The last half of the semester, I focused on learning numbers, learn how to order food at a restaurant, and improve my reading and writing skills.
The week we discussed numbers with my language partner, I noticed a major difference between Korean and other languages that I know. Something that is very unique to Korean is that there are two number systems: Sino-Korean and Native-Korean. The reason for the two systems is Sino-Korean is derived from the Chinese whereas Native Korean is the set of numbers which originate from Hangul. However, we only learned the Sino-Korean numbers. The was Sun taught us is through repetition. She would say a number and then tell us to repeat after her. After doing this for several times, she told each one of us to say the numbers by ourselves. At first, it was quite difficult to remember all the numbers correctly and she would correct me every time I made a mistake. But after repeating several times, I could finally tell the numbers by myself. We also talked about the different uses of the numbers. For instance, Sino-Korean numbers are used for dates, money, minutes, seconds and counting beyond 99. Native Korean numbers are used for all other purposes. After the session with Sun, in order retain the numbers, I would try to count things in daily life using the numbers.
Next week we talked about ordering food at a restaurant. We learned how to ask for something, ask for the bill, and say how many people we are. We learned this in the form of a dialogue with Sun. She wrote the sentences in Hangul and at first asked to read them, in order to practice our reading skills. If we made a mistake she would correct us immediately. Then we would say the sentences in form of a dialogue, where Sun would be the waitress and we would be the customer. After that we would reverse the roles. After the meeting with Sun, Gargi and I would practice the dialogues on our own ti make sure that we remember it, sometimes we would also record our dialogues to make sure that we sound ok.
In order to improve my reading skills, the strategy I have been using is that I would try to read the lyrics of the Korean songs I am very familiar with. Since I already knew what the words should sound like, it was easy for me to identify my own mistakes. Also, as I read the words, I would pay attention to the writing styles. As a result, it also helped me in writing as I would know where to place the consonants and vowels.
On one of the weekly sessions with Sun, we did a dialogue on how ask a guy out in Korean. It was a very fun activity and although I would hardly actually use, as I have intention of asking any Korean guy out, in the course of the dialogue, we learned several useful phrases such as "I am busy" (Jo babbayo), Excuse me (chogiyo), what to say when confused (chogi, keugae). These are the things that I could easily incorporate in my daily conversations with people. As a result, they were very easy for me to retain.
In order to remember the vocabulary that I learned every week, I would practice a little every week, usually by associating pictures to their corresponding words, for not only the new words but also for the vocabulary from previous weeks.
Overall, I felt that although I was not learning as much as I had initially planned on learning, I was still satisfied because I felt that whatever I learned, I learned very thoroughly.
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