Let's Learn Korean - Sogang: a review

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This is a review of my time at Sogang Korean Language program for level 2. I just finished the winter 2006 semester of 10 weeks.

When I level tested in November for some reason I blew the interview and started laughing for no reason. I ended up in level two though I felt that I should be in level three. For the first week and a half of class I strongly pushed the teachers to move me to level 3 and even did another level test (where I didn’t laugh). I stayed in level two primarily because I wasn’t able to use reported speech […ㄴ/는다고 하다, …자고 하다, 다고 하다, 냐고 하다] which is one of the major requirements before moving up to level two. There were I’m sure a couple of other things holding me back, but as I understand it, if I had been able to use those structures I would have been in level three.

In this class I felt that myself and one other student were the strongest in the class. The other students seem to have a large range in abilities, which was a little unexpected. I’m sure that this class was difficult to teach for that reason. Even so I found the class enjoyable and helpful to me.

Some people might be upset that they were misplaced or frustrated by the lack of opportunity to learn new structures (I only learned one new structure other than reported speech). However for me this wasn’t a concern as many of the structures covered in the book were ones that I was familiar with but rarely used in spontaneous speech. Additionally my thoughts on order of acquisition and repeated exposure let me be content with strengthening my command of what I knew and solidifying my foundation.

classroom activities
Writing class was surprisingly the most varied. The class usually started with the teacher asking some warm up questions either directly related to the topic or in some way designed to elicit the grammar focus for the day. Following this in groups we would often have brainstorming sessions in small groups followed by writing. Sometimes the writing would be short paragraphs or stories, other times it was filling in comic strip speech balloons, or summarizing a story or comic strip. There was also the occasional pattern drill or gap fill exercise with partners. Individually we made one A3 sized poster introducing our country. This involved a couple of days of work – writing in advance followed by proofing by the teacher. Then we pasted pictures on and wrote the final draft on the actual paper. I took pictures of most of the posters and added them to the gallery.

This class was really useful for learning my spelling mistakes and working on particles [조사]. Additionally I found it a good opportunity to try out new structures and mix them with others I was already able to use hopefully resulting in something that wasn’t overly focused on the grammar of the day.

Reading and listening were combined into one 1 hour class with a new teacher. This class was the least challenging for me; mostly due to my having done lots of reading on my own and having been in Korea for so long I have little trouble understanding what I hear provided I know the vocabulary.

This class was very routine with very little variation. On listening day we would listen to the tape, answer some questions and then in small groups confirm with each other what we heard. Then we would be given a script of the listening with some missing words which we were supposed to fill in from memory before listening one more time to confirm our memory/guess. Reading class involved reading something from the book answering questions and then some time discussing other questions. I can only remember this being different once when we listened to a pop song and sang a nursery rhyme – which I already knew because I have a young daughter.

Speaking class was for the final two hours of the day again with a new teacher. It was in this class that grammar was explicitly explained. The teacher was very good at explaining the grammar to low level students in the target language. She had grammar explanations prepared in advance which were pasted on the board or wall of the classroom and left there for 2-3 days while we focused on those areas. You can see examples of some of these in the gallery.

The class often started by focus on a conversation from the text that focused on the grammar of the moment. The teacher put this on the board and we drilled it followed by substitutions being added to the board with more choral drilling. After that was complete we were encouraged to repeat this drilling in pairs where using your own ideas or expanding the conversation was encouraged. The next activities would be slowly scaffold away focus on form and transform into a very communicative focus on meaning style activity. The focus on meaning activities usually involved standing up and talking to all students in the class. While the drilling at the beginning always followed the same format the following activities were varied, useful and often fun.

Homework

The workbook homework was grueling, tedious, and extremely demotivating

The workbook homework was grueling, tedious, and extremely demotivating. However it was also very helpful for becoming actively aware of spelling problems, irregular verbs/adjectives, and reinforcing new vocabulary/grammar. The only problem that I had with workbook homework is that it was inconsistently assigned resulting in having to do two or three 20-30 page units of homework at once.

Other classes gave homework, but I must admit that I inconsistently did that homework due to other commitments in my personal life. In particular I wish I had done more of the writing homework as that usually involved writing 1-2 paragraphs or summarizing other readings, essentially closer to authentic tasks than the workbook.

We played several games and did a number of different review activities that were useful and fun. There is a fairly heavy focus on vocabulary which I found easy due to my extended time in Korean and exposure to vocabulary, however several other students complained about the amount of vocabulary that is expected to be acquired. What I found most useful in review was the short conversations using fill in the blanks for vocabulary and grammar structures. While not something I would want to do every class, doing it once before midterm and once before final was helpful.

areas for improvement
I would like to see the amount of drilling reduced (not eliminated). While the program is very CLT oriented there is still a lot of drilling. Drilling is useful to a point but becomes monotonous and mind numbing quickly and additionally doesn’t really suit the learning styles of a majority of language learners.

For listening we were still using cassette tapes with a low quality recording on a cheap portable radio with 2 way speakers. What is particularly surprising about this is that the books come supplied with CDs of the listenings but in class the teacher uses a cassette. It would also be better to have an integrated A/V system installed in each class with wall mounted speakers. This would reduce listening difficulty due to crisper cleaner sound. I know that Ewha universities Korean program had this when I studied there 4 years ago.

Finally on the listening exam we had some dictation. There is nothing wrong with dictation as a testing method in the right situation. However when there is zero dictation done during class time it is an unfair, unreliable test item with no validity. All students in my class complained about this test item at both midterm and final exam time.

Good stuff
The class sizes are small, the desks and chairs are comfortable and set up in a manner that facilitates group work (I would love to teach in these classrooms). The facilities and equipment are all fantastic (except the radios mentioned above).

I would highly recommend taking Korean at Sogang University

The teachers are all very well prepared and clearly work very hard. The textbook is one of the better Korean books on the market. The only thing lacking there is some color pictures.

The atmosphere in the classroom is very relaxing and conducive to language learning. There is one field trip per semester which on the surface didn’t seem to appealing to me, but I went and enjoyed myself plus I got to use a lot of Korean in a natural authentic situation. There is additionally a variety of native languages represented In my class we had 3 English, 3 Japanese, 2 Chinese, 1 Mongolian, 1 French, and 1 Indonesian speaker.

Most importantly despite being in a level that was a little easy for me I feel that I have improved my command of the language as well as my confidence when speaking. I’ve learned a couple of mnemonic tricks to help with conjugating irregular verbs and clarified some questions I had about when to use certain expressions.

I would highly recommend taking Korean at Sogang University. I personally have several friends who have completed the entire program at Sogang and have very strong Korean skills with some of them involved in interpretation and translation. I know that at the higher levels classes involve reading newspapers, watching TV and movies and other skills that all language learners strive to be able to do.

I will definitely be returning for another semester. Unfortunately I have to teach from next week so it won’t be right away. I’ll be going to Canada for part of the summer and then teaching in the fall so it looks like I won’t be back until next winter. However during that time I’m going to be very active in maintaining and improving my current command of the language through regular reading and listening as well as writing on this blog. Hopefully I’ll also be able to find regular opportunities to speak Korean but if not I can always contrive something.

Posted by 王音癡 on Thursday Feb 23, 2006 in In the classroom META | |

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트랙백:

Hi.I notice that you studied in Ewha four years ago. Sogang Uni is my 1st choice to apply for Korean language program however the term date isn’t very favourable for my schedule. Is Ewha recommendable? I’m looking for one that is similar to Sogang which applies CLT method.

Posted by Juls on Monday Jun 26, 2006 at 06:27 PM
Hello Juls.

A friend of mine went to Ewha for two 3-weeks intensive courses during the summer last year. He was very happy with the teaching there.
Fom what he told me, the focus does seem to be on the communicative approach.
Grammar rules were formally explained after students had already used and guessed them (which is, IMHO, a good way to teach grammar).

Anyways, when he came back, my (Korean) wife was very surprised by how much progress he made so I guess that says a lot.

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http://www.edufle.net : French as a Foreign Language

Posted by Jerome on Wednesday Jun 28, 2006 at 08:32 PM
Juls,
Sorry I took so long to reply. Yes I studied at Ewha but that was several years ago. I found the program to be on par with my experience at Sogang. However I’ve talked with some people who have recently taken Ewha and they found that the teacher talk time was around 80% with very few opportunities to use the language learned.

Maybe they just got a bad teacher, but maybe the program has changed, who knows?

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호랑이 굴에들어가야 호랑이 새끼를 잡는다

Posted by 王音癡 on Saturday Jul 1, 2006 at 10:48 AM
Hello Jerome and 王音癡
Thanks lots for your replies. Now both Sogang & Ewha are in my top list.. I’d just have to decide which term date suits me best.

Posted by Juls on Saturday Jul 1, 2006 at 01:20 PM
Is there anyone out there who can give me an advice as to whether it is better to proceed to Level 4 at Sogang? I am still thinking as I found the job that I like so that I have to leave Korea. Any advice?

Posted by Julia on Monday Aug 28, 2006 at 02:13 PM
I study at 고려대 level 4 now. But everybody says that the best University to study Korean is 연새대 here. Actually I’ve been studying at 고려대 for year and a half and I can say now that 고려대 is good enough for beginners and lower intermediates. But it’s not so good for upper intermediates or for those whose Korean level is advanced. Because they teach the grammar hard but you don’t have any opportunities to increase your speaking abilities.

Posted by Hulk on Monday Jan 7, 2008 at 10:39 PM
Hulk,
That sounds a lot like Yonsei from what I understand.

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호랑이 굴에들어가야 호랑이 새끼를 잡는다

Posted by 王音癡 on Tuesday Jan 8, 2008 at 07:36 AM
I did Yonsei level 3 after the year-long course at DLI in Monterey. I thought Yonsei was OK, but nothing amazing and certainly not better than DLI. I’ve heard good things about Sogang and it’s my first choice for classes if I return to Seoul. Now, I took the Yonsei class some years ago, but from what I hear it hasn’t changed. I think the language institute there gets a free ride on the back of the university’s reputation.

Tonight I did one of the intermediate web tutorials on the Sogang site and I was decently impressed. I’m going to keep doing them.

Btw I tried a Japanese class at Yonsei, in Korean. Murderous! And totally unsuccessful.

Really I think a good text book and private tutor might be the best way to go. Any thoughts?

Posted by mallorym on Thursday Jan 24, 2008 at 04:20 PM
have been searching for a while for a good course and heard about Yonsei first and it’s amazing reputation but this post has totally turned me to Sogang. I really appreciate it and look forward to attending the next session. thanks a lot.

Posted by shy on Thursday Apr 3, 2008 at 02:56 PM
Shy,
I know you’ll enjoy sogang. Thanks for your comment.

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호랑이 굴에들어가야 호랑이 새끼를 잡는다

Posted by 王音癡 on Thursday Apr 3, 2008 at 03:53 PM
Hi,
I’ll be doing an independant study for 6 hours a week during my senior year of High School. I have come across the Sogang University language we-tutorials and I find them incredibly helpful, though for the lower levels I find that the practice sections are very weak, and (in my opinion) are not extensive/challenging enough. I have searched and found that Sogang University has their textbooks and workbooks for sale, I was wondering if, for self-study, the workbooks can be used alone (or with the aid of the internet tutorials), without the textbooks.
Also, if you know of any other workbooks or textbooks with good excecises, would you please recommend them?

Posted by TaeSeong on Friday Jul 11, 2008 at 09:15 PM
hi there..im hoping u guys can help me. i’m planning to go to korea this sept for studying korean. I’ve seen ur discussiion bout ewha and sogang. Is sogang better or ewha?? bcos ewha’s tuition fee is cheaper and if the school is abt the same...i would prefer to go to ewha. However, Sogang sounds good..cos a lot of you guys says sogang is good for learning korean. Help me!!

Posted by vina on Tuesday Jul 15, 2008 at 09:45 AM
I’ve done both and I would say that Sogang is better.

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호랑이 굴에들어가야 호랑이 새끼를 잡는다

Posted by 王音癡 on Tuesday Jul 15, 2008 at 05:48 PM