As you said, it can be learned in short order, in a day or less. I'm of mixed feelings about Hanja (the traditional Chinese characters used in Korean). I would love to learn a thousand or more Chinese characters. I got stuck at about five hundred a few years ago. I remember less than that now. On occasion, I'll get interested in a four character Chinese aphorism used by a Korean speaker, and spend some time trying to study it and remember its meaning.
I'm older like these two, so I encountered the paucity of resources described in the video when I wanted to learn the language. Years ago, my sister in law who is an Asian studies professional, laughed when she saw the texts I was using which were produced by Myeongdo which I believe was a missionary press. ( At first, I had an Underwood Eng-Korean dictionary as well). You have to have the two Essence dictionaries. The Univ of Maryland extension course was using Myeongdo 1,2, and 3 for their basic courses at the time. The way I tried to get over this limitation was by having Ms. So pick up various language dictionaries and texts in Seoul over the years. I've got one unabridged traditional Chinese dictionary but it's very cumbersome to use. I learned informally with family help.
The big advancement in self study was the Talk to Me in Korean (TTMIK) program on the internet and in hard copy promoted by the Korean government. I think the first fifteen chapters or so were free (150 lessons?). This course was designed by people who know what they are doing. TTMIK has youtube videos as well. I also watched Korean tv, listened to Korean music, etc.
The problem with hangul is that the phonemes/ morphemes are imprecise. There are thousands of homophones/homographs, so when you read common two syllable nouns you have to know the context and subject matter to guess which of multiple potential exact meanings you are reading or hearing. You don't have this problem with hanja/Chinese characters which indicate the specific meaning of the vocabulary used. Learning hanja is rote memorization. Spending the time to memorize more than a few hundred characters is counterproductive for me. Hanja is used to differentiate homographs in ambiguous texts or headlines. They are also a shorthand in headlines or subtitles (chamak) for well known subjects like country names and the family name of well known public figures. When I look up a word on endic.naver.com, if the Chinese roots are shown, (50-60 percent?) I try to remember them, but this really isn't a good learning technique.
If I spend too much time reading English texts or books, or watching/listening to English language programming and thereby decrease my immersion time (practice) in Korean, my vocabulary and comprehension decline. The same thing happens studying Hanja. Maybe if I was younger and had a better memory this wouldn't happen. It is a neurological thing. Young children, quickly develop these skills. Memorizing hanja is better mastered by the young. Sometimes just knowing a few hundred allows a reader to guess the meaning of words that sound familiar. The other problem is that the estimated number of Korean vocabulary words is about one million and new words are being created all the time. Some of the "milestones" in hanja education are associated with education level. Middle school 600-1000. Highschool 1200-1800. They change. College grads and professionals much higher (2-5K).
Thanks for your interest.
三星
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