September is a month for good intentions and new beginning. It is also our “official” back to school month and we have decided to kick off our month by interviewing Molly, a university student and talk to her about her experience with Korean. As almost all of us have studied (willingly or not) a language in school, we know it is both a fun and stressful journey. Learning Korean is the same. As with any language, you should consider a few things before diving into the learning process, such as: what your motivation is, how much time you’re realistically willing to put into learning, and how you will go about the learning process.
In South Korea they use a writing system called ‘hangul’ (한글) which consists of 24 basic letters. It is highly advised to learn the alphabet first before moving onto other areas of the language. This is because romanization of Korean words can cause the learner to form habits of mispronunciation which are difficult to break. Luckily, Hangul is relatively easy to learn as it was created in 1443 with the intention of helping the lower classes become literate as the previous writing system was considerably complicated.
The next issue that may occur is how to study. Although it is useful to memorize the alphabet using flashcards, apps, posters, or any other method, it is far more helpful to apply them to more realistic, everyday situations. A recommendation for learning any language is always to read children’s books in the target language as they use a simplified style, which is perfect for beginners as it increases vocabulary knowledge, improves reading ability, and shows grammar rules being applied in straightforward ways while not being completely overwhelming to the learner.
However, before starting the learning process, you should take into consideration the difficulties of the target language. For native English speakers it can be a challenging language to learn due to the sentence structure (the verb is placed at the end of the sentence) and the honorific system (changing the way you speak based on who you’re talking to and the amount of respect needed). Although these can be overcome through practice and patience, it can still take awhile to fully get to grips with the style.
My experience with learning Korean is that it is an enjoyable and rewarding process that challenges me and pushes my abilities further than I thought they could go. Everyone’s language learning experience is slightly different, but with hard work and determination you can achieve anything.
Overall, learning a language takes time and dedication, it pushes the learner to face new challenges and find creative ways to overcome the difficulties (be it grammar, spelling, pronunciation…) There are multiple ways to improve your language abilities in and out of an educational environment; they can range from posters and notes, to videos and music, and even to in-person conversation. There are many more different styles of learning, everyone has their own methods adapted to suit just them. It is always interesting to learn new ways of learning or revising, so please share and explore these different methods and hopefully you’ll find the right one for you.