Language Learning #2

[Joseph Lee]

It has been around 5 weeks since learning sessions with my partner began, and so my learning plan has a much more rigorous structure. For the past few weeks, we have continued our topic based conversations - some including the recent Ukraine/Russia Conflict, Korean concerts (including recent/upcoming), plot/meaning of Korean dramas, etc. These topic based conversations allow for a better ease of flow, since I don’t have to think about what to talk about next. And because these topic based conversations are slightly niche, it has forced me to use words or phrases I had never used before. Some words that came up in our recent conversation, for example, regarding Ukraine was “민주주의” (democracy) and “제재” (sanctions). Building off of my previous learning journal, I have also taken notes of new things, so I can refer back later and not forget. So as long as topic based conversations go, I think I am quite satisfied with the level of communication/comprehension that I have currently achieved. I am also listening to lots of Korean podcasts/radio shows. I use KBS Kong to listen to recorded radio sessions, which have different hosts. These radio shows in Korea are quite popular, and many celebrities are invited to speak with the host, which I think is rarer in the states. I also use youtube to watch more casual podcasts/interviews. One I really enjoy listening to is HIPHOPLE’s NOW, which features a variety of hip hop stars. All in all, listening to a variety of different shows has helped me to understand korean culture better, and to listen to variety of type of korean, including formal, informal, slang, etc. No learning experience comes with no difficulties, but so far it has been fun and not very frustrating. If anything is frustrating, it’s when I encounter a mistake I already encountered and should have fixed, or blank out when I definitely know what to say. But I just step back and think, so the learning process so far has been fine. Moving forward, I will probably spend less time on topic based conversations and start to study korean grammatical structure more rigorously - like vowel harmony and affixal copula, both which english lacks. Studying these types of characteristics will definitely help me improve my Korean, along with other languages I learn in the future.

[Nile Harris]

With my past experience with language learning, I think it is extremely helpful to use those different media outlets (radio stations and podcasts) to help with your language learning. When I was learning Portuguese, I set my whole mobile phone system in Portuguese which really helped me out a lot.

[Rachel Lim]

Those were very interesting topics! Learning a language could be hard but also improving in a language that you are used to is hard. It can be frustrating sometimes but I hope you can endure it fight through. You are doing great and you improved so much! Loved reading your progress.