And now Korean!

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Lawyer&Mom
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Re: And now Korean!

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Wed Mar 29, 2023 4:39 pm

I’ve set Anki to keep testing me on “leech” cards because otherwise I wouldn’t have much of a Korean deck left. Anki kindly keeps leeches in the queue, but still notifies me every time a new leech card is born. And every time I’m indignant. “This is freaking Korean! Korean! It’s all leeches, all the way down!”

This is *nothing* against the language itself. I’m still madly in love. The vocabulary is just *so*darn*hard*. I’m hugely and increasingly impressed by my sister-in-law’s English. Sure she’s been here for decades, but still. With a Category V language it has to be just as hard to learn the other direction, right?
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Re: And now Korean!

Postby rdearman » Wed Mar 29, 2023 5:23 pm

Lawyer&Mom wrote:I’ve set Anki to keep testing me on “leech” cards because otherwise I wouldn’t have much of a Korean deck left. Anki kindly keeps leeches in the queue, but still notifies me every time a new leech card is born. And every time I’m indignant. “This is freaking Korean! Korean! It’s all leeches, all the way down!”

This is *nothing* against the language itself. I’m still madly in love. The vocabulary is just *so*darn*hard*. I’m hugely and increasingly impressed by my sister-in-law’s English. Sure she’s been here for decades, but still. With a Category V language it has to be just as hard to learn the other direction, right?

I have found for leech cards the best thing for me to do is to simply copy the answer on to the front and the question to the back, so a leech card isn't really "quizzing" me, but just showing me the card with the answer twice. Then after a month or so I revert the card back to question on the front and answer on the back and remove the leech tag and give it another try. Typically, they don't become leeches again. Probably because I saw the question and answer a few dozen times with no pressure to remember.
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Re: And now Korean!

Postby Picaboo » Wed Mar 29, 2023 9:19 pm

Lawyer&Mom wrote:“This is freaking Korean! Korean! It’s all leeches, all the way down!”


Lol!

I don't have the solution for learning vocab fast, but for me single word cards weren't the answer. I learned maybe 700 words that way and it was all through mnemonics, which I'm decent at. Even then, it was tiresome. I did it at the very beginning so my endurance (and my hope that it was actual language learning) was high. With mnemonics and making new ones or modifying them if you fail a card, you won't get into leech cards, but it's still dull work. You could try perfecting your mnemonics, if you aren't using them already.

Now I use all-in-Korean sentence + sound cards with the unknown word bolded. No idea if it's effective, yet, but it isn't painful. It's basically scheduled reading/listening practice of sentences with one unknown word. But I know enough words that I can sentence mine actual sentences I come across with an interesting word (and that have just one unknown word not a half dozen, like early on). I then have the context they are from to help make it stick.

Maybe look into the methods for vocab learning that other people have mentioned on this forum. Or tough it out for a bit longer. Leeched cards are obviously not that important to you, anyhow.
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Re: And now Korean!

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Sat May 27, 2023 1:05 am

I’ve always admired the official Memrise language courses. Cheerful little video snippets, slick user interface, loads of levels… Yet I found the learning curve to be really impossible outside of the FIGS languages. I wanted to love the Russian course so badly, the actors were just adorable, but I got so frustrated trying to correctly spell Russian words I could barely even remember. Well I have a solution! Consume 800 hours of TL media first, and then you can *cruise* through the level one Memrise course! I feel like a golden god. Why didn’t I come up with this sooner?

(Yes I’ve watched 800 hours of subbed Korean. Yes, I’m still a low A1. But progress has been made!)
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Re: And now Korean!

Postby noblethings » Wed Aug 16, 2023 3:54 pm

Lawyer&Mom wrote:(Yes I’ve watched 800 hours of subbed Korean.

Wow, I clearly need to step up my game.
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Lawyer&Mom
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Re: And now Korean!

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Sat Aug 19, 2023 12:40 am

noblethings wrote:
Lawyer&Mom wrote:(Yes I’ve watched 800 hours of subbed Korean.

Wow, I clearly need to step up my game.


This says way more about the addictive nature of KDrama than it does about my language study skills…
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Re: And now Korean!

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Thu Sep 28, 2023 7:01 am

Okay, so I learned *two* different syllabaries, and then I learned some snazzy ideograms, and then I learned a reading for each one and now you tell me I need to
learn *another* reading if I actually want to use them!?!! Go home Japanese, you’re drunk.
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Re: And now Korean!

Postby golyplot » Thu Sep 28, 2023 3:26 pm

Lawyer&Mom wrote:Okay, so I learned *two* different syllabaries, and then I learned some snazzy ideograms, and then I learned a reading for each one and now you tell me I need to
learn *another* reading if I actually want to use them!?!! Go home Japanese, you’re drunk.


Just wait until you find out that a lot of kanji have multiple onyomi and kunyomi readings. And then there's the random and inconsistent sound changes in compounds as well.
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Lawyer&Mom
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Re: And now Korean!

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Fri Sep 29, 2023 1:30 am

golyplot wrote:
Lawyer&Mom wrote:Okay, so I learned *two* different syllabaries, and then I learned some snazzy ideograms, and then I learned a reading for each one and now you tell me I need to
learn *another* reading if I actually want to use them!?!! Go home Japanese, you’re drunk.


Just wait until you find out that a lot of kanji have multiple onyomi and kunyomi readings. And then there's the random and inconsistent sound changes in compounds as well.


I wasn’t supposed to be learning Japanese at all. I just started the Hanzi to help with Korean vocabulary, and then I checked out Wanikani, just to see how similar the Kanji are, but Wanikani was so pretty and sucked me in….

I will say, and this may be blasphemous, I found hiragana and katakana easier than Hangul. Tofugu has absolutely brilliant mnemonics, and the symbols themselves are just more visually distinct than Hangul. (Like they evolved organically over time instead of being invented all at once by a genius king.) My memory needs hooks and Hangul are too sleek and slippery.
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Re: And now Korean!

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Tue Oct 17, 2023 3:27 pm

For the last year I’ve been spending time in online places where everyone watches KDrama and everyone and their aunt is learning Korean. Turns out I was mistaken. *Everyone* is actually learning Japanese. The quality and quantity of learning materials for Japanese is just insane. The apps, the artisanal anki decks… there is this vibrant ecosystem for Japanese learning that reflects so much time and care from the learning community. I feel so spoiled. Which is good, because I’m learning two Category V languages simultaneously. I deserve a little handholding! I’m glad I started Korean first so I was already committed before I discovered the luxuries of studying Japanese!
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