Ever since I was in grade 7, I have always been interested in Korean. My interests first came about because of my love of Korean dramas. Throughout high school, I started to get into Kpop as well. Through these outlets, I have learned about the Korean culture to an extent. However, I never took it any further. I have always had it on the back of my mind that one day I will learn Korean. Alongside Spanish and Hindi, it is one of the languages I want to work towards fluency in. Therefore I am so excited that I got to meet up with my language partner Jannette today. We discussed the goals I had and how I could work towards them. I talked her about how I wanted to learn Hangul to understand the accents and sounds in the Korean language. I also talked about how I really wanted to learn how to have conversations with day to day topics. With this, I eventually want to learn the difference in informal and formal in Korean as that is known to be the most difficult part. I also hope to learn about grammar to an extent, but do not want to dwell on it at first. I want to work more on my speaking and listening than reading and writing. After having learned some Korean, I think it would be so exciting to be able to go into the community and understand or use some of my language skills I gain. It would also be fun to get to know about the Korean culture. I hope to do this by looking out for any relevant events to attend that are happening in Richmond this semester to understand the Korean culture.
As a start, I would like to learn Hangul, the numbers, basic introductions, a list of useful phrases everyone should know, and eventually grammar. To work on these, Jannette is giving Mallory and I (as we both want to focus on speaking, but also want to learn Hangul) worksheets or other types of homework to practice our skills when we are not with her. Further, Jannette is also sharing resources on the topics we will be focusing on for the week through our shared google document. To work on our listening, every week, I want to watch Youtube videos in Korean, listen to Kpop, podcasts, or watch a Korean show. At the end of our session with Jannette, we plan to have a recording of Jannette saying what we learned that day to be able to practice it again and have a better recollection.
I do not know much at all about Korean so I will be starting this week to actually work on the language as I met with Jannette today for the first time. We covered how to say “Hello, my name is…” in Korean and the first part of the alphabet. We also created a study plan for the semester. For my first homework and goal, I am going to continue learning Hangul for the next time we meet. I want to use Duolingo app to continue learning the first part of Hangul and watch videos on Youtube by the Korean Englishman. By our next meeting, my goal Is being able to identify and pronounce the first part of the alphabet which has 24 characters. I think this might be difficult as it is completely different from English and Spanish. I am excited to work on my pronunciation of the characters, but I also foresee much difficulty as I have never made a lot of the sounds that are present in the Korean language. I plan to practice writing the characters in the air or on paper as I am a more tactile learner and seeing it is not enough. Moreover, I am in general excited to start speaking Korean as it is such a pretty and soft language to me.
Replies
Hi Priyanka! I noticed that you really enjoy Korean dramas and I know we talked about Crash Landing on You throughout the beginning of the semester. I noticed that you will watch Youtube videos in Korean, listen to Kpop, and podcasts. I really think it is ideal to be exposed to your target language in ways and platforms that you enjoy! I hope that listening to Korean helped you throughout the semester.