New Language, New Sounds

Continuing my byte-sized learning experience, I started this day with a listen to the Koreanclass 101 podcast. Koreanclass 101 has its pros and cons: on the upside, it offers an excellent course, where users have access to a wealth of free resources... on the downside, they are free only for seven days, unless you opt for paid subscription.

I have downloaded the PDF files related to the first couple of podcasts, and I'm very impressed with the organization. They provide transcripts of the podcast conversations in hangul and romanized script, as well as translations and cultural notes in a well-organized format.

The way I learn, I really do need some visual help, and because time is so scarce right now, I value the romanized script. The drawback is that romanized script can harm one's pronunciation. To offset this problem, I am spending quite some time on listening to the audio files and repeating them out loud, as well as annoying my friends by piping up '잘 먹겠습니다!" [jal meokgesseumnida!] before meals. It does take some time to wrap one's mind, and tongue, around the new sounds, so practice is mroe important than dignity right now.