Welcome to the GermanPod101 2024 Inner Circle

Lesson Transcript

Welcome to the inner circle.

So here we bring you tried and tested learning methods to help you reach your learning goals this year.

I'm Kyejin and I'm joined by my co-host, the founder of Innovative Language, Peter Galante.

Hi, everyone.

So Kyejin, we're back for 2024.

Happy New Year.

And you're in my seat.

I want to...

This is my seat.

Legally, this is my seat.

Okay.

So this is a very different format.

So this year we're actually doing video, right?

And there's some really nice advantages to this.

We can show you how we're studying and some of the techniques here.

And we have the amazing video team and the production team that can actually add in things to help you visualize what we spoke about in the past.

Exciting.

And I can show you some tools too on our website.

Yes.

So as we go through...

So this year we have a very interesting and different format.

Right.

So in the past, I would pick a language and study.

And last year we...

Learned French together.

Some of us achieved more than others.

Yes, some of us.

But if you don't know, Kyejin is one of the best Korean teachers that we have.

Thank you.

And so this year we have a very interesting format.

Kyejin?

Exactly.

I'll be your Korean teacher this year and you'll be learning Korean from me.

Yeah.

And you can follow along to give you ideas on how to study with our system and also how to study with an actual teacher.

So it's really going to be quite interesting.

And we have some really interesting things to share with you for the first month that we have done this together.

Yay!

So in January you already started learning Korean with me, right?

That's correct.

Is there anything you want to share with us?

So the most interesting thing about learning with Kyejin and the Korean Class 101 system is that for many years we've been working towards integration.

And what we mean by integration is that the online content matches with the textbook, matches with the assignments your teacher gives you matches the in-class program.

So everything you're doing, there's continuity across every channel you're studying.

Right.

So that's what you did in January and that's what you will continue to do this year.

That's correct.

So Kyejin, do you want to talk about how we got started and how we're studying together or how would you like to start?

Well, as a student, how did you start learning Korean with us, with me and Korean Class 101?

Okay.

So for everybody out there, what we would like to do is show you how to get started and then once you get started, how to progress.

How to progress on your own as a self-study student, then how to study with distance learning with the teacher over communication, and then finally how to study with an in-person teacher.

So the first place we start is with the assessment.

Oh, right.

So when you signed up for the private life class, you got the assessment.

Did you take the assessment?

I did.

So you log in and there's a test for several areas.

So you start with what was first.

What was first, so I can actually see your result here.

So let me see.

Yes, at first it was vocabulary.

Okay.

And it looks like you got one correct answer out of ten.

Well, that's okay.

That's okay.

It's just to see your level, it's not to judge your Korean level and blame you.

It's just to know.

No, no, no.

It's judging, yeah.

It's just to see your level, to find the best class for you, best level for you.

And next we have assessment test for grammar.

Next is reading and listening and writing.

And my scores are pretty much the same, right?

A solid one across all of them.

So the test is quite easy to take and if you can't get the answer, you just skip ahead and for me, since I didn't know so much Korean, I kind of forgot it.

The test went rather quickly.

I think maybe about 10 minutes or so to take the test, then the teacher gets notified.

Yes.

And I see your level, your level B, 1.1.

So for everyone out there, 1.1 is the lowest level.

But some people say it's 1.0, lower than, that's absolute beginner, so not quite absolute beginner.

No, no, no, because at least you could read 100 Korean alphabet, right?

So it's not level 1.0, but 1.1.

So once I got that, the teacher gets notified or it's sent off to the teacher.

When the teacher actually checks, that's up to the teacher, but usually within about 24 hours.

And then I was notified of my level and I could get started.

I could actually start on my own.

Yes.

And actually before that, you also, well, actually after that, you got an email from our academic advisor, right?

Yes.

So the academic advisor helps motivate you because actually in my case, the motivation is quite the issue.

I'm very motivated by the deadlines.

So sometimes though, the deadlines, I wait till the very last minute.

So this advisor helps me say, hey, here's how to get started, here's how to progress along.

Yes.

And before our first private class, did you get some materials to study?

I did.

So I received a welcome pack and it's very nice inside the welcome pack.

There's some basic vocab, introduction to the alphabet.

And actually if you go through this content, it's quite a lot of content.

It can keep you busy up until the first class.

And those are very basic but important information.

And after that, you also received our learning pathway.

So the learning pathway is where you start, it's your starting point.

And the learning pathway was so intuitive.

I basically started from the beginning and everything was broken into these small segments.

So once I took my test, I didn't start right away, I wanted to hear from my teacher, waited, but then my advisor told me where to start.

I had the welcome pack, so I started to go through the welcome pack.

So this is how you can start as a self-study student too, very similar pattern.

You come on, you get the welcome pack, you're assigned a pathway and the pathway is a linear progression.

And inside the pathway, there's learning component, and then there's assessment component.

So you can't just check that you did everything because there are tests.

There are.

And you know what?

As a teacher, I can actually see your progress here too.

So this is what we call gradebook.

And I see, oh, Peter, you did a great job with this pathway, you completed.

And I can see your test result too, and very good job.

So we're skipping back and forth a bit between the different levels, someone with or without a teacher.

So with the self-study, you kind of manage yourself.

This is also the student can see the progress on their side too.

So they can also see this from the student perspective.

So you're moving along and you're progressing, and the colors will tell you if your work at the level is good enough.

So again, it's very, very intuitive.

Going by yourself, you progress along.

What's so interesting here is, as Kajean said, that your teacher can see your progress.

So the teacher can log in and check their students and say, oh, this student's doing well.

The student's moving fast.

The student is not working.

Yes, I can see the progress of each student.

And before the class, I make sure to check.

But not on the day, before the day, please, Peter.

But yes, I can see the progress of each student so I can follow up with them.

Yeah, Kyejin made a reference too.

So I was right before my class, two hours before my class, I did my pathway right at the deadline.

Yes, a few minutes before the class, so actually, I wasn't noticed that, but of course, I noticed that after the class that, did you see my message?

I gave you some feedback like this.

Yeah, I gave you some corrections.

And I also sent you some audio files of the words that you were mispronounced, plus some practices.

And deadline too.

Yeah, so what Kajean is talking about now is there is a chat between the student and teacher.

And so at first, we were talking about the premium level, where there's an assessment and people can know where to start and they go on their way.

The premium plus level, you actually will communicate with the teacher.

And it's quite nice because the teacher will respond in 24 hours, the teacher gives you different assignments and homework that you can do, and then you complete the homework and send back to your teacher.

And this is quite nice if you're not so busy and you can get some homework, you can work on the site, do your homework or do the assignment and then send it to your teacher.

Then there's a live class, which we'll talk about in a moment.

So this chat here, Kajean used to give me some feedback about my assessment, talk a little bit, as she said, I would send a voice recording, a self introduction, and my teacher corrected that for me and gave me the proper pronunciation.

So this is the next higher level, this premium plus.

But when you do the live class, the nice thing is your teacher is the person, the teacher chatting to premium plus teacher is your live teacher.

So there's the full continuity that really makes the system work.

Yes.

So well.

Yes.

Actually, this was one of my favorite feature when I learned French last week, last year on French part 101, because I meet my teacher every week and I also can chat with my teacher like anytime, anywhere with my just mobile phone.

When he gets me back, he answered me back just in 24 hours.

So we had lots of chat and it was very fun.

And I noticed if I get close to my teacher, I learn better.

And I know the same thing.

I had many Korean teachers and if the students are very close to me, they learn faster.

So I hope we get close and you will learn more.

Yeah, that would be so nice.

But yeah, I'm really thoroughly enjoying this.

But let's go back and before we jump into the class and show you some other things, we want to talk about this continuity and this integrated.

So the textbook that you get, there's the feel and look and the characters in the textbook.

Then when you go to the site, the textbook is you're learning the same material in the textbook that you're learning in the pathway.

For some of the pathways, there's this corresponding integration.

So the grammar is the same, the vocab overlaps, and it really helps that the teacher knows the material you're using, the material has the same look and feel, and then the assessment, the test you're taking are all in one place.

Because throughout my many language journeys, I've studied at brick and mortar schools, I've studied online, and each teacher likes a certain textbook.

And everything is fragmented.

My results at the school are not with my tutor.

My tutor is using a textbook that I don't have access to.

So there are these disconnects usually when you're trying to progress.

And here it's integrated across the whole process, whether you're studying by yourself, whether you're studying with a distance teacher, distance learning, or whether you're doing this with a live teacher, as in my case.

Right.

So I really like the textbook, too.

And by the way, listeners, when you join our live or group classes, you will get the textbook of the language.

And the textbook contents, as you said, correspond to the video or audio lessons that we are seeing.

Yeah.

And then the teacher materials.

Let's shift to the class now.

The teacher materials are actually the same, too.

So it's all integrated.

The slides, right.

So maybe we could talk a little bit about the slides.

Sure.

For the slides, first, we start with some ice break.

So we have a simple chat and also have an always dialogue.

It includes audio file.

So it's a great listening practice for students, too.

And we introduce the vocabulary and the sentence patterns.

And we also have lots of practices, right?

Lots of practices.

Yes.

So this slide is actually designed for practice because you already learned the basic things through your pathway.

Yeah.

So how was your practice experience?

Yeah.

It was, well, there's one topic we should talk about today.

When you have a live class, you're going to need about, if the class, in our case, the class is 30 minutes, you're going to need three times the length of the class for preparation.

So in my case, I needed 1.5 hours.

So the pathway took me about an hour, and then I spent another 30 minutes on my own writing down phrases that I wanted to use in the class.

But this prep time is necessary if you really want to maximize your time with your teacher.

Exactly.

So instead of learning or trying to get some information from the class, you actually have some knowledge, and you practice a lot.

And through the practice, you actually remember and improve your skills.

So I keep going back to this integration.

Why is this integration important?

So for my second class, I was very late.

I had not completed the second pathway portion, lesson two.

So my teacher notified the success coach, the academic advisor.

And I got an email saying, hey, your class is coming.

Please complete your work.

So because it's an integrated, and because the teacher and the teaching advisor can see your progress, they know if you haven't done something.

So they can notify you and remind you, hey, please get ready for your class.

So you don't waste the money not being prepared.

Exactly.

And that's why you completed the pathway.

I was surprised because I know how busy you are.

Yeah, if you want to succeed.

So yeah, I took two hours before the class, and I showed up ready to do the class very well.

And Kyejin, how did I do?

You did a great job.

Did you see my feedback, by the way?

Let's take a quick look.

What's also nice too is after the class within about 24 hours, well, within 24 hours, usually much faster, I get the results on how I did in the class.

So let's see how I did on the class.

Better than the one.

Yes.

You did better than the first one.

So look at the fluency and vocabulary, you got the full marks.

So we grade on five categories, fluency, vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and listening.

So these are the marks, and then the teacher gives a write up of how the lesson went.

Yes.

And one of my feedback was, well, Peter prepared the lesson very well, because you are very prepared.

Yeah, and that's where that integration comes in, just by simply going through the pathway, doing that, and then spending some time on my own, checking the site for vocab, and then I use Google Translate and put in some phrases that I wanted to use.

I like to learn in a bit of an interesting way.

We could chat about that.

I was prepared for the lesson, and because the teacher slides, what the teacher is using reflects what you've learned outside of the classroom.

It's very integrated, and it sets you up for success.

So just introducing this, I left some feedback for Peter, and here I also put some pronunciation review section, so he can improve certain words to improve his pronunciation.

And I also added some grammars that we learned.

The interesting grammar is the negation.

This is a really personalized lesson for Peter, because I know this interesting thing.

Whenever I say something, Peter tried to turn the sentence to the negative form, such as 안녕하세요, it means hello, but in Korean, it literally means, are you in peace?

But then Peter said, 안녕하세요, 안녕하세요, it means I'm not in peace, or, how are you?

Are you doing well?

I'm not doing well.

So well, I thought Peter would be very interested in negation, the negative sentences in Korean.

So actually last week, no, this week, we learned about the Korean negation, right?

I was so happy to review this, and I often like to say these things, because it kind of naturally people want to know why you're not well.

So if you're well, okay, yeah, I'm well, that's nice.

But if you're not well, it's like, well, why?

So I always want, everything I say is calculated to invoke an answer or invoke a question like, why is it like that?

Or how come you don't like this?

And also, this grammar is perfect for Peter kind of joke, right?

Peter often make a joke using the negative form.

So I thought this grammar would be perfect, and you did a great job.

I feel like you observed all the information quickly.

Well, two things.

The teacher, well, Kyejin did a very, very amazing job of using the teacher student chat to get me prepared for the lesson, things out here to try and keep the conversation in Korean.

And give me a very detailed feedback from the self introduction and material, like the content that I created and sent to her.

Second, the pathway allowed me to progress in order very quickly, and cover the material that I needed to do the core part of the lesson.

So without that direction, the conversation would, the lesson would stall.

But because I prepared and Kyejin saw, could see that I showed up prepared, the lesson I thought went very, very well.

Yeah, I agree.

So I have a question then.

It sounds like you are taking, so you're taking these live private classes.

But I know many of our inner circle viewers and listeners are not maybe taking these live private classes.

Then how can they learn?

Can they still learn in some way?

Yeah, so let's break this into these three components, self-study, learning with a distance teacher, distance learning, and then the live component, whether you're in a group class or a teacher.

So when you're doing the self-study, most of the time, well, I think one of the keys is that you have someone to practice with.

But let's just focus on the progression part, that the pathway is laid out in such a way that you can progress in a linear fashion, testing yourself.

And just by testing yourself and making sure you do these tests, it will help you so much to accurately judge where you are.

Are you really getting the material or not?

And so if you're self-studying only, then there are certain pathways, especially these new can-do pathways, which I strongly recommend that you try if your language has them.

They're carved out in such a way that you can practice all the skills you need to learn, listening, speaking, writing, reading, vocab and grammar, and of course, culture.

That's the first one.

Second one, if you have this Premium Plus level, make sure that once you go through your pathway, that you're sending your teacher some type of content for them to check and get back to you on.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask your teacher.

By the way, the chat is called My Teacher Messenger app.

So there you can access to a teacher anytime you want.

Anytime.

The teacher will respond within a 24-hour time.

And then finally, if you're not studying with our teachers, make sure you're practicing somewhere with someone, whether it's someone you know, you're exchanging, or you have a teacher or tutor on a different platform.

But if you have that, then just apply the rule that if your class is 30 minutes, spend an hour and a half, maybe an hour going through the content on our site via the pathway, 30 minutes on your own preparing, and then showing up and really getting the most out of your class.

The one thing that, in my experience, working with a tutor that doesn't have, if you're not working from the same textbook, then yeah, maybe you're better off sharing, making sure that you're using the same content, making sure that your teacher and you're using that same content.

Yeah.

And also, I noticed some people, some teachers don't want to use certain materials.

They want to use their own materials.

In that case, then the materials that you use at school and you use with the teacher are also different.

That's what happens in a teacher because they know that material and they understand how to teach that material and they're familiar with it.

And so that's why sometimes there's a bit of a gap.

And also, finally, there's often no way for them to see if you've actually done the work.

They can give you homework and you do the homework, but it's not like this system where the teacher can peek and say, okay, well, he went through all the modules.

But I think as long as you're speaking, as long as you're reading, as long as you're working, you're going to keep learning.

If anyone is interested in our live private classes or group classes, well, please join it.

For the live private classes, they can join anytime, but for group classes, I think the next semester starts in May.

So the group classes have a semester, they have a starting date and a finish date.

And you study with up to four people, no more than four, because after four, it's really hard to make progress.

So we limit at four.

Yeah.

And I had, I taught several group classes and sometimes they exchange their contact and they practice Korean themselves.

Wow.

Yeah.

So, well, if you join the group classes, I think that's also one of the advantages.

You have someone to practice with on the weekend when you don't have class.

Yeah.

So I find that we've been working hard for many, many years to solve this integrated approach because schools are great at teaching.

Textbook companies are great at making textbooks.

Online content companies are great at making online content.

Video companies are great at making videos.

But to have that continuity, that took a very, very long time.

And I was very, very happy to use this and study with you and the teacher quality matters too.

Indeed.

So, I'm looking forward to our next month of study.

Yes, me too.

So let's talk about goals for next month.

So if you've heard The Inner Circle before, this is slightly different.

Before I'd focus on usually one area, usually speaking, and many of my goals revolved around this.

But now with this integrated approach, I have to focus on all the skills.

Yes.

Listening, reading, writing, speaking, grammar, vocabulary.

And that's why having the site, the textbook, all integrated really helps.

So I want to keep my course.

I want to maintain.

Then I have an interesting goal.

So we've had two classes so far.

Right.

And I would say that the class is about 50-50 or maybe 60% English, 40% Korean.

What would you guess?

50-50?

60-40?

Yeah.

For 1.1 level students, I try to use like 50-50.

It depends on the students, but maybe I should use more Korean to you.

So yeah, I will try to get my ratio.

I think that's a very good ratio too when you're trying to speak a language.

I'll try to get my ratio at 70-30 in favor of Korean.

And I will try in order to finish 1.1, how many lessons do I need to finish?

Well, you have eight lessons left.

So I will try to finish by the end of February.

Those eight.

Really?

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm looking forward to it.

That means are you going to move forward to level 1.2A after this level in March if you succeed, if you achieve your goal?

Yes, I will work hard towards that.

Okay.

It's an exciting goal.

Okay.

I'm looking forward to it.

Levels are something interesting too that you brought up.

This was another thing that took us a long time to reorganize.

This was a lot of work behind the scenes.

But actually having the levels where your roadmap is clear, you know if you finish this and pass the test, you can then move on to the next level.

Yes.

So I think why don't we just kind of recap here.

The first thing is that this system, this integrated system is very powerful.

Yes.

Currently, we have an integrated approach for the content.

Let's start with the content.

We have integrated.

It took us a long time to redo the content and integrate the content.

So the look and feel is the same for certain videos, textbook, and then those match with some extra learning methods that we now provide, different services.

Right.

So we have self-study which is premium and basic.

Then you can move to the premium plus where you have a teacher available and you can talk to the teacher, do assignments for the teacher, and the teacher will get back to you with feedback within 24 hours.

And finally, we have the live classes.

And again, with the live classes and this distance learning, the teacher has access to see the student's progress.

So not only is there integration in the content that the teachers are sharing with the students, so everyone's working towards the same thing, there's also this continuity and integration of seeing how the progress is going.

So if you do do a class, whether it's with us or outside, make sure the rule is three to one.

You spend, if your class is an hour, you have to spend three hours getting ready to make sure you get the most out of it, 30 minutes at 1.5.

So maintain this three to one rule and make sure that your teacher, again, we use a very interesting assessment system, five categories plus detailed feedback of progress.

If you're studying with a tutor or a teacher outside, make sure the teacher is giving you that or make sure your friend gives you or the person you're studying with, your exchange partner, gives you some type of feedback to help assess if you're progressing or not.

Yeah.

And that also motivate you to assess students.

Okay.

Now we have the goal set.

We did our recap and the first video is finished.

Oh, wow.

So the deadline of your goal is the end of February, right?

Yes.

Okay.

I'm looking forward to it.

So listeners, what about you?

Let us know.

Kyejin, you almost made it.

Yes.

You switched back here.

Talk to the listeners directly and you won't need this.

Yes.

So let us know and email us at inner.circle at InnovativeLanguage.com and stay tuned for the next Inner Circle.

And also please let us know how you enjoyed this video.

Again, we like this because the video team can add more things inside of this like what we showed you and what we'll do is kind of go through some of the tools and kind of show you how I am learning and how my teacher is preparing and getting ready to help the student.

Okay.

So thank you very much and we'll see you next time.

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