<p>I’m currently self-studying Korean (and really enjoying it, despite the fact that my approach is somewhat undisciplined and comically scatter-shot). I’m finding a lot of my resources online, and most of them are free. So far, I’ve learned how to read the Korean Alphabet (Hangul), as well as the rules and exceptions for pronunciation (though getting my tongue to perform some of the more daunting verbal acrobatics has been challenging to say the least). Now, I’m tackling grammar, sentence construction, particles and postpositions, verb and adjective conjugations, and of course, vocabulary. </p>
<p>I’ve always been embarrassed about the fact that I only speak one language (having really forgotten just about every bit of Spanish I learned in high school), so this is becoming quite gratifying. I’m again reminded that, as a phenomenon of human evolution, the diversity and variety of languages are nothing short of amazing—almost miraculous.</p>
<p>All this preamble is by way of asking if anyone else has self-studied a foreign language, and if so, how successful were you at becoming fairly fluent? Just curious.</p>
<p>Our neighbor taught himself Mandarin with computer programs. His wife is fluent and he wanted to converse with in laws. He speaks well enough to do business in Mandarin. </p>
<p>My Friend taught herself Italian (was familiar with French and Spanish). She’s good with languages and also taught herself Hawaiian. </p>
<p>I find languages challenging but look forward to reading of your and others’ progress.</p>
<p>I haven’t done that, but still remember a little German learned in high school. Have had the chance to use that a bit. It seems harder when everyone in Germany talks faster than my brain can comprehend! We had a friend who just learned Portuguese in an immersion program out of country, in his fifties.</p>
<p>That is very admirable that you are doing this, poetsheart. Whether you ever use it in Korea or not, you must be doing important things for your brain, especially since you enjoy it so much.</p>
<p>Funny that you should mention Korean dramas, HImom, because that’s actually what got me interested in studying Korean. I’m rather hooked on them, to be truthful. Listening to the dialog caused me to really appreciate the beauty of the language, and I quickly grew impatient with the inability to watch them in the raw. I have my D to blame for all this, as she turned me on to Asian dramas. We started out streaming Japanese “doramas” as a form of mother/daughter relaxation/bonding, and she soon directed me to paid, commercial-free sites like Crunchy Role and DramaFever. I refuse to subscribe to HULU, which subjects even their paying subscribers to ads. </p>
<p>D watches the NHK world channel almost exclusively, and has continued her own self-study regimen of Japanese. She took an extensive Intro to Japanese course at Haverford College while enrolled at Bryn Mawr, which entailed (I think) 1 and a half hours on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and 45 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for an entire academic year. The course was meant to compress 6 years of language instruction into one, and it was indeed intense, given that she started out with zero knowledge of the language. She loved every moment of the class, and earned a 96 average. She would have continued, but the next level’s scheduled classes overlapped (by 30 minutes) required course work in her major, so she had to drop that ambition. She has been continuing her own course of self-study in Japanese, and continues to see real improvement, such that she watches Japanese programming and understands the great majority of what’s being said. She’s more than half-way to memorizing the 2000 Kanji required to deem one “functionally literate” in Japanese. She’s my inspiration. </p>
<p>I have her to blame for my K-pop obsession too. I admit that almost sheepishly, but have decided to own my addiction with my shoulders thrown back and my head held high—:)</p>
<p>My D was hooked on German similarly. She loved listening to a singer that mostlysang in German and other European languages, so she started following the European blogs and taught herself German. She followed up by taking it in college. Herbvocabulary is good to great but pronunciation lags because she hasn’t spoken it much. ;)</p>
<p>busdriver, my dream to to visit South Korea in a few years. Seoul is a world class city which has really captured my imagination. I love streaming an old PBS program called The Kimchi Chronicles online. I use to watch it directly on our local PBS affiliate, but it seems they’ve since dropped the program (either that, or it’s no longer filming). It features hosts who travel all across Korea sampling its cuisine and visiting its cultural sites. I highly recommend it.</p>
<p>My Sis, BIL, niece and her H all went to S Korea with niece’s H’s family who were living there for several years. I believe they really enjoyed the trip. </p>
<p>I think the best way to really learn a language is immersion for a period of time, building fluency. H has been to S Korea several times for work. He didn’t get to sightsee much but said it was VERY cold in winter but the hotel had nice heated wooden floors. He enjoyed the food, especially the Korean miso stew.</p>
<p>HImom, my D also started out with a love for German, as that’s half her ancestral heritage. She took it throughout high school, and was set to continue in college, but she found the instruction available at her school “disappointing” when she took it up again during freshman year. All throughout high school, she loved to listen to German heavy metal (she still buys European rock music), and she imagined living and working in Germany for a time. However I think later, an ever increasing teenaged obsession with anime caused Japanese to eclipse her interest in German—that along with an almost manic love for Shotokan Karate. A little over a year ago, she found a Kendo Dojo near her DC area apartment, and has been happily studying yet another of her Japanese obsessions.</p>
<p>My D likes Pia Dawes, who has a lovely clear voice and sings a huge variety of things, but no heavy metal. No idea what will happen with it–hope to get her to Europe one day.</p>
<p>Not as impressive as Korean, but I taught myself Spanish (to a fairly high level). My original reason for learning was idiosyncratic - I liked Jorge Luis Borges’ writing so much I wanted to read it in the original… Embarrassingly enough, I learned it using a DVD children’s series called Muzzy (a BBC language show) that I had bought for my daughter when she was learning Spanish. I also used a free online language community called livemocha, which has the usual vocabulary lessons, but also lets you submit writing and speech to the community, where fluent speakers comment on your work (in return, you can comment on foreign speakers’ English writing and speaking). Livemocha includes Korean lessons. If you hunt a bit you can find TV shows and newspapers online, too.
I keep toying with the idea of trying to get a language group together. My mom participates in a German language group in her city, where they get together (at Denny’s, a hotbed of traditional German cuisine… heh) and practice their German on each other.</p>
<p>I’ve known two people who have self taught themselves Mandarin. Hats off to all you people! But I just had to say, I didn’t know there were other (non Korean) mother-daughter Korean drama fans!</p>
<p>Onward, there is an entire world community that enthusiastically harbors a Kdrama obsession, and not just Korean dramas, but Japanese and Taiwanese dramas as well. I frequent a site called Dramabeans, which is all about Asian Dramas. It features a comment section after every article whereby drama addicts get together and talk about the topic at hand, or about what they’re currently watching. Regular posters frequent Dramabeans from literally every part of the world, and we are all quite diverse. If you’re into such Dramas, check it out.</p>
<p>Duolingo teaches Spanish, English, French, German, Portuguese, Italian. It is free and apparently very effective. I second the concept of learning a language through children’s books and DVD’s. If it works for the kids, why not us?</p>
<p>That is so cool, poetsheart. I hope you are able to go on your trip in a few years. I personally would love to visit, but don’t think I’ll be trying the Kimchi!</p>
<p>I’ve really been enjoying Duolingo. I’ve sampled other computer learning programs and this is the only one that’s worked for me.</p>
<p>I find the exercises actually to be somewhat addictive! I’m currently up to Level 7 in Italian. I intend to study Portuguese on Duolingo too, and to review my German, Spanish and French. I do like languages, but I believe that even someone who struggles would find Duolingo appealing.</p>
<p>NJTheatreMOM, I can tell you that my son who struggles mightily in Italian has been cruising through Duolingo. He got through level three just since you posted yesterday without a single mistake. What is cool is how they add on gently with layers. Son had missed a chunk of school in the fall with bronchitis and it was his first year of language, so there is a gap of a couple of topics. He was able to close the gaps in the one day that he worked on Duolingo. My D is now working on it to refresh herself for German in college this semester. This program hadn’t crossed my radar before, but I thank you so much for suggesting it. It never fails to amaze me how often something I really need and can’t figure out on my own pops up on CC at exactly the right moment.</p>
<p>How does Duolingo work with someone who is already at an intermediate level? It can be frustrating to have to work through beginner levels to get to the right level.</p>