Much of my early language learning was very informal. I grew up speaking Korean at home with both my parents, who immigrated to the US before I was born. I never attended Korean school or learned from a tutor, but was rather taught through children’s books with my mom and reading text messages from my parents. And I honestly really enjoyed this. This was a low stakes, no test-taking, encouraging environment where I felt comfortable to learn instead of it being pushed onto me. However, I didn’t really have much “formal” experience learning. Because we only spoke and read occasionally, I don’t have a very strong ability to comprehend, write, or read as much as I’d like. I don’t quite understand the grammatical structure, alphabet, or more technical aspects of Korean. I hope that by taking this course and subsequent, I will be able to develop a deeper understanding of the intricate details of Korean language both out loud and on paper.
I would say that I am a tactile and visual learner. I learn best when things are presented before me with instructions, and then I am given the opportunity to complete the task. I enjoy learning through watching videos and then recreating results. I think the most effective way for me to learn is to practice, just as anything else. I need to repeat things that I’m learning for me to best understand and remember. I think this can be in the form of constantly talking to native speakers such as my parents, or always reading a book in Korean, even if it is short. This can be done by giving my parents a short phone call every morning or scrolling on Naver, a Korean version of an internet forum such as Reddit. I can read over what people have to say and even post my own questions to improve upon my reading comprehension.
I also completed the multiple intelligence survey and found that my strengths included logic/math, self, and body movement. In terms of my logic/math strength, I believe I can leverage this skill to improve upon my language skills by looking at the pattern between words and organizing words into categories. I know in English, words such as heal, health, and healthy are related, but I’m not quite sure how that shows up in Korean. I can also organize words into categories. Given words such as rock, leaf, lake, and paper in Korean, I can pick out which word does not belong. Another skill is my sense of self, which I believe will be useful when reflecting upon my progress and learning. My last skill is called “body movement.” I enjoy incorporating movement into my learning and will oftentimes stand up, speak it out loud, and then sit back down when trying to learn difficult topics. I can learn Korean by standing up and explaining things out loud to myself which will help me better understand and remember concepts that I am not familiar with.
I would say that I am a tactile and visual learner. I learn best when things are presented before me with instructions, and then I am given the opportunity to complete the task. I enjoy learning through watching videos and then recreating results. I think the most effective way for me to learn is to practice, just as anything else. I need to repeat things that I’m learning for me to best understand and remember. I think this can be in the form of constantly talking to native speakers such as my parents, or always reading a book in Korean, even if it is short. This can be done by giving my parents a short phone call every morning or scrolling on Naver, a Korean version of an internet forum such as Reddit. I can read over what people have to say and even post my own questions to improve upon my reading comprehension.
I also completed the multiple intelligence survey and found that my strengths included logic/math, self, and body movement. In terms of my logic/math strength, I believe I can leverage this skill to improve upon my language skills by looking at the pattern between words and organizing words into categories. I know in English, words such as heal, health, and healthy are related, but I’m not quite sure how that shows up in Korean. I can also organize words into categories. Given words such as rock, leaf, lake, and paper in Korean, I can pick out which word does not belong. Another skill is my sense of self, which I believe will be useful when reflecting upon my progress and learning. My last skill is called “body movement.” I enjoy incorporating movement into my learning and will oftentimes stand up, speak it out loud, and then sit back down when trying to learn difficult topics. I can learn Korean by standing up and explaining things out loud to myself which will help me better understand and remember concepts that I am not familiar with.
Comments
This was a very relatable post Samuel. As someone who also grew up in a Korean speaking household, I also feel as though much of my language learning process was informal. Do you think that this process of learning was gradual for you? Where do you think you gained the most knowledge and what in particular do you think contributed the most to you being able to read or write in Korean?