One of my goals this semester was to speak and use Korean more often in my daily life. Surprisingly, I was able to speak and write Korean very often this week. I have been texting my parents, my brother, and Jimin in Korean throughout the week. Texting is not the best way to practice formal Korean grammars, but it is a great way to learn Korean culture. There are a lot of Korean abbreviation and unique way of texting in Korean and I was able to learn a lot of new abbreviation from Jimin. It’s amazing how Koreans can communicate with really short text, and it could be as short as two hangul letters. I tried to practice my formal Korean writing with my parents and focus on grammar and spelling when I can. I really appreciated how my parents tried to help me improve by giving me helpful feedbacks. I have also decided to call my parents twice a week which will really provide me with more opportunities to talk in Korean. In addition, I went to Grand Mart this weekend and had a light conversation in Korean with the cashier while ordering my food. Although I am finding a lot of opportunities to practice Korean, I still find that I am forcing myself to use Korean. As I progress through the semester, I hope I can feel more natural to speak Korean. I recognize that it is not something that could happen in such a short period, but I already know that I will improve a lot after this semester.
This week with Jimin, I have read some Korean news articles from Naver. We tried timing it and improving the speed by reading each article three times. We found that when I read the article out loud, I read it like a machine, going through it word by word. Although I have no problem understanding the article, this may be one of the factors that is slowing me down. I should be trying to read the article sentence by sentence, understanding the single complete thought in each sentence expressed by the writer. Evaluating word by word and trying to put the pieces together after reading a sentence is definitely a slower process. It’s not that I do that all the time, but, sometimes, I simply need to break it down by words. This is a problem with familiarity since I don’t read Korean so often, and I know I can improve as I read more throughout the semester. In rare occasions, I would find some words that I don’t recognize. Therefore, I created a vocabulary list that I can fill with these words. So far, I can say that my semester is looking great. I realize that I am slowly getting more comfortable talking and reading Korean and I can only see room for more improvements in the future. Throughout the semester, I hope I can grow more natural talking in Korean, and I look forward to reading more complex reading materials.
Comments