::A Geek in Korea::

If I was going to recommend any game to students to help them increase their word power and make the world a better place at the same time, the only thing I would tell them to play would be Freerice.com.

The concept behind Freerice.com is simple. Use the banner ads of players to pay for 20 grains of rice for every correct answer to a vocabulary game. For every third answer you get correct, you increase your level and difficulty. For every word you get wrong, you decrease your level. The entire time you play, you are slowly building up your bowl of rice. Altruism that is benefited by self-improvement. That’s brilliant!

The useful part of this game is the scaling of difficulty. While my coworkers and I can struggle to break into the forty level range, if you do poorly on the first batch of words, you get easier vocabulary to study. This means that it benefits students as well as teachers. This slowly increases as you go up levels. This is like the student’s vocabulary tests on steroids, but it helps people for every correct answer. That’s certainly a wonderful incentive to try to get a correct answer.

The pronunciation of the word is even given in addition to the correct answer after every guess. There is no timer, so they can go as slowly as they need to find the answer. Students can learn a new word, learn how to say it, then have to choose the correct answer. They can use word roots, use dictionaries, translate, or anything they need to get the correct answer. All I care about is the results. Higher level vocabulary scores, and lots of donated rice.

I gave students homework. They have to play the game and achieve a certain level. Then they have to print out a screen shot proving they got to at least the right level. I might even make it a class wide, or even school wide competition to see who can donate the most rice as well as who can get to the highest level.

The students were really enthusiastic about the game because they knew that by playing the game they were helping someone else get food. 20 grains of rice per correct answer isn’t very much, but when I showed them the world wide totals for everyone playing the game, they were blown away by the amount of food that had been donated by people learning English at the same time.

What parent would kick their student off the computer if they knew they could learn English and help poor people at the same time? Only a heartless person would say no to that!

Korean Class 101 fills a dual role for me. It’s an interesting podcast, so I enjoy listening to it, and it’s also a great way to study Korean. I’m not a paying member of their service, and I’m not getting paid to plug this podcast, but anyone with an mp3 player and a desire to study Korean should check out this site.

Keith and Seul, the hosts of the show, introduce the topic and context for the podcast. Usually there is a set of characters we are introduced to over the course of the conversations, and they remind listeners what the story has been about so far. After the topic has been introduced, they begin the dialog.

The dialog is done in Korean. There are different difficulty levels. The beginning level is basic Korean that is survival level “WOW! I remember when I didn’t know this! How did I survive here?” sorts of things. The intermediate level is harder stuff that can introduce more advanced grammar and slightly longer dialogs. The advanced stuff is a Korean audio blog that is a lot more challenging.

After the first dialog, they slow down and read line by line. You can get a better grasp on the syllables spoken to help with pronunciation. The third reading is Korean, followed by an English translation word for word.

After they finish the dialog, they chat a little about the topic. The basic chat is done entirely in English, while the Intermediate chat is 50% English and Korean. Advanced is entirely in Korean. They break down the vocabulary word by word. They tell the dictionary form, the politeness rules, and how to conjugate the words found in the dialog.

Once they explain all the vocabulary, they move into grammar. I find this extremely helpful. I know 90-95% of the vocabulary for every basic and intermediate lessons, but I don’t know what the root words are, or why they are conjugated in any particular way to form sentences. They give examples of words in different sentences. I usually am always able to translate them to myself the first time I hear them, but when I’m walking my dog or waiting for a subway I can repeat things to myself to improve.

Keith and Seul also explain the CONTEXT in which certain words are used. A lot of the silliness I get into with Korean is that I’m around female Korean coworkers and my wife more than another other speakers. Learning which words are used by a guy, or how they’d react differently to a situation helps me become a more natural speaker and also lets me fit in.

Even though the basic and intermediate dialogs aren’t extremely difficult, they keep my interest because they are presented as a cohesive story, and the commentary on the different situations by the hosts is funny and charming. The chemistry between the two hosts also makes for a funny podcast.

The advanced podcast is beyond my level at the moment. I can only listen to it, and I’m not good enough to catch everything the first time. If I wanted to study using their advanced audio blog, I’d need to subscribe and pay to get their scripts and higher level help. I need more grammar practice and a bigger vocabulary.

Right now I’m getting around twenty to thirty minutes of Korean practice a day because of their free feeds! Their beginner and intermediate programs are great for people living in Korea that want to practice and live more comfortably. It’s incredibly awesome that this is a FREE service that does such a great job teaching the basics needed for survival, or review of basics to improve skills.

I’d recommend this podcast to anyone interested in the Korean language that wants to study using conversational dialogs. A lot of foreigners I know could use this podcast to get better at their job, getting around town, or with a Korean boyfriend or girlfriend. It’s improved my conversation skills with my Korean wife too.