New Member Question

[rclott5205]

Well, I've emailed my questions to two diferent addresses on the site for help and support, but no reply in two days.

So, let me repeat my questions on this forum and see if anyone is monitoring here...

I am about to subscribe to your service, but I have a few questions. Let me say that I’m planning on the premium membership level. I did look around on the site first, but if any of these questions are already answered on the site or forums, just send me the links.

1. Will you do a placement test for me? Help determine the best level for starting? The sample lessons I did were from the beginning intermediate, and while interesting, they were almost too simple.

2. Do you offer an overall integrated lesson plan? The lessons (audio and video) and various tools seem a little overwhelming at first. Is there a plan which suggests what things to do and when? For example, if I said I would have three main study sessions per week, do you have a plan of what to study each session?

3. Do you recommend students have a printer? My first instinct on seeing the lesson reviews was to print them, but I don’t have a printer at home (only at the office). Whether or not you recommend a printer, do most of your students use one or not?

4. The couple of Android apps I see, is their price included with the Premium membership? Or that price is extra?

5. Based on my previous study experience, my downfall is vocabulary. I usually understand the grammar points pretty well. But I feel my progress is held back by lack of vocabulary, and my laziness doesn’t help because learning vocabulary requires lots of study and memorization. Are the various vocabulary tools (Word of the Day, Korean Core List, Lesson Vocabulary List, My Word Bank, Android apps MyWords Korean and WordPower Korean) integrated together? Or are they all different?

6. I don’t expect to use it much, but can you explain the 1-on-1 “office hours” works? Phone or Skype calls? Or do you really have office hours somewhere in Seoul? I don’t think I would need it much, since I have many Korean friends who can help from time to time.

7. Can you provide me a reference or two? Especially helpful would be any older students (like me) who otherwise hold a professional job. I know you can’t send me other member’s contact details, but I give you permission to send MY contact details to a few members whom you think would be able to give me comments on your program. Just ask them if they would contact me if they want to.

8. I would be paying by bank transfer from my Korean account. Can you send me your account details?

9. Do you offer any subscription upgrade option? For example, if I try the 3-month subscription, and decide within the first 45 days that I really like Koreanclass101 very much - can I upgrade to 1-year subscription for the price difference? The details on the site aren’t clear on this point.

Thanks, and I look forward signing up this week.

-Chris

p.s. 나의 한국이름 “한길수” 입니다. 옛날에, 나의 한국찬구들이 나에게 그이름을 만들었어요. “크리스”하고 “길수” 소리 조금 비슷하기 때문에. 그때, 그이름 위해서 행복했지만, 나중에 “길수” 너무 촌스러운 이름 들었어요! 아이구...

[jessui]

Hi Chris, thanks for your post

1. Unfortunately we don't offer any kind of placement test, so I would recommend giving the different levels a listen and finding the level that's right for you that way. Since you seem to have some background in Korean already, I would recommend giving the Lower Intermediate and Intermediate levels a try.

2. Connected to each lesson, you will find our Lesson Checklists (there are separate versions for Basic and Premium subscribers). Here are the direct links to them as well:
http://www.koreanclass101.com/pdfs/flue ... cklist.pdf
http://www.koreanclass101.com/pdfs/flue ... cklist.pdf
These lesson checklists outline what to do with each lesson, and give you space to take notes as well.

3. This is really up to the student- many students do like to print out the lesson notes so that they can take notes on them, or so that they can take them with them and read them on the go, but it's definitely not necessary - many students are also content with simply viewing the Lesson Notes on their computer.

4. Applications are not a part of any subscription and are extra.

5. Yes, the tools on the site are integrated - you can add words from the lesson Vocabulary Lists and Core Word Lists to your Word Bank to review later. WordPower and MyWords for Android use vocabulary from the Core Word Lits on the site.

6. This feature is a part of Premium Plus, which we actually are not offering at the moment.

I believe someone got back to you by e-mail regarding questions 7-9, is that correct?
I hope these answers are helpful to you

[rclott5205]

Yes, someone has. I'm going to give it a try for one month, now waiting for the bank account details to transfer the fee.

The biggest disappointment for me is the lack of a placement test. I'm kind of surprised you don't have something like that. It seems almost a basic necessity for a language course, on- or off-line. As you say, I did check out the lower intermerdiate. It seemed a little easy, but I'll keep going from that level. I'd rather start easy with some review. I'm also surrpised (from the other fellow's email reply) that you don't have a mechanism in place to give references.

Will the Premium Plus service me offered in the near future? Specifically during this summer?

May I ask, where are most of your members? In Korea? or overseas?

Thanks for the help,

Soon-to-be Member Chris (길수)

[jessui]

Hello Chris,

Yes, with the amount of material that we have, I agree that a placement test would be a great idea (and it is an idea that has been brought up before). I'll look into putting something together for our new users As for Premium Plus, unfortunately we don't have any plans to offer it at this time.

Our headquarters (Innovative Language Learning) are actually located in Tokyo, Japan

[trutherous]

Hi Chris;

My name is George Posten (Korean name of choice 나영훈) I have studied Korean language off and on for the better part of my adult life and I can say without reservation that this is a great site for learning Korean.

The negative things I can say about KC101 are:

1. they ceased producing an advanced lesson several months ago - something I expected to continue as part of my paid subscription
(the advanced audio blogs started up again after a long period of inactivity)
2. the forum is not very active
3. there is no active text or voice chat room on the site

The positive aspects are numerous, just to name a few:

1. a wealth of material - even if you just download all the material that is already archived it is worth about what a 2-year premium subscription costs when compared to other single-purchase Korean language programs
2. the lessons are current, everyday use Korean language - not ultra conservative out-of-date, useless, or old-fashion
3. pronunciation of native speakers is REAL - not like the crappy artificial pronunciation you hear on CDs that come with typical study books
4. continuing updated content (WE HOPE!!!)

that said,

http://www.sharedtalk.com is the rosetta stone language exchange site with text and sound chat but they have NO (0) classes or lessons and sound quality is pretty sketchy.

http://www.livemocha.com has Korean lessons with text and audio practice, and tests with immediate scoring feedback. In addition to text and voice chat you can also get feedback from the community on your audio/reading/writing submissions. Drawbacks: not nearly the diversity of KC101 content, and some recorded example pronunciation of a particular male speaker sounds a little like a North Korean with constipation.


'한길수'라는 이름을 2005년 이후에 받으셨나요? 혹시 그 영화 때문에 친구들이 이름을 지어줬나 궁금해요.