Discussion Post #7

[Xiwei Gu]

My plan for language learning has been changed ever since I started. Initially, I was planning to buy online authority courses on Korean in order to learn it in a standard way. However, after getting access to the course, memorizing of tremendous grammar rules as well as vocabulary overwhelmed me besides other classes’ homework. Therefore, I changed my strategy. I found my Korean friends and try to communicate with them. By learning through daily conversations, I found it much easier other than memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary. After learning basic linguistic knowledge on phenetics, I found it helpful to my learning of Korean words. By looking at the IPA templates, I can try to combine all those vowels to see what the result would be. The discussions really help me a lot in gathering ideas and insights into language learning. I look at others’ discussion posts often in order to find ideas different from mine which can also be beneficial to my objectives. For example, I once looked at Ethan’s post, and I found his personal experience learning Korean very interesting. I am trying to learn from his experience. In short, the learning plan influences my progress extensively as it always reminds me of my goal and necessity for refining my methods.

[Anna Liu]

Hi Xiwei,

It can get a little overwhelming given how many resources are out there, but one tool I recommend is called iTalki. iTalki is a language learning platform that gives to the opportunity to learn any language they offer. I have used it for the past two years, and it is one of the best tools I have ever used to learn languages. I use it currently to learn Cantonese and Mandarin, but I have used it in past for Korean. Also, the Global Studios paid for my lessons, so you can definitely discuss this with Dr. Soloway!