Since it has only been two weeks since learning sessions with our language partners have started, most of my activities so far have been conversational to get a feel of where my speaking proficiency is at. So far, my partner and I have had topic-focused conversations, allowing our conversation to flow with ease. This has been helpful not only because of the overall practice, but also because there are some grammatical/pronunciation confusions that I end up encountering. Many times, when I speak a sentence, some parts end up sounding awkward or just wrong. But I can’t always distinguish whether it is because of my lack of knowledge or because it is my non-Korean accent. Thankfully, my partner is able to correct these mistakes and also offer alternative words/sentences. I can then take mental notes, and by reviewing these, I hope to continually improve. Overall, this learning experience has been positive, and I haven’t encountered any frustrations yet.
Now that my language partner and I have a better understanding of where my speaking proficiency is at, I can better accommodate my needs. As noted on my learning plan, I plan to improve my comprehension/conversational skills outside of the sessions. By interacting with more official/formal korean, such as listening to podcasts or the news, I can better understand korean in a more complex context. Hopefully then, I can also raise the complexity levels of the topic based conversations between my language partner and I. The sessions so far have also taught me some ways I could improve my learning experiences. I realized instead of taking mental notes, I should also start taking physical notes of what I’ve learned, so that I can refer back and not forget. I also wish to utilize online resources, as the ones we have gone over in class seemed very helpful. I also plan to write down any confusing moments of Korean speech I encounter in my daily life, so that I can ask my language partner during our sessions. If my comprehension gets better, I hope to also improve my other skills, such as reading. Reading itself is not hard at all, since as with many other languages, as long as you know the alphabet, you can pronounce words/sentences. It is understanding what the words/sentences mean that is the hard part, and by improving my speaking/comprehension skills, I hope to at least be able to read articles with ease.
Comments
In the beginning, I think it was very helpful to just speak and test out what level you were comfortable with in the language. This gave me a better understanding on how to guide you and prepare activities or materials that would help you fulfill your language plan for the semester.