Learning Korean

I’m learning Korean again. I can’t exactly say that I tried very hard the first go-round. I took one class last summer, struggled with hangul, and procrastinated. So now it’s a new year, and I am tired of not being about to read hangul.

People say that you can survive in Korea without speaking the language, and that’s true. However, all of the signs are in Korean. If you want to go to a gym, you can pass the building a million times if there is no picture (and most buildings don’t have pictures). You also won’t be able to tell if you are going to a dentist or an internal medicine specialist. You won’t even be able to tell if it’s a doctor’s office at all.

And grocery shopping is an adventure. I can usually get what I want through trial and error, but I did buy some white stuff, that I thought was salt. It wasn’t salt. I also bought fabric softener, thinking that it was laundry detergent.

So, I went to a cool bookstore in Nampodong (an area in Busan) with a Korean friend. I bought some books to learn Korean. I was really stoked until today when I realized that one of the books was intermediate when it should have been elementary level. Intermediate was in English. I think that the books were switched because my friend wanted to get me a brand new fresh one. I should have double-checked that she got the right one!

Anyway, in browsing at the books, I’m finding all sorts of English errors in them. Here is an example from Learners of Korean Language of Foreigner… hmmm I should have paid better attention to the title, right?

You have no reason whatever to bo so angry.

Yes, it says whatever and bo

How about this one?

Don’t you have anyting to drink?

And this one…

Leave books where it is.

So, the authors have a real issue with English. Let’s hope that the Korean is correct. I have no idea.

I didn’t give the books more than a second glance when I bought them. I was far to interested in buying The Quickie by James Paterson and Michael Ledwidge. I read it in a day, and didn’t crack open the Korean books except to write this blog. I can say that the novel is awesome, and if you are flying to Korea, I recommend it to read on the plane, if you like twisted murder mysteries with love triangles. James Patterson is now my new author superhero! I hope that they make a movie based on The Quickie!

Back to my topic, Learning Korean. There are books here to learn Korean, but I can’t vouch for the ease of learning Korean with them. The book, Korean for Foreigners has four CDs. The book with all of the poor grammar and misspelled words is a writing workbook.

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