Question:
The other day I was in a bookstore (big, national chain) and was
taking a peek in the languages section. To my dismay, there
weren't that many books on the Korean language, and the ones they
had were of the "Korean for Business Travellers" variety. Let me put it
like this: (my FOTB voice)
When I look at book on French, this many! [holding hands far apart]
When I look at book on Spanish, this many! [holding hands far apart]
When I look at book on Japanese, this many! [holding hands far apart]
When I look at book on Korean, this many ... [holding hands two inches
apart]
The same situation exists when I go to a computer store and look
for interactive language software. In fact, it's much worse - I have yet
to find ANY software dedicated to Korean alone. I suppose there's
something out there, but I have yet to see it.
Can anyone recommend any software, or perhaps any grammar
books? All the Korean I learned was informal, through parents
yelling, "Yah! Hajima!", threfore, I'd really like to get a more sound
grammatical background.
I was really impressed by the learning Japanese series by Noda/Jorden,
and something similar for Korean would be ideal.
Answer:
About 6 years ago, I decided to learn a foreign language. I was first
interested in Chinese, but as there weren't many Chinese textbooks
available in the bookshops (they were cheap though). I chose to learn
Japanese. There was an abundance of Japanese text books, and this has
greatly helped in my quest to learn the language over the past years.
I didn't even consider learning Korean, as I think only one or two
books were available then.
The Japanese Ministry of Education has overseen the spread of the
Japanese language, not only in Japan but overseas. They have set up
foreign language learning centres, given scholarships to students, and
funded the production of many textbooks, as well as set up a
proficiency test, in four levels in the Japanese language in testing
centres all over the world. This may explain why there has been so
much support to the learner of Japanese, and may explain why there
continue to be a low demand for the Korean Language, a lack of Korean
Language learning infrastructure, and support through books.
Maybe the Korean people don't want foreigners to learn their language?
My Korean friend had no interest at all in teaching me the language!
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