I had started to write in my target language from the first lesson. I would repeatedly practice writing down the Korean alphabet to test my memory, and also to practice writing out the characters. I would write the entire alphabet while saying the letters out loud, and any letters I forgot, I would go back and write it as many times until I felt content. I repeat this process until I would get it completely correct and repeat it three more times to ensure that the information was properly retained. I prefer to text than type because I can see the Korean keyboard while I’m typing. When I type on my laptop, I don’t know which Korean letter is on which key, so I would usually have to open the “Keyboard Viewer” to spell anything out—or click on each key until I find the letter I’m looking for. Additionally, I prefer to text because auto-correct is available which helps ensure I’m spelling the word properly. I can also compare the word I typed with the auto-correction’s suggestion to see what I got wrong in my spelling, or to even see if the suggested word is what I was trying to type. Therefore, texting is not only easier, but I can learn proper spelling and practice my reading at the same time.
I don’t mind writing in free hand, it’s just new to me, so it’s a bit harder to get the hang of it. I am trying to force myself to write more often because I can’t always rely on auto correct. I do have to confess I am slightly deterred from writing free hand because it doesn’t look good or doesn’t even look like Korean when I write. However, to combat this, what I do is look at pictures of people’s Korean handwriting and try to practice their stylistic approach in writing the Korean characters which has helped significantly. Then I can properly gauge what it’s supposed to look like and pick up on patterns of how to write certain characters. For instance, some Korean words have a bottom consonant, so there can be three or four characters that make up one word. Therefore, the consonants on the top or side have to be written either smaller or closer together. In another example, double consonants are written closer together. So, I’ve been practicing the format of different vocabulary words to gain a better understanding of how words are written, in such, is why it helps looking at Korean people’s handwriting.
I’m unsure of the relationship between simple and complex sentences because that is a bit more advanced then where I currently am. I am aware that in Korean, the sentence structure is “subject + object + verb”. There’s also the usage of particles which has several different usages, and something I am still working on. Furthermore, due to the fact that I’m can’t form proper sentences in Korean, I don’t have much knowledge that could benefit my ability to communicate in written contexts. I mainly repeatedly write down the common verb patterns to practice my writing and to help memorize the verbs and forms.
The website I look at is: http://www.learnkoreanlanguage.com/beginners-homework.html
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