This semester, I worked on a range of topics from writing diary entries to reading Korean myths to applying to jobs. Even though the things i worked on are disconnected, at first glance, they proved to truly build off of one another. The grammar structures I learned along the way could be applied to all of the activities I worked on from reading to writing. Furthermore, I learned a lot of useful vocab along the way, especially vocab related with work. Learning this vocab was essential for reading job opening posts and understanding requirements for applications. Furthermore, learning job related vocab made writing my resume and cover letter much easier.
I wish my semester was not so hectic so I could have devoted more time to daily Korean study. Often, I found myself cramming my study in when I had a few open time blocks on the weekend or evening but I wish I could have studied in a more relaxed way.
Regardless, I feel that I made a lot of progress. I am able to read job listings now with ease and read most things much faster than before. I feel that my reading and pronunciation practice with my language partner has really made it easier for me to put more difficult sounds and sentence structures together. Also, I feel that working my language partner has helped me better identify my weaknesses and problem areas.
Of course, I experienced many difficulties. Being in an intermediate level can feel very frustrating because beginner feels far away but advanced seems impossible. I still required a lot of help in terms of editing my cover letter, resume, and other documents. While I was able to get across my main points, I still need help to come across professional or stylistic in my writing. However, those goals seem far out of my reach. Another problem is that in this level I start to learn grammar points that have the same meaning yet a very nuanced difference. As in, one sounds more "natural" than the other in some situation but the situations are conflicting and hard to really understand. At this level, some grammar stop having an answer to "why" and just become "because." Future learning should revolve around speaking situations and learning what is "natural" in which situation.
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