Learning Korean has been a challenging, but memorable experience this semester. I originally chose to learn Korean because the Korean culture, as well as other cultures of minority, surrounded me as I grew up. I listened to all kinds of music from other languages – Bollywood, Korean, Japanese, and of course, Chinese. However, it was the Korean language that sustained my interest; its language and flow of words always intrigued me. The words sounded so beautiful in Korean ballads, but could also sound ugly when one was expressing anger. Its expressive nature interested me, and I often found myself using Korean music as accompaniment when studying for school. I had no idea what the singer was saying, and yet, I kept listening.
The self-directed learning program at the University of Richmond greatly helped me learn Korean. At the start of the semester, the FIRE model and other surveys helped me determine myself as a factual and visual learner. It is impossible to learn everything Korean in one semester: its alphabet, its words, grammar, and ever-expanding culture. With that in mind, the learning plan in addition to Sun Yoon, my Korean tutor, helped me structure my progress. It would be foolish to try to learn everything; I narrowed down the topics of focus. This was important because for the first time in a course, I was learning what I wanted to learn and I was guiding the direction. I was able to choose words and topics that applied to myself. Not only did this make learning Korean more personal, but it also allowed me to retain more information.
I would like to thank Sun Yoon for being there as a private tutor this semester. Without her help, I would have difficulty learning the language, especially in terms of speaking the language. I wanted to learn the foundations of writing, but speaking was my focus. She nit-picked at my pronunciation and made sure that I said every word correctly. It has been a good feeling this semester when I received compliments from other Korean speakers on campus, saying that I had a good pronunciation and sounded like a native Korean. I would not like it if I walked away this semester knowing that I had a Westernized-style of speaking Korean. From the learning the basics of the alphabet and how to say greetings and farewells, I am now able to have simple conversations. I can order food from a restaurant and even ask someone out on a date in Korean! It may not sound like much, but the Korean language is complex. I have been given countless messages from other peers, telling me to avoid Korean. They said things along the lines of “there are a million ways to say every word in Korean, why would you want to learn it?” Yes, learning Korean was hard; there are multiple ways to express feelings along with several tiers of informalities and formalities in its language. Thankfully, Sun was there to help me. It would be terrible for me to be caught in a situation using the wrong formal tense, and Sun helped me learn the depths of Korean culture.
One of the most interesting parts of learning Korean this semester was learning the culture behind the language. Korean is a contextual language, and therefore if the lines are literally taken out of context, they would not make sense. The phrases would be vague and the wrong message would be given. When speaking Korean, it is important to know the field: boundaries, hierarchy of speakers, formal/informal tenses, the speaking environment, and relationship with the other speaker. “Yes” does not always mean “yes” and “no” does not always mean no. With the help of the SDL program and Sun, I learned the social cues that were native to the language.
This semester, I knew and confirmed that it did not work to simply learn words from a list. The process seemed random and intangible. Diagrams, videos, and dialogues helped me the most. To supplement my Korean speak, I listened to YouTube videos, watched Korean television shows, and listened to the applications I downloaded onto my phone. For each, I carefully listened to their pronunciation of words and how those words were used in different contexts. It is still difficult for me to remember all the words, but for now, I use formal tenses most of the time just to be safe.
I believe that this semester has given me the tools required to continue my self-directed learning post-graduation. It is, no doubt, difficult to learn a new language; as a student, it is easy to forget new words learned because there are so many other classes to keep up with. I plan to take a gap year to recover, re-orient, and reset my priorities before I continue schooling. During that time, I hope to continue learning Korean with consistent practice.
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