Our last few lessons were essentially review of everything we did this semester and also recorded the “Podcast Interview” during our last lesson (audio_only.m4a). Considering that my instructor had to teach me a language all over zoom, I’d say we had a pretty successful semester. She was able to share her screen and teach me from her documents that she had prepared, or we’d watch videos on certain concepts. I was also able to utilize my iPad and share my screen from there and practice my writing with her through that. During our last lesson, we reflected a lot on where I first started, looking back at my language learning journey, and the goals we made during our first lesson. First and foremost, I reached my first goal in the fact that I am confident in my knowledge about the Korean alphabet. I do have to note that I still am a little rusty with the complex vowels since not all of them are as commonly used, and the majority of my reading practice comes from reading Korean posts I see on social media. I also reached my second goal; in that I am able to read Korean words! This was one of my biggest goals I had for myself and I’m happy to say that I can read Korean! Again, I am still slow since I have to sound out each letter, and I also can’t read under pressure (as seen in my Final Cultural Presentation) but given the fact that I couldn’t read at all before, this is amazing news for me! I also can write Korean as well, reaching my third goal! It has been amusing texting my friends in Korean, who knew that I could not read or write, and having them be surprised with my new-found capability.
My two biggest goals were to grasp the ability to read and write, and I’m happy to say I have accomplished all the goals my instructor and I have made together. I will continue to work on my long-term goal of remembering my purpose and interest in learning Korean, so that it’ll help me stay motivated even when the concepts grow to be difficult—i.e., particles. I am still working on applying Korean to my everyday life and have found myself to be more comfortable in attempting to speak in Korean to others. It’s helped in that I can really put to practice what I’ve learned on the spot and if I have any questions, I can simply ask the other person.
I’m glad I have extra resources that my instructor has given to look back on if I feel I want to go back and review—which I found myself doing a lot more lately. There’s also a lot of information online about learning Korean if I want to know more about something, and a lot of informative YouTube videos. Additionally, working on the Final Cultural Presentation helped me really learn more about certain aspects of Korean culture that I’ve always been intrigued by. Since I had to start on the fundamentals, our lessons didn’t really focus too much on Korean history or culture. So, researching for the presentation was a nice addition in my language learning journey. Overall, I’m excited for next semester and see how far my Korean abilities progress.
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