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German to Korean: Von Autohassern General field: Other Detailed field: Environment & Ecology
Source text - German Man kann es nicht anders sagen: Zu dieser Sendung kann man die Kollegen vom ZDF nur beglueckwuenschen. In der Woche der Internationalen Automobilausstellung in Frankfurt und wenige Tage vor dem grossen Klimagipfel im Kanzleramt hatten sie ein hoch aktuelles, wichtiges Thema gesetzt. Auch die Gaestelist versprach Spannung: In den Ring stiegen VW-Chef Herbert Diess, die radikale Klimaaktivistin Tina Velo, Gruenen Fraktonschef Anton Hofreiter, der saechsische Mimisterpraesident Michael Kretschmer (CDU) und der ebenso bekannte wie unausweichliche Auto-Professor Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer. Das groesste konfliktpotential war zwischen Diess and Velo zu vermuten. Der Autoboss preist sich und seinen Konzern derzeit auf allen Buehnen fuer Volkswagens Shcwenk zur Elektromobilitaet. Vor drei Tagen stellte er in der offiziellen Weltpremiere einen Hofnungstraeger seines Konzerns vor, den vollelektrischen ID3. In Fahrt ist auch Tina Velo, Klima-Aktivistin und Sprecherin der Initiative "Sand im Getriebe". Sie und ihre Mitstreiter wollen am Sonntag die Zugaenge zur IAA blockieren, um gegen die "internationale Propagandashow fuer Dreckschleudern" zu protestieren. Den Ton hatte Velo ebenfalls vor dei Tagen gesetzt, als sie gegen "eine hochgradig kriminelle Autoindustrie" lederte und gegen "voellig unfaehige Verkehrsminister, ein mafioes gestriktes Konglomerat".
Translation - Korean 독일제2방송 관계자들에게 행운을 빈다는 말 외에는 달리 할 말이 없는 상황이었다. 프랑크푸르트 국제모터 쇼가 열리는 주간이자 수상 집무실에서의 큰 규모의 세계기후협약 정상회담을 며칠 앞둔 시점에서 그들은 매우 시의적절하고 중요한 주제를 설정했다. 토론 초청자 리스트만 봐도 긴장감이 느껴졌다: 폭스바겐 대표 헤르베르트 디스, 급진적 기후운동가 티나 벨로, 녹색당 당수 안톤 호프라이터, 작센주 주지사 미하엘 크레취머(기민당) 그리고 역시 유명한 그래서 배제 불가능한 자동차 전문 교수 페르디난드 두덴회퍼가 토론의 링에 올랐다. 가장 큰 의견 충돌은 디스와 벨로 사이에 벌어질 것으로 예상되었다. 그 자동차 회사 보스는 자신과 그의 자동차 그룹이 최근 추진하고 있는 전기자동차 전환에 대해 자체홍보 중이며 3일 전 그는 국제 모터쇼 공식 행사장에서 그의 자동차 그룹의 희망인 전기차 ID3를 발표했다. 티나 벨로 역시 기후 활동가이자 '기어 속 모래' 연대 대변인으로 활동 중이다. 그녀와 그녀의 동료 활동가들은 오는 일요일 국제 모터쇼의 출입구를 봉쇄할 계획이다. '국제 오염방출기 프로파간다 쇼에 항의하기 위해서다. 그녀는 사흘 전에도 그런 톤을 구사했다. '고도의 범죄집단인 자동차 산업'과 그리고 '완벽하게 무능한 교통부장관'에 대해 마치 마피아 조직 같은 집단이라고 질타했다.
English to Korean: Don't ever study English! General field: Art/Literary
Source text - English Ms. K came to visit around evening.
We barely knew each other, so I possibly made an expression of curiosity about her visit. She blushed a little bit and asked, “How can I speak English well?”
Definitely she thought I was good at English when she saw me in the meeting with some Americans recently.
“What level is your English in?”
“No level is to mention. I got here and there like others did for English, but I couldn’t do any better, especially speaking, different from grammar and reading comprehension, which are a bit easier for me. I don’t need English for doing my job desperately, but I felt disabled every time when guests or clients from abroad came. And I can hardly find time for classes provided internally or private institute for English.”
“Um, first of all, I want to let you know, that I speak German quite well, but my English hasn’t reached that level yet as you think.”
“But You don’t seem like to have any problems to attend meetings with foreigners.”
“Oh, it’s basic and I know almost everything about meeting issues that are related to my college major.”
“That much is just what I want to get. No more, no less.”
“Ok. Then why don’t you learn the know-how from me? If you follow the rule exactly, you can get the skill right away, no matter what language that could be…”
First of all she should understand the concept of the know-how.
“Basically the way to get a foreign language is exactly the same as you have got the mother language. Let’s go back to the stage where a baby was learning its mother language. Its parents don’t do things like for example, ok, there is a baby, and it should learn the language from now on. Look, these are consonants and those are vowels, and look at this sentence. This part is subjective and that part following is verb. Actually they don’t do those kinds of things. What they do is like oh, my baby, you must be hungry, here you are, oh, my gosh, you did pee so so much. Diaper is totally wet like a wet floor cloth. Basically they don’t care whether their baby catches what they are saying or not. Just like that, all the words and sound from parents, TV, streets are coming up to babies’ ears without anybody’s specific intention to teach them the language. Time is passing by and on a day, in a couple of years, in their 2 or 3 years of age, they surprisingly speak out a word like Mama or Papa. From that point the vocabularies they use are increasing exponentially for example, ‘Mom, you are pretty.’ ,’Hi, Dad!’, ‘I wanned see Gran-ma’ etc. etc. and a baby some time calls its Dad honey just like its Mom is doing to him that everybody laughs to death. Anyway the expressions and vocabularies babies use in the beginning stage of speaking are those they got exposed to very much frequently such as Mom, Dad, and words related to food. They also might think nicknames their parents call to each other are their real names.”
“You mean, the only way for learning a language is just hearing without thinking of anything?”
“Nope. Because we are not babies anymore. So, their brain and our brain are pretty much different. While theirs are like a sheet of paper which is totally vacant that they have a whole space for acquiring new things, ours are full of knowledge, information, experiences, memories we’ve got through our whole lives. The learning capacity of adults seems limited like they forget very much easily what they’ve learned just before. A computer class is a good example. Kids are catching so fast how to use the operating system of it and can use it right away even developing the skills and knowledge by themselves. But, adults keep asking just basic questions that are already answered or explained several times. To accept it is what it is seems very hard for them. What is familiar to them is to understand the algorithm first and analyze elements and sort them attaching tags with information based on analysis here and there where they’ve already categorized and then to accept it as a knowledge. They can’t do accepting things intuitively any more like babies do.”
“Ah, they try to get the meanings of words first and then the structure and then understand through wrapping up all those informations. If they do like that, the conventional teaching way of English sounds like correct….”
“Only if the purpose of English learning is just to get a reading comprehension ability. But it is a wrong one eventually.”
“Hm. That is a wrong one! You mean by that, there must be another one not doing like that to get that ability?”
“Right. The conventional method we’ve learned at school is very much not practical and awkward if we think about it just a little. What we did was first of all to look up the dictionary to get the meanings of strange words and to analyze the structure of sentences clarifying subjective, verb, objective etc. and to translate into Korean until they make sense and then we moved onto the next sentence. This is totally different from what we do read. We just read and maybe happen to read once again in case we don’t understand the content properly not because the translation doesn’t make sense. I mean, if we read something in English, we read it in English without translation just like we do in Korean with Korean.”
“Understanding should happen naturally..”
“Say it again. That is the Alpha and Omega of my Know-How. If you can find out how to make it, you can develop one by yourself, even though it’ll end up being almost the same as mine.”
“I got it. But, unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to create a new one by myself. Please let me know yours.”
“Haha. I won’t do like that again, because of some experiences I did with that. I taught many people how to do it, but most of them quit doing it with saying “It is a really good method but it doesn’t fit me” or kind of stuff, maybe because they hadn’t invested anything to get the know-how. So I made up a policy about that: I will not give it away without compensated!”
“Then comes a question from myself. How many have succeeded?”
“3 of 60 around who got taught my method. Not that many, because they hadn’t put any money for that and so thought it as a stone picked up on the road.”
“Ok. How much will it be? The investment?”
“Mmm, actually I havn’t finished calculating, so why don’t we meet again discussing it since it is too late now for that?”
Translation - Korean 저녁 무렵 K가 찾아왔다.
그냥 안면만 아는 사이였기 때문에 조금은 의아한 표정을 지었나보다. 그녀는 살짝 얼굴을 붉히며 이렇게 말했다.
“어떻게 하면 영어를 잘 할 수 있나요?”
그러니까, 얼마 전 미국인들과의 회의 때 내가 참석한 걸 보고 영어를 꽤 잘하는 사람으로 생각한 모양이다.
“어느 정도 수준인데?”
“수준이라고 얘기 할 것도 없어요. 남들 하는 대로 여기저기 다녀도 봤지만, 일단 말이 되질 않아요. 문법이나 독해는 좀 되는데... 제 업무에 영어가 꼭 필요한 것은 아니지만, 가끔 외국에서 손님이 오거나 할 때, 간단한 말 한마디도 못해서 참 답답해요. 사내 강좌나 학원을 다닐 형편도 못되고....”
“음. 일단 오해를 하고 있는 것 같은데.... 나는 독어는 굉장히 잘하는 수준이지만, 영어는 아직 그렇지 않아.”
“그렇지만, 회의에 참석하시고 하는 데는 문제 없지 않나요?”
“그거야 기본적인 거니까.... 또, 전공이라서 내용도 거의 아는 것이고...”
“그 정도만 되면 원이 없겠어요. 제가 원하는 수준도 딱 그 정도예요.”
“좋아. 내가 영어 습득의 그러니까 외국어 습득의 노하우를 알고 있는데 가르쳐 줄까? 그대로만 하면 영어든 독일어든 불어든 금방 써 먹을 수 있는데... ”
나는 우선 그 노하우의 원리에 대해서 설명하기로 했다. “외국어도 결국은 모국어 습득과정과 똑같은 방식으로 습득해야 하는 거야. 어떤 아기가 말을 하게 되는 과정을 잘 생각해봐. 태어나서부터 부모들이 그 아기에게 자 이제부터 말을 배워야지 하면서 기역, 니은 가르치고 주어 동사 가르치고 이건 형용사, 저건 부사 하는 것 봤니? 그저 그들은 아이구 예쁜 우리 아기, 배고프지, 맘마 먹자. 아이구 저런 오줌 쌌네. 많이도 쌌다. 기저귀가 완존히 물걸레네. 그저 애가 알아듣거나 말거나 이런 저런 얘기를 하지. 부모의 말, 텔레비전에서 나오는 말, 거리에서 들려오는 말, 이런 말, 저런 말이 그 아기의 귀로 쉴 새 없이 흘러 들어가는 거야. 그러다가, 두 살 혹은 세 살의 어느 즈음에서 이 아기는 갑자기 말을 해서 부모를 놀라게 하지. 여보, 얘가 오늘 저한테 그랬어요, ‘엄마, 맘마’ 라고. 그리고 그 다음부터는 가히 기하급수적으로 어휘가 늘어가는 거야. ‘엄마 예뻐’, ‘아빠 안뇽’, ‘하무이 보고 시퍼쪄’. 어떨 땐 아빠보고 ‘여보’라고 불러서 포복절도하게 하는 짓도 하고 말이야. 좌우간 그 애가 쓰기 시작하는 말의 특징은 굉장히 자주 들은 말이라는 거야. 아기들이 가장 먼저 하는 말이 ‘엄마’ 또는 그와 같은 뜻의 어휘이고 그 다음이 먹는 것, ‘맘마’와 관련 깊은 것이지. 여보 당신도 마찬가지야. 아마 그 애는 그게 엄마아빠의 이름일 지도 모른다고 생각했을 거야.”
“그럼, 무조건 이것저것 많이 듣기만 하면 되나요?”
“아니지. 우린 더 이상 아기가 아니거든. 아기의 뇌는 쉽게 말해서 백지나 마찬가지야. 아무것도 없다는 것은 그만큼 수용성이 크다는 거지. 어른들의 머릿속은 거의 포화상태야. 그 나이가 되도록 보고 듣고 배운 걸로 꽉 차 있어. 몇 번씩 이야기 해줘도 금방 잊어먹는 어른들 많잖아. 컴퓨터가 좋은 본보기지. 도스든 워드든 아이들은 금방 익혀서 그 다음부터는 독학으로 컴퓨터 진도를 나가잖아. 그렇지만 어른들 보라구. 정말 아무것도 아닌 걸 갖고 몇날 며칠을 똑같은 걸 연습하고서도 자꾸 묻잖아. 이게 왜 이러냐, 컴퓨터 어려워서 못하겠다! 어른들의 머릿속에는 그러니까 그냥 뭘 받아들일 수 있는 여유 공간이 없는거야. 자신도 모르는 사이에 접수되는 것마다 요리조리 쪼개고 해체해서 꼬리표 달고 무게 달아 이미 자기들이 만들어 놓은 이 칸 저 칸에 정리하기 시작하는 거지. 아기들처럼 아 이건 이거구나, 저건 저거구나 가 안되는 거야. 이건 이래서 이렇다 저건 저러니까 저렇다 라고 해야 직성이 풀리고 비로소 접수가 되는 양상인거지.”
“아, 그러니까 이 단어의 뜻은 뭐고 문장 형식은 몇 형식이니까 전체적으로 뜻은 이렇다 뭐 그렇게 접수를 한다는 거네요. 그러면, 영어를 가르치는 방식도 그렇게 된 게 맞는 거 아닌가요?”
“영어를 단순히 읽고 이해하기만 하려고 한다면 크게 틀린 방법은 아냐. 궁극적으로는 틀린 방법인데....”
“궁극적으로는 틀린 방법이라구요? 그럼, 그렇게 하지 않고도 독해를 잘 할 수 있는 다른 방법이 있다는 거네요?”
“그렇지. 우리가 학교에서 배운 독해방식은 조금만 생각해보면, 굉장히 비경제적이고 이상한 방식이야. 사람들이 보통 영어로 된 글을 해석할 때 어떻게 하지? 우선, 모르는 단어를 찾고 주어 동사 목적어 구분해서 우리나라 말로 옮겨보고 뜻이 통하면 다음 문장으로 넘어가잖아. 그런데, 우리가 우리나라 말로 된 글을 읽을 때도 그렇게 하니?분명히 그렇게 하지 않아. 그냥 읽고 잘 이해가 안 되는 부분은 다시 정독해서 읽고 그렇게 해서 끝내잖아. 영어도 그렇게 되어야 되는 거 아니겠니? 우리나라 사람들이 우리나라 말 대하는거나 영어권 사람들이 영어 대하는 거나 마찬가지거든.”
“사전 찾지 않고 굳이 문법이 어쩌구 따지지 않고도 이해할 수 있어야 한다는 이야기군요.”
“음. 하나를 가르쳐주니 그 하나는 확실히 아는 군. 바로 그게 내 노하우의 알파이자 오메가야. 그거만 제대로 깨우치면 사실 스스로 자기 노하우 개발할 수 있지. 결국 내 방법과 똑같은 것이 되겠지만.”
“무슨 말인지 이제 알겠어요. 제가 사실 시간이 없거든요. 생각해서 제 방법을 스스로 만들 시간이 말예요. 지금 가르쳐 주시면 안 되나요?”
“후후후. 그건 안돼. 내가 지금까지 여러 사람 거저 가르쳐 줘 봤는데 투자한 게 없어서 그런지 금방 그만두더라고. 방법이 맞는 건 확실한 데 제 방법은 아닌 것 같아요 운운 하면서 말이지. 그래서 방침을 정했지. 맨입에는 절대로 안 가르쳐 준다!”
“몇 명 정도나 성공했나요?”
“한 60명 정도 될 거야, 내 노하우를 들은 사람들 수가. 그런데, 그중에서 그나마 성공했다고 할 수 있는 사람은 세 명밖에 없었어. 그게 아무래도 공짜고, 돈 투자한 것도 아니고 하니까, 하지 않고 그냥 놔둬도 아깝지 않았던 모양이야.”
“알았어요. 어느 정도면 되지요? 투자금액이?”
“음, 오늘은 늦었으니까 다음에 다시 만나서 의논해 보자구. 오우케이?”
German to English: Studiere Englisch bitte nicht! General field: Art/Literary
Source text - German An einem Abend besuchte mich Frau K. Vielleicht machte ich eine Miene, die den Neugier von mir zeigte, so dass sie rot wurde und sagte,
"Wie kann man gut Englisch sprechen?"
Sie vermutete naemlich, dass ich sehr gut Englisch sprechen kann, als sie vor kurzem mich an einer Sitzung sah.
“Wie gut kannst du?"
"Ach nichts. Ich war in hier und dort einigen Instituten, aber das war nichts. Ich konnte kaum sprechen lernen. Es geht nur mit Grammatik und Lesen.... Fuer meine Arbeit ist Englisch entbehrlich, aber wenn ich Auslaender als Gaeste aufnehmen soll, ist es sehr unangehnem, dass ich kaum was aussprechen kann. Wegen knapp Zeit kann ich keineswegs einen Englischkurs besuchen."
"Um. Ich glaube du verstehst mich einbisschen falsch. Ich kann sagen, mein Deutsch ist sehr gut, aber bezueglich Englisch ist es nicht der Fall."
"Aber du hast kein Problem an einer Sitzung mit Auslaendern teilzunehmen?"
"Na ja. Es ist eine relativ einfache Sache. Und sie ist auf mein Fach bezogen. Ich weiss ja die Inhalte naemlich sehr gut."
"Solch ein Niveau ist genau was mein Wunsch nach Englisch betrifft."
"Ok. Ich kann deutlich sagen, dass ich von einem Know-how weiss, das fuer Englisch, Franzoesisch oder viele andere Fremdsprachen ganz einfach benutzbar ist. Willst du von mir das lernen?"
"Ja, und zwar sehr viel."
Ich versuchte zuerst die Theorie dieses Know-hows zu erklaeren:
"Eine Fremdsprache sollte gelernt werden genau in gleicher Weise wie die Muttersprache erlernt wird. Denk scharf nach ueber den Prozess des Lernens von einem Baby! Keine Eltern in der welt sagen ihrem gerade geborenen Baby "Du lernst jetzt unsere Sprache" und versuchen zu erklaeren was Alphabet ist und welche subjekte, objekte oder Adjektiv, Adverb sind. Sie sagen dem naemlich beispielsweise "Ach, mein ganz kleines suesses Wuermchen! Du hast ja bestimmt'nen grossen Hunger. Essen wa." "Du hast Pipi gemacht. Lass mich mal sehen. Na ja. So viel hast du? Um! Die windel ist total nass." Sie sagen dieses und jenes ohne zu expektieren dass ihr Baby bescheid weiss wovon sie sprechen. In gleicher Weise fliessen Woerter vom Fernsehen, aus der Strasse, oder vielen anderen Quellen staendig zu den Ohren des Babys. So, in 2 oder 3 Jahren spricht dieses Baby ploetzlich etwas. Das ist normalerweise 'Ma, ma' oder die aehnliche und in den naechsten Tagen, Wochen und Monaten wird das Wortschatz exponentiell groesser. "Mama! du suess!" "Hallo, Papa!" "Granma! vamise digi!". Es sagt zum Papa sogar "Meine Suesse!" so dass alle zum Tode lachen. Allenfalls worte die es spricht sind diejenige, die es sehr viel gehoert hat. Das erste Wort vom Baby ist ganz oft die 'Mama' oder die aehnlichen und die naechst oefter auftauchenden sind welche die mit essen zu tun haben. Mein Schatz oder Meine Suesse sind auch in dem Sinne zu verstehen. Das Baby hast sie viele Male gehoert und vermutet die waeren die Namen von den Eltern."
"Dann zaehlt viel zu hoeren , egal was?"
"Nein. denn wir sind keineswegs'nem Baby gleich in bezug auf Gehirn. Das Gehirn vom einem Baby ist wie ein blatt Papier, was ganz leer ist. Nichts drin bedeutet Vieles einzuschreiben. Im Falle von Erwachsene ist das Gegenteil. Ihr Gehirn ist ganz voll bis zur Grenze mit dem was sie bis dahin gesehen, gehoert und gelernt haben. So sind sie vergesslich und lernen etwas neues nicht leicht, obwohl wieder und wieder erklaert wird. Computer waere ein gutes Beispiel dafuer. DOS oder WORD werden bei den Kindern ganz leicht akzeptiert und sie koennen die weiteren selbst lernen. Aber, siehmal die Erwachsene! Sie lernen ganz einfaches und vergessen sofort, dann fragen wieder das gleiche. Sie verstehen endlich, ueben Tag und Nacht und dann in den naechsten Tagen geraten sie wiederum in Schwierigkeiten mit dem Computer und sagen, "Ich kann es einfach nicht. Es ist zu schwer." Sie haben einfach nicht in der Lage etwas neues aufzunehmen wie das ist. Ohne das zu merken, zerreissen Sie das in Stuecke und kleben dem ein Zettel und wiegen das und ordnen ein in Schachtel, die bereits gebildet sind. Ganz anders als Kinder das tun, versuchen sie erst zu analysieren warum was wie wo gemacht wird und dann koennen sie einverstanden sein."
"Sie sagen, dass beim Lernen einer Fremdsprachen Erwachsene Bedeutungen von Woertern nachschlagen, Satzstrukturen interpretieren und dann denn Sinn des ganzen Paragraphs herausbekommen. Ist das dann richtig, Englisch in gleicher Weise zu lehren?"
"Wenn wir Englische Ausdruecke im Alltag zu lesen und zu verstehen versuchen, geht es so, obwohl das alle Faelle falsch ist..."
"Alle Faelle falsch? Dann gibt es andere Methode Englische Aufsaetze oder Buecher zu lesen ohne das zu tun?"
"Ja wohl. Was wir fuer das Engliche Saetze lesen zu lernen in der Schule gemacht haben ist eigentlich sehr unwirtschaftlich und unverstaendlich, wenn wir einbisschen tiefer drueber denken. Was machen wir normalerweise dabei? Wir schlagen zuerst fremde Woerter in einem englischen Satz nach und dann interpretieren was Subjekt, Verben, Objekte sind, und werden so alle ins Koreanisch uebersetzt. Wenn es einen Sinn zu haben scheint, dann gehen wir dem naechsten Satz ueber. Aber denk mal nach, was wir mit der Muttersprache machen. Wir tun sowas einfach nicht. Wir verstehen Saetze mit bekannten Woertern, wobei fremde Woerter nicht beachtet werden. Wenn Etwas nicht leicht verstanden wird, wird noch einmal gelesen. Wenn es nicht gelingt, wird's einfach verzichtet. Mit Englisch sollte das Gleiche gelten. Koreaner gegenueber Koreanisch ist genau das, was Deutsche gegenueber Deutsch."
"Du sagst also, fuer verstehen sind Grammatik oder Uebersetzen in die Muttersprache nicht noetig."
"Gut verstanden. Das ist Alfa und Omega von meinem Know-how. Wenn Jemand das gut begreift, dann kann er selbst sein eigenes Know-how entwickeln, das dennoch letztendlich dasselbe wie meins werden sollte."
"Ich bin damit sehr gut einverstanden. Aber ich habe nicht genug Zeit. Dafuer, dass ich selber mein Know-how entwickeln kann. Kannst du mir das jetzt sagen?"
"Huhuhu. Es geht nicht. Ich habe das vielen unterrichtet, aber die meisten haben bereits aufgehoert. 'Ich glaube diese Methode scheint richtig, aber nicht fuer mich.', sagt man so. Demnach bin ich zu dem Schluss gegangen, 'Ich gebe das ueber nur mit Zahlung.'"
"Wie viele davon haben geschafft?"
"Von etwa 60, die von mir das Know-how gehoert haben, sind nur drei gelungen. Ich glaube, meisten war es nicht wert, weil sie nichts investiert haben oder es frei gegeben ist."
"Damit weisse ich sehr gut Bescheid. Wie viel ist die Investitionskosten?"
"Um. Es ist zu spaet heute. Diskutieren wir drueber nach naechstes Mal. Ok?"
Translation - English Ms. K. visited me one evening. We were only acquaintances then, so I must have looked a bit surprised at her visiting. She blushed a little and asked me this question:
“How can I speak English well?”
She must have thought that my English was good when she saw me attending a meeting with Americans some time ago.
“How is your English now?”
“Well,” she said, “I can’t really say how good my English is now since it’s still at a basic level. I’ve tried many different things to improve my English, but nothing has really helped me so far. English is pretty important for my job and every time I feel as though my poor English is obstructing my work, I get frustrated. I really can’t afford to take the English classes at our company or go to an English school.”
“All I have to offer you is my own know-how for learning foreign languages. . . you wanna know what that is?”
I decided then I ought to just explain the principles of my know-how.
“Foreign languages should be acquired in the same way our mother tongue is acquired. Just think about how a baby learns to speak. When a baby is born, do you think the parents start out by saying, “Hey there, kid. It’s time to learn how to speak,” and dive right in to the ABCs and what subjects, verbs and adverbs are? No, of course not. They say things like, “Aww, what a good boy! My baby, are you hungry. Baby, want some din-din? Aww, you peed. You peed a lot. Look at your diaper! It’s totally wet.” They say those kinds of things without ever thinking that their baby can understand a word they say. So, what the parents say, what the people on TV say, what the people on the street say, and this and that word here and there keep on creeping into the baby’s ears. This continues on and the baby keeps silent for one or two years and then suddenly surprises the parents by blurting out some random words. The baby’s mother will exclaim, “Honey, our baby just said MOMMY!” with all her excitement.
“After this first miraculous happening, the baby’s vocabulary increases dramatically. The baby will say, “mommy. . . pretty”, “miss granny”, and sometimes the baby will make the parents roll on the floor in laughter by calling his father ‘honey’.
“Anyway, what we should notice about the baby’s words or sentences is that they are what he has heard most frequently for that one or two years’ period of silence. The first word that the baby says is ‘mommy’, ‘mama’, or whatever equivalent in other languages. The next word he says would be ‘eat’, or any words that have much to do with ‘eat’. ‘Honey’ or ‘darling’ is the same. The baby might have thought that it was the name of his father or mother.”
“So you’re saying that I should just listen randomly?”
“No, we’re not babies anymore. A baby’s brain is a tabula rasa, like a blank piece of paper. Blank meaning that it has a lot of capacity to accommodate new things. An adult’s brain is nearly at its saturation point. It is filled with all the things they have seen, heard and learned. Just think about the way children learn how to use a computer. For children, things come very quickly. . . DOS, Microsoft Word, whatever they lay their hands on, they learn quickly. Once they learn the basics, they can be practically self-taught for whatever comes next. But what about the adults? They work on the same thing for days and nights even if it’s something basic and simple, and they still don’t get it right and keep asking questions. Why is that? It’s because their brains are running out of space to take in new things. What they do subconsciously is that once new information comes into their brains, they start splitting it up and dividing it, tagging and weighing each of those splits and divisions, and finally they put the pieces into little spaces that they’ve made ready for each kind of piece. Adults can’t accept things as simply as babies can. They always have to know why this works this way and that works that way, and it seems like new information is accepted by their brains only in that way.”
“Oh, I see. So, when adults hear English sentences, their brains tend to analyze them and classify them into subjects, objects and verbs, and search for the meaning of the words in the sentence, and finally try to understand the overall meaning of the sentence and accept it into their brain. But isn’t that the way they teach us to learn English? Are you saying it’s wrong?”
“If you only ever want to read and understand English sentences, it’s not so bad. But fundamentally speaking, it’s wrong.”
“It’s wrong fundamentally? But if it’s wrong fundamentally, then are there better ways to improve our reading skills, too?
“Yes, there are. The reading methods we learned in school are very uneconomical and rather strange if you take a minute and think about it. What do we usually do when we read English sentences? First, we look up the words we don’t know in a dictionary, check the subjects, objects and verbs, and finally translate the whole sentence into Korean. If the translation seems to make sense, we move on to the next sentence. But do we do that with Korean sentences? No, of course not. We just read them, and if we don’t understand certain parts, we read them again carefully until we understand them. And that’s it. You don’t use dictionaries or think about the grammar of the sentence. Don’t you think we should be able to do the same thing with English sentences? The way Koreans receive the Korean language is no different from the way English-speaking people receive the English language.”
“So, you’re saying that we should be able to understand English sentences without going to a dictionary or going over grammar points?”
“There you go. I’ve taught you one thing, and you’ve certainly mastered it. That is the essence of my know-how. Only once you’ve fully grasped this principle of my know-how will you be able to develop your own know-how, which is eventually going to be the same as my know-how in the end.”
“I think I understand what you’re trying to say. But I was thinking, I don’t really have enough time to develop my own know-how, so maybe you could just tell me what it is now.”
“Ha . . . no way. I’ve given away my know-how to far too many people and they didn’t get too far. It seems the reason why they gave up so easily is because they thought of it as just a gift. They would say, ‘Well, it seems like great know-how, but maybe it’s not my style.’ So, I made it a rule that I would never again give away my know-how for free.”
“How many of them are there then”
“Maybe about sixty people. I mean, the people I gave my know-how to, but only three of them have succeeded. I figure it’s because they didn’t see it as much of a loss when they gave up on my know-how since they didn’t make any investment, money-wise or time-wise. Free stuff is only free stuff, and no one cares when they lose free stuff.”
“Hahaha . . . ok, I get your point. So, how much would be good for you? I mean, for the investment?”
“Well, it’s getting late, so why don’t we talk about this when we get together next time, ok?”
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Years of experience: 24. Registered at ProZ.com: Sep 2019.
I am a very much experienced Person who is doing several jobs related to languages like Korean, English and German. I did tranlate five German books into Korean and many interpreting jobs for foreigners who are working in Korea.
And I wrote 12 books on how to get a foreign language skill faster and better which my business now is based on. Showing some just for reference: "Don't ever study English", "Finish your English until 15", "How to get reading skill without Translation". "Speaking practise with Siri", "Actuall, you are not an English-Fool" etc.
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