The Korean language

jthomas1600

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I looked back a couple pages and didn't see a thread on this. I'm considering learning a little more of the Korean language than what we get in class. I'm wondering if anyone else has done this. Do you feel that learning more about the Korean culture and language helps in anyway in your training? Can anyone recommend any good internet sites for this? Thanks.
 

IcemanSK

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I looked back a couple pages and didn't see a thread on this. I'm considering learning a little more of the Korean language than what we get in class. I'm wondering if anyone else has done this. Do you feel that learning more about the Korean culture and language helps in anyway in your training? Can anyone recommend any good internet sites for this? Thanks.

We do have a thread that has translation questions here: http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47421

We also have several folks on here who can point you in good directions.

All my best in your search.
 

granfire

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A friend of mine is married to a Korean gentleman. She makes it a point to better the usage of Korean terms in her Dojang and requires a more in depth study of Korean culture.
 

igillman

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The US State Department says that Korean is a class 3 language meaning that it is very different from English. I tried to learn a bit more Korean but I did not find it useful at all except to figure out why our Korean black belts do not speak English very well.

My advice is to learn how to pronounce the written language first. It will give you a good insight on how the language sounds as well as freak out your Korean instructor when you pronounce the titles of the posters on the walls. The written language is not symbolic, it is alphabetic with each "symbol" being one syllable and the symbol is constructed out of the individual letters that make that sound.

Once you have a good handle on the written language then go ahead and try to learn the words, grammar etc... It is tough because the words can be in any order as they use a subject and object marker for words.
e.g.
Boy kick ball.
Ball kick boy.
Boy ball kick.
Ball boy kick.
These are all valid because the ending of the words determine who kicked who. Most of the time they use SOV (Subject, Object Verb) so they would say "Boy ball kick" to mean the boy kicks the ball.

It was fun for me to look into the language and I hope it is fun for you too. Hopefully you will do better than I did :)
 

MBuzzy

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I looked back a couple pages and didn't see a thread on this. I'm considering learning a little more of the Korean language than what we get in class. I'm wondering if anyone else has done this. Do you feel that learning more about the Korean culture and language helps in anyway in your training? Can anyone recommend any good internet sites for this? Thanks.

First off, you will find a lot of translation and language here.

Personally, I think that learning Korean and their culture helps my studies. I lived there for a year, so I have a slightly different perspective. For one, I can pronounce everything properly....but that also means that when I go into a school, everyone says things wrong and it just bothers me, because I can't change it. I can also read the books written in Korean, which is useful. I have a few that have never been published in English, so the only way to get the info is to read them in Hangul.

Mostly, I just feel that I am showing respect to the history of my style by learning about their culture and language.

Really, to learn a language, the internet is not enough. www.koreanclass101.com is a good site and some random searching might turn up something, but what you really need is a class, a native speaker and some study aids. I have used a lot of them and still struggle with the language.
 

granfire

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I am all for learning new languages. Honest!! (heck, English isn't my native one) but Korean just does not get near me. I have asked the very sweet proprietor of our local Korean restaurant for the word of the day..you know, usefull things like thank you and I can't remember it past the sound waves dicipating...(Japanese on the other hand...I got a feel for that)


Oh sigh....

Fun fact though:
Korean is closely related to Finnish and Hungarian...and non sound alike - go figure!
 

ATC

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We don't have to know how to speak Korean but we do need to know all the kicks, blocks, strikes, stances, sparring terms, counting, hello, goodbye, thank you, how are you, Master, student, instructor, right, left, up, down, yes, no, newbie, colors, belt name,....Oh hell yes we are expected to know Korean now that I look at it.

Don't as me to spell any Korean terms, because D sounds like T, and N has it's own sound. A sounds like O. P sounds like B and so on and so on. But yes we speak it. To a degree.
:nuke:
 

MBuzzy

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We don't have to know how to speak Korean but we do need to know all the kicks, blocks, strikes, stances, sparring terms, counting, hello, goodbye, thank you, how are you, Master, student, instructor, right, left, up, down, yes, no, newbie, colors, belt name,....Oh hell yes we are expected to know Korean now that I look at it.

Don't as me to spell any Korean terms, because D sounds like T, and N has it's own sound. A sounds like O. P sounds like B and so on and so on. But yes we speak it. To a degree.
:nuke:

Technically, that isn't true. You may know some Korean vocabulary, although based on your particular style, it may not be pure Korean, it may be Chinese borrow words or Hanmun.

The hardest part of Korean for Americans are the grammar and honorifics. Americans have absolutely no concept of honorifics unless they have learned an asian language. In fact, I've seen most schools teaching "Annyeong hashimnika" for hello, which it technically right, but would get you some funny looks in Korea.

As for spelling, I assume you mean Romaja....if that's the case, don't feel bad. There are several methods of Romanization, they are all diificult and many Koreans can't even get them right or standardized. For that, learn Hangul!!! It is fascinating!
 

Bumblebee

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I'm very interested in learning Korean as well. Not just to help in Taekwondo, but my girlfriend is Korean and her dad doesn't really speak English. He's a very nice guy, and I wish I could speak to him without having her translate between the two of us. I tried a book/CD set but it kinda seems like it was a waste of time. I want to give the Rosetta Stone a try, but it's like 500 bucks that I don't have...
 

MBuzzy

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Rosetta Stone is a good piece of software, but I will warn you, it can't be done without help. Rosetta stone has ZERO assistance with grammar and with reading. You need to learn those independently. Of course RS will SAY that you don't have to, but trust me, you do. The new version of RS is at least 10 times better than the old version also. just be sure that you try it first before buying, just to be sure that you like the learning model.

I've used many many different products, including pimsleur, mastering Korean, an EXCELLENT textbook called "Elementary Korean" and a bunch of phrase books.

I can tell you that the #1 thing that will help you is a native speaker. Without a native speaker or someone to help guide you, you may NEVER really learn. You just need someone to laugh at you when you say "annyeong hashimnika" instead of "annyeong haseyo"
 
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jthomas1600

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I'm very interested in learning Korean as well. Not just to help in Taekwondo, but my girlfriend is Korean and her dad doesn't really speak English. He's a very nice guy, and I wish I could speak to him without having her translate between the two of us. I tried a book/CD set but it kinda seems like it was a waste of time. I want to give the Rosetta Stone a try, but it's like 500 bucks that I don't have...


I'm learning Portuguese for work right now and have used Rosetta Stone some. I too could not use it if I had to buy it myself. I got lucky and got a hand me down copy at work. It is a pretty good program for getting the basics down.

I think I'm going to concentrate on the Portuguese for another month or two until I"m more comfortable and then I'm going to give Korean a go. My instructor is a native Korean who has not been in the states that long and we seem to have exchange student/instructors visit from Korea on a regular basis so I will have native speakers to practice with.
 

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