Beginning Perspectives on Korean Language From One Who Has Learned Japanese
So, something that my college, Middlebury College, has is “Midd on the Globe” which consists of language classes run by students. One of these classes is for Korean and since I have studied Japanese for a long time, I decided to take this class to see how similar Korean is to Japanese.
I’ve only taken one class this past Monday, but I can say that the alphabet doesn’t look too difficult. Although there seem to be a lot more vowels than the 5 vowel sounds in Japanese, having an alphabet sure beats having to learn thousands of Japanese characters. So far the alphabet seems pretty regular, too.
As for vocabulary, there seems to be a lot of similarities. Often the word is not exactly the same but similar enough that it makes it easy for me to remember it. Now I understand why the Korean students always had such an easy time in my Japanese class. Also, the vocabulary seems to be similar in that it often follows a consonant-vowel pattern like Japanese. Although this isn’t strict: it’s possible to have a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern. However, the rhythm seems to be similar to Japanese and the second consonant usually seems to be soft.
Grammar also seems to be very similar to Japanese with the subject-object-verb order. Also there seems to be particles that are similar to the Japanese ones. Again, now I see why the Korean students always had such an easy time in my Japanese classes. At least now I have an advantage over everyone else in my Korean class since I know Japanese sentence structure and vocabulary. It’s good to finally be ahead for once!
I’ll be sure to write more about my observations between Korean and Japanese in the future as I learn more. For now though, if you want to learn tips, techniques and tricks for the fastest language learning around, please check out my Learn That Language Now book. I have a free sample up now, so go check it out!
Fastest, Quickest Way to Learn Japanese Kanji
Japanese kanji are one of those things that beginners of Japanese often become enamored with in one way or another. Kanji are the key to reading Japanese and are also a nice way to show off to your non-Japanese speaking friends. From tattoos to scribbling down characters on a piece of paper, kanji are visually appealing and fun to write.
Unfortunately, Japanese kanji can be a nightmare for learners, especially beginners. Learning 1,945 distinct characters is no easy task. 1,945 is, of course, the number of joyo kanji which are the kanji recognized by the government and used in everyday use. To read a newspaper, one would need to know most of these 1,945 kanji.
Additionally, the characters often have multiple readings depending on the context and the way they are used. This can cause even further headaches for beginners since often times, the character they come across when reading will have a different reading from what they originally learned!
Despite these problems, Japanese kanji are necessary in order to read and write Japanese. Before I tell you what I have found to be the best way to learn kanji, let me tell you about some of the ways I tried that did not work.
Originally, when I was first starting out kanji, I tried learning the kanji the same way that Japanese children do. That is, I learned all the kanji that Japanese 1st graders learn and then I moved on to the kanji that 2nd graders learn and so on. The problem with this is that as a foreigner learning Japanese, the vocabulary I know is much different from a Japanese child. For that reason, some of the kanji I was learning were simple to write but not very applicable to my studies or the kind of Japanese I was using in class. To be honest, it is more beneficial to learn slightly more complicated kanji as long as you are using them often in class or somewhere else.
Another failed attempt was when I tried to learn kanji before I actually knew the vocabulary that the kanji was associated with. While this actual act isn’t that bad, the problem comes during review. If I don’t know the Japanese word already, the chances that I’m going to be using it later are very small so I never get to review the kanji or use it. For that reason, I got few reviews in of the kanji and I soon forgot it. Essentially, the time I spent learning it was wasted.
Another note I should make before I move on to some tips is that if you’re a beginner in Japanese, you shouldn’t worry too much about kanji too soon. In real life situations, you will most likely be using a computer or a cell phone to type out Japanese and in those cases, all you need to do is enter in the pronounciation of the words and recognize the kanji. Being able to recognize the kanji is a lot easier than being able to write it from memory. For this reason, you should be able to recognize a lot of kanji just by reading and studying. Even though you won’t be able to write them from memory, you will still be able to communicate as long as you have a computer or a cell phone which will be almost always.
In any case, there may be some times where you have to write out kanji (most likely for your class tests). The best advice I can give for learning kanji is to break down the kanji into their components and make up a story. Basically, you’ll notice that all kanji are made up of smaller parts called radicals. If you take these radicals and make up an image or word to represent them, you can then make up a small story combining all the radicals. This image will stick in your head and make it easier for you to remember the kanji in the future. If you have to learn the word or pronounciation of the kanji, as well, you can also add that into your story and thus knock down all the pins at once!
In any case, you’ll notice that the more complex kanji are actually made up of simpler kanji. So, as you create these stories, it will become easier and easier to learn the more complex kanji. The best thing to do is just to relax and slowly learn the kanji as your Japanese studies progress. In this way, your brain will become more familiar with the way the kanji look and you will find that you are able to pick up new kanji with ease. Eventually you won’t even need to make up stories to remember the kanji, you will just remember them naturally.
Hopefully you learned a thing or two from my post. If you want more language learning information, tips, tricks, techniques and method for the fastest language learning around to get you fluent quick then I recommend checking out my Learn That Language Now book. I now have a free sample up from the book so go and check it out!
Why Learn Esperanto
For those of you who don’t know already, Esperanto is a human-constructed language created in 1887. It was created in order to be a simple language to learn for those people who already knew a European language. It is estimated that there are 100,000 to 2 million speakers in the world.
When I was in high school, I began to learn Esperanto while taking Spanish classes because I had read on the Internet that it was an easy language to pick up. So, I took a free online course and even went to my bookstore and bought a book on Esperanto grammar and an Esperanto dictionary. What I found was, it was true: Esperanto grammar and vocabulary is regular and easy to pick up. There are no irregularities or exceptions like we find in natural languages. This made it a delight to learn.
There was, however, a problem with Esperanto for me and it ultimately led to me stopping my learning of it. The problem is that there just isn’t enough material to keep me interested in it. For example, there isn’t a wide range of literature or TV shows or movies or comic books. Additionally, there aren’t that many people who speak it and if the numbers I quoted above are true, those 100,000 to 2 million people are not concentrated in one area, but are instead spread throughout the world. So, that makes it a bit difficult to get up and visit a country where Esperanto is spoken and enjoy yourself being immersed by the language.
Ultimately, while Esperanto is an easy, regular language to learn, I would recommend spending one’s time on a real, natural language. The reason is because there is a lot more context available for you to enjoy yourself in. Esperanto, to me, seems more like a hobby. If you are looking for a niche to work yourself into, it might serve pretty well. I’m sure there are many message boards and communities on the Internet that promote Esperanto. In my opinion, however, it is much more worth my time to learn a natural language that is bigger and more useful simply because that’s where my interests lay.
I occasionally find people who tell me they want to learn Esperanto because it is an easy language and if they master it, it will make learning other languages easier after that. While I admire this logic, I don’t think it is quite on track. I think it would be more useful just to learn the language that you *want* to learn first. It doesn’t make sense to learn a completely different language solely for the sake of making the language you want to learn easier. I would argue that your interest in the language and your dedication to it is what is going to pull you through to fluency; not the fact that you were able to learn a separate language beforehand.
So, my final advice to those of you who are considering learning Esperanto is: check out the internet community and see if it’s something that interests you. If it does, then great, you should go ahead and learn Esperanto as long as it still gives you pleasure. On the other hand, for those of you who don’t like Esperanto for Esperanto and are instead thinking of using it as a stepping stone, I’d say, just go ahead and learn the language that you want to learn. It just doesn’t make sense to spend time on something that you are not really intending to use for itself anyway.
I hope my comments have been interesting to you. If you’d like more information, as well as, tips, tricks and techniques, I highly recommend checking out my language learning book. It includes a wealth of information as well as the method to get you fluent faster than you ever thought possible. I even have a free sample up now from the book, so check it out!
Making Friends to Help You Learn Your Target Language
As I mentioned in my last post on making the best of your study abroad trip, one of the best ways to improve in your target language is to make a friend or two who speaks the language natively. These friends will allow you to practice the language while having a good time. If you are lucky, they will introduce you to more people who speak the language natively and soon you will have a circle of friends who are willing to help you out in your target language.
Often times for people who have just moved or are doing a study abroad program in a country where their target language is spoken, they find it difficult to make contacts with the native population. This is understandable for anyone moving to a new area. However, there are a few advantages you have in gaining friends and new contacts. But, first let’s talk about the types of people you will find.
Similar to my post on how to become fluent through a boyfriend or girlfriend, there are a few types of friends you will encounter in your new country.
The first type is the kind who is interested in you for improving their own English. These types are usually pretty easy to befriend since they are gaining a lot by speaking to you in English. If you are really having trouble making friends in your new country, it may help to make a friend with one or two of this type of person since it may lead to them introducing you to other friends. The problem with this type is that they will want to speak English to you for part or all of the time and since you are trying to learn their target language, this obviously does not help you.
The second type of person is the person who has studied English to some degree in the past but either doesn’t feel comfortable speaking it or isn’t really interested in speaking English. This type is better than the first type since they will communicate with you in your target language and will be understanding of your mistakes. They are more likely to take things slowly with you in order to help you understand. They will also be somewhat knowledgeable of differences between your culture and their own.
The third type consists of people who have either never studied English or failed miserably at it in school and have absolutely no interest in learning English. This type is sometimes the hardest to meet and make friends with because they usually have little interest in foreigners. On the other hand, you will find a small subset that is interested in meeting foreigners as long as you have an interesting personality. In any case, you can expect that this type will speak to you only in your target language and will speak to you in it at full blast; that is, they will speak the language to you as if you understood it like a native.
So, which type is the best type to try and meet? It depends on your skill level in the language. In my opinion, the third type can be the most interesting since they will never hold back when speaking to you in the language. However, speaking to this type requires that you know the language extremely well. The second type is a softer version which is good for intermediates since they will often speak slowly for you or help you out with hard bits of vocabulary or grammar. The first type is probably only good for you if you know absolutely nothing in your target language or you are really desperate for friends.
Again, I should add that there are no hard, set types… it is possible to find third type people who will sit down with you and slowly explain things in their language or first type people who will set up times to speak only in the target language to help you out. However, the three categories I’ve talked about seem to be the most common types you will run across.
So, now that you know a little about the types of people you will meet, how do we go about meeting them? There are a few ways… probably the most direct way is to get out and try to join any kind of activity you can find. By doing some sort of activity, you will be exposed to others and will soon get to know them better. Another way is to simply be outside a lot. Especially if it is obvious that you are a foreigner, you will find that people will come up to you and try to speak to you. Often you will find a lot of type 1s who will try to come up and practice their English with you. It is very easy to make friends with these types since they are usually very interested in English and people from English-speaking countries.
Another great way to find people is to use the internet sites. There are many sites out there that you can search for that allow you to put up a profile or search other people’s profiles to make friends. You simply create a profile and wait for people to contact you or you can go out and contact others. After the initial contact, you can talk online for a while to see if this person is actually someone you want to meet and then you can go and meet them. This is a good way to meet people especially if you are shy about meeting people in person at first.
A good way to find these sites is to search Google for the country or target language and then “penpal”. Although most of these sites will show people who are looking for penpals, many of the people on such sites would be delighted to meet a foreigner in their own country. To give you an example for Japanese, japan-guide is a great way to make Japanese friends.
Well, I hope I was able to give you some help about making friends in a foreign country while trying to learn your target lanugage. If you want even more tips, tricks, techniques and the best method to get you fluent the fastest, then definitely check out my Learn That Language Now book. I even have a free sample up from the book now, so go take a look!
Making the Best of Your Study Abroad Trip
A problem I often see is language learners who study abroad but end up not learning as much of the language as they would have liked to. There are a few tips I can give for those of you who are planning on studying abroad that should help you learn the language.
First, I should say that simply going to a country where the target language is spoken is not enough to learn it. I’ve seen plenty of people go to a country for long periods of time (even years) and come out still not speaking past a few basic phrases. The point is, you’re going to have to put some effort into learning the language even while you’re in the country if you want to make the best of it.
So, how do we do this? If you don’t have a notecard program set up where you are reviewing new vocabulary already, then make sure you go ahead and do that as soon as possible. Setting it up is a bigger topic and can be read about in my Learn That Language Now book. Once you have your notecard program set up, you can begin adding vocabulary that you come across everyday.
Here is where being in the country really turboboosts your language studies. You are surrounded by real, natural language everyday. All you have to do is find some of the language and then add it to your notecard program. The great thing about being in a foreign country is that this language will surround you and force itself into your face everyday. For example, when I was in Japan, I would ride the subway to class and I was surrounded by advertisements rich with Japanese text. Not only did these advertisements provide me with real practice of my reading skills but I was also able to pick up on new vocabulary and study it later. You can find new vocabulary all around you; whether overheard on the train, seen in the supermarket, read in a newspaper, or anywhere else, it will all become good language practice for you.
Because you are in the country where the language is spoken, you simply cannot fail to find new vocabulary to add and learn. The important point though is that you keep track of it and make an active attempt to learn it. If you do not do this, you can be sure that the next time you come across the word, your chances of remembering it will be significantly lower.
Ultimately, the point is, don’t let the great opportunity of being surrounded by the language trick you into thinking you don’t have to put any effort into it. Study abroad can really boost your studies, but you need to make an active attempt to acquire the words around you, so do it! Another great tip is to find some native friends who can speak to you in the language — I’ll talk more about this in a later post. If you can’t wait or if you want more tricks, tips and the quickest, best method for learning a language, by all means, feel free to read about my Learn That Language Now ebook. I even have a free sample up now, so check it out!
Teaching English in Korea — How to Learn Korean?
A friend of mine recently told me that he had decided to go to South Korea to teach English. He doesn’t know a single word of Korean and I thought about the kind of advice I would give to someone in this situation since I know there are probably quite a few people out there considering teaching English in a foreign country without knowing a word of the native language.
For someone who doesn’t know much of the language, let’s say, Korean, in this case, and who doesn’t have time or money to take classes or get a tutor in their home country, I would give the following advice. First, go to your local bookstore and get a small phrasebook. Flip through the phrasebook and pick out any phrases that you think you will likely be using. Phrases like “thank you”, “do you speak English?”, “please”, etc. are all good starters. A good way to study these phrases is to put them on notecards and then carry around those notecards wherever you go, studying the phrases whenever a bit of time pops up like when you are standing in line at the supermarket, for example.
Note that you don’t have to learn every phrase in the phrasebook. In fact, most of the phrases in the phrasebook are likely not worth studying at the moment since the situations that they describe are so rare they are unlikely to come up. Instead, try to imagine what your life will be like in Korea and then decide which phrases will be most useful to you.
Now, if you have a little extra money, I would also suggest buying an audio course. The reason for this is that it will get you used to hearing the sounds of Korean and it will have you speaking the basic phrases. This way, the natives will be able to understand you and you will be able to understand them. Especially for a language so different from English, it may be hard to get a good grasp of the spoken language from just a phrasebook. There are many audio courses out there but if I had to recommend one, I would say Pimsleur is a good bet. Pimsleur makes nicely packaged courses that are pretty enjoyable and cover the most commonly used phrases that you will need. If you are technically inclined, you can rip the CDs into MP3s and put them on your MP3 player for the plane ride over to Korea.
So, what I’ve recommended is the bare minimum to get you started in the language right before going over. Of course, when you get to your future country, you’ll want to continue your studies and I have some advice on that, too, which I’ve put into a nice book that covers all aspects of learning any language so that you will be learning as quickly and fluently as possible with the least amount of effort. You can find more information about my book and read more free articles on language learning at my website, Learn That Language Now. Good luck in your language studies and if you have any questions, feel free to contact me!