kangmi: learning korean

I continue to complete my daily Supermemo repetitions. Most of them are 한자. In the last week, I’ve been moving them around a bit, as I’ve decided to create separate Supermemo courses for each level. As I complete the Supermemo course for each level, I’ll post the files in the Supermemo section. I’d like to add elements other than 한자, but I haven’t been able to spend the time required to create them.

The last episode of 열여덟 스물아홉 aired last Tuesday, and I plan to start watching 러브홀릭 (if it doesn’t rot my teeth first) this week. With this last drama, I became especially aware of the disconnect between my listening skills and my reading skills. I can watch a scene and not comprehend it. I can read the same scene and get a general idea of what’s going on.

With that in mind, I’m going to abandon my goal of reading one newspaper article per day, which I never really picked up. Instead, I’m going to use one of the audio resources I listed here. I’ve been using kangmi as a sort of notebook over the last week or two, trying to figure out how I’m going to accomplish this new goal. I’ve settled on picking one article or story or news report per month. I plan to study it and read it and repeat it and listen to it until I understand it. Recognizing my current limitations, I’m probably going to start with something from Yahoo’s 동화나라. I can’t say I’m using his exact method, but I have Steve Kaufmann to thank for the inspiration.

I still need to do more writing in Korean here. I’ll try.

There’s been plenty to write about, but not so much time in which to do the writing. I have a backlog of post ideas, a new section under development, and a new project idea for a learning Korean resource. There might be a guest author later this month. I’m still trying to sort out various issues with Bloglines, and you’ll have noticed that I can’t seem to stay away from the CSS.

More (much more) to come.

As the year drew to a close, I evaluated the roller-coaster method of study and decided to try something more boring but less breath-taking:

To learn at least a little more Korean every day, and to push myself beyond that small amount whenever I can.

To accomplish this resolution, I created what I should call the Kangmi Method of Language Study. I’ve read a fair amount about how to study and learn another language, and nowhere have I read about this particular method.

I started by creating a daily Korean study routine. This was the first one:

- Insun and I will be using the Sogang course for the next few weeks.
- I can manage at least one 한자 a day. 한자 is (are?) fun.
- I’m going to create additional Supermemo elements.
- I’m going to start taking a crack at the newspaper using the Chosun’s 문화 section (they use RSS feeds, and not all online Korean news sites do). I’ll study a small amount of vocabulary and then read the entire article out loud.

I quickly learned that this wasn’t specific enough for me, so I broke it down into smaller elements. Here’s what it looks like today:

- Complete Supermemo repetitions.
- Study 서강대학교 course.
- Study one 한자.
- Add one 한자 Repertoire item to kangmi.
- Add one 한자 Supermemo element.
- Add one 한자 Supermemo QA to kangmi.
- Watch some Korean television (STW).
- Read newspaper article out loud (MThF).
- Translate one newspaper sentence (MThF).
- Blog about the sentence (MThF).
- Add one Repertoire item to kangmi.
- Add one Supermemo element.
- Add one Supermemo QA to kangmi.
- Write one Korean sentence for kangmi.

While this may be mind-numbingly detailed to some readers, it’s proven to be particularly useful to me. My schedule doesn’t permit me to do all my Korean study at one time, so developing a check list makes it possible to for me to do one or two things, check them off, and come back to the routine at different times throughout the day. I don’t yet accomplish every single task on this list, but it’s slowly becoming easier to integrate a new part. What doesn’t work I throw out, and if I decide it’s time to move on to something different, I’ll write it into the routine. By breaking the elements down into smaller parts, I’ve started to see some success. (It’s important to note that were I actually living in Korea, my list would be different. I’d be more interested in deciding that I wanted to learn how to communicate in a specific way in a specific situation, and then learn how to do it.)

All this is essentially an attempt to balance the competing demands of my life, while still making progress in learning Korean.

Unquestionably, there are better and faster ways to learn a language, and I recommend that you seek them out and implement them when you can. But there is no urgency about my Korean language study. I don’t live in Korea, I’m not planning to move there, I’m not taking a Korean class, and I don’t have to study for Korean exams. No one is making me learn Korean but me.

Having said that, I would still recommend variations on this method to you expats in Korea. Life in Korea is full of its own competing demands. Language learning is one of them, but I might not have to tell you how easy it is to allow it to become a minor demand. If you’re not already there as a language student, find some way to learn a little more Korean every single day. Find a person. Use a book. Watch Korean television. Get all Nike about it. The more you learn, the more you’ll be able to use. The more you’re able to use, the more you’ll learn.

Seventeen years ago I arrived in Korea for the first time. Seventeen years x a little more every day = A lot of Korean.

Welcome to the next seventeen years.

Here’s what I’m not yet doing:

- Except for 한자, I haven’t been creating any new Supermemo elements.
- I gave up reading newspaper articles when I started collecting a stack of them.
- I haven’t been writing in Korean here.

I continue to meet with 인선 once a week, and I’ve started to notice a welcome increase in my speaking ability. Which is remarkable, since I actually speak Korean once a week.

I’m starting to build up a comfortable cushion of 한자, so I am turning my attention to building up the same comfortable cushion of other Supermemo elements. “Comfortable” is about two weeks’ worth. Once I hit that, I’ll return to reading newspaper articles, which will feed future Supermemo elements, as well as the Repertoire section on this site. And once I’m in that groove, I’ll start work on writing in Korean.

My methods may seem particularly detailed and sytematic, but I’ve learned that I had to have some way to break my studying down into focused, manageable elements. Everything beckons, but not everything is possible.

- Insun and I will be using the Sogang course for the next few weeks.
- I can manage at least one 한자 a day. 한자 is (are?) fun.
- I’m going to create additional Supermemo elements.
- I’m going to start taking a crack at the newspaper using the Chosun’s 문화 section (they use RSS feeds, and not all online Korean news sites do). I’ll study a small amount of vocabulary and then read the entire article out loud.

It’s not as ambitious as I am wont to be, but only one part of my life is for Korean language study. The rest will have to wait.

- I was able to successfully survive the holiday season.