Overcoming the Language Barrier

Spending a semester, or a year, studying abroad in Korea can be an intensely rewarding experience and, in my honest opinion, it definitely is. It is rewarding on the professional, social, and personal levels. Professionally, the fact that you’ll be, or are studying, in Korea will look very good on your resume. It is socially enriching in that you take in the way of life and culture of the Korean people in a way that you can never do so by just reading about it. It gives you wonderful experiences that you can then share with the world from visiting a hanok village, to making kimchee, to just sitting down and having drinks with Korean friends. On a personal level, it pushes you out of your area of familiarity and makes you all around more world savvy person. I know when I came back from Korea, I felt a changed person. I was more open to trying new things, visiting new places on the spur of the moment, and having a different viewpoint than the one I had left the U.S. with. However, to truly enjoy your stay and reap these benefits to the fullest you need to be able to communicate with Koreans, and it is here where you run into a problem: you may not know how to speak Korean. Don’t worry though, I was in the same situation when I arrived in Korea and the following are several ways of how I would recommend going about solving the language barrier based on my experiences.

Now, the obvious solution to bridging the language gap would be to learn the language. This is easier said than done, however, as it would generally involve several years of intense Korean language study with structured classes, exams, and maybe tutors; you know, the whole package. Unfortunately, unless you knew years in advance that you planned to study in Korea, you probably won’t have this much time to learn the language. I certainly didn't. I decided I wanted to study abroad in March and I was off to Korea in August.

Worry not, however, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. From my time in Korea, I noticed that a large majority of Koreans speak basic English or can at least understand basic sentences. Specially, in Korean universities, odds are that there will be at least a few Korean students that you will get to know that will be quite willing to help you with translation issues. It is better not to rely solely on this, so there are some things that you can personally do to reduce the problem of not being able to communicate.

The first thing that I would definitely recommend for you to do is to at least learn and familiarize yourself with the Korean alphabet, known as Hangul. The Hangul alphabet may seem incredibly daunting at first, but, in all actuality, it's pretty easy to learn. This is due to the very nature of the alphabet itself. Hangul, unlike most of the current alphabets in the world, did not evolve naturally over time but was actually purposefully created to mimic the shape of the mouth when pronouncing the characters. It was also designed to be easy to learn by the average Korean at the time (or at least this is what my Korean friends told me).

What this means is that it is very doable to learn the alphabet with some proficiency just by studying an hour or two every other day over a week. There are some very useful resources on the internet that can help you with this. One of the resources I used was a short little comic by Ryan Estrada that was forwarded to me by a friend. You can check it out here. Also of great help to me was the site Talk to Me in Korean which has plenty of language lessons on both the alphabet and the language.

Now learning the alphabet won’t be enough to overcome the language barrier, but it does have the benefit of making it easier to pronounce Korean words. I would recommend making some flashcards of the various characters and sitting down for as little as fifteen minutes and going over a small amount of them. This is what I did and, after learning the alphabet, every time I went out into Seoul I tried to read as many Korean signs that had both Korean and English on them. You won’t believe how much vocabulary you can pick up just by doing this. Especially useful words that you can learn this way are the words for restroom (화장실) and metro (지하철). 

Another thing that you can do to resolve the language problem is to go to your local library before you leave for Korea. If your local library is anything like mine, it might provide access to programs like Mango and Rosetta Stone through their website to card holders at no cost. You can then use these programs over the Internet to help you in learning Korean.

An unorthodox thing that I also recommend doing is to watch as many Korean movies and dramas as you can find online, preferably with subtitles. It may seem weird at first, but I noticed that after watching profuse amounts of Korean dramas my mind unconsciously started to pick up phrases and vocabulary to the point that, at times, I was actually able to understand what was being said without having to read the subtitles. Doing this also has the added benefit of exposing you to how the Korean language sounds when spoken. This will help your pronunciation and will also help you to more easily distinguish the distinct sounds in the language. Which leads me to my next piece of advice.

The most important action you can take in order to solve the problem of the language barrier is to be sociable while in Korea. Try to make plenty of Korean friends, talk to your fellow classmates, and don’t be afraid to go out to eat and drink (for those of you over the legal age) with your Korean friends. These are great opportunities to try out what Korean you know. Not only will your Korean friends appreciate the fact that you tried, but they are also likely to help you with corrections and also teach you new phrases and words. This is how I learned the intricacies of how to order food, drinks, and talk to waiters- among other useful tidbits. Aside from the language benefits, being sociable allows you to make some truly meaningful friendships so that's a plus.

Finally, if your host university is anything like mine it may offer a Korean language course especially for exchange students. If your host university offers this, definitely take advantage of the opportunity. It will supplement whatever Korean you learn outside the class and can give you a good foundation in the language.

As a very last resort you can check out Rocket Korean, a program aimed at helping you learn Korean. There is a free trial and if you like it you can buy it by clicking on this link. Click Here!

Of course, if all else fails, you can always disregard the problem and forego trying to reduce the language barrier. You can fall back on trying to speak English to everyone and hoping that they’ll understand you enough to get your point across. Be warned, however, that you’ll be missing out on a large part of what makes studying in Korea such an enriching experience and it definitely won’t provide the best impression.

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