Steps to Fluency

Steps to Fluency

This is a sort of roadmap that helps you identify where you are and where you should go next in learning the Korean language.

Learn Hangul, Eat Kimchi

The first step is to learn Hangul and to eat kimchi, preferably with a Korean. This should introduce you to two things:

1. The simplicity of the writing system.
2. The enthusiasm with which native Koreans enjoy their side dishes.

Both of these are critical at this nascent stage.

Learn Pronunciation, Eat bulgogi

The next step is to understand the vowel and consonant systems that Koreans use when speaking. You should also graduate to bulgogi, with a side of kimchi. Hopefully, you are learning basic phrases on the side.

Learn basic nouns and possessive

Next, you should master some basic nouns. You should also learn the possessive particle 의 and the verb "이다". When you've reached a hundred or so words, then you can graduate to the next step.

Learn basic adjectives

Next, learn the adjectives in their two forms: As a statement ("꽃이 예쁘다") and as an adjective phrase ("예쁜 꽃"). After you've learned about a hundred or so adjectives, and a hundred or so new nouns, then it's time to master the next step.

Learn Verbs

Next, start learning verbs, a hundred or so. You should be able to make basic sentences in past, present, and future tense.

Learn Common Endings

Next, master the twenty or so common endings to verbs. These are the tools that Koreans use to take a verb and express their deepest thoughts. Along the way, master postpositional phrases.

Sentence Clauses

Now you should be able to master sentence clauses. These include saying things like, "She said that she isn't going to school tomorrow because she was sick all day yesterday."

Hanja

At this point, there really isn't much you can't say or hear and not understand. You'll pick up the finer points of the common endings and discover a few new ones on your own. You'll even be able to make up new ones that are really Korean. (The pattern is very simple, really!)

The limiting factor in your fluency is going to be vocabulary. Koreans know and use far more words that we do in English, because they understand a large number of hanja and can use them to build new words and understand old ones. You'll be limited in your vocabulary until you learn at least the 900 basic hanja. Knowing the other 900 High School hanja is an added bonus.

Dialects, Proverbs, and Common Expressions

There are three final parts to your mastery:

• Dialects: You must master at least one dialect. That means, fine-tuning your pronunciation, intonation, and vocabulary to match that of someone your age in that region. This is extremely difficult. You may want to learn two dialects, since Seoul people don't appreciate southern accents and vice-versa.
• Proverbs: There are hundreds and hundreds of proverbs that Koreans live by. These are completely foreign to the Westerner, but common knowledge in the Asian countries. You'll need to learn them otherwise you will never be able to communicate philosophy at anything more than a basic level. The way Koreans think about these things is completely foreign to the way Westerners do. Learn it.
• Common Expressions: I cannot hope to catalog the thousands and thousands of common expressions and what they really mean. You are going to hear someone say something about radish legs and soybean husks and it won't make a bit of sense until someone explains it for you.