Massiseo! Delicious Korean Learning

맛있어! [Massiseo!] means "delicious" in Korean. But this post is about something far tastier than food...

In my previous post I mentioned that I had found most of my Korean learning resources through Google searches, and it only recently occurred to me that I could simply stand on the shoulders of giants (and normal-sized folk) in stead. How? Social bookmarking. my weapon of choice: Delicious.

UPDATE: Some time after this blog project ended, the survival of Delicious became unlikely. This was a blessing in disguise, since it led me to www.diigo.com, a much more sophisticated social bookmarking service. The principle is the same, but there are far more options, as well as a mobile application call PowerNote which allows you to sync notes and photos from your mobile phone securely online. Even so, read on for the original post. 

There is more on the rationale behind Delicious in my language teaching blog, but for now let's see how it can help learners of Korean. A Delicious tag search for Korean led me to the wealth of sites bookmarked by other Delicious users. After adding my own bookmarks, I could also easily call up my own collection of bookmarks for Korean.

What makes Delicious stand out is the tagging function, which keeps things organized and searchable. For my own purposes, I love the annotation function, where I can keep notes on each site for later reference... my own and others'.

And that, in a word, is the beauty of social bookmarking: sharing our knowledge.

Massiseo!

A Brief Word on Bells and Whistles (And a Great Find)

While compiling a resource bank for the Korean section of the TOLL project, I admit that I depended mostly on Google searches. (Only this morning did it occur to me to check social bookmarking services, like Delicious, but that is for a later post.) The resource bank includes brief annotations to help users, and myself, decide on the most appropriate sites for their purposes.

Looking over my resource bank as the sun rose today, I saw the final entry, for the Introduction to Korean course, which I had merely described as a "no-frills introduction to the writing and phonetic system". On a whim, I went to explore the site, and found that I learnt more about the Korean writing and phonetic system in ten minutes on this no-frills site, than I had in many hours. Not only that, but there was also a practice session of a manageable dose of vowels and consonants. For the first time, I felt that I had some mastery at the end of a study session. But wait! There's more! The course is downloadable, meaning it can be used offline exactly as it would be online, in both text and audio versions - an answer to the limitations of the sites I mentioned in yesterday's post.

This is a great find, and an earnest reminder that books should not be judged by their covers. many thanks to the polymath author of the langintro site, J. David Eisenberg, for this gem. No bells or whistles required.

Online Resources, Offline Use

At times, like while traveling, it can be tricky to ensure a consistent internet connection for your language learning. Since many of the more interactive resources are only available online, I find it is wise to accumulate some valuable learning materials that can be accessed offline. This can be done either on a computer or portable electronic device, or the "old-fashioned" way, in a notebook. Yes, I mean paper. Let's take a look at both.

Several online resources are downloadable and can be stored on a computer, PDA or smartphone. This is true of many online language learning resources, but let's consider a few examples for learning Korean. The podcasts and accompanying PDFs from Koreanclass 101 offers audio, audiovisuals and written documentation, online or off. The thorough lessons from the Korean Broadcasting Service can be copied and pasted to a Word document, although the audio guidelines are only available online. The same applies to the resources from Seoul National University.

An inbetween option is to make use of the Survival Language Kit, completing the necessary phrases in Korean, and saving it, or printing it out for reference and easy-access, anywhere study.

Although this blog documents the benefits of online resources, traditional resources should never be underestimated. A compact notebook can serve as an excellent learning resource, and there is no better notebook than the sturdy classic from Moleskine, available in a range of formats. (My inner Luddite rejoices.) It helps to keep the first few pages for an organically evolving Table of Contents, and number pages for easy reference. (Thanks to Henrick Borger for tipping me off on Tim Ferris' How to Take Notes like an Alpha Geek!) Leaving a lot of space is also wise, to allow for additional notes as your learning evolves. My notebooks are usually also sprinkled with colour-coded Post-It flags to help me find things easily. On second thoughts, my personal alpha geekdom probably needs very little encouragement.

While navigating the distant reaches of my home country the past week, I found my trusty paper notebook a great ally in keeping my learning on track, even while offline. Technology can make things faster, bigger and better, but it is always good to have a back-up plan beyond the virtual.