I’ve completed the latest (and final) reorganization of links to online Korean language learning resources. Visit the Resources Wiki to see the result.
Got a new resource to add? Go right ahead. Want to annotate resources already listed? We’d love to have your comments. (Register if you’d like to join the party.) What are wikis for?
I finished Pimsleur’s Comprehensive Korean Level I this morning.
If you’re a true beginner of Korean, this course is worth both your time and money (but please don’t pay list price). If you’re not a beginning learner, but don’t speak Korean very well (as I don’t), you still may find this course helpful. What I have to say in the upcoming comprehensive review of this course will be more helpful for the second group, as I’ll be fleshing out what you do and don’t get in the course.
This course is designed to get the learner to start speaking Korean as quickly as possible. There’s a reading section that I’ve scanned but not listened to. This course is not very helpful in either learning to read and write Korean, and really, it’s not designed to be.
True beginners will have difficulty in making out some of the words in the dialogues, but as the lessons pass, the pronunciation will become more familiar and some of those mysteries will be solved. The rest will be solved when the student learns to read Korean and takes another Korean course.
I’m a reader, so adjusting to pure audio was a painful process, even though I knew nearly all of what I was hearing. However, my one-year absence from Korean study may also have been a factor.
I used my solo commute time and a few lunches to study the 30 lessons in this level. I purchased the course on an Audiofy Bookchip and listened to it on my Palm Tungsten E (played through my car stereo) as well as a card reader plugged into my computer.
Having said all of this, if I didn’t know any Korean, and I was going to be in Korea soon, I’d buy this course (and again, don’t pay the $345 list price--I paid less than half that). It’s an excellent way to get a good, solid start on speaking Korean.
Full details (including caveats) in a later, comprehensive review. Please leave questions in comments, as they may help me to develop the review.
Google Desktop Search is now available for multiple languages, including Korean. Will be personally trying it out next week.
Via Lifehacker.
The Korean Virtual Keyboard, once thought no longer available, moved. Use it here.
Via Language Hat.
Proving that great minds think alike (such as 왕음치 and yours truly), Mithridates has started a Korea Wiki. 왕음치 opened the waiting-for-your-input Learning Korean.
Go collaborate.
The Korean Virtual Keyboard, a tool that allowed one to type 한글 online without having to install anything on one’s computer, is sadly no longer available. I used this site whenever I was away from home.
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강미 | learning korean