Read Korean From the Very Beginning.

This is a very controversial statement, as there are linguists who strongly believe you shouldn't sully your mind with reading a foreign language until you've attained a good conversational fluency in it. This may work for auditory learners who retain whatever they hear. Many of us don't. If you truly don't remember much of what people say to you and you need to write everything down, then learning to read Korean early on – in tandem with a good auditory program like Rocket Korean as a pronunciation guide -- will help you.

So don't assume that because you've only finished Lesson One in your online Korean program, you're not ready to read. You'll learn Korean much more easily and thoroughly with a multi-faceted approach. Get yourself some simple Korean children's books, a stack of index cards, and a computer with Internet access. Just look at the words, look at the pictures, and see if you can figure out what is going on.

When you encounter a word or phrase you don't know, jot it down, one phrase to a card. Don't take the time to look up every word as you encounter it. Just write down the word or phrase and keep going. When you get to the end of the book, look up each unknown word or phrase using an online Korean translator tool such as Google Translate (http://translate.google.com). Study your flashcards until you're positive you know those new vocabulary words, and then go back to your book and read it again. Pay special attention this time to the way the words work together to create meaning, and how the words you just learned fit into the overall pattern.

Once you've had enough auditory exposure to the language to feel comfortable articulating words with a decent Korean accent, read all your Korean texts aloud. Read your Korean children's books out loud; read your online coursework out loud; turn on your DVD's subtitle function and read the dialogue out loud; read the menu in a Korean restaurant out loud!
You don't have to shout and call attention to yourself in public, but you'll find that it really does help to move your lips and vocalize the words quietly. The
more you practice your Korean pronunciation, the more natural it will come to feel.

Remember that Rocket Korean is a great course to learn Korean online and offline, so check it out today!

By Gerrit du Plessis

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