Learn Korean Listening Exercise

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This is the introductory post on the importance of listening exercises in learning Korean language.

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Hi Everyone,

I have produced a recording of my own voice, in order to help you learn spoken Korean!

It's often hard to learn spoken Korean because it should be learned by listening rather than reading.

Although there are many spoken Korean lessons in this blog, spoken Korean should actually be learned by listening to it.

So I have decided to have a go at recording my own voice to help you understand and speak spoken Korean.

This is kind of a trial thing that I'm doing. 

So the purpose of these recordings is not to get you to read and write Korean, but actually to help you to understand spoken Korean.

I believe, once you understand spoken Korean, it'd become a lot easier to speak and write and read.

For example, I talked about the following words:

안녕 (an-nyeong) = Hello, hi (informal spoken Korean)

안녕하세요 (an-nyeong-ha-se-yo) = Hello, hi (polite spoken Korean)

아빠 = Dad (informal spoken form)

엄마 = Mum (informal spoken form)

Although I've written Romanised words above for 안녕 and 안녕하세요, I encourage you to learn Korean in Korean and try to connect the sound to the written word.

So when you listen to me saying, 안녕, try to imitate me and say it, and try to read and write it as well.

"Listening," "speaking," "reading" and "writing" are all important but I believe "listening" is the most important part of learning here, because:

For example,

1. If you practice "speaking" without properly listening to the "right" sound enough, you may mispronounce things.

2. If you practice "reading" and "writing" without learning how different words and sentences are pronounced in Korean, you would not be able to understand what someone is saying in Korean because you'd be unfamiliar with the sounds.

Therefore, the focus of these recordings are "listening" and "speaking," and when you're comfortable enough, try to write and read as well. 

I'm sorry if I have offended some of you who are grammar-fanatic.

When I first learned English and later learned Japanese, I focused on grammar initially as well. They are vital.

However, I found later that my listening and speaking skills weren't improving as fast as I hoped. And many years later,  I realised how important "listening" was and how it can accelerate the learning curve of learning a new language. 

P.S. To get the facts right, babies actually start talking around 12 months.

"On average, children begin talking around 12 months. By 15 to 18 months, some kids may say between 20 and 50 words, while others may say only 5 to 10. At this age, a child should also understand some words, such as when you ask her to "show me your nose." 

The best way to promote speech? Spend time talking or singing to your child. Daily reading is another excellent way."

Source: CNN.com

For More Audio Recordings:

• Korean Alphabet - Consonants and Vowels
• Recording - Sentence Order
• Listening Exercise - Topic Particle 는/은