I find it a lot easier to read the Korean language compared to writing and speaking. If I had to rank these three skills in terms of difficulty level it would be:
1) Reading
2) Speaking
3) Writing
Writing is the most difficult skill for me to master. This is because of spelling—although I may know how to say a word and what it means, it is hard for me to find the characters that match the sound of the word. I can easily recognize the word when I see it, but writing it requires an active participation (as opposed to passive participation of reading) and thus requires more work.
I find speaking to be moderately difficult- if someone asks me a question, I can respond well by pulling out key words and reflecting them back. However, I find it more difficult to speak first. Sometimes, it is hard to express my ideas completely, and I feel I am better at answering questions as opposed to asking spontaneous ones.
With reading, even if I do not find some words familiar, I can use context clues (ie words I do recognize) to guess what the other words mean. Sometimes, I read a word and repeat it out loud, recognizing that I have seen it somewhere before, and test my memory to see if I am correct. Then, I check to see if I am right using my English/Korean dictionary.
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