#readkorean

[ramyeonupdates]

{ #request } || source: master3languages

#korean #hangul #learnkorean #speakkorean #studykorean #koreanwords #koreanvocab #koreanphrases #learnkoreanfast #readkorean #learn #study #language #learnlanguage #studylanguage #request #favourites #updates #IG: join.a.groupchat

[studiousbees]

Making reading high-level texts easier with ReadKorean

Happy election day, everyone! Today is regional election day here in Korea. That means that for the last few weeks, I've been bombarded by a ton of advertisements for a ton of different candidates running in a ton of different districts. That's not the point of today's post, however! I want to introduce you all to a website that I think holds a lot of promise for the intermediate and advanced Korean learning community, ReadKorean.

What is it?

One of the issues with high-level reading is that it's just so hard to get into! You might face a lot of unfamiliar words, and having to break out the physical or digital dictionary can be a pain and distract you from your reading. If you could get in-line definitions for words you don't know, wouldn't it be a lot easier? That's the goal of the website ReadKorean. Still in its infant stages, it is part of a research project to make high-level reading more accessible to Korean learners. If you have ever used something like Zhongwen Chinese Popup Dictionary for Mandarin or Rikaikun for Japanese, the concept is similar, giving you information about words you're seeing without you having to open up a new tab or another book.

How does it work?

Still in its infancy, trying to train the program to be more accurate and efficient, ReadKorean only works on its home website for the time being. Users can choose to take quizzes to test it out and help improve the program! You will be asked vocabulary questions, and you will be presented with short passages taken from past TOPIK II exams. Sometimes you have to rely on your own knowledge, but sometimes you will be allowed to use the ReadKorean program to click on words in the passage. When you do this, the meaning of the word and other information like synonyms, antonyms, and even relevant pictures will be pulled up on the side. All of this information is in Korean. You can mark whether or not the information given is helpful and/or accurate, thereby helping tune the system!

Positives and problems

Having easy access to information that will help you read more easily is of course super helpful for becoming a better reader. The extra information given is all in Korean, so it might be a bit hard for those who are still more used to looking up Korean words in a dictionary that gives the foreign language equivalent, but if you want more nuanced definitions, a straight Korean dictionary is definitely the way to go! Sometimes the program gives some wrong definitions due to poor parsing of the word selected, but again it is still in its training period and needs users to help fine-tune it. Overall, I have found errors to not be too common. One thing that is a bit of a problem, though, is that sometimes when a word is clicked on, the information panel gets stuck "loading" and gives you no information at all.

Verdict

My current opinion of ReadKorean is that it has the potential to really help a lot of Korean language learners beef up their reading skills and vocabulary, especially if it someday comes out in a form that will allow you to read text on other webpages. For now, I find doing the little quizzes a fun brain exercise, and I get to help the developers even a little by grading the information that the program gives me when I click on words. If you have the time, please do stop by the website and do a few rounds to help out!

Happy studying~

**I am in no way affiliated with the creators of ReadKorean; I just think it has the potential to be really cool!

#korean resources #readkorean #intermediate korean #advanced korean #reading in korean #studyblr #langblr #korean studyblr #korean langblr