Just as any other Koreans at my age do, I was raised familiarly exposed to English, which officially started in 3rd grade in elementary school. However, even before that, under my father’s influence, who wanted me to be fluent in English, I have had a few immersive experiences: watching movies in English or American kids’ shows (i.e. “The Magic School Bus”, “Arthur”, “Avatar, the Last Airbender”, etc.). With those having formed my native linguistic sense in English, slightly better than my peers, I was usually ahead of English class. While it was far insufficient to freely communicate and gather information in English, It allowed me to start with a bare minimum to survive throughout three years of the international high schools, which I suddenly started to attend from 10th grade.
After then, I had to widen my vocabulary since I have to forcibly get myself to be at a level I can read, listen, speak and write well. I still suffer from vocabulary since they are usually not automatically acquired if I don’t care about it. I experienced the same when I was learning Chinese. Even more than English, I could start way ahead of my peer because I was good at Chinese characters that are used as Korean word roots. However, besides the characters I already knew, the experience of learning language is heavily based on a repetition of memorizing usually, even if adaptations in speaking and listening eventually ensue.
In this sense, the delight of learning other languages comes after the laborious time of memorizing – when I get to use what I have been practicing. I always feel very immersed in a foreign language when I express something in a way that the Korean language cannot express. This usually relies on trivial tones; for example, one of my favorite English expressions is “You deserve it”. There are a number of ways to convey the same meaning in Korean, but there is no verb that has such a short and strong impact, just as a single-word verb “deserve” does. On the other hand, it was one of funs for me that I could find myriads of things in common between Korean and Chinese since Korean had been affected a lot by Chinese in the past, while the difference in the Korean language is also interesting in a way that the differences must have been solely developed in each of the countries.
While “What’s your learning style” test said that I am a visual learner, I believe I like to try various methods. I would want to try to communicate with people in a target language. However, for memorizing words and grammar, I prefer using flashcards and trying to visualize in my mind. Also, personally, since one of the most interesting parts of learning a new language, I could have much fun learning new words and expressions that do not exist in Korean, This could be usually achieved by reading and listening. Along with this, reading books or watching movies in that language would give me a vague sense of the culture of the language. Finally, when I can freely express my idea and emotion in a conversation with native speakers, I could say that I reached the level of learning that I aimed for.
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Hi Jason!
I completely understand the struggle with learning vocabulary on seemingly irrelevant topics. Even after speaking a language for many years, you find yourself using the same words over and over again. I also agree that the joy of learning other languages is being able to express something in one language that can't be expressed in another. My favorite example is the Spanish word "antiyer" which is an informal conjugation of "antes de ayer" that translates to "the day before yesterday". I always find myself wishing there was a word for this in English, as it is something I use in conversation more than one would think.