Language Journal #2

[Ethan Han]

Right now I am writing daily journals. In these daily journals, I start off by stating the date and the time. Then I write a sentence or two about the weather. Then I write a few sentences about what I ate. And lastly, I write a sentence or two about something I did that day. I am also reading short stories from a book I bought. These stories are only a paragraph long, each about a topic such as cooking or going to the movies. I underline words and grammar I don’t know and take the time to reread the sentence until it becomes a little more coherent. I am still learning new vocabulary. I am learning at least one hundred vocab words in specific topics. For example, this week my vocab words are adjectives so I will learn a hundred or more adjectives before moving on to a different topic like verbs or cooking. Also, for listening practice, I am watching Korean dramas and also watching Korean videos on social media. My goal for writing is to be able to expand upon more about the topic I am already writing about. For example, instead of saying what I ate, I wasn't able to describe how it tasted. Also, I would like to be able to write about different topics than the weather and food. My goal for reading is to be able to re-read the old stories I read in my book and understand them without having to look up certain words and grammar. My language partner helps me find vocab that is necessary for my learning. Also, she also helps explain sentence structures that I come across in my reading so that it makes more sense to me. Also, she checks over my daily journals and corrects them if it’s wrong or she changes my sentences to sound more natural. One strategy I use for my writing practice is repetition. When I come across a word I don’t know or a grammar rule I don’t understand. I make sure to include it in my writing every day until it becomes clearer. Then I ease off of the word or grammar rule and only use it every now and then. One strategy I use for reading is to break a sentence down word by word. I do this with sentences I don’t understand. Taking a step back to understand each word helps me understand the writing as a whole. Taking small steps into my reading helps me efficiently understand what I am reading. By writing every day my language skills get stronger because not only am I remembering vocab better I also am getting used to the Korean language structure. By reading every day I am exposed to vocab I have learned and new vocab that is relevant to me. Also, reading allows me to see what native Korean actually looks like in written form, so this helps me with my writing and helps me with my speaking because being able to visualize what I want to say helps me speak more coherently. Taking small steps and repetition is definitely key to learning anything and I will continue to apply these methods to new vocab words, grammar rules, and other important parts of Korean I need to learn.

[Rachel Lim]

I think your one strategy of repetition is very important when learning a language. Often times people forget something they learn alot and a reminder will help let it stick inside their brain a little longer. I am so glad learning new vocabs is helping your writing grow. Keep up the hard work!