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Advancing Korean, Year 5/6: TAC15 東亞 | ||
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| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4670 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes  Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 193 of 344 14 October 2013 at 12:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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2013년 10월 14일.
Korean 한국어 I'm thinking about ordering a Korean grammar sometime soon. I really like the idea of filling the gaps systematically through a grammar dictionary. I'll use additional sources if I think the grammar dictionary isn't enough. Does anyone have suggestions for good grammar dictionaries or workbooks that focus on practicing grammar? I think the Routledge Comprehensive Grammar looks promising, but maybe there are others. I've been reading more, finished another book (or rather a bilingual short-story from the HollyM series). It's called 두 겹의 노래 (Twofold Song). I didn't enjoy it much - it's a poetic rendering of the last meeting of a man and woman who had an affair. I don't think I'll try another book from the HollyM bilingual series. I'd rather gradually work up to reading difficult literary texts and then read them without translation. The novel I'm reading is surprisingly getting easier and thus more enjoyable. There are suddenly lots of words I have some faint recollection of and in context I know what they mean. I usually try it without a dictionary first now and understand most of it - then I look up the ten or so unknown words per page, so I get the chance to have a faint recollection of them as well the next time I encounter them. I went to the Frankfurt Book Fair yesterday and was disappointed that the Koreans wouldn't sell me any books as they're donating them to Korean schools and Cultural Centers. For now I still have enough reading material, but I'll have to find a way to get more books sometime soon. I know that I still have an immense amount of reading to go through until I'm satisfied with my vocabulary knowledge. Maybe I'll ask Korean friends to give me books they no longer need or lend them to me... I was planning to attempt the advanced TOPIK test in 2 years, but it looks like they will have changed the test format considerably by that time. I read on Hangukdrama (here) that there will only be two tests, one for beginners and one for the rest. I hope the new format is better, but I have my doubts, so I'm considering to just try TOPIK advanced in March and see if I'm lucky and pass level 5. But it would still be a lot of work to even have a chance at passing... We'll see. Edited by druckfehler on 14 October 2013 at 3:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Evita Tetraglot Senior Member Latvia learnlatvian.info Joined 6354 days ago 734 posts - 1036 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, German, Russian Studies: Korean, Finnish | Message 194 of 344 15 October 2013 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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The reviews of that grammar book on Amazon are very good. The only complaints seem to be about the e-book version so the paper book must be pretty good. I would love to have this book myself but since I already have both "Korean Grammar in Use" books it might not be worth the money for me. In any case, if you do decide to buy it I'll be looking forward to your impressions.
I read about the change in the TOPIK format as well but I have no opinion on it since I've never tried it. However, my general advice would be that if it's not too much trouble for you (read - too much money) there's no harm in sitting the test even if you don't pass it. If it is too much trouble then it's probably not worth it. I'm sure that they won't make the new format completely useless so you should be able to take the test even in 2015. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4670 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 195 of 344 15 October 2013 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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You've probably written about the "Korean Grammar in Use" books before, but I can't remember... Do you use them a lot? How do you like them? Are they very comprehensive/do they cover as much as you've learned through TTMIK so far?
TOPIK is not really expensive like some other language exams (around 20 Euros, I think), so that wouldn't be an issue. I guess if I don't have too much other stuff going on around the time it takes place then I'll give it a try and probably then try out the new format as well the year after to see what it's like. Are you going to try TOPIK at some point? Is it possible in Latvia? I'm sure you'd pass at least level 2, probably very easily. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Evita Tetraglot Senior Member Latvia learnlatvian.info Joined 6354 days ago 734 posts - 1036 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, German, Russian Studies: Korean, Finnish | Message 196 of 344 15 October 2013 at 8:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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TOPIK is not available in Latvia so I'm not considering it. I really envy people who live in big countries sometimes, like in this case. We don't even have a Korean embassy here. Oh and that reminds me, when we had the discussion about subtitles you said "Why would I watch Korean dramas if I had no interest in the Korean culture? I should just watch Latvian TV." But the problem is - there are only 2 million people here so all local productions are extremely cheap and not watchable. So the only option is to watch entertainment programs created by other countries in other languages.
As for the grammar books - yes, I use them a lot and they are good. The list of grammar points included in each book is available here and here. The intermediate book covers quite a lot more than the TTMIK lessons, I'd say there's only 20-30% overlap. The higher levels of TTMIK pay more attention to various situational expressions and idioms and vocabulary and sentence drills so there's less space for grammar lessons. Although I did find two grammar points that TTMIK covers and the books don't - ㄹ수록 and 길래 - so obviously these two books are not enough to reach an advanced level. I'm hoping that maybe they are planning a third book but I haven't heard anything about it and it's already been a couple of years since the second book came out so... Anyway, I took some photos from a random chapter from the intermediate book so you can see what it looks like: one two three four As you can see, there are a lot of explanations regarding usage so it's a really good book. On the other hand, if you already know most of these constructions then it probably won't be useful for you. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4670 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 197 of 344 15 October 2013 at 8:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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I didn't mean you when talking about the subtitle issue. Obviously you're interested in Korean ;) I guess the mainstream in Latvia is US television then? Same here... Actually, although we're a bit bigger, German TV is also usually unwatchable ;) Not having even a Korean embassy kind of sucks, though...
Thanks for the list of grammar points and the photos! They are extremely helpful. There are many forms in the intermediate book that I don't use actively and quite a few that I still don't know the meaning of, or only have a vague understanding of. There's even one in the beginner's book: V-는 데 갈리다/들다. I quite like the textbook format without vocabulary and reading texts (I assume), which I would find annoying and unnecessary. While the Routledge grammar does seem a lot more comprehensive, I couldn't actually find the grammar point you took photos of the table of contents... the parts, except for 참이다 are in there, though. I think the best for me would be to get both books, actually, with your focusing more on practice and what to use to express certain concepts and the other as an overview. I'll probably order the Routledge book first and see whether I feel like I need something more practice-oriented (it's likely...) and then maybe get the Grammar In Use Intermediate books the next time I order something from the Korean bookstore. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5451 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 198 of 344 16 October 2013 at 2:24am | IP Logged | ||
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I used this book and
it has a workbook. The book is fairly comprehensive, using most of the structures you will run across in Korean. The ones that aren't in the book are typically more advanced structures that really aren't covered in any grammar book (that's in English) that I've seen, or they are vocab words words used with specific particles (for example: (으)ㅁ에 따라 or (이)나 다름없 다). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4670 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 199 of 344 16 October 2013 at 11:09am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks for the overview! How did you use the Yonsei grammar book - more as a reference or did you regularly study with it? Do you like the way it's structured? I thought about getting either the Routledge or Yonsei grammar, but then I read a review that claimed the Yonsei book had many mistakes (not sure whether it referred to just typos/English mistakes or anything related to the content) - did you notice any mistakes that bothered you? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5451 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 200 of 344 16 October 2013 at 5:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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I mainly use it as a reference for when I work on translations, but I do actively study
by going over the grammar points I'm not comfortable with. I like how it's structured since it is structured by topic. For example, chapter 2 is all about nouns that have specific grammar roles (for example, -ㄴ 동안, -ㄴ 대신), those kind of structures. One of the last chapters really helped me going from lower intermediate to a more middle intermediate level and that was the whole chapter on quotations, as I really never understand the (이)라고/다고, -ㄴ다고, and -ㄴ다면 types of structures that well until I got this book. I never really noticed any mistakes aside from typos here and there. I never bought the workbook due to hating exercises, so I have no comment on that. Looking at the table of contents, it looks like the books are really similar in terms of what they cover, and thoroughly going through both would put you at a really good level, and anything you need after that would most likely need to be consulted with a Korean-Korean grammar dictionary. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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