Thus far, my mastery over the Korean language has been improving. My knowledge of the language has definitely improved as I have learned proper grammar structures and have increased my vocabulary bank. However, applying this knowledge and honing my skills through practice has been lacking a little bit. The practice methods I am using is maybe not enough. I am currently using online videos to help me go through the basic Korean grammar structures, expressions and vocabulary, and it does provide me with a couple practice questions. Despite answering and checking, I feel that I may need a bit more practice in order to really drill into my brain the knowledge that I am retaining. Despite the inability to retain all that I am learning, I am enjoying properly learning the grammar structures. Until now, my only use of grammar has really been through speech and usually with my parents who are more likely to understand my broken Korean grammar and thus not really go out of their way to correct me. Especially because I have not had much practice writing Korean, I have definitely enjoyed practicing it thus far, and improving my spelling skills and grammar structures.
Understanding and learning more about the culture from which I come from, I am beginning to understand the different uses of Korean around different groups of people. Understanding that the society of Korea is heavily broken into hierarchies where the elders, and those higher up in society are deserving of respect, and those of your age require different use of language, and even for those younger, a different style of language, it’s been difficult trying to translate that sort of separation into English, in which there are no special rules. In my own experience, I have not had much practice in addressing those “deserving of respect” as often I only conversed with my parents, and even if I did interact with elders, and people higher up in society, I did not talk much. I knew the basics of answering questions, and certain greetings and farewells, but had no experience in really having a substantial conversation with them. So learning the proper grammar structures and the rules have really helped me build confidence in how to approach with proper respect and speech. And having grown up with friends who all spoke english, I never really had the opportunity to practice informal Korean either. I noticed it when I visited my cousins in Korea who are a little older than me but technically still in the range of me being able to talk to them informally. I wasn’t comfortable enough to hold a conversation with them, because I had become so used to talking to my parents or not using Korean at all. However, learning the grammar structures and especially vocabulary because Koreans use a lot of abbreviated words to mean certain things, has helped me develop confidence in being able to hold an informal conversation with them.
In order to improve my communicative competence, I believe I need more practice just applying the grammar structures that I am learning, and incorporating the vocabulary that I am learning to my day to day life if possible, whether it be conversing with my parents, or just writing them in sentences that would be applicable.
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