So far, learning Korean has been a very interesting process for me. It is completely unlike any of the languages I have learned before (Spanish, French, and German) not only in word-order, but also in the way that its alphabet functions. The Korean language is also very different than other languages in terms of its alphabet. You read the alphabet from left to right, as would in English, but it is unique in that characters are stacked on top of each other and grouped in numbers of two to five. It has 28 character, 17 of which are vowels and 11 of which are consonants. These letters can be combined to produce some sounds that do not exist in the English language, but there are also some sounds that the Korean language does not have (like ph).
Understanding the culture of the Korean language is helpful in understanding the language itself, because you begin to realize why certain words may sound different, or why there are two different numbering systems. For instance, the Han’ja Chinese words may sound very different than the Han’gul traditional Korean words. Understanding the culture of the language also helps, because you can understand why there are many endings for when you refer to people of different ages or social statuses. Understanding Korean culture is especially important when talking to others, because you want to be sure not to unknowingly offend anyone or say something that does not translate well into their culture. In a way, a language is a complete reflection of a given culture, because it tells you not only what they value, but also how they view each other. Each language has things that it communicates better and worse than other languages, which tells you if more or less importance was placed upon it. Korean has lots of different endings for different social situations, which tells you that they take social distinctions very seriously. As a result, it may be seen as a much larger blunder if you refer to someone in the improper form than it would in English.
In order to improve my communicative competence, the most important thing is to improve my vocabulary. It is impossible to communicate if you do not know the words of the language, so that is the best place to start. Also, it would be helpful to know more about Korean culture, because that will give me a better understanding of which social situations to use which words in. It would also help a lot if I could improve my ear by listening to Korean radio and TV.
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