http://languagemagazine.com/internetedition/langmag_pages/Krashen_LM_Jan09.pdf
http://teachers.saschina.org/jnordmeyer/files/2011/06/The-Power-of-Reading.pdf
The Television Method of Learning Korean
I had a friend, years ago, who learned to speak fluent Spanish with a perfect Mexican accent while working as a line cook at anApplebeeshere in Texas (he decided to do this because everyone else in the kitchen was a native Spanish speaker with very limited English skills), and the method he used is…interesting, funny, and just plain damn ingenious all at the same time.
What I recommend you do is incorporate this method into your current learning system, as opposed to doing it exclusively, but I do think it’s probably worth spending 30-60 minutes on per day–if you do that you’ll probably work wonders in a couple months’ time.
What he had to work with from the get-go was the basic grammar and very little vocabulary he remembered from high school Spanish classes from 5 years prior. He had DirectTV and what he would do is choose a telenovela (soap opera) on Univision and record a one hour episode of it on Tivo (you can watch these online now, see my list of sites to do that here). Now, he would play back the episode and, pausing every few seconds, write down verbatim one or two minutes worth of dialog. Then, he would go through those two or three paragraphs of dialogue and learn absolutely everything he needed to completely understand what was being said–he would look up definitions of any words he didn’t know, ask friends from work what certain idioms, expressions, or slang terms meant, etc. He would try saying the lines himself, then immediately replay the character saying the line, then rewind, say it again, replay – he would keep this up until he sounded exactly like the actor (and consequently had excellent pronunciation after a very short period of time). This might take him a couple of days because although he could look up definitions and grammar online, often times he would need to consult with a native speaker either via a Spanish or language learning forum or someone he knew from work. He would really learn absolutely everything he could about those few sentences to the point of memorization. When you do this yourself, keep in mind that the characters will occasionally use incorrect grammar that you will need to identify and note along with the correct version of what they said.
He would initially get through one 30 minute show every few weeks but quickly accelerated because he was learning so much at such a rapid pace. After about a year of this he was completely fluent which, when you think about just how much conversational Spanish he was exposed to and forced himself to learn, isn’t really surprising. Persistence, persistence, persistence 
There are formal Spanish-learning programs that do this with the express purpose of teaching you Spanish, but I honestly really don’t like them because it tends to be a bunch of Spaniards speaking perfect Castilian Spanish slowly and clearly with perfect grammar, no idioms, and certainly no slang – in short, it’s just short of useless for anyone other than a complete beginner (and even then it will only get you to a low intermediate level, whereas doing it with actual TV shows and movies can get you all the way to a near native-level of fluency if you stick with it). The telenovelas, along with movies, are the best. The Spanish is colloquial, but not extremely formal, technical, obscure, or difficult; and there’s a wide variety of characters who you would actually encounter if you were living in a Spanish-speaking country who speak Spanish at very different levels: children, mechanics, housewives, doctors, street hustlers, and beggars.
Let’s take this a little further and improve on this method…
Now, this actually dovetails nicely with a method that I have actually used before that’s very similar, which I did before I ever heard about my friend’s ‘Telenovela Method’. I like to get Spanish-language movies, turn on the Spanish subtitles (NOT the English ones!), and then watch it, pausing whenever I hear something I don’t understand–then, I just look at the bottom of the screen where I can see whatever word or phrase it was that threw me, look it up, learn it, and note it for later review…then just press play and wash, rinse, repeat until I’m through with the movie (which may very well take a few weeks)!
Oh, and always remember to pause and repeat after the speaker if your Spanish isn’t already excellent or you see a new word. Rewind, replay, and repeat until you’ve got it down cold.
An even better way to do this can be done if you can obtain the English translation of the script–this is not very often, but it does happen. What you do is watch the movie with the Spanish subtitles on and the English translation of the script so that you can follow along and, of course, pause at anything you don’t know and immediately learn it, just like above (the script just makes it a lot easier and allows you to learn things you wouldn’t be able to otherwise). My all-time favorite movie where I managed to pull this off is Maria Full of Grace (María llena eres de gracia)
Of course, this presumes you can get the English translation of the script, which you often can’t, but you can often enough that it’s always worth the trouble to find out if a Spanish language movie has one available on the internet–easiest way to find out is to just Google “[movie title] english script” and “[movie title] script” and see what comes up. If that doesn’t immediately turn it up, three great sites to check with are The Internet Movie Script Database, Drew’s Script-O-Rama (go to the menu at the bottom under the picture–yes, I know, his site design does suck), and Simply Scripts. Not only can you find movie scripts, but you can often find scripts for TV shows as well.
A quick note…
You may want to check out my List of Best Free Sites to Watch Spanish-Language TV Online where I put together THE most comprehensive list of such sites you’ll find – I checked every other available list on the internet in the process of putting this together and, as such, mine not only includes more sites but ALL of them are guaranteed to work because I personally hand-checked each and every one to make sure you could use them and that it didn’t cost anything. Every other list I checked had dead links in it (links to sites that no longer worked).
Beginning Vocabulary II
I’ve been on a real kick lately adding some beginning, basic vocabulary to my daily routine. The idea is to capture more hidden pockets of time during the day, where I cannot read any Korean, but I can listen to Korean. For me, the two biggest time periods during the day are my morning shower and my nightly cooking (dinner). For most others, this would also include commuting time especially if you drive a car.
I found very little use listening to recorded radio (or in my case, recorded TV Drama shows) because it is like washing over just noise, noise that has no meaning. However, I did find a rapid increase in my active learning period, that one hour a day that I dedicate to reading my Harry Potter (slooooooooooowly reading my Harry Potter), doing Talk To Me in Korean grammar, reviewing ANKI Flashcards, or cutting up sound files. I call these pockets of time, when you can listen but cannot read, passive listening.
Lately, I’ve taken the plunge and started listening to the grammar podcast lessons during my active learning, but only to cut up the sound file for those time periods of passive listening. I try to capture the English and the Korean, otherwise it will just get jumbled up since I won’t remember it. I will further capture the Korean only for the ANKI flashcards, but I also found out that I don’t really have to do that. I will just routinely learn simple vocabulary by passive listening without needing to be prompted by the sound, when doing the flashcards.
I’m not quite ready to purge the ANKI flashcards of my sound. I think I will keep my safety net for now. However, I have noticed that I am less and less dependent on the sound file while learning because I really don’t need them anymore — I have what the vocabulary is supposed to sound like already in my head.
Has anyone else tried this? Let me know in the comments section!
My Daily Routine For Korean Language Learning
Before I go any further, I thought that I would do a post about what exactly that I do on a daily basis for language learning.
First of all, I devote approximately two hours per day. This sounds like a lot, but it really is not. That is because I “reroute” time to learning languages that didn’t have any in it beforehand. For instance, I listen to my TV shows while I am taking a shower or cooking. Despite what some people think, immersion into a language is not necessary. In fact, Stephen Krashen said that dropping a person into an immersion environment when they don’t understand is just “needless noise” and the brain can’t really decipher it.
Remember, this is just one model of learning. You really have to tailor your own learning to your own life. I cannot tell you how to learn, because that is like telling you how to think! Play around with your own schedule, and see what fits it.
First thing in the morning – 10-15 minutes – Review Anki flashcards
While showering & getting ready in the morning – 30-45 minutes – Listen to Talk To Me in Korean podcast
* These are my grammar points that I am trying to learn.
While eating lunch – 30 minutes – Watching the TV segment of what I am trying to learn.
* This is usually just an 8 minute segment but I like to stop and start a lot.
While cooking dinner – 30-60 minutes – Listen to stuff I already know
* I save and convert video into MP3s so that I can listen to them in natural segments. For instance, You Are My Destiny Theme Song 그대가 참 좋아 by Yang Sun Mi is one of the items on my playlist. Since I cannot really devote “true” learning to this, this is passive learning. This is akin to listening to a CD while driving.
After dinner – 30 minutes – Cut up sound files
Yes, that is right. I only devote approximately 30 minutes of active listening to learning Korean everyday. This is because I am only using this to reinforce what I did for the day, not really to “learn.” ”Learning” should be active listening, but NOT route memorization. This is where other language learning programs fail miserably.
Also, you will note that I learn some grammar in Talk to Me in Korean, but I don’t actually “do” active grammar. Sometimes I will cut up something from these files, but mostly it is vocabulary or set phrases.
Learn Korean From Music Videos: You Are My Destiny Theme Song 그대가 참 좋아 by Yang Sun Mi
You’ll notice that I’ve done two posts today. That’s because the first post is my explanation of what I am doing, and the second post is going to be the actual music video that I’m dissecting. Going along with the whole thing of You Are My Destiny Korean TV show, let’s learn about the theme song.
You Are My Destiny Theme Song 그대가 참 좋아 by Yang Sun Mi
love you love you I love you
세상 어느 누구보다
More than anyone in the world
love you love you I love you
그대가 참 좋아
I like you so much
매일 매일 웃음이 나
Everyday everyday I laugh
너무나 행복해서
So I am very happy
언제라도 난 그대와 함께라면
Anytime we’re together
나는 좋아
I like it
love you love you I love you
세상 어느 누구보다
More than anyone in the world
love you love you I love you
그대가 참 좋아
I like you so much
내 사랑 I love you
My love, I love you
Anki Cards
세상 어느 누구보다
More than anyone in the world
세상 = world
어느 = one (which)
누구보다 = than any
어느 누구보다 = A phrase to mean ‘More than anyone’
** This was preceded by ‘I love you’ in English and then ‘세상 어느 누구보다’ so the complete sentence is ‘I love you more than anyone in the world’ **
~
그대가 참 좋아
I really like you.
그대 = you
참 = really
~
매일 매일 웃음이 나
Everyday, everyday laughter (I)
매일 = every day
웃음이 = laughter
** Here, 나 belongs with the next line in the song ***
~
너무나 행복해서
So I am very happy.
행복하다 = to be happy, 행복하 + 여 = 행복해 in present formal low
~
언제라도 난 그대와 함께라면
Anytime we’re together.
언제라도 = anytime
그대 = you
와 = with
함께라면 = together
~
나는 좋아
I like you.
~
내 사랑
My love
Learn Korean From Music Videos
I’ve stressed this point a few times. The best way to learn Korean, according to the expert Stephen Krashen, is to enjoy learning Korean. Of course, this goes for any language, not just Korean. It basically helps you focus because you are excited to learn. This only makes sense, right?
Because of this, I will also post what I use to learn Korean, and we can learn Korean together.
My Method
1. I will post a video below. This will be a YouTube video, to make life easier, so you can rip it from Freecorder. Please note that I will try to keep the videos updated but if YouTube decides to take the video down, I might not be able to find a replacement. I highly recommend playing the video all the way through, before you do anything.
2. Below that is the transcripts or lyrics. I personally like to see the Korean and then the English, together. You should follow along, reading the Korean as you listen to the video. If the video provides subtitles, I will use those if I don’t do my own translations (see point #3).
3. Underneath that, I’ve provided certain phrases. I’m rather picky about my passages because I don’t like background music in a TV show, although for some reason I don’t mind at all if it’s a music video. These passages are exactly what I put in my Anki deck, cut and ripped from the video that I downloaded.
*** Remember to put your Anki words in backwards! ***
Ready? Then let’s go!
You Are My Destiny Scripts Found!
OMG! OMG! OMG! I found You Are My Destiny (너는내운명) transcripts!
Sorry, though. Today’s blog post isn’t about the transcripts, although you shouldn’t worry because I will be posting (and dissecting) them here soon. Today I am going to give you some stuff about basic vocabulary.
Some other bloggers like to tell you not to work on some basic vocabulary — if you do sentences, you will learn the vocabulary in them. I disagree.
Taking Krashen’s language acquisition theories as gold, he first states that one needs a basic structure to learn, so one can get to the next stage. In other words, you need to learn to stand up before you can learn to walk.
So don’t ignore your basic vocabulary!
