Language Journal #3

[Ethan Han]

I am still writing daily journals. However, now I am writing much longer paragraphs including more details about the weather, what I ate, and activities I did. Also, I have learned a lot more conjunctions and transitional words. This has helped me advance my writing and connect sentences. Right now I am heavily emphasizing learning vocab. After I memorized the large amounts of vocab in each category, I am now writing example sentences for each word. I am basically creating my own dictionary. This has helped me solidify the vocab in my brain. Also, creating a self-dictionary allows me to go back and see what words I can use in my writing and speaking. On top of this, writing my own example sentences helps because I apply the words in ways that I would already use them. Also, I am speaking as much Korean as I can to my parents and they have been correcting my grammar and also teaching me some new words which have been helpful to my overall knowledge. I hope to practice my speaking skill as much as I practice my writing skills. Also, I hope to keep watching more Korean media so I can be exposed to the language more and more. Also, I hope to be able to read more complex writing than just the simple stories I have been reading. My language partner has continued to help me correct my writing and help me find relevant vocabulary, and she has given learning strategies that have helped me retain the vocabulary I have learned and expand my vocabulary and grammar. I have been using a quizlet a lot to help me memorize vocab. Also, I have been using textbooks to help me find vocabulary. The textbook has organized vocab into categories so it has helped me pick relevant vocabulary. One strategy I use is when I am writing my daily journals I keep my self-made dictionary open. Every time I want to add more complex sentences or feel like I could use more advanced vocabulary I look over my whole dictionary. This is helpful because my self-made dictionary consists of words I know and not words I don’t. Also, I organized the dictionary into categories so it is very easy to find words. Another strategy I use is to remind myself of Korean particles. A few weeks ago I often found myself misusing Korean particles, so now every now and then I will watch a youtube video or read an explanation online of particles and grammar rules that I have already learned. This helps me not forget how to use Korean particles and strengthens my knowledge of their use every day. I started this a couple of weeks ago and had to remind myself every few days. However, now I only have to look it up only once a week. The self-made dictionary and my daily journals are the best representation of the accumulation of my Korean knowledge. I will build upon my Korean skills by continuing to add more Korean words and more advanced words and I will continue to write in my journal every day and write a little bit more each time and use more descriptive words. For my strategies, I will continue to learn vocab by topics. These words I will have to either find online, in a textbook, or from native speakers. I usually learn new grammar rules from my reading so I will continue nothing new grammar rules and use them in my daily journals.