For the final month of SDLAP 113 lecture, I met with my language partner Somyung Kim and Warren Chae over Zoom. We started off our lessons and returned to the same concept of speaking in only Korean with occasional English only for words that we do not know with the intention of increasing our vocabulary and comprehension skills as well as helping to retain the language and practice our Korean language skills. This time we practiced in Korean with more of a focus on holding conversations such as conversation starters, and also started to watch “What is Wrong With Secretary Kim?” k-drama for the last month of class. One other thing that I have consistently done is write one diary entry a week in Korean or responding to writing prompts in Korean just for my own practice and improving my own comprehension of the language. This has helped me to think and apply more of my Korean and practice my writing which helps improve my Korean and my thinking in my target language as well.
Because we can’t physically go to South Korea, we watched more videos on Youtube, watched the Korean drama and discussed the events in the show, while also speaking in Korean about these possible norms. I found it useful for helping in a sense by mimicking more of Korean culture norms and helping to immerse myself into Korean language and standards that we observed. I found What is Wrong with Secretary Kim to be very entertaining for the past month of watching it during the lecture and reflecting on the show afterwards with Warren and my language partner. It looks at the dynamics between a chairman and his secretary and is not your standard k-drama because it is more humorous and takes a different approach to the genre as a whole. Why may you ask? Well this is because the chairman is an extreme narcissist and the secretary has dealt with him for 9 years and decides to quit because she finally wants time to herself after having paid off her father’s loans and her sisters’ debts. However, because it seems “very sudden” to the chairman he gets very anxious and tries to figure out why there is a sudden attitude change. He is hopeless in terms of romance which makes it super difficult for him but funny for the audience as he ponders with his associates and tries to deal with this problem of Secretary Kim wanting to quit. The drama also has lighter moments that help keep the audience engaged as we become invested in the storyline and all the other characters that aren’t Secretary Kim and the Chairman who happens to be the main lead of this series. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who is interested in watching a new Korean drama and a change of pace from most shows in general. I would also have added more details regarding the show and things I learned from the show but I also do not want to spoil too many things that went on the show and were integral to the plot so I will definitely keep on wraps what I share about What is Wrong with Secretary Kim. After the last part of the lecture this week, we also recorded our language partners podcast where we went in-depth about all that we accomplished throughout this semester and highlights and what we thought was useful from this course. I overall think I improved my Korean enunciation, understanding, and writing skills which I was glad to be able to do in order to continue my growth as a Korean learner.
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