018 Winter Olympics underway in PyeongChang, South Korea, it’s a good time to talk about the rise of Korean language education and what it means for learners. When you think about studying languages, you probably don’t think of Asian languages as a first choice. But if you were learning a language from scratch right now, would you choose French or Spanish? Maybe Arabic or Russian? If you happen to be learning English as your first language, then Chinese may be on your mind since it’s predicted to overtake English soon based on search volumes and number of speakers.

·         Why is Korean such an important language to learn?

·         The best way to learn Korean, and how you can do it on your own

Conclusion: If you’ve ever been interested in learning a foreign language, now is the time to dive in and study Korean. It’s one of the most popular languages in the world, and soon it may be second only to English.

Why is Korean such an important language to learn?

Korean is a great language to learn for a number of reasons. It’s the most spoken language in East Asia. It’s spoken by over 80 million people in South Korea, and also by Korean communities in China, Japan, and the United States. In addition, all major dialects within the Korean language are fairly homogeneous. Some differences exist, but they’re minor and don’t significantly affect vocabulary or understanding.

When learning any language, focus on native speakers. When you’re learning a foreign language, native speakers are almost certainly going to be your language of choice. Don’t think of learning a foreign language as a pathway to fluency; think of it as a steppingstone to attaining fluency. In other words, if you think you’re a hundred percent fluent in Spanish and you fail a Spanish class because you can’t understand the teacher, the lesson is over — no need to repeat the mistake. If Korean was your first language, you’d be far better off spending those four years studying Korean fluently before attempting to study Spanish.

Korean is graded based on written Korean, not spoken Korean. These are the roots of many words in Korean, so learning a language without reading the Korean script is a difficult prospect. The language has a written form (Hanja) as well as an oral form (Korean). You can’t speak a language without speaking it. Luckily, many words in Korean are written even if they’re never used in conversation. For instance, you can look up ‘cheese’ in Korean and it’ll tell you the pronunciation in formal (조카) and informal ( 였주) slang.

If you learn to read, write, and speak as a native speaker, you’ll achieve a high level of fluency— the kind you’re likely to use in your life. Although you can always practice reading and listening in Korean, you can’t practice writing unless you’re a native speaker. Since older Korean generations only began learning the language over a century ago, older generations also don’t have tremendous written language knowledge.

The best way to learn Korean, and how you can do it on your own

The best way to learn Korean is to learn how to read and write Hangul, the Korean alphabet, and then to start learning vocabulary words and putting them into sentences. You can do this with the help of a teacher or a book, but it’s also possible to do it on your own.One of the reasons that English speakers have such a hard time learning Korean is that we approach language learning in the wrong way. We learn standardized vocabulary and categories.

We try to memorize lists of random words and sentences and think of fluency in just a few minutes. This is bad form. Don’t get me wrong. Fluency is a rather vague word, but it’s what we’re aiming to achieve when we learn a foreign language. The problem is that fluency becomes an end in itself, rather than a step on the long road to self-understanding and the ability to self-express our thoughts and feelings using language. The problem isn’t that we’re not good at memorizing things; it’s that we’re bad at using them.

Another problem is that when we learn a foreign language, we imagine ourselves as speaking to one person. But this is a very limiting vision. We might think that our conversation is with our Korean teacher. But it’s actually with a whole class of students, and we change the context each time to fit the context of the moment and our mood.

Most times, when we try to memorize a list of random words while learning a language, instead of focusing on understanding and applying grammar rules, we’ll end up repeating words out of habit without giving them any thought. We keep on doing this until the list is raw and unstructured. Until we start seeing it as a collection of random words and start seeing context within it. That’s when language learning becomes productive. That’s when language learning becomes a joy. Remember this when you start learning Korean, even if you’re just trying to make friends or impress people around you.

YouTube Channel To Learn Korean

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-47-R8NDUm_FfdFBDQXufw

Learn Basic Korean Language

https://youtu.be/iQQw8A1C4kU

 

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