Currently in my grammatical studies I am learning how to create the meaning of “making” or “letting” somebody do something. The construction is so different from English grammar, which is a common theme in Korean grammar that is also a big cause of my struggles. At first, I thought saying “I make [someone] do [something]” would be done by using the main verb of “make/let” with the “something” as an object clause and the “someone” as a directional clause. But rather the construction is closer to an adverb, as through one is “doing in the way of [something]”. In terms of my conversational practice with my language partner, she has been very understanding about my frustrations, and believes I am being hasher on myself than necessary. At first, she would have to speak slowly and repeat herself often. But I found that a good technique in understanding her is trying to write down what I hear. Since I spent so many years seeing the language on paper more often than hearing it, I found that I could only recognize certain words and phrases when written down. This reminded me of a practice we did earlier in the semester about the type of learner we are, where I concluded that I am a strong visual learner. With that information, whenever I listen to my target language, I try to imagine the words written out. While it seems a bit tedious and difficult, it is more effective for me than trying to “hear” the words and processing it as gibberish.
In terms of speaking, I found the main areas where I need practice in my pronunciation. The lessons we have in class on phonetics and how to break apart the pronunciation of certain words has been really helpful for this. When first speaking, I had to practice consonant assimilation, or how the pronunciation of words changes depending on the addition of certain tenses or particles. I also struggled to pronounce the letter “ㄹ”, but learned by focus on tongue position. Now, my language partner pointed out that to sound more like a native speaker, I needed to place more emphasis on “twin consonants”. I noticed that some of them have the same sound to Spanish c, t, p, specifically the use of tension on the throat. Also, with more complex sentences, I focus too much on the correct pronunciation of individual words that my sentence cohesion becomes a bit choppy and unnatural. In other languages, especially English, intonation is important for connotation. But, there are no tones or intonations in Korean, and every syllable is stressed the same way. I realized that this is probably why listening to Korean is difficult for me, as lack of intonation can make it sound quite monotonous, and for me makes the words sort of blend together. Upon further research, I found that the main difference in regional Korean dialects is the different tones or pitches. I found this quite interesting, as I notice that accents and dialects in both English and Spanish are differentiated by variations in pronunciation.
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