I’ve organized my self-directed learning plan based on the foundational pieces of learning a language. First, I start by learning Hangul, the Korean alphabet. From there, I will be able to form and pronounce words properly. After learning a decent amount of words, I will then be able to form sentences. Each task is building the foundation for learning the next task. As I progress in my learning, I will constantly have to draw from past tasks, which will further reinforce my learning and solidify my knowledge.
So far, I’ve learned some Hangul and can recognize certain letters. I’ve also learned to say really basic words like “hello” and “thank you”. Within the next few weeks I hope to be able to recognize all the letters and plan to practice some reading and writing. I also hope to learn some more basic words and phrases.
I have found some resources to promote my task-based objectives. One resource I found was howtostudykorean.com. I was looking online for ways to learn Korean over the summer and this was a website I stumbled upon. After further research, the reviews were really good, so I plan to use it in my learning. Another website I found was talktomeinkorean.com. This is a very popular website and I think I could learn a lot from this website as well. In terms of textbooks, I’m not too sure if I will get textbooks because the online resources might be able to replace them. I’m definitely open to textbook suggestions if anyone has any. There are also apps that can help with vocabulary like Drops and Memrise that I will also try to incorporate in my learning. Using Quizlet to study vocabulary will also be helpful.
I think I will investigate Korean language and culture more deeply by going to cultural events. Tomorrow I will be attending the Korean Thanksgiving at the Hagwon school. By attending events like these I will expose myself to Korean culture. In the future, as I learn how to say different things in Korean, I can try practicing with fluent Korean speakers that attend these cultural events too. I think practicing with native speakers will be great practice and will help me practice my pronunciation and listening skills. Getting involved in the cultural events will greatly enrich my learning of both language and culture.
My interest in Korean was prompted by the fact that I have many Korean American friends. They occasionally speak Korean and I am never able to understand what they say. I’ve always heard that Korean is one of the easier Asian languages to learn, and after studying Chinese for a few years, I figured I could give Korean a shot. I hope this semester I will be able to learn a lot about Korean as a language, but also the cultural aspect of it. I look forward to practicing what I learn with other people and seeing the progress I make.
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