Tuesday 26 July 2011

Study Korean language...

II have noticed that people are interested in South Korea and Korean languge.
Many also seems interested in learing it.
Here's some info (^_-)

As for myself I have tried many different ways to learn Korean language!


  • Korean language school (once a week) - Sweden

  • Korean online language school (whenever i had time)

  • Korean studies - language, history, literature, social science - University in Sweden

  • Korean language studies - in Korea at different universities in Seoul.


  • What can I say...
    The best alternative is of course to go to Korea and study. But it's not for free!

    I began my studies in Sweden and well I learnt some, however I didn't get to practise and use my Korean as much as I wanted and wasn't able to progress my ability as much as I thought I would.
    I first tried out Korean school, every saturday however I didn't really have much homework and didn't give too much effort since I had my normal high school studies to focus on. And it was hard to learn since the books did not come with any translations. However one semester I got a new teacher, it was when I had Jun-Gyu oppa as teacher I began to take my studies more seriously! At first we were 6 students, 2 weeks later we were only 2 left! However he made me study and learn! He was a great teacher and he knew English very well and could explain EVERYTHING! After he went back to Korea I sort of stopped my studies and put all my focus on normal High School studies.

    At University in Sweden. Well.. the teachers I had were not good. Looking back I can't believe I spent 1,5 years there. And I actually put more effort in our history, literature and social science classes rather than my Korean language classes!! And the teachers were kinda off many times when they judged us students and when they tried to explain. Some teachers also said very rude comments to students.

    Then in 2008 I was able to go to Korea and study at one of their many universities in Seoul. I learned 100% more while living in South Korea compare to my slow progress in Sweden.
    In Korea I have had been able to study both Ewha Woman's university (2008) and Sogang University (2009-2010), both in central Seoul.

    As for Ewha or Edae as they say in Korean, it's a very good school, good teachers (at least mine). As most universities - Yonsei, Seoul National etc. Edae focus a lot on grammer and writing. They have changed books since I studied.
    You had 2 teachers, you have one 3 days and the other 2 days. All day long you have the same teacher. You change class when you pass the next level! some classmates will be in same class, so you won't be all alone when changing class.
    I started in level 2 and my teachers spoke maybe 3 words in English. So for newbies, you really need to try your best!
    The school has fun activities and make great memories.
    Each day we had a written test on our homework and presentation!! We also had 2 written homeworks every day.
    There were no grammer books, we had to learn everything IN class, we had a small dictionary with some words for every chapter but not all of them. Therefore I needed to focus and study many hours after class too!
    Many of my classmates did not speak a word of English, therefore I had to study extra hard otherwise we had nothing we could talk about.
    The majority of my classmates were girls, I had 1 guy in my class however he kinda skipped alot.
    Then again the university is called Ewha WOMANS unversity, however they allow guys to study korean language there since it's different from the "normal" uni studies.
    At Edae I found a really good friend, maybe one of my best mates from my years in Korea. We keep in touch very often. Even if we now live on differnet sides of the world we always find time to see each other and do funny things!!


    Sogang - if you want to be able to speak alot, this is the school for you!
    Instead of 1 hour speaking class you have 2 hours, this makes Sogang different from other universities in Korea.
    You have 3 teachers, you change teacher for each class (2+3 = same teacher). Sometimes you also have to change classroom and some classmates (between class 1-2 from level 4 but can occur at other levels too)
    I liked that we changed teacher for each subject. You always find a better teacher than another.
    As for me, I loved my level 3 writing and speaking class teachers, my level 4 reading and level 5 videoclass teacher. (note: all different teachers.. I never had the same teacher twice)
    I took 3 semesters at Sogang. (Level 3-5)

    Typical schedule level 1-3
    1st - Writing class
    2+3rd - Speaking class
    4th Listening or reading class

    Typical schedule level 4
    1st - Writing class
    2+3 - speaking + listening class
    4th - reading class

    Typical schedule level 5
    1st - Writing
    2nd+3rd - Speaking + reading
    4th - Video class (Listening class)

    In writing class we had written homework everyday and we could also write during class time.
    We also got homework in speaking listening/reading in level 3 and 4.
    Besides that we also had our "work book" we had to finish. Many times I asked my native Korean friends to help me, even them said it was really hard! So guess how hard it was for me!
    In level 5 we had to do our "work book" every day, it was much more difficult and took longer time rather than level 3 and 4, in those levels we could do the WB once a week or whenever we had time without any pressure. However in level 5 it never ended, I wanted to die and burn the book a few times, we also have a test in speaking and reading everyday since we progressed really fast!
    We had a video homework each day and the video was extreeeeeeeemly difficult since the audio was bad! The first thing our teacher said was: This semester we are going to have trouble! Even I do not understand what they say in this video, I have to listen at least 2-3 times before I get it!
    Anyway we had a great teacher who helped us.
    What was bad was that normally they have a grammer book, in English, Japanese or Chinese.
    However for level 5 it was ONLY in Korean!! It made it even more difficult to understand, sometimes when they explained it in Korean they used grammer and words we didn't know!
    But they were in progress to make one, in English.. And my teacher gave me, AND only me, a copy. Reason!? She wanted me to check it and see if it was understandable XD and if the grammer was correct! it was 100 pages! I got a book of single papers!
    At Sogang the age of my classmates was very different from 18-65 years old. However all of us had fun together no matter age or gender.
    Most of my classmates were Japanese, then I also had Taiwanese, Chinese, English, Canadian, Iraq, German, Italian, Mongolian, Vietnamese, Singaporian, French class/schoolmates...
    Some spoke English some didn't understand a single word therefore most of the time we spoke Korean however during breaks we tried to teach some English other Japanese etc.

    Anyway, Sogang was really the school for me. and when I go back I want to study there again!
    Other friends have gone to Yonsei, Ewha, Korea Uni, Hanguk uni of foreign studies, Seoul Natl. uni, Kyunghee uni.
    I think that Hanguk uni of foreigin might be the best of all. it's an all language school.
    I've heard that Level 2 in Hanguk is like level 4-5 at Edae!
    Also a very close friend of mine finished level 2 at Korea Uni. and when she came to Sogang she started in Level 5! (Note: She was Japanese and her Korean skills were great from the beginning!!)

    So if you are curious which school is the right one for you..
    Read on each school's homepage... and if you have any Korean friends or friends who have studied in Korea ask them what they think!


    IF you have any questions,drop a comment below and I will get back to you! (^__-)


    Today's song: Shinhwa - Perfect man
    One of the first Kpop songs I really really liked ^^

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