About Learning Foreign Language

It's been almost three months since I decided to learn Korean (again) seriously. When I was still in college I've bought some books about learning Korean. But, I couldn't understand it, especially the grammar. I think Korean grammar is so difficult, more difficult than Japanese grammar. Maybe I was not serious so I couldn't understand those books. Maybe I just like collecting book about foreign language, hehehe. Then, when I started to learn it (again) I could understand it a bit. Just a bit, but it's a good start. Now I know which particle that must be embedded in a word to make that word as subject, topic, or object.

But, when I tried to translate a Korean song word by word, I got some words that I couldn't find in my dictionary, such as: geudae (그대). I also found some particle that isn't explained in my book, such as myeo (며), cheoreom (처럼), gateun (같은). Then, I asked my blogger friend who has a blog that explain about Korean grammar, Mr. Luke and Mr. Tazkiana (if you want to learn Korean, you can visit their blog). Mr Tazkiana explain that geudae means "you" but that word just used when we don't talk to second person directly (what's the right English word to say "lawan bicara" or "orang kedua"??? yeah, I know, I'm not smart enough). It's usually used in poems or songs. I also found explanation about particle cheoreom in Mr Tazkiana's blog. He wrote that it means "like". For example, geurimjacheoreom (그림자처럼). Geurimja means shadow. If we put particle cheoreom to that word (geurimja + cheoreom), it means like a shadow. I also found explanation about particle gateun. I thought it has the same meaning with cheoreom, but I was wrong. It has similar meaning, but still DIFFERENT. Gateun means "which is like". For example: paramgateun sarang, param = wind, gateun = which is like, sarang = love, so paramgateun sarang means "love which is like wind".

In Mr. Luke's blog, I found a lot of explanation about Korean grammar. It's so useful (sorry, it's not an advertisement :p). I asked him the meaning of particle myeo, does it have the same meaning with particle myeon that means "if"? Then he explained that myeo means "while". For example: bomyeo, it's from boda + myeo. Boda means look at, and bomyeo means while looking at.

Hey, hey, hey! Why did I explain about Korean grammar? When I started to write this post, I just want to write how difficult to learn foreign language. But, as usual, I LOST MY FOCUS. Hehehe... Ok, back to the topic. It's not easy to learn foreign language. I've learned English since I was in Junior High School until I was in college. And, you see my writing in English, IT'S AWFUL. I've learned it for more than six years and I still cannot write in English well. When I was in Senior High School, I've ever learned Mandarin. But I just learned it for several months. So, my vocabulary is so poor. Then, when I was in college, I tried to learn Japanese and Korean. Just the same with the language I learned before. I just learned those language for several months, then forget all I've learned before. I hope, since today, I can learn foreign language seriously, and practice it, so I won't forget what I've learned.