We have been reviewing past material with heavy emphasis on particles. We watched another video (https://youtu.be/XOy8bBId3zU) that’s about 13-minutes long, just to review and have a constant refresher about the rules for particles. During our lessons, we usually focus on one of the rules for particles and going over examples for that rather than constantly reviewing all the rules of particles. In one of our lessons, we looked at subject particles and in the other we looked at object particles. It definitely helped taking a break from the concept because it allowed me to recollect my goals and genuine interest in wanting to learn. I could tell that I was comprehending the information better because it didn’t feel like there was a barrier in my brain anymore. Whereas, before I felt a bit foggy and lacked motivation which showed up when we tried to go over the material.
Now that I found a genuine interest again, I notice myself picking up on certain patters in particles and using different methods that help me in memorization. Even though these are observations I’m not actively searching for, it becomes a lot easier to notice the little things when you aren’t clouded by your frustration. Additionally, I realized I had experienced this before.
Before college, I took Spanish all throughout middle school and the majority of high school and I retained nothing. That’s why I had to take Spanish again when I came into college. The first semester I took Spanish, I acquired the same attitude I had when I studied it before college. I was just on auto-pilot mode the entire time, memorizing what I had to memorize to pass the class and then forgetting the information soon after. Albeit some information did retain granted that I’ve been learning the language for a while and had to constantly look at the same information. But it wasn’t until my second semester, what was supposed to be the more difficult Spanish course, where I actually started to enjoy learning the language. I didn’t think it could be possible since I’ve been learning the language for so long now. But it was because the teacher gave room for error and he encouraged students to try. Even if we were wrong, he would still be supportive and always tried to explain it until we understood. From there, I grew a genuine interest in wanting to do better because I felt comfortable, and I ended up doing really well in comprehending the language than I have before.
The reason I reflect on that memory is because it really goes to show how important it is for a student to feel comfortable when learning a new language. Even though I’m Korean, I still have to remind myself that this is still a language I don’t know well. If anything, it’s similar to my linguistic Spanish level—which is not that high. Additionally, I have to hold myself accountable and make sure to actively practice Korean. I definitely find myself, at times, taking my Korean background for granted. I find myself thinking, ‘since my parents speak Korean to me, I’m basically still getting in some practice’ and this is false. If I’m not actively applying the new grammatical concepts or vocabulary that I’ve learned, it’ll start to slip away—just like how I forgot the majority of my Spanish. I already found myself forgetting the Korean numbers and currencies we went a couple weeks ago because I haven’t been actively using them or practicing them. Therefore, I’m going to start speaking in Korean as often as I can—which will be helpful since I’m remote studying—and get in the habit of thinking of how to say things in Korean when I say stuff in English. For example, if I’m setting up the table for dinner, I can think to myself the number of utensils I need in Korean. Another example is whenever I look at the date, I can think of how to say it in Korean. Little things here and there, I believe, will help in improving in my Korean linguistic abilities and become more natural with it as well.
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