Which sources I used
1 Online Dictionary
https://www.zkorean.com/english-korean-dictionary (free online English to Korean and Korean to English dictionary service, helping find word definitions and its usage in Korean and English)
http://www.koreandictionary.net/ (free online English-Korean dictionary service with over 8,000 Korean words, alongside the pronunciations (romanizations) and English translations)
2 Online lessons
https://www.youtube.com/user/koreanclass101/videos (Short and fun tutorials on different topics of Korean)
http://www.lifeinkorea.com/Language/korean.cfm?Subject=phrases (brings useful phrases and vocabulary to help travelers learn to communicate in Korean.)
http://www.eatyourkimchi.com/korean-culture/ (Korean food and cultures)
3 Review and Quizzes
https://quizlet.com/ (Website and Mobile Application on testing vocabularies)
http://www.digitaldialects.com/Korean.htm (Korean language learning games)
How I worked with my language partner
My language partner is Jihae, who is a bilingual native speaker. We have regular meetings with flexible hours weekly, which help me overcome the barrier of lacking motivations to learn Korean independently. In the meetings, sometimes we did role-play on basic conversations and recordings. Roleplaying constructs real scenarios on conversations occurs: not only I learned language, but also I got a sense of Korean cultures. Jihae types notes on what I learn in every meeting. Afterwards, I organize the notes and categorize them by new vocabularies, phrases, sentences structures and conversation scenarios. Jihae also gives me weekly quizzes on new vocabularies to challenge me, which is an effective way to check the amount of Korean I learned.
Activities I found most/least effective
One of the most effective activities is talking to native speakers after I learn something new. Since there are a certain amount of American-Koreans and Koreans native speakers in University of Richmond. Jihae always introduces them to me and lets me speak what I have learned to native speakers. They are always able to point out my mistakes specifically and quickly and give my useful feedbacks from their perspectives. This is a great way to test my pronunciations and estimate my Korean language skills.
For me, the least effective activity is listening to Kpop. Although I am a fan of Kpop bands and singers, I have to agree that listening to Kpop will not help me improve my language skills a lot. I do listen to some kpop again and again and I still cannot understand the meaning of them without Chinese/English subs because of the speedy singing. However, watching Korean dramas is a different story. Actors and Actresses in dramas usually speak in a normal speed and conduce relatively simple conversations. The repeated conversations enhance my memorization of Korean phrases and sentences.
