Korean Language Study Resources
by Richardson ~ July 25th, 2008. Filed under: Korean Language, Korean Studies. 
This week I had the humbling (and somewhat mind-numbing) experience of taking the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT) for Korean. I’d planned on taking the test later this year as I’ll be in Korea this fall for three weeks to visit family, but circumstances dictated that the test occur sooner; I had to cram and was unprepared.
In the process of trying to get prepared, I found some excellent Korean language study resources, if you’re taking the DLPT or not.
First it dlpt.net, which offers vocabulary quizzes in Korean, English, and even hanja (한자, Korea’s use of Chinese characters). At the end of each quiz you are given your score (percentage) and a list of each word missed with both Korean and English test – very useful.
Korean Listening Practice has 85 Korean audio clips and questions for each clip. This is very similar to the DLPT listening portion of the test. While the clips are somewhat dated, they are still extremely useful.
Finally, the Flash Card Exchange offers flash cards and vocabulary lists for many languages. I suggest creating a free account, searching for “Korean” or “DLPT,” and viewing the flashcards or the many vocabulary lists created by other users, or even uploading your own vocabulary lists.
If you know of any other Korean language study resources, please list them in comments.
July 26th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Good luck to you and happy b-day to little-richie:)
July 26th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Yes good luck and I hope you do well.
July 27th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Richardson: Thank you for the resources. Also, I forgot to thank you earlier for the “Writing Korean” link under your “Reference” list. Good luck!
July 27th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Very useful links. I graduated from DLI over 20 years ago. I remember my first week in Seoul after a year at DLI. I was in an elevator at the Hyatt in Itaewon with Koreans and Germans. I realized I could understand nearly everything the Germans were saying (after 3 years and some formal training in Germany) and practically nothing the Koreans were saying. I knew I had a long way to go.
These days my main use of Korean is at the local dry cleaners, but I have worked hard to retain a some level of proficiency. The links are great and I’ve already powered through 300 Korean flash cards. I only got about half the first time. Fortunately I don’t have to take a DLPT anytime soon. Good luck on the DLPT. Sleep is the best study aid at this point.
July 28th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Thanks for the links. Here are 2 more good ones.
http://vocab.scaroni.org/ flash cards, quizzes and skats
http://jlu.wbtrain.com/ reading passages up to 4 level but listening only goes up to level 3. I think you have to have a .mil email to register.
I get to take the DLPT for the second time soon, so I’ve been hittin’ the books. JAE KU ZUK!
July 29th, 2008 at 4:38 am
I must make a confession: after living in the United States for so long now, I finally replaced my old “concise” Korean-English/English-Korean dictionary that I brought over from Korea with the latest edition “Minjung’s Essence” dictionary purchased at a Centreville, VA Korean-run Christian book store.
I realized that my vocabulary was increasingly outdated. It is a bittersweet thing for me to realize that I now have to look up Korean words whereas when I was FOB in the US I looked up English words.
I’d probably fail the DLPT now! Language skills are so perishable. Thankfully, I will shortly have an opportunity to speak Korean every day, so there might be hope for me yet.
July 30th, 2008 at 4:40 am
I can totally relate to DMZDave’s elevator story. That sums up nicely my daily interactions with (and evesdropping on) Seoulites.
As to resources, a former Sogang classmate runs this site — you might find a few good resources mentioned here. http://letslearnkorean.com/
I will check out the Korean Listening Practice link when I get a chance, thanks.
July 30th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
2+/2 two weeks ago, oh the shame and horror. Even scarier it means I’m still certified. I like the computerized test better than the old crappy recordings they had. Sometimes I might have understood what they were saying if they weren’t speaking in MOPP4 after inhaling helium.
July 30th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Richardson,
Was the DLPT you took the old DLPT IV or the new V? I’m expecting a DLPT soon with a new job and while confident of my ability to score well on the older test, I’m more than a little hesitant of the new one. I’d had the misfortune of trying out a test version of the V version of the Spanish DLPT and found it significantly more difficult than the IV.
July 31st, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Wishing you good scores on the test.
My Korean and Chinese language skills are fading fast since I have no use for either in my current community, save for occasional phone calls and translated letters home to one Chinese family at school. In my annual review, my principal reminded me to work on improving my Spanish language skills. Another language to learn. *sigh*
As for language learning resources online, I like watching news clips. There is usually a transcript included, so you can check comprehension and unfamiliar words.
I don’t know of any free online resources for spoken language. I learn slang and colloquialisms by reading internet forum comments. I’ve learned a lot of parlor room Chinese and Korean that way.
Language is best learned when the context is authentic and the content interesting. I’m just too lazy to drill with flashcards or read some god-awful boring textbook with stilted dialogs waxing on traditional culture, but if I listen to or read about a topic of high interest, then I’ll remember important new words and expressions.
July 31st, 2008 at 5:15 pm
All;
Thanks for the wishes. Haven’t received a score yet ~ may or may not post it. Anything higher than a 1+ would equal lucky guessing.
Txjin;
Thanks for the resources – they are excellent.
James;
Online video ought to help with staying on top of new vocab, no?
Hamilton;
Congrats on those scores! Your former colleague I now work with dropped below 2s with DLPT 5. . .
Corpy;
Yes I took version 5 (and the OPI), but never took IV so don’t have a frame of reference there. Most I’ve spoken to about it say 5 is harder than IV. Personally I thought listening was ok, but reading was very difficult. And my phone for the OPI was slightly muffled, though I’m very rusty and won’t be able to blame anything on that.
Sonagi;
Why not online video, etc.?
August 1st, 2008 at 7:02 am
I have utterly failed in learning Korean. I have virtually nothing to show for the broken of years. My memorization skills are simply pathetic.
here is a very useful link - though.
Indiana University’s language lab has made available all the audio for the Korean language course books used at places like the University of Hawaii.
http://languagelab.bh.indiana.edu/korean101.html
The books that go with it are Integrated Korean
Those are the main books I use about every 6 months when I get the desire to prove just how weak I am at learning languages…
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=integrated+korean&x=0&y=0
August 1st, 2008 at 11:32 am
Be thankful that the old DLPT III with “lucky charms” is dead and gone. I never took the DLPT IV before I got out. I had taken the III in both versions so many times that I had the screwed up dialogues down pat.
In one, a woman departing Korea is found by the customs officer to have $100 bills stuffed in her flute. In the other version, a middle-class lady is applying for a job as a housemaid, and the fellow interviewing her can’t understand why she’d do such a thing.
Hopefully she is still alive and well, but the lady voicing these passages was Shin Eunkyeong, who was my KORACC teacher back in 1978. The guy was Bill Chi, I think, who I studied under at intermediate. Mrs Shin can be heard on the Listening Practice link you supplied.
The best LPT I took was some other agency’s, and a group of us took it when it was being validated back in 1983. This was kind of a “global” thing in that you really had to know Korean customs, culture, geography, and even regional dialects, as well as punch lines to jokes everybody would know.
The last part of this test was a fill-in-the-blanks sort of thing, where you fill in a lengthy passage with the sort of vocab and grammar a young girl would use when speaking to an unfamiliar older man. Cool test, but I never saw it again.
August 1st, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Richardson,
I hope you get 2 or above to qualify for FLPP pay. I also took Korean DLPT version V lower range and received 3/3 and 3 on OPI. (I always got 3 on DLPT version VI throughout my military career.) Later, I was invited to take DLPT version V Upper Range which can qualified me for Level 4 or 5. I might as well guess the whole test. It was hardest DLPT I ever took in my life.
I believed that DLPT version V truely measures ones Korean-English translation capability.
James Na,
I have met so many 1.5 or 2nd GEN Korean-Americans in the US military and government who claimed that their Korean is terrible. I told to just take the DLPT for fun of it to see what their score will be like. Most of them received 2 or 3 on DLPT. Many of them were selling themselves short by comparing themselves to their parents instead of main stream US population. So if you have a chance to take DLPT, just take it to see what your level will be.
August 5th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Update: 1+ / 1+. Good enough for now.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:20 am
The audio for the Integrated Korean Series is free at the U. Hawaii Press site, and the practice materials for the TOPIK, including audio and pdf’s of the past exams, is at topik.or.kr. The fun part is that iTunes categorizes the Integrated Korean MP3’s as “Blues”.
August 8th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Excuse me for my rather unorthodox recommendation…while I can’t say this will work for everybody, it sure as h**l worx for me.
Korean learning aids:
(1) or (2) bottles of “Oscar” orange-flavor champagne
a. I believe there is a flavor masquerading as ‘grape’…too!
(1) ea. Beautiful Korean girl/wife
(1) ea. Monterey beach w/kite
a. Remove sand from all
b. U can substitute Pohang beach, but it’s not the same.
I used to take the first, then second option, but you can mix’n'match to your
desire.
Good luck…have fun with the Kita-Chosen (oops, wrong country) accents…they’re interesting!
-osgo
August 8th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
My lovely Korean wife — unfortunately — has no patience to be a teacher. — no patience for me trying my broken Korean or repeating her fluent Korean over and over again….
August 9th, 2008 at 8:51 am
You know, of all of my colleagues who married Koreans (I had a Korean wife myself, once), not as many of them as you’d think really spoke Korean that well.
I’ve never subscribed to the “long-haired dictionary” school of thought.
What I did discover:
-DLI was really not the best place to learn Korean, for several reasons.
-Yeonsei (at least back in the 1980’s) really had a rigorous program that worked well to produce a globally competent Korean speaker.
Although DLI may have changed, the problems I saw as late as 1983 (when I went for intermediate) were:
-Really clunky systems for course development, and nobody could decide what they wanted to teach, or how.
-An amazing amount of political infighting among various teacher factions. This did have an effect on the quality of instruction.
-A hesitance to shitcan substandard students; this contributed to the drastic dumbing-down of the course.
-Really dumbed-down grammar. I went to the old 36 week self-paced KORACC (Korean Aural Comprehension Course), which had no speaking component at all. I think we learned a total of 12 simple grammar patterns. Call it Cave Man Korean.
-KORACC was killed right after I left in 1979. Later students (47 week course) then were told that a key component of the DLI experience would be passing the DPLT with at least a 2-2, I think. Then the instructors began to try to teach the DLPT, instead of the language.
When I finally got a slot at Yeonsei, it was no surprise that the agency sponsoring the training shelled out for afternoon tutorials…which had the announced aim of correcting some of the ingrained mistakes taught at DLI. Some Yeonsei instructors made this work a sub-specialty.
I also took Spanish at DLI, and found it a well-designed and taught course, a marked contrast with Korean. The Army later sent me to other schools for other less-commonly-taught languages, and I never encountered a program that was as ineffective as DLI’s Korean course, in terms of bang-for-buck.
About the only thing I’d have to advise for any foreign language scholar is that a return to the classroom every few years is a good thing. Especially if the course is well-organized and rigorous. This exercise achieves a few purposes:
-A good assessment of how well you are learning on the job or on the street.
-You can get a chance to focus, -with help, on the things you either know already you’re bad at, or break into some new area of the language that you have not had time for.
August 9th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
I think it’s up to the individual — the issue I have with DLI is that by demand…they couldn’t tailor the program to the individual, which creates
cc copy graduates. It isn’t as useful in an active situation, especially if you have to speak or act like someone living under the Dear Leader’s divine auspice. There’s nothing quite like immersion, under stress…to learn something right quick.
I laugh at the ‘Long-Hair’ moniker — yes…the other issue? The first year or so you speak, many people think you talk like a bargirl or with a definite female lilt….and if you’re a girly-man like me, that can confuse people.
Great comments btw…
-osgo
August 9th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
I hate to say this. But I think US military and Government agencies should only hire Native Korean speakers to become Korean linguists. It is much easier for native speakers to adapt to become Korean linguist than non-natives who has problem speaking even with DLPT 3/3 along with 10-20 years of military translator career.
The speaking portion is the hardest part of the language and there are so many non-native Korean linguists in US military and government agencies who can not conduct conversation in Korean. (Most of these guys have Korean wives.)
Instead of DLPT or OPI, I think there should be live interpretation test. From Korean to English and also from English to Korean. Whenever there is a conference with ROK counterparts, only natives linguists are utilized to provide live interpretation support. Even among the non-native career Korean linguists who graduated from DLI and worked as translator for 10-20 years in the military has tough time when they tried to translate from English to Korean.
I know I am going to get lots of Flak for this. But I am pointing out the truth from my experience.
August 9th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Maj K,
In part I agree. The way the gov currently trains linguists is not ideal and does not work well in the case of Korean, in most but not all cases.
Part of the problem I see is in continuing training/education. Sending someone who may or may not have an interest in Korean to DLI then stationing them at Ft. Sill, or someplace similar, for the rest of their enlistment (it happens a lot more often than some might think) doesn’t work.
I can also vouch that having a Korean wife is no great boon to learning the language, generally, but still does offer a lot of insight into the culture.
To grow true linguists they need to be using the language - stationed in Korea for multiple tours, perhaps rotating to other stations in the U.S., but only where they will use the language. That’s why recruiting the right person for the language is important.
I worked with one fellow who was a 3/3 (or better) non-native speaker who picked up the language in his mid-to-late 20s; due to a tourist trip to Pyongyang it was taking a long time for him to get his final clearance. He got fed up and left the gov, and later wrote this book; http://axisofeviltour.com/ Probably many non-native speakers who speak at a native level would have similar clearance issues, as do some native speakers.
Obviously many non-native speakers can do it (though I personally don’t have a gift for languages), with the correct initial and continuing training - something we don’t have now.
August 10th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Maj K,
Kind of agree with you up to a point. What prompts my series f lengthier comments may be that I’m currently reading “Kanji & Codes: Learning Japanese for WWII” by Slesnick.
In contrast to the Navy and Marines, who tried to take non-natives and train them in Japanese, the Army did use Nisei and Kibei native speakers, but still had to put many of them through a lengthy (6-12 months) course to teach them military subjects. There was also the aspect that although many of them were fluent speakers, most of them were illiterate in the target language.
The Navy’s approach was to bring in younger non-native students who either had previous experience with Japanese or had shown in college to be superior starting material; about a third were Phi Beta Kappa’s, and 2/3 were Ivy leaguers. These students were commissioned on graduation.
Prior to WWII, bother services put a few officers a year through 3-4 years of intensive language training in Tokyo, followed by exchange assignments with Japanese military units.
All three programs are described in detail, but the what they had in common is that the POI was decidedly tougher than anything I saw at DLI, and the starting material, in terms of students was much better, in terms of civilian education.
Native speakers have their own problems. Fluency in English and the ability to really write well in either language is probably the most common. And as most language assignments in the services involve vetting for clearances, I don’t think the counterintelligence services would welcome large numbers of native speakers who grew up in the target countries. Think Robert C. Kim and Larry Wu-tai Chin, and Anna Montes.
The military language programs are built like a sausage factory. Although the services try, they can’t attract the best and brightest, and have to rely on the unreliable tool of the DLAB/DLAT to screen out the unsuitable. And because the school is run to TRADOC standard, everything will be dumbed-down.
The problems that the services’ language programs have are nothing that will be cured by the mass induction of native speakers.
At various times, in different places, I’ve seen local commanders do things that had a positive influence on the aggregate fluency in the unit. DLI actiually had a program for awhile (maybe they still do) called LEAP, which put DLI students into Yeonsei for part of their AIT period…
Until language specialists are hired, trained, treated, and managed like professionals, then I don’t see anyway for improvement over what the services have now.
What the commander in the field will get is class after class of sub-proficient SP4’s, unable to function to spec. About the only service I see that takes language seriously are the Marines.
I do have to caveat my comment above, in that what I describe is what I saw happening in Korean. I seldom heard anyone make similar observations about German or Chinese programs.
August 10th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
The bottom line is that if you claimed that you are Korean linguist, then every body expect to you to be able to converse in Korean fluently with natives. Just b/c you can pass the DLPT with 3/3 but can not able have conversation with a native, then how can one can claim that he/she is Korean linguist? I called them Mute linguist. (Can read, write and comprehend but can not speak.)
Its like in Korea where most of college graduates have 6-8 years of English education, but most of them will not considered themselves as English linguists. Even though they can read and write to pass the college entrance exam, they would never claimed to be English linguist b/c their conversation skill is not what Koreans considers as “the linguist” level. Even my cousin who has Masters in English Literature would not consider himself as English linguist due to his low conversation skill. (He is a High School English Literature teacher in Korea.)
Burma Bob,
FYI, Robert Kim was not a translator. I never read that he received FLPP in Korean. He was a Computer system analyst with ONI. He was not hired to translate but work on IT system.
Also, Anna Montes did not grew up in the target country. (Cuba) She is an ethnic Puerto Rican who grew up in US Army bases. Her father was Army Medical offcer.
Richardson,
Many non-natives assumed that I am a good Korean linguist b/c I am Korean-American. That is not always true. It is up to individual background and his own effort to maintain the proficiency. It is not easy to maintain proficiency if I work and live in all English environment. I have been advising non-native Korean linguist to start attending Korean church to keep their profiency. It is only place where one can have conversation in Korean in semi-professional and social level on weekly basis. I never worked in Korea as an adult, therefore I had to work extra hard to keep my proficiency by attending Korean church and keep on reading Korean books and watching Korean videos and DVDs.
August 10th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Maj K, understood. At the end of the day, some people, regardless of whether they are native speakers or not, will never have either the knack or the desire to really do a global job with language.
One of my classmates was the very best E-K / K-E document translator I ever saw, well-respected by the ROK’s we worked with. Yet he was kind of a wreck at interpreting for meetings. Others were perfect at that sort of thing, but had trouble reading a ramyeon package, let alone attempt translation of a 16-page BDE OPORD in under a week.
In the case of Korean, the ROK is not the target country, North Korea is.
From dealing with the North Koreans I periodically encounter while working in China, I can tell you that the language is quite different, to say nothing of the mindset of the speaker. Whether a native speaker or not, specialized training or an inordinate amount of time working directly with cooperating defectors might be useful before employment in language exploitation. So far sufficient numbers of refugee/defectors have not made their way to the US, let alone qualify for service.
Kim, Chin, and Montes were examples of native speakers employed in sensitive positions, without regard to the degree to which they worked in language. I was aware of the points you raised.
My point is that people who might be adjudicating clearance decisions will keep these cases in mind. As it is, plenty of native speakers hired off the streets in the US by Titan for work in Iraq have been involved in questionable (and in some cases prosecutable) security violations; this would seem to justify a counterintelligence bias.
August 10th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
As one who is about to try to learn Korean, what I’m reading here is very discouraging.
August 13th, 2008 at 1:00 am
On the North vs South Korea language scene - I can’t offer anything beyond this one scene…
I got to sit in the gallery (with 4 other people who bothered to come see it) of a scholars conference on The Legality of the 1910 Annexation of Korea. What was unique was that the scholars were from Japan, South Korea, and North Korea with some American scholars in the field invited to sit on the panel as observers.
The format was also unique. The Koreans presented their papers at the US-leg of the conference (which I got to see because I was a grad student at the time at the school that hosted it) and the Japanese just listened. Then later they were to meet again in Japan where the Japanese would do their thing.
The format for presenting papers was unusual and somewhat tiredsome. The presenter would speak, usually in his native language, but a couple of the South Korean profs (at least one of which taught in the US) did his in English, but they would pause after just a couple of minutes —- and let two professional translators translate - So, if the original speaker was speaking in Korean, one would translate it into English and the other into Japanese.
I assumed both translators were natives to the language they were translating. They were both East Asians…
In both cases, with the North Korean scholars, they had to ask short questions for clarification.
This didn’t happen terribly frequently — really slowing down the process.
But it didn’t happen infrequently either. It only took a quick aside in most cases to clarify the word or phrase, but occasionally it took a little more. (Sometimes it seemed to be nothing more than pronunciation issues)
August 15th, 2008 at 2:17 am
DDN,
Korean is the toughest language for an English speaker to learn. I did DLI, 4 months at Han Nam University, and have been an exchange student for almost a year and I still struggle. Part of that is I started DLI at age 35 whereas the 20-something foreign (Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, etc.) students at Han Nam spoke Korean well after only 6 months.
My website has a bunch of Korean learning resources (bonewso.net).
I don’t think the DLPT is an accurate depiction of one’s true Korean ability as I got a 3 on reading and yet still have look up at least a third of the words I see in any random Korean text.
I’ve heard to get comfortable with Korean takes 3-4 years of constant use and to be at the native speaker level takes 15 years…
August 20th, 2008 at 9:26 am
PBAR,
Thanks for the resources - very useful.
August 21st, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Hi i have a quick question.
Im signed up to take the DLPT for korean at Travis AFB and they told me i needed to bring some form to give to the proctor before the test. What form is this?
I just graduated from UC DAVIS Army ROTC and commissioned last week. Im working as a goldbar(recruiter) and i want to take this test before leaving for OBC.
any help will be appreciated.
Thanks for all the info posted
August 21st, 2008 at 6:07 pm
The only form I filled out prior was one just asking for basic info like name, prior DLPT scores, etc. I signed a statement on test day saying I wasn’t sick, wouldn’t talk about the test, etc. As to which form they want, I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask the Travis testing office.
August 21st, 2008 at 8:51 pm
LT Cho,
Congrats on your commission!!!
If you are in the Army, all you need is DA form 4187. http://www.apd.army.mil/pub/eforms/pdf/a4187.pdf
Here is a sample of filled out form for DLPT request. http://www.baumholder.army.mil/media/education/4187_DLPT.htm
Good luck in your new chosen career. BTW, what is your Branch?
Also, if you received 3/3, then also applied for OPI. Oral Proficiency Interview. You will speak with Korean tester from DLI on the phone for 30 minutes in Korean.
I hope this helps.
August 21st, 2008 at 8:53 pm
LT Cho,
DA Form 4187
http://www.apd.army.mil/pub/eforms/pdf/a4187.pdf
sample
http://www.baumholder.army.mil/media/education/4187_DLPT.htm
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:41 am
I see. Thanks anyways. They said that since im Army and i’m taking it at an Air Force base I have to bring a form so that i would get the extra pay. Oh well.
I have couple of more questions about DLPT for korean.
If you don’t mind could you please help?
1. So its just vocab and listening?
2. If i know all the words on dlpt.net, will i do well on the test? I can read and write korean fluently i’m not worried but i want to walk in with a basic idea of how its going to be because i have absolutely no idea what the test is like or its level of difficulty. haha
3. also, do you get paid more depending on how well you do?
4. are there different levels of Korean DLPT? because i’ve seen like DLPT IV, V etc. im not sure what they are
I really appreciate the help. Thanks in advance.
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:44 am
The DLPT has two parts: reading and listening. You will need to have a significantly bigger vocabulary than what is on DLPT.net to score well. The test starts out with easy stuff and then gets progressively hard to stuff like talking about Korean Supreme Court decisions, etc.
Your pay is based on your score. Score better, get more money. However, to receive the pay you have to be in a language-designated billet (i.e. linguist, exchange officer, etc.). This is because there are so many native Korean speakers in the US military now. I’m an exchange student at the Korean AF Staff College and when I PCS to Osan in a few months, my language pay will stop.
The DLPT IV, V, etc. is the test version. The newest is DLPT V and it has been computerized and is harder and uses more authentic material.
email me directly at calvinb1nav@yahoo.com if you have more questions.