(코리아타운뉴스) “Learn Spanish Easily Online”

Martin Paik’s 'new grammar' package gains traction
He’s creating Korean-friendly ways to teach Spanish

Spanish instructor Martin Paik has come up with a new way of teaching the language.

Paik’s new method is to digitize his in-person classes. It may not sound like much of a new idea, but Paik’s efforts are making the change he has introduced has a different meaning compared to other online language courses.

After temporarily leaving his job as a history lecturer last year, Paik has released an educational package for students who aspire to learn the Spanish language. The package he released was named, “Martin’s New Spanish Grammar and Conversation.”

Paik’s package soon garnered big attention mainly due to the scarcity of effective Korean version of Spanish learning materials.

“Many Koreans struggle to learn Spanish because they have to use the English-language learning materials,” Paik said. “English and Spanish aren’t similar in style as it is with Korean and Japanese. For a Korean person to learn Spanish, he or she needs to be educated in a way that’s specifically designed for Koreans.”

Paik then pointed out that learning Spanish in English is just as ineffective as trying to learn English in Japanese.

The “new grammar,” designed by Paik who has spoken Spanish for the last 20 years, is taken straight out of the original Spanish courses, according to Paik.
“I also learned Spanish in college just like everyone else,” Paik said. “The change of verbs that often ignored the uniqueness of the Latin language almost made me fearful. It’s much easier to learn Spanish when it’s tailored to the understanding of Koreans.”

There are three major differences in Paik’s method of teaching Spanish. Firstly, he emphasizes that Latin is a letter-based language unlike the word-based English. Secondly, there is no second-person perspective in Spanish as anyone other than the first person is considered third person.

The struggle becomes palpable when one tries seeking second-person perspective when learning Spanish. Finally, verbs are only changed when speaking from first-person perspective. In essence, Paik’s “new grammar” method is distinctly different from English expressions. That is why he has concluded that Spanish has more in common with Korean than English.

“When a foreigner learns Korean, he or she often tries to merge a verb with a different words,” Paik said. “In Korean, you don’t often have to memorize how the verbs are altered. In English, the speaker has to have the entire system memorized. Being able to distinguish this difference will help students learn Spanish more effectively.”

However, Paik stressed that there are simply not enough instructors to teach his new method effectively to students. That is one of the reasons why he has decided to go online with his materials.

“I’ve always felt bad for students who couldn’t take my courses because they lived far away,” Paik said. “I don’t even have to explain how much more effective it is for students to learn the materials in a physical classroom as opposed to just going through the materials in paper. Now, I’d like the digitized version of my teaching materials to be used as a reference in the future.”

Paik plans to continue on with his offline courses as well, but admitted that he may not create more time for himself to return to working on his history literature.

The digital version of Paik’s Spanish courses are currently in the works.
“Many people say Spanish is a difficult language,” Paik said. “They just have to understand that there is no change in verbs in Spanish. If you try to stick with the English way of how a language is used, you will never be able to learn Spanish.”

Paik added that memorizing about 500 to 600 words in Spanish is all one would need to be able to converse in Spanish after understanding his way of teaching.
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By Byung Chang