Page 11 - Blog 2015 - Korea in Canada

KoREa In Canada
KoREa-Canada Blog 2015

an oVerVieW oF Korean: WHaT, WHY, and HoW?
Korean is the official language of South and
north Korea, and it’s one of the two official
languages in China’s Yanbian Korean autonomous
Prefecture. It’s spoken by an approximate 80
million people around the world. If you speak
some Chinese, you’ll have a good starting
advantage over other learners of Korean, since
approximately 60% of Korean vocabulary is
derived from Chinese (i.e. Sino-Korean words). If
you speak Japanese, you’ll also have a
considerably easier time learning Korean, since
both languages — and up to a certain point,
Korean dialects by region
culturesshare many similarities, such as a similar
order of words (subject-object-verb) and grammar. While many linguists classify Korean as
a “language isolate” (i.e. not part of any other language family), some also consider it to be
part of the altaic language family.

So why would anyone want to learn Korean? Well, for starters, the language has gained
a tremendous amount of popularity in the past decade, not least thanks to the so-called
“Hallyu(한류, Korean wave)” as it is known in English. The Korean Wave evolved from a
regional development (mostly Southeast and East asia) into a global phenomenon due to
the proliferation of Korean dramas and K-pop music videos on YouTube, of which gangnam
Style is but one prominent example.
So, in earnest, let’s look at the steps you’ll need to take to effectively learn Korean.

SeT CLear GoaLS, a TiMeLine, and a SCHedULe

Here’s the secret to a successful start, in 3 simple bullet points:
• Your goals must be specific, Vague, sweeping goals are too broad to be acted upon.
• Your goals must be believable. If you don’t believe you can reach them, you won’t.
• Your goals must be challenging and demanding.

a lot of language learners fail to reach a respectable level of fluency because they lack
any clear goals and direction, and they have no regular study schedule. don’t fall into this
trap. Even before purchasing any learning materials, set yourself some very clear goals and

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