ArirangTV: Let's Speak Korean

Recently, Husband and I discovered Arirang TV, which is Korean TV in English (or subtitled), which shows on channel 44-5 on digital TV (over the air) in our area. (Our recent cancellation of netflix may have had something to do with this discovery).  In addition to news, programs about cooking and food, Korean culture, and a Kdrama, one of their regular programs currently airing their 3rd Season is "Let's Speak Korean."  From the website:

Arirang's "Let's Speak Korean" offers viewers a televised 10-minute supplement to their other Korean-language studies.  Viewers can also learn more about the Korean culture in the process.  

Lisa Kelley, the female host of “Let's Speak Korean” plays a kind teacher…a “good cop” role, while the male host, Kim Young plays a rather strict teacher or “bad cop” role. The beginner-level student Blake is hilarious, amusing and makes the program more interesting to viewers who may sympathize.

I actually came across you-tube videos of earlier seasons of the program when I googled "learning Korean through Korean Dramas."  I'm not sure what season this is from, but their segments went through scenes of Kdramas and explained the terms, the euphemisms, and nuances of Korean language.

ArirangTVs website does have VideoOnDemand feature but you need to get a log-in.  After the 3rd try, I gave up...those darn security character things.

Recent Article: Pants-wearing sponge blamed for kids' poor attention spans

 I've mentioned a few times here my concern about relying too heavily on language TV or DVD programs as a source of language immersion for kids . This msn article highlights a research study that shows that the rapid pace of cartoons like SpongeBob are too much for pre-schoolers whether it be for educational (language) purpose or simply for enjoyment.

Kids who watched a cartoon of SpongeBob had worse attention spans than those who watched a PBS cartoon for the same amount of time, a new study shows.

 These are the few take-home tidbits I got from the article:

• Fast paced cartoons like SpongeBob affected preschoolers (4yr olds) attention span while realistic educational programs like PBS' cartoons did not. 
• American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids under 2 should not watch TV.  Older kids should be limited to 1-2 hours per day of educational programs.
• The quality of the programs that children watch are just as important as the quantity
• Age-appropriate! SpongeBob is actually targeted toward kids 6+. So, 4 yr old kids should be watching things like Dora the Explorer.  But parents complained it was too slow paced (for who!?).

I'm not sure how ubiquitous (am I using the word correctly?) SpongeBob is, but Pororo is EVERYWHERE. I met a young Korean mother of a 4 year old boy, who answered in English at his mother's questions.  Although it has been difficult to get him practice and learn Korean, she said that due to Pororo, he is willing to learn more Korean.  Can't get away from that penguin.

  So I wonder how 4 year olds attention span would do on this research study after watching Pororo?  Perhaps its not as fast paced.  Well, it does say about Pororo:

A Korean educational TV program suitable for children aged 4 to 7, Pororo the Little Penguin helps kids to learn the values and knowledge shared by children and parents alike - not only in Korea but all over the world! Dialogue is minimal and visuals play an important role in educating children, through amusing short stories in 3D CGI animation

 So Pororo is for 4 to 7 year old, but if dialogue is limited then would it provide the Korean language exposure I want? But you can't forget that Pororo = fun; Pororo = Korean; therefore, Korean = fun.  Would that logic motivate a 4-year olds Korean-American to find the Korean language appealing?

New language learning DVD for kids: Dino Lingo

Today, I came across a language-learning DVD series specificaly for babies and kids called Dino Lingo.  It appears to be a relatively new program with Korean version recently released this summer among its 19 other language formats. I'm intrigued by the "science" and research behind how they developed the program as I would never have thought about things like animism, high-pitched femal voices and neonate faces as being helpful elements in engaging babies in learning language. "Dino Lingo helps kids build confidence in target language by simplifying the process. The program uses only the top 200 words for babies and top 500 words for kids."
I think multimedia DVDs, movies, shows etc. are a great tool for learning, but comes with concerns about too much screen time in our heavily saturated tech world. The parents guide address this concern with practical tips for parents on interacting with their child as they watch the DVD. In addition, their blog discusses the question: Can DVDs teach kids languages?
From the website:

The Science behind Dino Lingo Method

1 - Full Immersion All of the instructions in Dino Lingo are presented in target language. The children naturally learn foreign languages from Dino Lingo videos because they hear common phrases and vocabulary hundreds of times without any interruption.

2 - Contextual Variation Each word in Dino Lingo programs is presented in at least 4 different contexts. Additionally, unlike other programs, Dino Lingo repeats words intermittently, not consecutively.

3 - High-Pitched Female Voices Scientific studies show that babies and small children prefer female and high-pitched voices, thus we used only these type of voices in our videos.

4 - Vocabulary Songs Each Dino Lingo program contains 12 specially produced vocabulary songs that are loved by small children.

5 - Dinosaurs Dino Lingo features 6 adorable and colorful dinosaurs to make target languages more likeable.

6 - Gradual Interval Recall All words in Dino Lingo are presented in different intervals (E.g. the word car being presented in the 5th minute, 10th minute, and 60th minute).

7 - Optimum Combination of 3D/2D Animation Recent studies have shown that children prefer to watch animations over real-life footage. 80% of Dino Lingo videos are either 3d or 2d animations.

8 - Native Speakers All of the phrases in Dino Lingo are voiced by native speakers only, necessary for the children who are sensitive to detect subtle changes in accents.

9 - Neonate Characters Dino Lingo uses animated characters that have baby-like faces. There are no monstrous, scary or wild characters in Dino Lingo products.

10 - Animism Research shows that small children tend to believe all objects are alive (e.g. talking and dancing cars). Dino Lingo features many lively objects that capture the children's attention.

11 - Subtitles in Both Foreign Characters and English Alphabet At Dino Lingo, we know that most parents want to be able to read the captions in both the local characters of target language as well as the English (Latin) alphabet.

12 - Sudden Surprises To capture the little ones' attention, Dino Lingo uses some scientific techniques such as sudden appearance and disappearances, sudden pans, zoom-ins and unfamiliar sounds.

English Animals Song for Children Kids ESL from dinolingo on Vimeo.

I haven't purchased the program, but if they wanted to give me a free copy of it to review it, I'd be more than happy to oblige! If you've tried it, let me know!

Korean Kids Song Sunday: Daily Bread Song 날마다 우리에게 양식을 주시는 하나님

In thinking about how best to teach Korean to our future kids, I'll probably want to incorporate Korean as much as possible in our daily routines and songs. One daily routine that I hope to instill early on is mealtime prayers, thanking God for the food and all His blessings. And singing the prayer makes this routine all the more fun!

Here's a home video of Korean kiddo following as his parents sing the Daily Bread Song:

(Mom keeps interrupting the song to tell her son to close his eyes.)

Other you-tube finds:
This little boy's rendition of the mealtime prayer song in Kabble (Korean-babble) just slays me.

Lyrics in Korean: 
날마다 우리에게 양식을 주시는
은혜로우신 하나님 참 감사합니다.
아~멘

Transliteration or Romanization: 
nahl-mah-dah oo-ree eh-geh yang-shik-eul joo-shi-neun
eun-heh-ro oo-shin hah-nah-neem jeul gam-sah-hahb-nee-dah
 ah-men

Translation in English: 
For the meal that you provide for us daily [literally: everyday, for us food giving}
We joyfully thank our Gracious God. [gracious God joyful thanks]
A-men 

Here's another version that I found: 날마다 우리에게 양식을 주시는 하나님 아버지 참 감사합니다

Top 3 Languages

Conversation after dinner today:

Me: Last night, I started a new blog to catalog our efforts to teach our children to be bilingual.
Husband: Bilingual?!  Our kids are going to be Quadlingual!  Mandarin, English, Spanish and Korean
Me: What about your Cantonese? What will your mom speak to our kid when she comes over (3 times a week)?  Aren't you sad that we won't be passing on your Cantonese to our children?
Husband: (Out comes the iphone). Let's see what's more useful: googling....language...speaker...world.  Wikipedia says:
Mandarin: 1025 million!!!
Spanish: 400 million
Korean: 78 million
Cantonese: 71 million 
Our kid is going to tap into that potential of reaching 1025 million people...
Me: I guess I better change my blog name to Konglisharin.

Raising Bilingual Children

Recently, Ohdeedoh (a much-loved site about all things kids) posted 5 "easy" ways in fostering bilingualism in your baby.

I thought I should take stock of how "easy" these would be for our family:

1. One Language Per Parent: This technique works well if you are already bilingual or trilingual. You make a house rule out of it. Your child will have to speak a different language to each parent.

Husband and I are both semi-trilingual.  I speak English very well, and Korean/Spanish not so well.  Husband speaks English and Cantonese/Spanish.  However, as beloved as his home language of Cantonese is...it's not as universal as Mandarin.  He hasn't taken any formal training in Mandarin, but finds the similarities of the 2 comforting.  We decided that I would be responsible for teaching Korean and Spanish.  Husband would speak English and Mandarin.  But we've got a lot of learning to do to make that happen.

2. One Language Per Room or Per Floor: When you use this learning tip, make it a house rule that in one room, everyone must speak the same language while in another room, they must change it. Keep the languages the same for a determined period of time, 4 to 12 months.

I think whatever the set-up, speaking in a second (non-dominant) language takes practice, commitment and consistency.

3. Movies & Media: It's easy to stock up on movies and DVDs that will allow your child to develop another language. Most DVDs now come with a few different language tracks, which will allow you child to watch a movie in another language.  

 Korean movies, TV shows, music, and educational programming is probably the easiest effort.  Kids love screen time on the computer, TV or iphone and ipad....and maybe even videogames.  So, all screen time could possibly be language time!

4. Classes & Tutors: Finding a tutor or introductory classes can also be an option for some children. Classes that include a lot of games (flash-card based) and some media will make learning another language a lot easier than just sitting on a chair for a whole hour.  

The same Korean School that I went to when I was in elementary school is still running in my parent's city 30 minutes away.  I hated Korean School!  Would I do that to my child?  I guess so, if I want my child to learn Korean.  Since we live in a highly-Korean populated area, I'll also look into Korean pre-schools or daycares.

5. Immersion: There's no replacement for full immersion. This can be done in a school in your city or if you move to another country.

By the time our child(ren) are of school age, I hope an immersion program in Korean or Spanish will be available near us.  I have heard they are trying to implement a Korean immersion program in the school district I grew up in.

I hope my internet search will yield more tools and research of things that we can do in the home on a daily basis.

 

Korean roadtrip

I'm super proud of my husband. We took a 6hr road trip today and I am feeling very accomplished in making progress in Korean language learning.

We got through 2 lessons of Pimsleur Korean (30 minutes each). Yay! Husband can say "I can speak a little Korean" in Korean!!!



We also learned the words to the 3 bears song. It's true!



Lastly, we got through some vocabulary and reading hangul with this Pororo iPhone app. Cute app but Pororos pronunciation is kinda penguinny whacked.

Korean Kids Song-ed Out: A Korean joke instead

I'm getting a bit Korean Kids Song-ed out. So today, I'm posting a joke on Korean Kids Song Sunday.

What did the Korean bus driver say to the egg at the bus stop?



계란! (geh-rahn)!

Get it? Get on! Geh-rahn! Get on!? (It could also be transliterated as geh-ron, I supposes.

Oh ok, I guess it would be funny if you knew that geh-rahn is "egg" in Korean.

Still not funny, huh?

Ya, some of our friends like to tell similar Canto-english jokes too and I don't think they're funny either.

Ok, but what IS funny, hilarious actually, is this blog: Parenting. Illustrated with Crappy Pictures.

So in honor of my non-funny joke and crappy pictures, I give you....

What did the Korean bus driver say to the egg at the bus stop?

my own crappy picture!

I forgot how fun MS Paint is. It really is. So, I'm afraid you may not have seen the last of my crappy pictures. There's also more of the non-funny Konglish jokes too.
AND now, there is at least one person I know who reads my blog that will never forget how to say "egg" in Korean (that's you, Husband!).

If you want to learn more simple Korean words about food and eating, I made a cheat-sheet that may or may not come in handy.

Korean Kids Song Sunday: Korean Number song 숫자송

I guess I'm on a roll with cute you-tube videos. This numbers love song is too cute not to post. I think it adequately describes how many waiting adoptive parents feel about their kids in Korea. Except of course, we will love our children for way more than 10 years...and the part about "save my soul" is also probably not the best expectation to have towards your child (which is an entirely different post). But the part about not being able to wait even 3 more seconds? Ha. I feel that way sometimes. Not often. But sometimes.



You-tube video clip:





Yahoo!Kids Video with Handmotions:

야후! 꾸러기 동요
	숫자송 one and two and three and four a..

Cute home-video of three BOYS dancing to the Numbers song:





Lyrics in Korean:

one and two and three and four and (2xs)

1 (일)초라도 안보이면

2 (이)렇게 초조한데

3 (삼)초는 어떻게 기다려

이야 이야 이야 이야

4 (사)랑해 널 사랑해

5 (오)늘은 말할거야

6 (육)십억 지구에서 널 만난건

7 (칠)럭키야

사랑해 요기조기 한 눈팔지 말고 나를 봐

좋아해 나를 향해 웃는 미소 매일매일 보여줘

8 (팔)딱팔딱 뛰는 가슴

9 (구)해줘 오 내 마음

10 (십)년이 가도 너를 사랑해

언제나 이 맘 변치 않을게



Transliteration:

1: eel cho-rah-do ahn-bo-ee-myun

2: ee ruh-keh cho-joh-han-deh

3: sam cho-neun uh-dduh-keh gee-dah-ryuh

eeya-eeya-eeya-eeya

4: sah-rahng-heh nuhl sah-rahng-heh

5: oh neul-eun mahl-hal-guh-yah

6: yook shib-uhg jee-goo-eh-suh nuhl mahn-nan-gun

7: chil lucky ya!

sah-rahng-heh yoh-gee joh-gee han noon-pahl-jee mahl-goh nah-reul bah

joh-ah-heh nah-reul hyang-heh oot-neun mee-soh meh-eel meh-eel boh-yuh-juh

8: pal-ddak pal-ddak ddui-neun gah-seum

9: gooh-heh-juh oh neh mah-eum

10: shib-nyun-ee gah-doh nuh-reul sah-rahng-heh

uhn-jeh-nah ee mahm byun-chee ahn-eul-ggeh!



Translation in English:

1: If I can`t see you for a second,

2: I will be anxious like this

3: how can I wait for you for 3 seconds?

eeya-eeya-eeya-eeya

4: Love you, I love you.

5: I am going to tell you today.

6: That I met you in the world of 6 billion people,

7: It's number 7 lucky

I love you. Don`t look at here and there and just look at me.

I like you. Let me see your smile everyday.

8: My heart is beating for you.

9: Oh, please save my soul.

10: even after 10 years, I will still love you.

I will never change my mind.

Korean Kids Song Sunday: Jesus Loves Me 예수 사랑하심은

Husband and I are going to Honduras for a medical/dental missions trip for a week. This is my 3rd time and husband's 4th time returning to this Baptist Hospital in Guimaca, Honduras. So, for this week's Korean Kids Song Sunday, I'm going to switch gears and post in Spanish too. And if it comes to mind, would you pray for our team?



It is my hope that our child(ren) will grow up with a love of music and singing, but more so, it is my deepest prayer that our family will LOVE LOVE LOVE Jesus more than anything. That love, of course, comes with the knowledge that God loved us first. This is the message I hope that we communicate in Honduras and the message that we communicate to our child(ren).



I think that one of the most beautiful ways to worship is through different languages, which is a foretaste of when all nations and all tongues and all nations will gather to worship God. It is God's desire that no one should be leave this world without hearing and embracing the good news of His saving grace. I hope the simple lyrics and words "Jesus Loves ME" ring true in your heart as it does in ours.



Enjoy!

You-tube finds:

-Performance of kids singing Jesus Loves Me in different languages (including a cute little Korean boy)

-Cheeky girls singing Jesus Loves Me in Korean

-Another darling girl practicing Jesus Loves Me (and her "I'm so cute" look) in the mirror



Lyrics of Jesus Loves me in English:

Jesus loves me, this I know

For the Bible tells me so

Little ones to Him belong

They are weak but He is strong

/// Yes, Jesus loves me ///

The Bible tells me so



Lyrics of Jesus Loves me in Spanish:

Cristo me ama, bien lo se

Su palabra me hace ver

Que los ninos son de aquel

Quien es nuestro amigo fiel

/// Si, Cristo me ama ///

La Biblia dice asi



Lyrics of Jesus Loves Me in Korean:

예수 사랑하심은

거룩하신 말일세

우리들은약하나

예수 권세 많도다

///날 사랑하심 ///

성경에 써있네

(아멘)



Transliteration:

yeh-soo sah-rahng-hah-sheem-eun

guh-rook-ha-shin mal-eel-seh

oo-ree-deul-eun yahk-ha-nah

yeh-soo gwuhn-seh mahn-do-dah

///nahl-sah-rahng-hah-sheem///

suhng-gyung-eh ssuh-eet-neh

(ah-men)



Verse 2-4 in Korean:

2. 나를 사랑하시고 나의 죄를 다 씻어 하늘 문을 여시고 들어가게 하시네

3. 내가 연약할수록 더욱 귀히 여기사 높은 보좌 위에서 낮은 나를 보시네

4. 세상 사는 동안에 나와 함께 하시고 세상 떠나 가는 날 천국가게 하소서