Learning Korean

여러분 안녕하세요!

Hello everyone! With about 4 months to go until we're on the road making this show happen, I've decided to learn some of the languages we'll need while we're traveling. At first I was trying to do a different language every day, and let me tell you, that was a pain and a half and I wasn't retaining anything. So I decided to focus on one language at a time, studying for a few hours every day M-F and using the weekends to review the week's lessons as well as practice languages I already know (like Spanish, Japanese, and French. My French really needs help). I think the last week of every month I am going to try and find a community either in Rochester, or online, where I can spend time practicing the month's language with someone who speaks it fluently.

This month will be focused on Korean! Although by the time you're reading this, we'll be halfway through the month already! My Instagram should have a video up of me trying my darnedest to speak using words and phrases that I've been working on the past couple of weeks. I may include it in here too, we'll see how lucky you guys are! If you have any constructive criticism, corrections, or just wanna throw some positive encouragement my way- please do!

I was really excited to learn Korean because when I originally heard it being spoken, it sounded pretty similar to Japanese. Both are derived from Chinese, so it makes some sense to think that they might be similar, but now that I've been learning it, I've realized its really just the endings like "-ayo" that make it sound that way to an untrained ear. That being said, I do struggle with inserting Japanese (occasionally Spanish or French too) words in when I start to get fatigued or blank on how to say something. And then I have to look it up because I can only think of the other language. I imagine that's normal for someone trying to learn multiple languages, but it still frustrates me.

I'm sure a big question is about what I'm using to learn Korean. Well, I have a few different resources I've been using with varying degrees of success.

Essential Korean Podcast: This is available on Spotify and I'll be honest I don't know how podcasts work. Can you get this on other apps? Maybe. I do know you can go to their website to listen to the podcasts as well as to find transcripts for all of them, which is incredibly useful. I love the teacher, Kay. She's personable, funny, goes through things slowly first, and is interesting to listen to. The latter is important to me because, before I realized their were transcripts for the podcast (and when I was trying to do a different language each day), I was re-listening to the lessons multiple times to get the pronunciation right and never did I find it annoying or monotonous to listen to her speak. Even the ones that I've listened to more than 4 times because some words are just an absolute mouthful and I need to hear, and see them, sooo many times before they click and especially click smoothly, at a typical speaking pace. Highly, highly recommend this podcast!

Mango Languages: This app is available in both the App Store and Google Play. It starts each lesson off with a short conversation and each chapter of that lesson breaks down a different part of the conversation. You can record your voice and compare it to the speaker's, do a daily review with flash cards, and download the lessons to review off line which will probably come in handy when practicing on a plane or other places without internet access! I do pay $17.99 a month for the multiple language subscription option, but they have a single language option for $7.99 a month and also include free languages like Pirate, Ancient Greek, Hawaiian, Cherokee, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and more.

Drops: A super simple little app available for the App Store, Google Play, and in your browser. I originally downloaded it for Icelandic, but ended up being disappointed in it because it doesn't teach sentence structure, grammar or any of that. It's basically just words but in a setting that makes learning the words feel more like a game. You can do 10mins for free everyday or pay $39.99 for a year subscription to the service. This unlocks unlimited study time and lessons unavailable in the free version. If you're using it in conjunction with other language learning resources, you may not need more than the free 10 mins, however when I started using it for Korean I found out that it teaches you the alphabet AND correct stroke order for the characters. Not sure if it does that for any other languages, but I'll report on that as I use it over the course of the next few months. That feature has been SUPER helpful to me as I find myself forgetting the alphabet again and again. I paid for the full version both for the support in learning the alphabet/characters as well as being able to practice more than 10mins a day if I want to. For me, it's worth it.

CUDU: I really enjoy the concept of this app, but at the time of writing this I'm not a fan of it in practice. It could be that I'm too novice for the app and may enjoy it more once I'm a bit further along in my language learning, but I'm not sure. It's basically a whole bunch of different conversations and then you repeat what you've learned. But when you repeat it, you don't get to see the sentence any longer. For me, it's trickier to learn that way, at least at the level I'm at now. Sometimes Korean sounds like you pronounce it one way, but then when you see it written you realize its different and I don't want to practice something over and over that ends up being a wrong pronunciation! I do like that you have access to these conversations though to get a feel for what Korean sounds like in every day use and speaking speed so I listen to them from time to time but don't always participate in the little exams they have to test your pronunciation. Maybe I should start writing them down so I have a copy of them to look at? I might try that.

PORO: I want to like this app and think that it's probably similar to CUDU as it looks like a bunch of conversations that you can choose from to listen to. But, the app is so overrun by ads that I have yet to get past the full conversation part to see what else there and to even see if its worth paying for to get rid of the annoying ads. Try it out if you're more patient than me, because if nothing else its probably useful for hearing the Korean language in casual, typical conversations you might encounter.

Duolingo: I actually enjoy Duolingo quite a bit...just not for Korean, I actually recommend skipping it if you are starting out basic, with absolutely zero knowledge of Korean. I am going to try to do a placement test once I know more in the language, as I like using Duolingo for other languages- its intuitive and fun and tests your comprehension, pronunciation, and knowledge of the languages in various ways. But, trying to learn the alphabet is insufferable through the app and you can't move on to other lessons until you've moved past those. So, whomp, whomp, its a no for me for Duolingo: Korean edition. Sorry Duo, don't haunt me for that.

Do you have any app or resource recommendations for learning Korean? Tips or tricks? Any of your own experiences with these apps? Want to share your struggles too? Leave some comments below! : )