During the past month, I have studied many new concepts and reviewed some familiar topics. The Korean language has many grammar tenses ranging from informal to polite to formal. I have a general sense of which tenses are used in certain contexts. For example, when speaking to someone older than me, I should be respectful and use a formal tense. In these cases, I would use -입니다 or -습니다. If I am speaking to a peer or someone younger than me, I could use -예요 or -세요.
I am finding that I am becoming a fast learner. In the past, it would take a lot of repetition for me to remember a new phrase or concept. Now, I am discovering that I do not require as much repetition for me to remember something new. For example, the phrase for “welcome” in Korean (어서 오세요) is one that I have heard many times in the past, whether in a Korean TV show, at church, etc. It was one of those phrases that I could vaguely identify if I heard it, but if asked to say it myself, I would not be able to. This was one of the phrases that I learned this month. After a couple of times seeing how it is written and hearing it pronounced more clearly, I finally remembered the phrase.
Another topic that I had learned before but recently reviewed is counting in Korean. There are two systems of counting in Korean. However, a new concept that I learned is the suffixes corresponding to different objects. These suffixes come after the number and differ based on the type of object it is describing. There are different suffixes for things, people, animals, slices, books, bottles, clothing, days, months, and years, and more. As you can imagine, this is a confusing topic for native English speakers to learn, since there is nothing like this in English.
In addition to these topics, I also briefly reviewed how to ask how much something costs. This will be especially important to know when I am in Korea. It is a question that can be used in almost any context. Along with this question, I reviewed the Korean currency, which is called “won” (원). One United States Dollar equals approximately 1,115 South Korean won. It is still difficult for me to convert Korean won to US dollars and vice versa. However, I am sure that I will become more comfortable with this conversion as I see Korean won more often.
Overall, even though the semester is ending, I am still looking forward studying Korean over the summer and beyond. As I continue my Korean language studies, my goal is to not get caught up in the small, minute aspects of grammar or other parts of the language. I remember listening to a Talk to Me in Korean lesson in which they discussed how to sound like a native speaker. The teachers gave several examples of Korean words that Korean speakers mispronounce. It is so common to mispronounce these terms that if I were to say it as it is supposed to be said, I may not be understood. Ultimately, I want to learn Korean to be able to converse with real people and sound authentic.
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