Why Korean?
I touch on this in my Korean Wave scrapbook site. I've not been to East Asia, and maybe that's why I've had an enduring interest in the region. Netflix recommendations introduced me to Korean dramas; Covid seemed an opportune catalyst to take on a new challenge; between Chinese, Japanese and Korean, Korean is described as a scientific language and therefore offered potentially better learning prospects; and then Netflix had me hooked.
In the course of trying to learn the language I can see how having an interest in the country and culture is to motivating the learning process. Perhaps the singularly unsuccessful British approach to language learning at school might itself learn from this simple observation.
Hangul
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| Image courtesy of KMaru |
Hangul was created in 1443 CE by the monarch at that time, King Sejong, in an attempt to increase literacy by serving as a complement (or alternative) to the logographic Sino-Korean Hanja, which had been used by Koreans as their primary script to write the Korean language for 2000 years or more. (Wikipedia extract). Such is its importance, Korea has an annual Hangul Day holiday.
Each character has an associated phonic sound and characters are combined into syllable blocks, and syllable blocks make words. A character cannot exist by itself. And it's as easy as that!
Learning the characters and the way in which sounds change under different combinations is rather like Jolly Phonics. Reading, badly, comes quite quickly; thereafter things become, let's say, an order of magnitude more difficult. I feel like an adult trying to learn something new which is universally basic. Yet every new word learned, or rather retained, and every tiny step forward, feels just a little bit exciting.
Watching K Dramas
Armed with the objective of trying to learn a language, what better way than immersing oneself in the embrace of a global success story, namely the storytelling, acting, drama, tragedy, thriller, action, romance, comedy, music and attractiveness that is the K Drama component of the Korean Wave. Let the language wash over you as you begin to recognise the cultural norms, absorb the subtitles, start to hear words, then sentences, pause rewind replay re-listen, understand small pieces of conversation, spot an unnecessary subtitle deviation from the original, chalk up the tiny steps.
Like Duolingo, but was recommended as maybe being better for the Korean Language. The latest version includes AI derived conversation, written or spoken, video clips of native language speakers supposedly using some of the words and phrases learned, as well as flash card style subject packs. There are aspects that are definitely useful but it's more like the Berlitz language phrase books - lots of material, but it doesn't actually systematically teach the grammar and sentence construction. In these heady days of mass internet, there's no shortage of learning resources available to choose from. I settled on and subscribed to 90 Day Korean and certainly found it provided a comprehensive and well structured environment. There are four Inner Circle courses and I suppose the first one, if covered in just 90 days, could support the claim of (some) students being able to hold a simple 3 minute conversation including, necessarily in my case, plenty of thinking time and assuming only the simplest of exchanges, in 90 days. For me the first 90 days I think turned into 150, the second into another 210. Maybe the assumption was full time learning? There were speaking classes but when these changed to require an additional subscription I started looking at other possibilities, whilst retaining a smaller subscription access to the online materials. 
My most recent subscription is to Essential Korean. Started by Teacher Kay, my initial introduction was via her free podcasts, which provided an interesting mix of grammar, vocabulary, phrases and culture in bite sized chunks. From there, and consistent with the learning approach espoused in her podcasts, I now subscribe to her website. As well as full podcast transcripts, a structured set of learning courses which go from basic to intermediate to levels I suspect I can only dream about, there is a lively online community where 'learners' can cover all aspects of the language experience: listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as discussions on K Pop, K Food, K Drama, K Cinema, K Literature, K perspectives. I look forward to seeing where this current track takes me.Translators
With the latest Samsung S24 smart phone claiming virtual AI based real time translation capabilities, is there a need to learn a language? Well there is, if you haven't got the S24 yet. But I suspect most countries, secretly or otherwise harbour a certain pride in their language as part of cultural difference. If people make an effort to go beyond communicating through technology, surely there is more to gain. English speaking countries are maybe the exception? Are the majority of only English speakers just a little bit ashamed?
Moving on, Google Translate, and Papago, the Korean equivalent, are certainly great aids. They help consolidate and broaden learning. As well as the obvious translation service, you can speak to them (to see if the voice recorder recognises what you are trying to say, however much you think it sounds ok); you can see the meaning of words in a phrase or sentence; and they also show how one character spelling mistake can totally transform a sentence, maybe to something highly inappropriate. So they do have a place. But they don't teach grammar or clarify the different styles and levels of speech that can be used.
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