Our lessons have been majority review and practice by reading words with 받침 [ba-t͡ɕim], considering I struggled with that for a bit. She also started to introduce particles—which I found to be even more difficult than learning about 받침 [ba-t͡ɕim]. We watched this video (https://youtu.be/fCxLNRLntc0) which is a 17-minute video that talks about the overall rules for Korean particles. My instructor also gave me a chart that summarized the video up nicely (Korean Particles), but I think it’s helpful to watch the video first before looking at the chart, so you get a basic idea about what you’re looking at.
I have a lingering suspicion that we’re going to work on this for a while because the last two topics-- 받침 [ba-t͡ɕim] and particles—have been quite dense. Personally, when things become a bit more structured or rigid—e.g., grammatical rules—I have a tendency of zoning out and not being able to fully be as interactive as I usually am. I really do try to work hard, but I think I can’t help but feel a bit discouraged that there was so much Korean information that I wasn’t even aware about. In a sense, I feel frustrated learning about these new rules because they seem so foreign, even though I’m Korean. ‘Shouldn’t it not feel so foreign given that I’m learning the language I grew up hearing?’ is something I can’t help thinking about. But I try not to let it discourage me too much. I think I was just so excited that I was finally learning Korean and catching onto concepts pretty quickly. But now that I got to a concept that’s taking a bit longer than I would have hoped, my goal of becoming proficient seems farther away. On the bright side, it’s nice that this course is self-paced, so my instructor and I agreed to take our time on this concept until I felt comfortable with it.
When I spoke to other Korean friends of mine, they all agreed that particles are quite a nuisance to learn and that it just takes a lot of practice. Some also told me it’ll be useful to watch Korean variety shows because the shows always have a lot of descriptive writing on the screen during the show. So, in watching that, I can get both reading and listening practice in. Additionally, now that I’m aware of the majority of the grammatical rules, watching these shows will allow me to notice and pick up on how native Korean speakers use them. I really enjoyed this idea because I do best when I have application examples, so I can get a better idea of how it’s utilized. I also enjoy using such examples because with my pre-existing knowledge and familiarity with the language, I can finally piece them together with grammatical explanations. In doing so, I’m able to make more sense of why people say something in a particular manner or why a word is pronounced a certain way. I enjoy finding connections to stuff I’m newly learning because I feel that it helps me retain the information better because of the personal ties I’m creating with it.
Cognitively speaking, this allows for my memory to create more connections between past knowledge with new knowledge. This approach refurbishes certain information that I was a bit rusty in before, or didn’t remember as well, with new information that also helps explain the little gaps I was missing. The way I see it as, is my pre-existing knowledge about Korean is like an old computer program, and the new information I learn is the system update. It’s nice to ensure that the processing system (Korean) is constantly updated, so that it can run smoothly and efficiently. Therefore, as I continue to practice the new information I’m learning, the closer I can get to my goal of being proficient in Korean.
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