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
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