I believe that I achieved most of my goals this semester. My plan was not to become fluent in reading and writing, but to be able to learn the foundations of how the writing system worked. In terms of speaking, that was my main focus. This semester might be one of the only chances I get to learn from a native Korean speaker, so learning how to speak properly was more important to me than learning how to read or write. As long as I know how the writing system works, I do not necessarily need to learn how to read everything because I can self-teach that in the future without the aid of a tutor.
I knew from that start that learning raw vocabulary would not work. It would be near impossible to just memorize words from a list. This semester I made an attempt to ensure that the majority of what I learned could be reapplied to my own life. I believe that applying words to specific memories help with memorizing words and phrases. I do not think I have remembered everything, but for those things I do remember, it will be difficult for me to forget.
One stumbling block I encountered was trying to learn double consonants/vowels of the alphabet as well as the two lines of numbers (Sino-Korean and Native-Korean). In terms of the alphabet, single consonants and vowels would make one sound, but then double consonants and vowels would make a completely new sound, which made it hard to remember. Think about having an alphabet of 24 vowels/consonants, and then having dozens of other sounds based on how you combine the vowels and consonants together. That is what made it difficult to learn.
In terms of numbers, it was difficult to learn two separate number systems: the Sino-Korean and Native Korean. The Sino-Korean number system was easier to learn because it was more in line with the American numbers. I could see a trend with the numbers, making it somewhat easier to memorize. However, for Native-Korean numbers, I felt like there was no trend, making each number totally unique. This reminds me of the major difficulty I had with learning Chinese. If you do not know a word, you just do not know it.
I overcame most of the stumbling blocks by pure memorization because I could not find a trend among the words. In the future, I plan to find easier ways to memorize those words I had stumbling blocks with. I found interesting cultural links such as how the writing system has Confucianism influences, but nothing that directly helped so far. In general, for the other parts of learning, I found that having everything in diagrams, pictures, and dialogues helped me learn most efficiently.
The most interesting part of this semester was self-guiding my learning experience. In the past with other languages, I found some chapters and subjects mundane because they did not apply to me. This semester I could choose my own topics and relate a majority of the words back to my own experiences, making the process more entertaining and less stressful.
I would not say that there was a least interesting part, but I found pronouncing words to be frustrating. I believe everyone suffers from frustration when learning a new language. I often felt emotions such as "my pronunciation sounds so Americanized," or "it doesn't sound smooth at all." However, I believe that I am slowly improving with more practice. That is why, this semester, I focused more on speaking than on writing.
In the future, I want to continue my self-directed study on Korean. Consistent practice definitely is important and I feel that I have also made friendships with other peers and tutors to ensure safe and strong progress with the language. The SDL course at University of Richmond helped me immensely and gave me new perspectives and powerful resources to give me the jump that I needed!
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