To ask what helped you most when learning a new language?

[jennie0412]

I know I'm not being unreasonable, just came here for traffic I'm currently trying to learn korean, by myself, no teachers or tutors. I mostly try picking up words from k-dramas or songs, or even interviews with groups like bts. I also look up common phrases and write them a few times in my notebook to sort of ingrain them into my head. It's working but.. slowly
How have you guys done it? (It can be any language! Not just Korean!)

I am learning Russian on Duolingo. It has Korean on it, I checked.
I am also using it to brush up on my French. The difference is hilarious. In French I get “I am sending an email to the company director” and “you are lending books to your friends”, in Russian I get “there is a bear in the village” and my favourite “there is blood on the ticket”.

Reading very simply-written stories, eg those for children. The Maigret detective novels by Georges Simenon are great for French, as the language used is very simple.

When I learned Japanese, i obviously had the different alphabet (syllabary to be correct) to deal with as well as the words.
I imagine Korean has similar.

What helped me crack the syllabary was children's books.

They were very simple with the words (in syllables) next to eg animals and I think you copied the words (in pencil so you could do it repeatedly if you wanted). It really helped them become familiar - in a simple way, before I moved onto more regular words and sentences.

Ah criss posted with game.

But I suppose it's different because that is novels/stories while I'm referring to kids reading/writing exercise books.
Both could really help, no doubt.

@GilbertMarkham yes, the alphabet was easy to learn! I had it down in a matter of hours. Actually knowing the words and sentence structures.. well, I'm not there yet! those books sound really helpful actually, was there a specific brand(?)/title you used?

I speak a few languages, including some Asian ones (but not Korean). Total immersion is definitely the best approach, but if that's not possible, the only real answer is practice. Lots of repetition!

Watching dramas and songs is a great way of building vocab and getting familiar with the sounds of the language, but if you really want to progress, you need to practise the productive skills (speaking and writing). Do you know anyone you could practise with? If not, could you find someone online? It might be possible to exchange English practice for Korean if you don't want to pay for it.

Free apps like duolingo are quite good for learning to read, picking up new words etc. They will never be enough on their own, but they're a useful tool in the early stages. Repetitive drills are very good for learning grammar, although they are a little boring!

Good luck! If you keep at it, you will make progress!

They probably have white board style kids spelling etc books now, better than having to erase stuff repeatedly.

Korean learner here! Honestly you need to find some korean friends - luckily I studied over there so was slightly easier.

There are loads of Koreans looking to learn english, so language exchange like a previous poster suggested is a great idea. Try the hello talk app to find people to exchange with!

For grammar etc I suggest the Yonsei University textbooks!

those books sound really helpful actually, was there a specific brand(?)/title you used?

It was thinks ago so sorry, I don't remember but I don't think they were anything special or an international/language publisher. They were just Japanese kids spelling/reading exercise books that a Japanese ex girlfriend of my Nigerian neighbour has bought and given him (but he didn't take to learning Japanese at all and decided to relocate too so ..).

I imagine there must be Korean kids reading/writing books that are similar.

*yonks!

@Einszwei haha saying I'd love to study there would be an understatement, i hope to teach English there in the future but for now I'm in college, broke, and current circumstances aren't exactly ideal! i hadn't even thought about language exchange before this so I'll definitely check that out. As I just said, my (hopefully!) future career will be teaching English as a foreign language in Korea so that'd be right up my street! Thank you for the suggestion

You have to be immersed.

Watching TV helps - radio /audio only if you're an advanced learner.

Also, you either have a knack for languages or you don't. Realise if you do or don't, then be realistic in your learning expectations!

I’m using Duolingo to learn French as I thought it would be the easiest to learn as I already have a whack of nouns and whatnot just from seeing them on packaging and ... Hercule Poirot. So my confidence isn’t being hit too hard. A braver soul would go for Korean, but I still think a free app like Duolingo would be one tool - good to use a variety of approaches I’d think.

Language exchange is also a great idea, online, or you might be able to find some Koreans here willing to do so (with safety precautions as for anything like that of course).

As I just said, my (hopefully!) future career will be teaching English as a foreign language in Korea.

You'll get better job opportunities in that anywhere by doing a TEFL certificate like the Celta or trinity TESOL (the celta is a bit better known/more common I think).

That's the plan! I've done my (too much) research!

They're pricy enough and quite a few hours .. but if you do one you can aim foe tge better end of TEFL teaching opportunities.

Which you should do/be careful about because it is an industry typified by exploitation IME.

The British council would be a good place to start. You're probably not interested in Japan, I presume, but the JET programme was good too. (Not even sure the latter required a celta though, or it didn't used to).

I'd just do my research and read reviews of any school/company before committing.

I think you should be able to teach TEFL learners back here at UK language schools too if you have a celta/tesol (?)

Learning sentences, not words. Also listening as much as possible - the same dialogues or phrases over and over again! That’s how I learned Japanese.

Korean speaker/ learner.

Language exchange is the way forward. Get a friendly buddy who will correct you. Remember Korean is difficult as there is formal and informal language (I get mocked all the time as I will talk to cleaners and children using formal words).

I learnt Korean while living here so a bit different. Don’t do Duolingo there are some major word mess ups on it (ie the word for pork they say a swear word). Google is not a good translation Papago is so much better.

As for looking for jobs here EPIK teach is good to go with pay is not great but they work easy hours and have little responsibility. Hagwons be careful you can get a great one or you can get a horrible one.

Linguist here - under normal circumstances, I would say the only way to learn a language properly is to spend an extended amount of time in that country (I spent over a year living in the countries of my 2 main languages).

As that is currently not an option, I would be inclined to recommend immersing yourself as much as possible in the language & culture. Listen to radio & TV, eat the cuisine, read about their way of life etc. All this alongside learning the grammar, vocabulary etc.

I’m always impressed by people learning languages where there are different alphabets.
I’d think time in the country or speaking with those who speak the language a lot. That’s hard at the moment.

Our youngest is a European language graduate and took Arabic as an add on. She had started teaching herself during sixth form using a series called Rosetta Stone, which gave her the basics. Then the university gave her easy access to people to converse with regularly, which took the formal language of the course to a more useable version. She also did three months work experience in Doha before university, which helped a bit - although everyone usually spoke English to her.

Maybe find an online conversation group, or a tutor?

Rote memorization. Tedious as fuck but it works.

Being in the country regularly, which is not an option now sadly. The other is to view films and tv in the language concerned.