A Study of the Korean Language Acquisition Problems of the Russian University Students: With Special Reference to Novosibirsk State University and Tomsk Polytechnic University

With the comparative analysis, this article analyzes the errors that have been found in Korean language acquisition of Russian university students through Korean language lectures that have been taught by the present teacher for 10 years in Novosibirsk State University and Tomsk Polytechnic University in Western Siberia. The causes of errors are analyzed in the areas of pronunciation, listening, writing, and speaking. The errors are mainly caused by pronunciation, grammar, cultural factors from the differences between Korean language and Russian language, and by the interference and the lack of vocabulary because of interlanguage. As the solutions for the errors, the ability to distinguish the difference between two languages, the extensive vocabulary, the actual trainings in each area, the motivation and other things are suggested.

Key words: Korean language acquisition, error analysis.

Introduction

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Russia in 1990, interest in Korean language education has been gradually increasing in Russian universities. Korean language education here means that for foreigners. Especially, it points to the case that Russian university students learn Korean language as their first or second foreign language. As of 2014, Korean language lectures are offered to students in over 42 universities in Russia. [1, 19] Among them, Korean language lectures are available in 5 universities located in Western Siberia. This article is written from the present writer's own experiences of delivering lectures in Western Siberia, especially in Novosibirsk State University (NSU) and Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU). Through my teaching experiences Korean language in the two universities from 2004 to 2014, a number of errors have been spotted in the Korean language acquisition process of Russian universities students. Therefore, this article aims to suggest ways of decreasing these errors. The method used in this article is a comparative analysis. Before analyzing errors, Chapter 1 shows the current status of Korean language lectures in NSU and TPU. Chapter 2 displays overall errors that Russian university students experience when they learn Korean language. These errors appear in resources and lecture notes of students regarding to spellings, vocabularies, pronunciations, listening, and writing. Chapter 3 suggests considerable ways of decreasing errors found in Chapter 2.

1.      The Current Status of Korean Language Lectures in NSU and TPU.

Novosibirsk and Tomsk are representative cities in Western Siberia. Novosibirsk is the third city in terms of demographics and the administrative capital in Siberian Federal District. Among universities located in Novosibirsk, the universities that offer Korean language lectures are NSU, Novosibirsk Technical University and Siberian Transport University. In 1997, Korean language lectures of NSU were launched in Oriental Studies in the College of Liberal Arts, and lectures including Korean, Korean History and others are offered. About 10 Russian students take Korean language lectures every year, and they have 12 hours a week of studying Korean language as their first foreign languages. I taught Korean conversation and grammar to freshmen and sophomores in NSU from February 2004 to June 2008. Tomsk has a history of 410 years, and it is an innovative city of education and science in Western Siberia. Among 9 universities placed in Tomsk, the universities that offer Korean language lectures are TPU and Tomsk State University (TSU). In 2012, Korean language lectures of TSU were launched in Oriental Studies of International Relations in the History Department. About 6 students who major in Korean language take Korean language lectures every year, and they have 12 hours of studying Korean language per week. In 2001, a Korean language lecture of TPU was launched in Oriental Studies in Institute of International Education and Language Communication. Students are from Regional Studies in the College of Arts and Science, and the number ranges from 2 to 6 every year. They spend 6–8 hours to study Korean language as their second language per week. Korean subjects are Korean grammar, listening, writing, pronunciation, etc. Korean language textbook are the original books in Korean published by Korean universities. I have been teaching university students through first to fifth year in TPU since September 2008 to November 2014 at present time.

1.      The Errors of Russian University Students in Korean Language Acquisition

Ellis(1997) ascribes the causes of errors that happen in the language acquisition process to ellipsis, overgeneralization, transfer and others. [1,127] These causes occur also in errors of Russian students in Korean language acquisition. In terms of contrastive linguistics, when the cause of errors is analyzed, interference of Russian language is the main cause. As Russian university students learn Korean language, they experience the lack of Korean grammar and vocabulary. Interlanguage happens in the efforts of Russian university students to cover their lack of Korean language with Russian language. It is thought that, in this process, the transfer happens and the interference occurs that has bad influence. The errors are displayed in a wide range of pronunciation, listening, writing, speaking and other things.

2.1 The errors of pronunciation.

Korean language pronunciation is different from Russian language pronunciation, and it has pronunciation that Russian language does not have. That is why errors happen in the language acquisition process. Other causes are the differences of syllable structures, phonological phenomena and suprasegmental factors between the two languages. [3, 34] We will see the errors that Russian university students make when whey pronounce Korean language. When it comes to vowels, there are errors in Korean vowels, “어” and “여”. Students replace Korean vowel pronunciation /ə/ with similar Russian vowel pronunciation /o/ and pronounce it, so this makes the errors of pronunciation. Also, the pronunciation of “여”, a diphthong of Korean vowel “어” is replaced with Russian vowel pronunciation /jo/, and it is pronounced with a replaced sound. The errors happen in this condition. For example, “어머니” is pronounced as [omoni] and “겨울” is pronounced as [kjoul]. Korean vowel “ㅢ” can be pronounced as three different sounds /ㅡ,ㅣ,ㅔ/, so Russian students make the errors of pronunciation. Also, the errors are like these: “의사” is pronounced as [이사], “회의” is pronounced as [회으] and “의의의” is pronounced as [으이으]. In cases of consonants, Korean language has three kinds of plosives such as lax consonants, hard consonants, and aspired consonants. Russian language has two plosives such as lax consonants and aspired consonants. The errors occur because of hard consonants that Russian language does not have. These Korean double consonants are “ㄱ,ㄲ,ㅋ”, “ㄷ,ㄸ,ㅌ”, “ㅈ,ㅉ,ㅊ”, “ㅂ,ㅃ,ㅍ”, “ㅅ,ㅆ”. Russian students can distinguish between “가” and “카” in “가,까,카”, but they experience difficulties in distinguishing “까” from “가,까,카”. In addition, Korean consonant “ㅇ”is placed at the bottom of a word, it should be pronounced as /ŋ/. But there is no /ŋ/ sound in Russian language, so the errors happen because /ŋ/ sound is replaced with similar sound /n/. For example, Russian students cannot distinguish between “동” [toŋ] and “돈” [ton], and they pronounce two words as [ton]. Various rules of pronunciation can be applied to Korean pronunciation phenomenon that are made up of combinations of consonants and vowels. The errors occur while students who do not know well about Korean pronunciation rules pronounce with Russianized pronunciation. Typical examples are as follows: “종로” is pronounced as [chonro], “한라산” is pronounced as [hanrasan], “압력” is pronounced as [abrjok], “굳이” is pronounced as [kudi] and “감사합니다” is pronounced as [kamsaxabnida]. Another error raised in Russian students is that even if consonants and vowels are pronounced normally, the rules of accent deeply embedded in Russian language are transferred to Korean pronunciation, so pronunciation is correct but accent is not natural.

2.2 The Errors of Listening.

The errors of pronunciation are directly related to listening. We will examine error cases occurring in listening tests of second year students in 2012 TPU.

In Table, a. is a case that happened to mishear the answer “버섯». a1 is a case that the consonant “ㅂ” is confused with “ㅍ”, and the vowel “ㅓ” is confused with “ㅗ”. a2 is a case that linking rule is applied to overgeneralization, so “버섯” became “벗엇”. b is a case that [준] is misheard as [중] due to the error of the bottom consonant related to first syllable “ 준” from the verb “준비하다”. c is a case that it is confusing that “필요” should be written as “필요”, even though the word “필요” sounds [피료] due to linking rule applied in it. The four cases addressed above are typical errors that can often happen among Russian university students at beginner's and intermediate levels. The error results from the transfer and the interference that happen in the process of replacing with Russian language pronunciation consonants and vowels that do not exist in Russian language. It points to the case that the errors of pronunciation are directly related to the errors of listening. Let's see another case coming from the errors of listening. In the listening class for third years in TPU, the sentence “집을 꾸미다.” was heard, but students confused “꾸미다” with “꿈이다” because they failed to think of the verb “꾸미다”. Like this, the errors of listening are mainly caused by students' lack of the rules of pronunciation, their insufficient training in the rules, the lack of vocabulary, and the difficulties of understanding meanings of words or sentences. The following cases can prove this. In the listening class for third years in TPU, “일식” was misunderstood as “1식” in the sentence, “내일은 일식이야. 기대해”. A student listened the sound of [일식] correctly, but the student could not distinguish words that have different meanings with the same pronunciation. This case came from a second year student in TPU. In a two-choices listening question, the student listened to the passage, “어서오세요. 뭘 찾으십니까?” and chose the wrong answer, “공책을 드리십시오.” between two choices, “지우개가 있어요?” and “공책을 드리십시오”. The reason the student chose the wrong answer was that the student only thought of “주다”, the original verb form of “드리십시오” and failed to bring the imperative expression of “주다” to mind. In case of a fourth year in TPU, the student confused “영화관 제1관” with “영화관 제일본” because of the lack of vocabulary and the misunderstanding of meaning. Besides, even though the passage of listening is so easy in meaning and its speed of pronunciation is normal to native speakers, the meaning might be still difficult and the speed of pronunciation might sound fast to Russian students. In 2012, there was a Korean Language Speaking Contest in TSU. As a judge, I asked students some questions. In a question and answer session for a student who finished the presentation with the title, “고양이는 친구”. When I asked the student, “고양이가 가장 좋은 친구입니까?”, the student failed to answer my question. The student might have memorized the text of presentation and not have grasped the real idea of the text, or not have known the meaning because the speed of question was fast. In addition, Russian students often make the errors when they listen to numbers.

2.3 The errors of writing.

The errors of writing are shown in spelling, grammar, expressions of meanings and other things. The reasons that the errors of spelling occur are the differences between the shapes of Hangul and Cyrillic letters, the unfamiliar concepts of the bottom consonants in Korean language, the differences of writing systems between Korean language which uses a syllable-based writing system and Russian language which uses an alphabetic writing system, the lack of abilities to use consonants and vowels correctly and other things. We will examine the errors case by case. The errors of spelling are like these: a case of reversing the order of the initial sound “ㅇ” and the vowel “ㅣ” in the word “입”, and a case of writing the vowel “ㅣ” and “ㅐ” consecutively without knowing the rule that two vowels cannot be written consecutively in the word «우리ㅐ”. When the bottom consonant «ㄱ” is confused with «ㄴ», there is an error of writing «학교” as «한교”. If the consonant «ㅇ” is confused with «ㅎ», there can happen a case of writing «와” as «화”. The errors that «톰스크” is written as «토므스크” and «이르쿠츠크” is written as «일쿠츠크” result from the interference of Russian alphabetic writing system and writing the way the word sounds. In cases of vowel errors, «버스” is written as «보스” and «옆” is written as “욮”, because there are no distinctions between the vowels, “ㅓ” and “ㅗ”, “ㅕ” and “ㅛ”. The error that “계시다” is written as “게시다” comes from a case that “계시다” is written as the way “계시다” sounds. The confusion between “ㅈ” and “ㅊ” stands out in the error of consonant. Here are the results from dictation tests of 8 first-grade students in NSU. The five errors are shown as follows: “친구” was written as “진구”, “자동차” was written as “자동자”, “정도” was written as “전도”, “천도러”, “전도러”, “촌도”, and “점”. Here is the sentence of the first-grade student in TPU. “둘번쩨 바름을 좋아하고 한국어은 다른 언어보다 아주 달립니다.” In this sentence, the five underlined spots are the errors of writing. “둘번쩨» should be corrected as “두번째”. To do this, it is essential to know three writing rules such as the usage of “둘” and “두”, the spelling distinction between “째” and “쩨” and the ways of writing with spaces between words. “바름” should be corrected as “발음”. It is necessary to distinguish between pronunciation and writing. “은” should be corrected as “는”. It is necessary to differentiate“은” with “는”. “달립니다” needs to be corrected as “”다릅니다. The two words have different meanings. The errors of grammar are the errors in the patterns of sentence. Especially, many errors occur in postpositions that are very important parts in sentence patterns. “이력서가 보내세요. ” should be corrected as “이력서를 보내세요”. This case shows the error that the nominative postposition was replaced with the objective postposition. Due to carelessness, third or fourth year students make these errors. The third year student of TPU wrote the following sentence, “'나를 뭐가 가장 중요하지요?'라고 물으면 나는 '사랑이잖아요'!다고 대답할 겁니다. ” This sentence should be corrected as “'나에게 뭐가 중요하지요?'라고 물으면 '나는 사랑이잖아요.'라고 대답할 겁니다”. The student was confused with the fact that the verb “묻다” uses its the accusative case in Russian language, but it uses its dative form in Korean language. In the direction expression, the error happens easily. One answers, “어디로? ” to a question, “어디로” in Russian language. But Korean language has two possible answers, “어디로” and “어디에” to the question, “어디로? ”. In case of third year student of TPU, “무엇에 타고 직장에 갑니까? ” and “버스에 타고” should be corrected as “무엇을 타고 직장에 갑니까? ” and “버스를 타고”. To express the means of transportation, Russian language uses the instrumental case, but the objective postposition is used in the expression of Korean language. In the case of the verb, errors easily happen due to wrong exchanges between a subject and an object or between a subject and a dative. The fourth year student of TPU wrote the sentence “인터넷 쇼핑에서 좋아하는 물건을 살 수 있고 한가하는 시간이 있으면 마음에 들은 영화를 볼 수 있다 ”. In this sentence, “한가하는” should be corrected as “한가한”, and “마음에 들은” needs to be corrected as “마음에 드는”. In the use of the verb ending to change the verb stem to the determiner, the error happened. We will see the error that happens to express the meaning. When it comes to an easy example, the confusion of “가다” with “오다” is often addressed. These errors came from writings of second year students of TPU. A student who came to Tomsk to study wrote a letter to the mother in Kemerovo. To express that the student will go to the mother, the student wrote the sentence “시험을 다 본 후에 꼭 오겠어요. ” In this letter, “오겠어요” should be corrected as “가겠어요”. “큰 편지를 쓸 수 없어요. ” should be corrected as “긴 편지를 쓸 수 없어요”. “지금 날씨가 더워 졌어요. 영하 25도예요” should be corrected as “지금 날씨가 따뜻해 졌어요. 영하 25도예요”. In the writing of another student, “개들이 산책하기를 통해서 화장실에 가요” should be corrected as “개들이 산책을 통해 볼 일을 봐요” In the contents of the letter to the mother, the student finished with a closing greeting “잘자. 끝”. In the Russian speech, parents and children can speak to each other informally. But, it is unnatural to use informal expressions between parents and children in Korean language. So, “잘자. 끝” should be corrected as “안녕히 주무세요. 이만 줄입니다 ”. In case of using the translated sentence, the error results from using the limited vocabulary of the internet dictionary. In 2012 Korean Speech Contest in TSU, Russian student made a presentation with the title “여우와 기중기”, but “학” was wrongly translated as “기중기”.

2.4 The errors of speaking

The character of Korean language that can use different words in the same expression causes Russian students to make the error of speaking. The typical case is the polite form of Korean language. The polite form has been developed in Korean language. Thus when Russian students do not know how to use the polite form of Korean language, they can experience difficulties in conversations or meeting with Koreans. It can be considered as pragmatic errors. Saying “할아버지는 잔다 ” instead of “할아버지께서 주무세요” does not cause any problems in the Russian language expression. But this is the discourtesy in Korean culture. There is a case which is different from the polite form of language. In Korean language, “물을 마시다 ” and “물을 먹다” are same in meaning and available in the usage. But Russian language only allows “물을 마시다” to be used. “먹다” can only be used for the expression of eating “음식”. In this expression of sentence, the extension and the reduction of the meaning can become the cause of errors to Russian learners. A case of confusing the polite form and the informal form is the error that often happens. This case means that students who have not been trained to use the polite form of Korean language answer with the informal form of Korean language. In this case, students answer with “숙제 했어” to a question “숙제해 왔어요? ”. In TSU, there was a Korean Language Speaking Contest in December 2012. 32 students at the beginner's level of Korean language participated in the contest. The common error that occurred in students who made presentations was the accent. The accent that deeply embedded in Russian language appeared without any exceptions, to a greater or lesser extent. The problem of accent that appears in speaking is the task that Russian students should spend some time to solve with pronunciation. We will examine the errors shown in the speaking expression besides the accent. After students finished their prepared presentations, there was a question and answer session with judges in the contest. The other judge and I gave questions to students in order on the spot. When the judge gave a question to the student who made a presentation about Lake Baikal, “바이칼에 처음 갔어요? ”, the student did not answer. When the judge tossed a question to the student who made a presentation about the swimming suit, “수영복이 왜 필요해요? ”, the student answered, “이것은 필요한 것입니다. 바다 있습니다. ”. It was an insufficient answer. When the judge asked a question to the student, “김치는언제먹어요? ”, the student answered, “여름에 김치를 먹습니다. ”. The student's reply was the limited answer. When the judge casted a question to the student, “크리스마스 광장에서 무엇을 하죠? ”, the student answered, “네”. The answer was inappropriate to the real idea of the question. The reasons that students answered inappropriately or did not answer at all come from the assumed situations: Students might have not fully understood the text of presentation, or the speed of questions might have been so fast to students. Also, the reasons can be found in the psychological factors of students who were not ready to answer questions with the lack of vocabulary.

2.      The Solutions for the Errors

From the start, the Korean alphabet looks unfamiliar to Russian students. They can have a feeling difficult to acquire the Korean language owing to the many differences in pronunciation, grammar, culture, and so forth. The Korean language characters are usually recognized to Russian people as Chinese characters which are hieroglyphs. Thus, the correction of errors will start from the recognition of the fact that the Korean language characters are not hieroglyphics but phonograms, and that the Korean language has its own unique alphabet called Hangul. Besides the characters of the Korean language, understandings Korean culture and sentiments can be the significant factor that affects to reduce the errors of Korean language. We will see the detailed solutions that can decrease the errors.

3.1 The Solutions for the Errors of Pronunciation

To reduce the errors of Korean pronunciation Russian students make, it is essential to know the principles of Korean consonants and vowels and the rules of their articulations and pronunciations. Studying properly the principles and rules of Korean pronunciation, Russian students should practice Korean pronunciation persistently. It is suggestive to practice Korean pronunciation in order as followings: monophthongs, consonants, and diphthongs. It is easy to learn Korean monophthongs because Russian monophthongs have either the same or similar sounds. Once familiarized with monophthongs, one can attempt creating syllables by combining monophthongs with consonants. Then he or she can practice the pronunciation of the Korean diphthongs that Russian language does not have. The ways to learn Korean pronunciation are like these: First, listen to Korean pronunciation through native-speaking teachers and resources of pronunciation. And then, recognize and imitate pronunciation. Lastly, have some time for check-ups and corrections. I suggest the solutions for difficult Korean pronunciation errors to Russian university students. The way of pronouncing Korean vowel /ㅓ/ is similar with that of pronouncing “ㅇ” of Russian language. When it is pronounced, however, the shape of lips is different from that of “ㅇ”. As “ㅇ” is pronounced, the shape of lips is round. /ə/ can be pronounced correctly by making the shape of lips flat in the place of articulation of /ㅇ/. [1,244] With the understanding of this principles, Russian students can practice Korean pronunciation through minimal pairs that have /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/. The good examples are “거/고”. It is good to practice with the same principle by comparing /ㅕ/ with /ㅛ/ of Russian language. To pronounce Korean consonants correctly, it is necessary to distinguish the differences within plosives such as lax consonant, hard consonants and aspirated consonants. Let's take a look at the way of pronouncing Korean hard consonants. To pronounce /p'(ㅃ)/,/t'(ㄸ)/,/k'(ㄲ)/ correctly in Korean language, they should be pronounced as /p/,/t/,/k/ which are Russian unvoiced sounds with more tensed lips and forceful plosive sounds from lips. [4,55] “바람과 파도는 빠르다” is a suggestive example to practice the sounds of /ㅂ,ㅍ,ㅃ/. “도로에 나무 토막이 떨어졌다” is suitable for practicing the sounds of /ㄷ,ㅌ,ㄸ/ “가을 카시트는 까만색” is proper to help improve the sounds of /ㄱ,ㅋ,ㄲ/. Due to the result from the application of pronunciation rules, there are a number of cases in which pronunciation does not follow spelling. Thus, it is necessary to understand and practice such a feature of Korean language. The following examples illustrate the Korean pronunciation rules that call for a special attention: “옷이” [오시] and “맑아” [말가] in linking, “법만” [범만] and “꺽는” [껑는] in nasalization, “독립” [동닙] in alveolar nasalization, “난로” [날로] in liquidization, “좋은” [조은] in dropping “ㅎ” rule, “놓고” [노코] in abbreviation of “ㅎ”, “굳이” [구지] and “같이” [가치] in palatalization and other things.

3.2 The Solutions for the Errors of Listening

In listening, since words and sentences are pronounced so quickly, students are required to have the comprehensive abilities to pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary, the recognition of situation, the instant reaction, etc. Most of errors occur because of vocabulary limitations and pronunciation rules and others. The way of reducing the errors of listening is the reinforcement of vocabulary, the full awareness of phonological rules, and the persistent training of listening. Especially, it is necessary to acknowledge homophones with words that have different pronunciation and spelling. To do this, it is very important to have the affluent vocabularies and know well about various phonological phenomena. The basic vocabularies for elementary level students range 2000 words that are often used in daily lives. Intermediate and above students are required to have the basic vocabularies including additional vocabularies in various areas. [5, 84] To improve listening ability, the listening training for completing assignments is helpful which helps to do listening assignments correctly in the contexts and given situations. It is very helpful to be exposed frequently to listening resources directly or indirectly. The persistent practices through listening to Korean listening resources and real conversations with native speakers will decrease the errors of listening.

3.3 The Solutions for the Errors of Writing

The solution to reduce the errors of writing is to improve spelling, grammar and the ability to express the meanings. We will see spelling rules to prevent the errors of spelling. Korean consonants are written as initial and final places, and Korean vowel is placed in the middle. The consonant is placed on the left side of or under the vowel. Korean language has 4 types of syllable formations which combine consonants with vowels. Vowels cannot be written consecutively. Consonants cannot be written consecutively as initial consonants, but as final consonants, two consonants can be written consecutively. Korean language has syllable-based writing system and various phonological rules. Among the rules, it is necessary to be fully aware of linking, palatalization, and nasalization, the rule of dropping, abbreviation, and so forth. The errors of grammar can be prevented through acquiring the affluent vocabulary, practicing adequately with various sentence patterns in full degree and using them freely. It is important to acquire speaking vocabulary for writings. Speaking vocabulary refers to the words that are used directly in speaking and writing. If the purpose of writing is for communicating each other, the contents students expressed in their writings should make native speakers understood. In order to accomplish such a goal on writings, students should be able to grasp the context of pragmatic aspects and Korean culture, etc. Let us take a look at the training methods of writing to reduce the errors. The first method is writing consonants and vowels. It is necessary to be clearly aware of the concept of “받침” that does not exist in Russian language and practice to learn Korean spelling rules with consonants and vowels. The second is learning Korean vocabulary and sentence patterns. As students usually study sentence patterns in sentences, they should drill to clarify the meanings and the usage of sentence patterns. Practicing the usage of Korean postpositions is very important. Let's take a look at the usage of Korean nominative postpositions, “이/가”. As the last syllable of the noun finishes with the consonant, the nominative particle starting with the vowel, “이” is used. The nominative particle beginning with the consonant, “가” is used, when the last syllable of the noun ends with the vowel. The usage is applied equally to other case particles. Korean supplementary particles are special postpositions which are different from case particles. The supplementary particle is not fixed to express particular cases but for more than one case. It can be combined with the adverb and the end of a word. Typical supplementary particles are “는, 만, 도, 조차”. [2,131–133] The third is practicing actual writings. Various types of writing can be trained through conversational and non-conversational activities. There are non-conversational activities such as copying Korean characters, learning the usage of grammar, dictation, correcting wrong expressions and other things. Types of conversational activities are the completion of conversations, the extension of meanings, free writings, professional writings and other things. [1,200] Recent programs on the internet are those for learning bilingual language acquisition, Russian-Korean dictionary, and Korean spelling checker system. With the help of these internet media, systems have been installed that support Russian university students to decrease the errors of writing.

3.4 The Solutions for the Errors of Speaking

To reduce the errors of speaking, it is significant to prepare the solutions to improve fluency and accuracy in Korean language. One of the solutions is to improve the correction ability for Korean accent and grammar. The way of speaking can be divided into two types: direct speaking and indirect speaking. Direct speaking refers to the way of having conversations with Korean native speakers directly. One can attempt to meet Korean native speakers who stay for a short or long period of time in Russia and to have conversations with them. As long as finances are available, one can go to Korea for learning Korean language. From 2014, Korea allows Russian people to stay in Korea without a visa for 60 days. Thus, Russian students can make use of this opportunity. Indirect speaking refers to the way of training oneself consistently through learning how to sing Korean songs, poetry reading, and script reading practices from Korean dramas, etc. Learning Korean songs, even if it has limits, helps a learner try to follow a native Korean speaking singer's voice, rhythm, and accent. Another way to reduce Russian accent is cutting words or sentences into syllables and practicing them casually at the regular pace. Then, the influence of high and low pitch in Russian accent will shrink. Unlike other ways of expressing languages, speaking is on the basis of communicating with other people. The willingness of students to speak actively without the fear of making mistakes and errors is a significant factor. In other words, the mental state of students is important.

3.5 The motivation

When it comes to the language acquisition, the motivation is not a way to help a learner primarily to understand grammar and acquire pronunciation directly. Considering the result from teaching Russian university students during the last decade, however, I came to realize that students who have a strong motivation and purpose to learn Korean language are faster at the speed of language acquisition and more excellent in the language acquisition ability than those who do not have. A first-grade female student who attended in Tomsk State University of Architecture and Building made a visit to TPU to learn Korean language because of the Korean Wave in September 2012. She was not allowed to take a Korean lecture, so she received private Korean lessons for one or two hours. Then she had a chance to become a guide for a Korean couple who visited Tomsk in spring 2014. It appeared that her fluency and accuracy have been improved. Meetings with native Korean speakers, paying visits to Korea, experiencing Korean culture, events related to Korean language, academic aspirations, finding jobs in Korea and others can elevate one's motivation to learn Korean language. The Korean language acquisition of Russian university students can gain a momentum by the efforts to make the situations that can use Korean language and go into those situations.

Conclusion

With the comparative analysis, this article analyzes the errors that have occurred in Korean language acquisition of Russian university students through Korean language lectures that have been offered for 10 years in two universities located in Western Siberia. Chapter 1 illustrates the current status of Korean language lectures in NSU and TPU. Chapter 2 analyzes the causes of the errors that Russian university students make in the aspects of pronunciation, listening, writing and speaking. The errors of pronunciation result from the differences of phonological phenomena and syllable structure between two different languages, and the like. The errors of listening occur due to inappropriate pronunciations of consonants and vowels, the lack of understanding of pronunciation rules, and insufficient amount of vocabularies. The errors of writing are caused by spelling, grammar, expressions of the meanings and other things. The errors of speaking happen because of vocabulary, culture, and psychological factors. Chapter 3 provides the solutions that can reduce the errors which are addressed in previous chapters. As the solutions for the errors of pronunciation, the principles of the Korean pronunciation and the point of articulation are explained. Suggestions are followed such as the actual ways of pronouncing Korean vowels and consonants that do not exist in Russian language. As for the solutions for the errors of listening, the acquisition of abundant Korean vocabulary and ways to improve listening abilities are suggested. The acquisition of speaking vocabulary and 3 ways of writing training are shown as the solutions for the errors of writing. As the last resort, the motivation is referred to as a factor to accelerate the Korean language acquisition. The errors addressed above that occur while university students in Western Siberia learn Korean language have a high possibility to happen equally to students in other Russian regions who use Russian language as their mother tongue. In addition, the errors and solutions addressed above must require a consistent research with more resources provided. Language is alive and keeps moving. Korean language should be alive and keep moving in Russia. Korean language is the language foreign to Russian university students. However, as Russian university students speak, write, express, and communicate in Korean language with little fear of making small and big mistakes, Korean language plays a significant role as a living language.

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