These past two weeks, I have met with my language partner to go over my goals for this class and get started on some lessons. We began with some vocabulary paired with present and past tense basic sentence structures. I have practiced them and I feel as though I understand them fully. We are also working on dissecting song lyrics since I memorize lyrics to many K-pop songs. This way, I can better remember the words and the meaning of the song. They are also a great source of useful vocabulary, phrases, and repetitive grammar structures.
We have been utilizing repetition when learning vocabulary and sentence structures. When my language partner writes something on the board, she says it, I repeat it, and I write it down and say it again. Through my experience, I find that repetition and frequent application is the most effective way for me to retain information. When studying on my own, I frequently write down what I can remember at that moment to cement the information in my brain. I find that I remember the content much better when I practice often. Because these sessions are one on one, I feel like I can get the most out of our time together. I have the freedom to take the lesson where I feel I need it to go in order to understand the content the best I can. It is also easier to skip over things that I already know and slow down on concepts that I find more challenging. I am looking forward to compounding what we have started as a foundation with more and more complex sentences and vocabulary until I can have a solid casual conversation.
During the first meeting with Kim Sumi, we went over Hangeul and pronunciation. Since I have studied this extensively in the past, this was redundant for me. However, there were two others in the class who were starting at the beginners level. Ms. Kim recognized that my level was a bit more advanced, so she tested my knowledge with a little conversation. I was able to understand most of what she said, and I had the right vocabulary, but my answers were lacking the proper grammatical structure. After talking with Ms. Kim, we are going to try a different meeting time for a more intermediate level.
I definitely feel like I can take on some more material to study throughout the week, but this was just the first time meeting with my instructors. I'm sure that as the semester progresses, we will find a good balance of material. I also believe that I will have some good opportunities to work on my conversation skills with both my language partner and Kim Sumi. I'm also looking forward to delving deeper into some cultural aspects. Ms. Kim mentioned that she would be incorporating cultural tidbits in our lessons, which we both think are very valuable. Culture and language intertwine closely together, so it is important to learn them side by side.
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