이렇게 같은 한국어

I recently signed up for the Korean Language Proficiency Test (KLPT) in a local test center. As of the time of this writing, the date of the upcoming test is at October 25, while people still have time until September 30 to register.

KLPT, along with another Korean proficiency test called Test of Proficiency in Korean (한국어능녁시험TOPIK) is the IELTS, the TOEFL of Korean. As you may expect, if you pass this test or maybe even get good results, it will be tremendously advantageous to your Korean learning journey. The KLPT, I quote:

The KLPT suggests the standard of qualification and good command of Korean language in carrying out specific operations for examinees who desire to get a job in Korean companies and governmental authorities located in Korea or other nations or prosecute knowledge in a university in Korea.

Shanna, of Hangukdrama, has recently taken the TOPIK test. I think it would be very useful to ask her about the test itself if you're interested. :)

One of the differences between KLPT and TOPIK, according to Wikipedia is that it seems that TOPIK has no oral component. This could make passing the test easier though (lol) but it could also be criticized as not being comprehensive enough. Anyway, it's your choice. I took KLPT because I had to miss TOPIK due to a conflicting exam schedule with my university.

Basically I think that it's best to take KLPT after you have studied Korean to somewhere near the intermediate level. Most Korean textbooks are quite standard when what constitutes intermediate language comes into question. If you're into Korean already, it would be that you already know about Hangul and pronunciation, learnt basic numbering and counters, have understood the basic grammar functions like 있다/없다, -하고 싶다 (expression of desire), long and short negatives, the future -겠다 and so on. It's easier than it seems (and I'd like to think that is really the case), but I really ought to brush up just in case!

In any case, if you are not so confident, you can also take Basic KLPT. How's that for a starter? Remember also to have a form like the below :P

As I mentioned in my About page, I initially used Elementary Korean, by Ross King and Yeon Jae-Hoon to kickstart my Korean. I found it to be useful such that I didn't need to buy extra references. This much had to be from a book which retails for USD 69, had a CD and more than 400 pages.

Aside from the very detailed grammar explanations and complete written exercises, there's also another reason why Elementary Korean was so good for me.

To begin with, I like learning stuff by looking at the text first, then the hands-on stuff like video, audio, dramas, etc. That was also the approach I used when I bought this book, because back then I thought that one had to have a textbook to learn stuff. I believe that when it comes to learning Korean, many websites and maybe college teachers will recommend learning Hangul (한글) first. Grammar terms will always be taught as they are officially named in Korean textbooks. People will be taught And so on.

However, I find the approach taken in Elementary Korean to actually make more sense. EK does not go into detail at once about the script. Instead it starts with 2 chapters of basic expressions which, while written in Hangul, have been transliterated to make it easy to pronounce them. Play the CD that comes along with the book, and I found that it was much easier to learn the sounds of each of the 25 symbols of Hangul in the later chapters. Evidently, both Ross and Yeon intended the first two chapters to reinforce the sounds of Hangul.

Then there are also other aspects of grammar in which EK deviated very differently from the standard Korean textbook, but which also made learning grammar much easier. (This gets a bit technical here)

For example, the ㄹ irregular verbs (an example article of which can be found in the Korean Wiki Project) are actually called ㄹ~ㄷ verbs in EK, which suggests that both ㄹ and ㄷ are interchangeable. The connection is very obvious - on certain occasions the verbs retain ㄹ, on certain others ㄷ. In EK this was explained in very clear, unambiguous terms. Of course I'm not saying that the Wiki article is confusing. It's just that, EK made it much much easier.

It was from EK that I realized: there can be many different ways to kill a cat learn Korean. Even the text can be presented in a way which is better understood. Since then, having gained a very firm basic foundation thanks to EK and Continuing Korean (the sequel to EK), I felt it was easier to follow up on other Korean language books who stick to the "official" and sometimes, confusing, form. I've also since relied more on audio and video, especially dramas, to learn Korean.

Of course, this innovative form of expressing content can have some weaknesses too. Often you may lose out when books refer extensively to grammar using the official terms. This is where you should watch out.

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So to summarize:
1. EK has an innovative, simplistic, yet easy-to-understand method of teaching Korean. Thumbs up.

2. There can be several ways to learn Korean, especially when there's so many resources available both on and offline.

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I intended to write something on learning Korean but I found the following articles too interesting, so I linked them here and did a translation of my own. It’s not a full translation and it's not perfect – I think it may have grammar mistakes – so feel free to correct if necessary - comment box is below. Thanks.

Basically what I’m linking here today is that the NYT and WSJ reported that Miss Lee Ki-Nam has tried to export something unusual to the world – its alphabet. She has started a project whereby she tried – and succeeded somewhat – to promote Hangul to natives who do not have a written script for their language. Both articles report in detail.

I think this is actually somewhat commendable. Even though I'm unsure of Hangul's effectiveness to convey sounds effectively - certain sounds like "f" and "v" are missing in Hangul, yet I feel what Miss Lee does is something not many people, perhaps not even Koreans themselves, dare to do. What do you think? Post your thoughts in the comment box.

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뉴욕 타임스(New York Times)에서 기자 최상훈이 한국의 최근 수출을 대에서 기사 썼습니다.

근데 그 수출은 어떤 생산물이 아니라 한글이라고 했습니다.

얘기는 이기남이란 한국여자가 언어에 글자 없는 원주민에게 한글을 그 언어의 글자로 가르치기 위해  원주민 땅에 갔습니다. 켤과, 이기남 씨의 프로젝트 첫번째 성공을 받았습니다.

The Wall Street Journal 기사 대로, 지난 7월에, 인도네시아에서 있는 치아 치아 (Cia-Cia) 부족의 아이들이 한글을 치아 치아 모어 글자로 쓰기 배우기 시작했습니다.

지금 치아 치아 부족은 부톤(Buton)도에서 아주 가난하고 자급 농부들이라고 합니다. 한글을 쓰기 격려하기 위해 서울대학교 언어학자가 치아 치아 언어의 음에 따르는 한글에 기초하는 글자를 만드는 것을 제안, 그리고 부톤도와 한국 사이 경제 협녁 제안도했답니다.

이런 사정이 한국인 아닌 사람에게 특별한 일이 아니지만, 한국인에게 큰 자존심이 되었습니다. 한국에서 한글날이라는 공중 휴일이 있거든요. 또, 어떤 한국 정치당이 이기남 씨의 공에 감명받고 칭찬했습니다. 그런데 이씨한테 치아 치아 프로젝트는 한글을 만드신 조상 세종왕의 뜻을 따를 뿐이라고 합니다. 세종왕에서21마리의 발생 후에 직접적인 자손입니다.

대왕께서 백성을 위해 한글을 만드시고 선전하셨다, 이씨가 말했습니다.

I think this is a question people with initial interest in Korean will ask. And this is perhaps something this blog has to tackle quite adequately before launching into the Korean talk.

I read from a website somewhere (which I regrettably forgot) that claims, from the English speaker's point of view, Korean is a hard language. In face the website says it's even harder than Mandarin, because Mandarin has a sentence structure that is similar to English while Korean does not. While I agree that Korean sentence structures are very different from English, that does not necessarily make it any harder.

As I pointed out in italics, it may be that for native speakers of English, Korean will come across as something that is mind-bending, something that needs a 180 degrees mental turnabout, because in Korean language is not as English understands it. A few examples in case:

1. English typically has a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order. Sometimes it can be changed to SOV or OVS. However Korean typically has an SOV order in which the verb must always be placed at the end of the sentence. It is the same as Japanese. This rigidity creates linguistic situations in Korean which the English speaker may find peculiar.

Currently I have

1. Facebook 
2. My personal blog
3. Gmail (imsolikethis@gmail.com)
4. Skype (ID: jilo86)

As soon as I have more profiles I will also add them here.

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지금은

1. Facebook 
2. 개인적인 블러그
3. Google Talk (imsolikethis@gmail.com)
4. Skype (아이디 jilo86)

있습니다.

또 프로파일 있으면, 여기에서 포함하겠습니다.

Hello everyone. I'm JL (real name's Jim) and it's my first attempt at blogging about Korean AND in Korean. I started learning Korean about 3 years ago. Back then, when I was deciding on which foreign language to learn, it simply bothered me that I didn't know about any languages other than the ones I was brought up in or learnt in school (English, Chinese, Malay). Then it struck me that I never understood what those round, Chinese-like characters in Korean meant, so I thought I'd learn Korean! That's it, that was the story of how I started. :D

When I first started out I used Elementary Korean by Ross King and Yeon Jae Hoon. That book was quite good, but it was a sentence in the Foreword that made me take notice:

A certain lesson was the "heartbreak hill" of the course - if the students don't survive it, they will not survive the course (or ever learn Korean).

That made me determined to pass that lesson, and I actually passed it (woot!) and went on to greater things in Korean. But I'm not here to teach people. Rather I believe that I'm here to share, and that my Korean learning is far from over thus, I still have to learn from others. So as the Koreans say, 잘 부탁드립니다! (please be on the lookout for me) :D

Here I'd hope to make it easier for you and me for to advance in Korean. I wish you all happy learning and keep up the good work!

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여러분들이 안녕하세요? 제 별명 제엘이고, 진짜 이름은 짐이예요. 이 블로그가 제가 처음 한국말로 한국어에 대한 걸 쓰는 블로그이예요. 약 삼년 전 한국말 배우기 시작했습니다. 그 땐 어떤 외국어가 제일인지 결정하고 있는데, 제가 알았던 말은 모국어 (중국말), 학교에서 배운 말 말레이말과 영어 밖에 없는 것이 정말 안타까운 일이었어요. 근데, 그 둥근, 중국어의 글자 같은 글을 안 적이 없어서 한국어를 배우기로 했습니다. 이 것이 제가 어떻게 한국어를 배우기 시작한 이야기예요. ^^

처음에 Ross King과 연재훈이 쓴 Elementary Korean (기본적인 한국어) 책을 썼어요. 그 책이 좋은데, 책에 있는 어떤 문장이 주의시켰습니다:

어떤 과가 이 코스의 가장 힘든 과인데, 학생이 잘 보지 못 하면, 코스도 잘 보지 못 하고 한국어까지 배울 수가 없을 것이다.

그 문장을 읽은 후, 반드시 그 과를 잘 보겠다는 결심을 했어요. 다행히 잘 보게 돼서 한국말에서 더 큰 것을 이룬 겁니다. 하지만 제가 사람을 가르치는 것이 아닙니다. 오히려, 지식을 나누는 것이고, 제가 한국말을 배우는 게 끝나지 않을 거라서 다른 사람에게도 배울 필요 아직 있어요. 한국 사람의 말대로, 잘 부탁드립니다!

여기는 우리가 한국말 배우기를 더 쉽게 만드는 곳이 되면 좋겠습니다. 배움을 잘하시기 바라요. 그리고 수고 하세요!

PS: If there are mistakes in the above or "strange" Korean, please feel free to correct them by commenting on any of my other posts (this is intended to be a static page, hence no comments)