How to learn Korean at such a young age?
Of the 3000 languages in use currently, Korean is known to be the 13th most commonly used language. Historical and modern linguists classify Korean as a language isolate. It is an East Asian language spoken by about 77 million people and 5.6 million consider Korean as a Heritage Language. Modern Korean is understood to have descended from the Middle Korean, that emerged from the Old Korean, which itself, culminated from the Proto-Koreanic language, that is suggested to have its linguistic homeland somewhere in Manchuria. It is the official and national language of both Koreas: North Korea and South Korea, with different standardized official forms used in each country. It is a recognised minority language in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Changbai Korean Autonomous County of Jilin Province, China. It is also spoken in parts of Sakhalin, Russia and Central Asia. Korean people in the former USSR refer to themselves as Koryo-saram and/or Koryo-in and call the language Koryo-mal. The English word “Korean” is derived from Goryeo, which is thought to be the first Korean dynasty known to Western nations.
Let's see how Korean or for that matter any language is a great choice to start from when young!
Learning a second language at a young age has many advantages, one of which is that children learn languages faster and easier. They have more time to study, less to learn, fewer inhibitions, and a brain that is better suited to learning languages. In other words, teaching your child a second language at a young age prevents them from having to learn one as an adult.
Children are sponges on a biological basis. A child’s brain is designed to unintentionally learn new knowledge. They do so in the same way that we study song lyrics, patterns, and melodies unconsciously as adults. Dr. Paul Thompson, a UCLA neurology professor, and his colleagues discovered that from the age of six to puberty, the brain structures specialised in learning new languages evolve rapidly. Then, between the ages of 11 and 15, during puberty, these systems essentially shut down and stop rising.
Before the age of ten to twelve months, babies can distinguish between all sounds in all languages. Then, as a result of their language experience, they begin to only distinguish between the language sounds that are required to establish meaning. They lose their ability to distinguish between 10 and 12 months of age.
Another advantage of learning a second language at a young age is that children have a simpler thought process than adults. They speak in fewer sentences, use simpler sentence forms, and think in a more concrete manner. Since they don’t have any abstract thoughts or emotions, children learning a second language aren’t frustrated by the challenge of expressing them in their second language. When these children grow into adults, they learn to communicate in both their first and second languages. Adults, on the other hand, face the overwhelming task of translating complicated sentence structures and abstract thoughts into their second languages in order to fully express themselves.
Consider the difference between the books you read as a kid and the books you read now. Remember that understanding the texts you can read now took years of schooling and needed reading. Reading, listening, and even speaking are all examples of this. It took at least 15 years of academic study to be able to communicate in your native language the way you do now. Another advantage of learning a second language at a young age is the saved time. Children have the benefit of time on their side. They can start small and simple and gradually work their way up to higher levels of thinking and communication. As second language learners, children have a significant advantage over adults.
While young you may not have to make a lot of effort to learn a language because you are blessed with so many God gifted natural benefits that prove advantageous to you. Utilize those to their maximum!
A good thing that you decided to start at a young age. The human brain tends to slow down as they age. You already have a good head start from most other Korean learners out there. Now, in order to avoid being entangled in the complexities of language learning, you should keep yourself regularly exposed to and interested in Korean in order to motivate yourself to learn it.
Join an online Korean course for learning Korean in the school. Make Korean friends and speak a lot of Korean with them to be able to improve in terms of the accent and the diction of the language. Practice a lot.
Read a lot and read aloud. Read fairy tale books or books that interest you. Try to find an edition of your favourite book in the Korean language and keep a dictionary along with you to translate whenever you do not understand a Korean word or if you come across a new Korean word! Speak a lot whether to yourself in the mirror to your pet to a plant but keep practising speaking the Korean language so as to get a hang of it. Practice writing the Hangul alphabet with numerous worksheets to be able to get it correctly. Watch age-friendly Korean dramas, films, YouTube channels, books, and questions and answers about Korea on Quora, among other things. Make Korean pen pals and colleagues, as well as friends from other countries who are learning Korean. You will become really good at Korean in a few years if you share your thoughts and interests with other Koreans.
Finally,
Proponents of the Altaic family frequently include Korean, and it does have a few extinct relatives that, along with Korean and the Jeju language, make up the Koreanic language family. The Khitan language has a heavy Korean presence or influence. The Dravido-Korean languages hypothesis, which is less well-known, suggests a connection between Korean and Dravidian languages in India. Related vocabulary is one of the similarities between Korean and Dravidian languages. Owing to some similarities in vocabulary and similar grammatical characteristics that have been expanded on by few scholars, Korean has also been debated as being related to Japanese. Korean has a lot in common with Chinese, but just in terms of script. 35 per cent of native words, 60% of Sino-Korean words, and 5% of loanwords, mainly from the English language, make up the Korean vocabulary.
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