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rosasericeaI forgot to mention that Korean and German have emerged as the languages I want to learn this year. Too much? Probably! But I'm enjoying poking at both so far, and they're so different from one another that I imagine I won't have the difficulties I had, say, learning French while building up Spanish. Who knows.
I don't speak or read French--I gave that up after a semester because I hated not being able to pronounce anything even passably well. Mandarin was easier for me to speak! I enjoyed learning Mandarin, also, but reading and writing it was overwhelming and ultimately I decided I prefer alphabetic languages over logographic-based ones, as far as learning-for-fun goes. (Mandarin didn't have much immediate applicability for me, so I dropped it.) Neither Korean nor German have much immediate applicability for me, either, but the barrier to reading and writing is much lower than for Mandarin, and so far pronunciation hasn't been nearly as difficult for me as French! I considered Japanese, as well, but the triple writing system ruled it out. Also,I read The Hole, by Hye-Young Pyun, this year. Despite its almost clinical tone and simple prose, the book was positively dripping, oozing with existential dread. It was inexplicably terrifying and unsettling, like being viscerally uncomfortable in a friendly-enough person's tidy house. The fact that a search for "Korean horror novels" (and any variation thereof) turned up nothing but this book, which had been shelved as horror at the library despite containing no traditional horror elements, made me really curious about Korean literature. (I've since learned that the short story is a common and celebrated form in Korean literature, and that Korean lit has been largely ignored by the Western world until very recently.) I like reading texts in their original languages if I can. I can do this with Spanish, though it usually involves some dictionary work. I can understand most of what I read, but my vocabulary is smaller than I'd like because I don't force myself to practice. SIGH, I suppose I SHOULD...
Anyway, one of the most fascinating things about Korean, for me, is how easy it is to become functionally literate in it when compared to Mandarin or Japanese. I read that this ease was derided by Chinese and Japanese scholars, which has made me more curious about literacy and literature in East Asia and how it's changed over time. Hangul is really young, too, compared with other alphabets, so that's interesting, as is the impact of language suppression on its development. I don't mean to sound indifferent to the obvious painful legacy of imperialism (after all, my own background means I'm very aware of what it means for people to be stripped of their ancestry, traditions and language). So while I'm pretty giddy about the prospect of learning a language that's so unique, I'm fully aware that many of the forces shaping it were oppressive and damaging. It's an inspiring and intriguing language story so far, and I'm looking forward to broadening my understanding of cultural, geopolitical and historical elements surrounding it. I don't like to learn languages in a vacuum, so to speak, as that's not how they exist, and since the thing I love most about language learning is literature, it's ridiculous to exclude people and places from the study!
As for German, I've studied it before and enjoyed it. I've always wanted to visit Germany and Austria, and I've wanted to return to it since reading Süskind's Perfume my sophomore year of college and wondering what it was like in the original. I've more to say on the subject, but my eyes are telling me it's time to step away from the screen for awhile!
I don't speak or read French--I gave that up after a semester because I hated not being able to pronounce anything even passably well. Mandarin was easier for me to speak! I enjoyed learning Mandarin, also, but reading and writing it was overwhelming and ultimately I decided I prefer alphabetic languages over logographic-based ones, as far as learning-for-fun goes. (Mandarin didn't have much immediate applicability for me, so I dropped it.) Neither Korean nor German have much immediate applicability for me, either, but the barrier to reading and writing is much lower than for Mandarin, and so far pronunciation hasn't been nearly as difficult for me as French! I considered Japanese, as well, but the triple writing system ruled it out. Also,I read The Hole, by Hye-Young Pyun, this year. Despite its almost clinical tone and simple prose, the book was positively dripping, oozing with existential dread. It was inexplicably terrifying and unsettling, like being viscerally uncomfortable in a friendly-enough person's tidy house. The fact that a search for "Korean horror novels" (and any variation thereof) turned up nothing but this book, which had been shelved as horror at the library despite containing no traditional horror elements, made me really curious about Korean literature. (I've since learned that the short story is a common and celebrated form in Korean literature, and that Korean lit has been largely ignored by the Western world until very recently.) I like reading texts in their original languages if I can. I can do this with Spanish, though it usually involves some dictionary work. I can understand most of what I read, but my vocabulary is smaller than I'd like because I don't force myself to practice. SIGH, I suppose I SHOULD...
Anyway, one of the most fascinating things about Korean, for me, is how easy it is to become functionally literate in it when compared to Mandarin or Japanese. I read that this ease was derided by Chinese and Japanese scholars, which has made me more curious about literacy and literature in East Asia and how it's changed over time. Hangul is really young, too, compared with other alphabets, so that's interesting, as is the impact of language suppression on its development. I don't mean to sound indifferent to the obvious painful legacy of imperialism (after all, my own background means I'm very aware of what it means for people to be stripped of their ancestry, traditions and language). So while I'm pretty giddy about the prospect of learning a language that's so unique, I'm fully aware that many of the forces shaping it were oppressive and damaging. It's an inspiring and intriguing language story so far, and I'm looking forward to broadening my understanding of cultural, geopolitical and historical elements surrounding it. I don't like to learn languages in a vacuum, so to speak, as that's not how they exist, and since the thing I love most about language learning is literature, it's ridiculous to exclude people and places from the study!
As for German, I've studied it before and enjoyed it. I've always wanted to visit Germany and Austria, and I've wanted to return to it since reading Süskind's Perfume my sophomore year of college and wondering what it was like in the original. I've more to say on the subject, but my eyes are telling me it's time to step away from the screen for awhile!
(no subject)
Date: 2018-12-29 07:03 pm (UTC)I too find Korean fascinating. I tried to learn it with memrise but I think I find it difficult to learn different alphabets with apps like that? So yeah, I'm curious how you get on with it!
(no subject)
Date: 2018-12-30 03:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-01-02 04:54 am (UTC)After Sejong died, and the rule moved onto someone else, you start to see hangul constantly having to basically fight for any sort of place. Of course, lower classes kept using it, but the elite often kept only using hanja; older poetry and many historical documents were done entirely in hanja, even after hangul was invented.
A lot of Korean 'literature' is informed by an entirely different background than the Western canon; what people focus on is also very different, and plots feel like they meander much more. I put literature in quotes, because there is a very big difference from the more pulp mass produced stuff people read casually and Actual Novelists as far as Korean book publishing is concerned. Anyway, here's a neat little library if you haven't come across it already; another great project is this one, and, of course, this invaluable bi-lingual series.
Be careful of Korean pronunciation, by the by; it's easy to feel like you're getting things right, but the tensed sounds and several of the vowels are pretty rough, especially when you first start out. This is a pretty good and free ear training exercise, just so you get some really vital practice in early on the consonants. Seoul dialect, which most material online is.
A history of Korea is probably the best and most even-handed of the English language Korean history overviews, as for places to start dealing with that.
Good luck!!
(no subject)
Date: 2019-01-04 03:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-01-04 03:39 am (UTC)For learning to recognize the alphabet/touch type (which you pretty much need to be fluent in the digital world in my opinion), I would just run races on this site for a while. It did not teach the sounds, but it made it so I recognized the letters and the most common combinations of blocks they show up in, which in turn sped up how quickly I synthesized the sounds.
I mentioned this in my own comment below, but this is a great ear trainer for you to start that cliff-face wall that is training your brain to hear sounds it hasn't ever had a use for.
Naver's dictionary and associated translator papago are the best as far as online dictionaries and translators for Korean go.
I cannot stand talk to me in Korean or their format, but if you find that it works for you, they are a very very good resource for the Korean learner. It's oriented much more towards conversation and daily fluency, and does not really deep dive into grammar hows and whys as I prefer; they are one of the only places with good intermediate content imo.
On the other end, for all your grammar basics and building blocks, how to study korean is invaluable, and the guy who runs it is super nice. I've been using this site as a study guide since I first started, and there's more detail than you probably care for. Between it and making flashcards in ANKI, I managed to learn a lot, and it's still one the first sites I check if I have a grammar question.
If you'd like a more traditional textbook, the Ewha Women's University textbooks are excellent, especially with their new self-study guides available at the lower levels. Listen to the audio lots and lots!!! I can't overstate how important listening and shadowing the audio is for Korean, since it has so many sounds English is missing.
And of course, once you've got some vocab under your belt, it's a lot easier to start finding youtube videos in Korean that you'd want to watch, or podcasts over on 팟빵
(no subject)
Date: 2019-01-04 04:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-01-07 01:46 pm (UTC)