I attended my last two Korean class sessions in the past two weeks. I honestly cannot believe that I finished another semester of the self-directed language and am proud to say that I have improved my hangul more than I have before. In retrospect, I can say with confidence that I enjoyed every class session because my language partner and my peers helped make them enjoyable. For these past two weeks, I voice chatted with my language instructor and reviewed everything that we went over this semester. Upon reviewing a semester's worth of material, I could not believe how much I accomplished. I was able to read news articles and academic journals with the highest level of hangul grammar and vocabulary. I still remember when I struggled to read a short news article about a sports event that took place in Korea. I am now able to read articles that update me on the coronavirus outbreak, geopolitical issues between the two Koreas, economic losses from lack of business activities, and more. After gaining a clearer understanding of what I've accomplished during the semester, my language instructor and I created our podcast to document this milestone.
I also learned new phrases and Korean concepts such as root words. I learned the root words for terms such as fire, water, mankind, power, office, teaching, and etc. While I knew these terms intuitively by practicing Korean, I had never learned this conceptually. I think these root words will be very useful in the future when I have to learn the meaning of new words. Instead of referring to a dictionary or Google Translate, I could use context clues and my knowledge of the root words to figure it out.
If there is anything I would do differently, I would be more proactive in my studies. Because my course load for the past two years have been tremendously in quantity, I was unable to exert my full effort into each class session and assignment. During the weekends, I would take breaks and spend more time resting. In retrospect, I should've used at least thirty minutes in those rest days to practice more Korean. Although my hangul skills are quite impressive right now, I would be at another level if I spent that time studying.
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