Americans vs. Koreans

Ah, the Olympics.

Someone asked me, "Who do you root for?"

I have to admit, I get a surge of pleasure when Koreans win.

Korea is so small compared to the US. Yet somehow they pull out these winners, and it is exciting to watch.

Probably, if I were in Korea now, I would be feeling the tug of home and rooting for the Americans. But I am here, and feeling instead the tug of Korea. I wish them well in these games.

Rosetta Stone

Ever tried learning a language with Rosetta Stone?

Here's how it works: You see 4 pictures at a time. You hear - or read - a sentence. You click on the picture that matches the sentence. If you're wrong you get a big X and have to try again. If you're right, you get a check and go to the next set of 4 pictures. You do this over and over. There are variations as you go but that's the basic gist of it.

This is called "dynamic immersion" - an approach that supposedly mimics first language learning. There is no translation, no grammar instruction, no explanation of any type. The pictures try to make the meaning clear, and you try to figure out the grammar as you go.

I like the idea of this. This is - sort of - the way I wanted to try to learn Korean. I wanted to see if an adult could learn this way.

But I wasn't successful with it before I went to Korea. It was too hard, and too tedious. The chunks of language being used in the sentences were just too big.

And I didn't use it at all when I was in Korea.

But now - I use it every day. And NOW - it makes sense to me as an adult learner. What a great SUPPLEMENT to the textbooks and class instruction and real world practice. Now that I know a lot of grammar and vocabulary, the new chunks being introduced are not so overwhelming, and I get to hear sentences and patterns repeated and recycled over and over until the sounds and the meaning do seem to start to sink in - in a way they don't with any other method.

I'm hooked. I believe this is helping my learning.

But for anyone tempted to try this:

Don't expect to learn anything practical, or anything that you could actually use as a beginner. You will learn things like "This clown is putting on his pants/This clown already put on his pants" or "This rocking horse is not a live animal/This pig is a live animal" or "There are many cowboy hats but no cowboys" long before you will learn anything like "Hi, my name is..." or "Where is the bathroom?" Strange content at times - definitely not a program for the casual learner who just wants to learn a few phrases.