As I mentioned in the summary of weekly reflections, in the first two weeks, I learned greetings, self-introductions, ordering foods in restaurants, shopping cosmetics. In the second half of this semester, I focused more on learning some Korean words, such as body, face, clothes, colors, and etc.
I have a very realistic goals for learning these vocabularies because I want to use them when I go shopping in Korea. For example, I want to know colors and types of clothes so that I can describe what I want to buy to shopkeepers. I want to learn numbers because I have to ask for price and I will tell shopkeepers how many items I want to buy. I learn asking for directions because I might get lost while shopping.
The biggest problem, as I also mentioned in the summary, was that I might read the romantization of words in the way I read Chinese Pinyin. Because I am so used to read Pinyin, it interrupts my conception in learning Korean and I might make the same mistake in pronouncing. One way I solved this problem is that I asked Sun to record the correct pronunciation for me using my phone. I listened to the recording in my spare time and tried to pronounce right after she said those words. This method helped me to successfully memorize many vocabularies that were difficult to me at first. Another method I used to remember the correct pronunciation was taking notes in Chinese and English. Just as the note and weekly reflection I uploaded, I actually wrote down some Chinese and English words next to Korean romantization if they share the similar pronunciation. Nevertheless, I do not think this method is good for long run. I should not rely on using other languages to learn Korean.
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