I've been learning english pretty much since i was a child and i'm really proficient in it but today i learned a different word for your front teeth which sounds really basic but that just shows that there will always be stuff you don't know in a language. But it's also fun to keep learning new things.
It's nice to have someone talk about the benefits of learning slowly. Lately, a lot of short form media is all about learning quickly, finding hacks, being fluent in 6 months, etc. It's trying to add efficiency to something that should be an organic process. I started learning Japanese in 1999 and even though I'm fluent, I'm still learning, and I plan to use the same approach with Korean. I started 3 years studying it ago and although I have a long way to go, not rushing to learn as fast as possible is the only way for me not to burn out.
"It was really hard to understand Korean for 5 or 6 years". This makes me feel so much better! I have been studying a little over 2 years now, at my own pace. I have ADHD and a learning disorder, and I'm studying Level 5 currently at TTMIK. I get really frustrated because level 5 is "intermediate", but when I see intermediate Korean learners, they speak and understand so well, meanwhile I can't really speak it. I've really been making an effort these past few months to understand and speak Korean better, this video is so helpful!! Thank you once again TTMIK!!!
They're better at speaking because ones level on paper isn't reflective of skill level. I have similar exasperation: those who've been learning a shorter time but exceed me.
If i can give advice, find koreans on internet to speak or speak with a korean teacher improve you! i can speak and i'm in the intermediate level because i took lessons with my korean teacher and we speak à lot
22 years old is not at all “late”. I started at the age of 49, which brings a whole lot of other issues with it… like forgetting all sorts of things much quicker than when I was 22, and a brain full of complex English expressions. My native language brain is over 50 but my Korean ability is younger than 5. 😂😂😂 But he is right - the learning journey counts, like being in a Zoom class with people from around the world, meeting a Korean tandem partner to chat and hang out with, travelling to Korea and not using Google visual translate 😂😂😂 TTMIK, this series of interviews with accomplished Korean learners is fantastic!! Thank you ❤
I started at 55 but couldn't see any difference to when I was learning Englisch, Russian, Croatian tbh. I think it's mainly this "I am old"-mindset that slows you down. You are not too old to learn, it's scientifically proven that brain ageing really starts in your seventies.
The suggestion to pick books, podcasts, etc that talk about the things you want to see or do... like LA or skiing, etc. That is a great recommendation. I will try. have been slowly learning Korean for 2 years and literally getting nowhere. I don't spend a lot of time, as I am old and work full time and raising kids, but I am consistent with it daily and I would love to just be able to have a basic actual, unscripted conversation one day. 😭 When he said 5-6 years he still didn't understand well. 😭 I will just keep going and learning more.
@@rowinwan1 Nah. We're fine. He just doesn't realize how young he is. I started figure skating when I was 22 in a class with a bunch of 12 year olds, and I felt the same way. But I got better than the kids in the end. There are polyglots who didn't start their 2nd language until their 50s. 우리는 할 수 있어요!
I so appreciate what he said about not understanding when people respond in Korean. I’m about 2 and a half years in and I try to speak Korean to people I meet as much as I can, but I get totally flabbergasted by the response. I’m glad it’s not just me, and I’ll keep practicing.
Good points about reading to learn "the way of thinking" that is natural to the language speakers. We all think in terms of our native language, and a big challenge to learning new languages is to shift our way of thinking to the perspective of the language's culture.
Thank you for sharing this interview, it’s given me more encouragement to continue learning Korean. I also loved the part where it was said to “learn according to your personality.”
When I started to learn english about 20 years ago I devoured lots of books and magazines, it allowed me to learn vocabulary faster and as Colin said, it helps you to think as a native speaker. I’d love to do the same with Korean but have no idea where to start with books in Korean.
you can start by re-reading in korean the books you've read in english, from doing it like this you get the same thing he experienced with reading about L.A, even if you don't know all the words, you can get a lot of it because you already know the story. If you don't like re-reading, you can look for korean youtubers that talk about books and choose what to read from their recommendations
These kind of videos are super helpful, not only because we get to listen a natural conversation but also because it gives you an insight in foreing language learning and even life!
I am a native Italian but I also speak fluent English and Spanish, and a bit of French. Usually, when learning a language, it's more common to be able to understand first, maybe not everything but quite a lot, whilst speaking is usually way more difficult. I know tons of people that have been studying English for years in school and a bit at uni maybe, that understand English quite decently, some even well, but struggle a lot when it comes to speaking and having conversations. With Korean, at least for me, it's exactly how Colin described it! I have been studying Korean for almost 3 years (and spent almost 7 months studying it at university in Korea) and I've come to the conclusion already a long time ago that Korean is usually one of those languages that you start speaking first, and then with a lot of time and patience, you build your comprehension skills, 천천히. To this day, my 말하기 and 읽기 are better than my 듣기, and I speak quite naturally. Of course I still make many mistakes and sometimes I get stuck in infinite loops while trying to make very long sentences, but I feel quite comfortable speaking Korean! Problem is, as Colin pointed out, sometimes you talk to random people in Korea, and you're like clueless... 🤔😅 Also, I used to live in Busan, that could also be why hahahah
저도 그래요! 그냥 천천히 공부 해요. I study korean slowly too, at one point i just accept that my progress is slow because if i try to learn it fast, i just get overwhelmed. I agree that there is no end when learning a language. I've been learning english for a long time since i was a child & use english a lot especially in social media but when i read english book, there is always a new words that i found. It's natural to get frustrated or get tired. Instead of stop it, try to get rest. Just rest for a bit and study again or maybe find other material or contents that can help get exposed to the language I started learn korean at 21, for me it's not that late but i'm not learning it as a child. It will still be hard for me but because korean is my third language, the process is easier as i had experiance learning a language
I think he has been the most honest about learning a new language. Many want to seem like pro but he was just really honest, I'm also a 천천히 learner. I make mistakes but I make mistakes in english too (my second language) and probably in my native aswell. Sometimes we're to focussen on not making mistakes that we make more. My aunt told me that it's ok to make mistakes and to my surprise, my mistakes in korean dropped immensely. But yes listening is hard because everyone talks differently and has accents. No one really talks like a book or a movie
I've been in the upper beginner/low intermediate stage for many years now. When I visit Korea of course I noticed myself getting better but I can only visit for a couple weeks every few years. I'm starting to form the opinion that most people will never get fluent without living there.
Before taking lessons with my korean teacher, i had better understanding skills than speaking skills because i watch a lot of kdramas and i understand some words, sentence etc but i wasn't able to speak at first, then i speak a lot with my korean teach and i learned more grammar and i improve faster than alone and i improve more my speaking skill
This was such a good interview and Mr. Marshall is spot on! I totally agree with everything he said as someone who has also been learning Korean for a long time and also currently lives in Korea. Like him, I also enjoy the fact I will always be an outsider. To be honest, I feel like it's a blessing in disguise. Yes, it may be hard or even lonely at times but being "the foreigner" also means you usually won't be held up to the standards of Korean society which, as well are know, are very strict and unattainable even for some Koreans themselves. Certain things will never be expected of me the way they are expected from Koreans and, honestly, I'm glad of it because it is true that no matter how hard you try to fit in and adapt there will always be that distance, like Mr. Marshall said. Another thing I completely agree with and can't recommend enough as well is learning Hanja. Until last year I was also one of those people who thought I could just avoid learning Hanja because it's no longer used but that's just at a surface level. It's not used in writing, but the root meanings of the words come from chinese in a vast majority of the language so if you learn root meanings you can start guessing the meaning of many words you have never heard before. Now I see how important it is to learn Hanja and I regret not having started sooner. Lastly, I'm definitely going to be buying his book. These days I'm really into reading essays for my Korean studies. Thanks for the video and best of luck to Mr. Marshall on his future endeavors!
That's why it's better practice speaking than writing, language is speaking and communication. I learned faster by practicing speaking korean with a korean teacher, i didn't really learn from books but from korean drama and my korean teacher
Fell in love with Korean culture back in 2010. Only wish I could learn even a quarter of Korean language he has learned. Unfortunately I have a memory disability that makes it hard to learn things like languages. Heck I barely passed English in school and its my native language! Books saved me.
Funny, when I started learning Korean, I did the same. Ordering in Korean in a Korean restaurant. When they replied I faced the same situation.. "what did they just say" 😂 But after explaining that I'm learning the language I befriended with one who always taught me something new, whenever I visited. I still remember a situation when I ordered at a Korean restaurant and the two replied, thinking I was only saying a phrase from memory and I was able to answer and they were stunned "oh he did understand what we just said".
I was looking for physical books written in Korean but I can't find anything here in our country. E-books does not work for me because it takes my concentration away from what I'm reading. Can anyone recommend me where could I buy those books on the internet?
Talk to me in Korean has some on their website and Amazon. Amazon also has some other books too. I bought a folk story book and write the vocab on there I don’t know
Because the topic of reading books was brought up, Can TTMIK post a video about Book Recommendations for beginners, intermediates and Advance learners (not textbooks) ie story books or poetry? I searched and searched but didn't find any😅
I'm mainly studying Japanese but I love the Korean language so I try to casually pick things up when listening to music or watching kdrama. I totally understand what he means at 2:28 or so with that talk about being able to say things, but everything people say to you sounds like random nonsense haha. But the only thing you can do is keep on studying and listening and practicing until it gets a little easier, then a little more easier, and repeat for years until the language doesn't sound like "!*@%#*@#%(*" anymore.
I've been studying korean for 3 years, everyday , and still can't understand conversation. And I don't know why I don't quit. But I want understand conversations..
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I am 40 years old and I am only now starting to seriously learn Korean. Never too late!
I've been learning english pretty much since i was a child and i'm really proficient in it but today i learned a different word for your front teeth which sounds really basic but that just shows that there will always be stuff you don't know in a language. But it's also fun to keep learning new things.
Yes, we need to read!!!! That's why I'm so grateful for TTMIK Stories! And no, 22 is not late. I started studying Korean at 60.
Right lol. I saw that and thought yeah it's too late to get it for free but it's way earlier than a lot of people.
It's nice to have someone talk about the benefits of learning slowly. Lately, a lot of short form media is all about learning quickly, finding hacks, being fluent in 6 months, etc. It's trying to add efficiency to something that should be an organic process. I started learning Japanese in 1999 and even though I'm fluent, I'm still learning, and I plan to use the same approach with Korean. I started 3 years studying it ago and although I have a long way to go, not rushing to learn as fast as possible is the only way for me not to burn out.
"It was really hard to understand Korean for 5 or 6 years". This makes me feel so much better! I have been studying a little over 2 years now, at my own pace. I have ADHD and a learning disorder, and I'm studying Level 5 currently at TTMIK. I get really frustrated because level 5 is "intermediate", but when I see intermediate Korean learners, they speak and understand so well, meanwhile I can't really speak it. I've really been making an effort these past few months to understand and speak Korean better, this video is so helpful!! Thank you once again TTMIK!!!
They're better at speaking because ones level on paper isn't reflective of skill level. I have similar exasperation: those who've been learning a shorter time but exceed me.
If i can give advice, find koreans on internet to speak or speak with a korean teacher improve you! i can speak and i'm in the intermediate level because i took lessons with my korean teacher and we speak à lot
22 years old is not at all “late”. I started at the age of 49, which brings a whole lot of other issues with it… like forgetting all sorts of things much quicker than when I was 22, and a brain full of complex English expressions. My native language brain is over 50 but my Korean ability is younger than 5. 😂😂😂
But he is right - the learning journey counts, like being in a Zoom class with people from around the world, meeting a Korean tandem partner to chat and hang out with, travelling to Korea and not using Google visual translate 😂😂😂
TTMIK, this series of interviews with accomplished Korean learners is fantastic!! Thank you ❤
I started at 39, now 40. So much more difficult to remember things at this age. If only I had started at 22.
I started at 55 but couldn't see any difference to when I was learning Englisch, Russian, Croatian tbh. I think it's mainly this "I am old"-mindset that slows you down. You are not too old to learn, it's scientifically proven that brain ageing really starts in your seventies.
I am 48 years old and 4.5 months into learning Koren myself. Your comment gives me hope.
You are never too old to learn something new!
@@talktomeinkorean 감사해요
The suggestion to pick books, podcasts, etc that talk about the things you want to see or do... like LA or skiing, etc. That is a great recommendation. I will try. have been slowly learning Korean for 2 years and literally getting nowhere. I don't spend a lot of time, as I am old and work full time and raising kids, but I am consistent with it daily and I would love to just be able to have a basic actual, unscripted conversation one day. 😭 When he said 5-6 years he still didn't understand well. 😭 I will just keep going and learning more.
Believe that your efforts will lead to growth and success! :)
When he said he started late and then said '22' 😭
But the first 10 seconds are super relatable, nice to get points of view from a variety of learners
I started when I was 42. 🤣
@@hannasizemore8028 yeah if he thinks starting at 22 is late there's no hope for most of us 😂😂
@@rowinwan1 Nah. We're fine. He just doesn't realize how young he is. I started figure skating when I was 22 in a class with a bunch of 12 year olds, and I felt the same way. But I got better than the kids in the end. There are polyglots who didn't start their 2nd language until their 50s. 우리는 할 수 있어요!
I know. Me too. I started at 37.
I so appreciate what he said about not understanding when people respond in Korean. I’m about 2 and a half years in and I try to speak Korean to people I meet as much as I can, but I get totally flabbergasted by the response. I’m glad it’s not just me, and I’ll keep practicing.
Trust the process. One day you will realize that you have come a long way. The journey is the goal.
Mastering a language takes a lifetime so the sooner you start the longer it takes 👍
Good points about reading to learn "the way of thinking" that is natural to the language speakers. We all think in terms of our native language, and a big challenge to learning new languages is to shift our way of thinking to the perspective of the language's culture.
Thank you for sharing this interview, it’s given me more encouragement to continue learning Korean. I also loved the part where it was said to “learn according to your personality.”
Same with me. Listening to random old people is the hardest part of Korean. They have heavy accents, they don't slow down, they give no quarter.
In 3 years i will move to korea to teach English and live there again. This is my goal. And i believe it will happen.
I enjoyed the interview
thank you for sharing your experience ❤
이런 종류의 인터뷰를 시청하는 걸 좋아해요! 오늘도 시청하면서 즐거운 시간을 보냈어요. 진심으로 감사드립니다
When I started to learn english about 20 years ago I devoured lots of books and magazines, it allowed me to learn vocabulary faster and as Colin said, it helps you to think as a native speaker. I’d love to do the same with Korean but have no idea where to start with books in Korean.
you can start by re-reading in korean the books you've read in english, from doing it like this you get the same thing he experienced with reading about L.A, even if you don't know all the words, you can get a lot of it because you already know the story. If you don't like re-reading, you can look for korean youtubers that talk about books and choose what to read from their recommendations
Also, TTMIK Stories is a great app that has graded levels of stories and articles to practice reading with.
These kind of videos are super helpful, not only because we get to listen a natural conversation but also because it gives you an insight in foreing language learning and even life!
Thank you so much!
I am a native Italian but I also speak fluent English and Spanish, and a bit of French. Usually, when learning a language, it's more common to be able to understand first, maybe not everything but quite a lot, whilst speaking is usually way more difficult. I know tons of people that have been studying English for years in school and a bit at uni maybe, that understand English quite decently, some even well, but struggle a lot when it comes to speaking and having conversations.
With Korean, at least for me, it's exactly how Colin described it! I have been studying Korean for almost 3 years (and spent almost 7 months studying it at university in Korea) and I've come to the conclusion already a long time ago that Korean is usually one of those languages that you start speaking first, and then with a lot of time and patience, you build your comprehension skills, 천천히.
To this day, my 말하기 and 읽기 are better than my 듣기, and I speak quite naturally. Of course I still make many mistakes and sometimes I get stuck in infinite loops while trying to make very long sentences, but I feel quite comfortable speaking Korean! Problem is, as Colin pointed out, sometimes you talk to random people in Korea, and you're like clueless... 🤔😅 Also, I used to live in Busan, that could also be why hahahah
Exactly, it was something that I needed. I cannot go back to before learning Korean; I miss it. thank you😍👍🌻
저도 그래요! 그냥 천천히 공부 해요. I study korean slowly too, at one point i just accept that my progress is slow because if i try to learn it fast, i just get overwhelmed. I agree that there is no end when learning a language. I've been learning english for a long time since i was a child & use english a lot especially in social media but when i read english book, there is always a new words that i found. It's natural to get frustrated or get tired. Instead of stop it, try to get rest. Just rest for a bit and study again or maybe find other material or contents that can help get exposed to the language
I started learn korean at 21, for me it's not that late but i'm not learning it as a child. It will still be hard for me but because korean is my third language, the process is easier as i had experiance learning a language
I think he has been the most honest about learning a new language. Many want to seem like pro but he was just really honest, I'm also a 천천히 learner. I make mistakes but I make mistakes in english too (my second language) and probably in my native aswell. Sometimes we're to focussen on not making mistakes that we make more. My aunt told me that it's ok to make mistakes and to my surprise, my mistakes in korean dropped immensely. But yes listening is hard because everyone talks differently and has accents. No one really talks like a book or a movie
I've been in the upper beginner/low intermediate stage for many years now. When I visit Korea of course I noticed myself getting better but I can only visit for a couple weeks every few years. I'm starting to form the opinion that most people will never get fluent without living there.
Before taking lessons with my korean teacher, i had better understanding skills than speaking skills because i watch a lot of kdramas and i understand some words, sentence etc but i wasn't able to speak at first, then i speak a lot with my korean teach and i learned more grammar and i improve faster than alone and i improve more my speaking skill
This was such a good interview and Mr. Marshall is spot on! I totally agree with everything he said as someone who has also been learning Korean for a long time and also currently lives in Korea. Like him, I also enjoy the fact I will always be an outsider. To be honest, I feel like it's a blessing in disguise. Yes, it may be hard or even lonely at times but being "the foreigner" also means you usually won't be held up to the standards of Korean society which, as well are know, are very strict and unattainable even for some Koreans themselves. Certain things will never be expected of me the way they are expected from Koreans and, honestly, I'm glad of it because it is true that no matter how hard you try to fit in and adapt there will always be that distance, like Mr. Marshall said.
Another thing I completely agree with and can't recommend enough as well is learning Hanja. Until last year I was also one of those people who thought I could just avoid learning Hanja because it's no longer used but that's just at a surface level. It's not used in writing, but the root meanings of the words come from chinese in a vast majority of the language so if you learn root meanings you can start guessing the meaning of many words you have never heard before. Now I see how important it is to learn Hanja and I regret not having started sooner.
Lastly, I'm definitely going to be buying his book. These days I'm really into reading essays for my Korean studies. Thanks for the video and best of luck to Mr. Marshall on his future endeavors!
Thank you for your sharing your insightful thought! 😊
That's why it's better practice speaking than writing, language is speaking and communication. I learned faster by practicing speaking korean with a korean teacher, i didn't really learn from books but from korean drama and my korean teacher
Thanks! Greetings from Belgium.
17 years,, that’s so impressive!
This was an interesting and engaging interview, thank you.
Fell in love with Korean culture back in 2010. Only wish I could learn even a quarter of Korean language he has learned. Unfortunately I have a memory disability that makes it hard to learn things like languages. Heck I barely passed English in school and its my native language! Books saved me.
Funny, when I started learning Korean, I did the same. Ordering in Korean in a Korean restaurant. When they replied I faced the same situation.. "what did they just say" 😂 But after explaining that I'm learning the language I befriended with one who always taught me something new, whenever I visited. I still remember a situation when I ordered at a Korean restaurant and the two replied, thinking I was only saying a phrase from memory and I was able to answer and they were stunned "oh he did understand what we just said".
I was looking for physical books written in Korean but I can't find anything here in our country. E-books does not work for me because it takes my concentration away from what I'm reading. Can anyone recommend me where could I buy those books on the internet?
Talk to me in Korean has some on their website and Amazon. Amazon also has some other books too. I bought a folk story book and write the vocab on there I don’t know
@@ericazeh9760 Thanks for the recommendation😊 I'll check it out.
@@ericazeh9760 Thanks. I'll check them out.
We offer worldwide shipping. Visit our website to explore our selection of paper books and find the perfect ones for you. (talktomeinkorean.com/store)
Because the topic of reading books was brought up, Can TTMIK post a video about Book Recommendations for beginners, intermediates and Advance learners (not textbooks) ie story books or poetry? I searched and searched but didn't find any😅
I'm mainly studying Japanese but I love the Korean language so I try to casually pick things up when listening to music or watching kdrama. I totally understand what he means at 2:28 or so with that talk about being able to say things, but everything people say to you sounds like random nonsense haha. But the only thing you can do is keep on studying and listening and practicing until it gets a little easier, then a little more easier, and repeat for years until the language doesn't sound like "!*@%#*@#%(*" anymore.
You have to use the language for something or it will disapear again, my greek is almost gone cause I didn't use it a lot.
I've been studying korean for 3 years, everyday , and still can't understand conversation. And I don't know why I don't quit. But I want understand conversations..
Colin so white, I thought he's the vampire actor "Aro" in Twilight lol
Wao nice
Pray for Bangladesh students 🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩
17 years? 😶
마이클 엘리엇 사망하셨어요? 한국어를 배우기 시작했을 때 English in Korean 채널을 봤어요. 이 소식 너무 슬퍼요 ㅠ
이사람 개콘에서 봤는데?