For the past two weeks, I realized that I need more practice for reading than what I originally imagined. I spent the past two weeks trying to read more Korean articles. One of the articles I read was about Korean holidays and the government’s role in enforcing them. I read this while I was learning new vocabulary and Korean holidays during my time with my language partner.
The article talked about how the government would repeal a holiday that it previously announced upon review of current economic conditions in Korea. I struggled with this article because the vocabulary was more difficult than those of any article I read in the past. The vocabulary words consisted of words that describe public institutions, government districts, and political policies. These words were not intuitive because of they were specific names that could not be derived from other Korean words. Therefore, I spent a lot of time learning the definitions for these words before trying to understand the article. I did this because I thought learning these words beforehand would help me to gain a holistic understanding of the situation. Even after I learned the words, I had difficulty understanding the article. For the first time in a while, I felt challenged by a Korean article.
I communicated to my language partner about the difficulties I was facing in understanding the vocabulary and reading. Thankfully, I was able to readjust some of my learning plans to prioritize reading. When I’m with my language partner, I will focus on learning vocabulary. Outside of the classroom, I will take more time to read more Korean articles that talk about politics and economy. However, I am worried that I will not retain this information because I won’t have the time to talk about Korean politics using Hangul except when I’m in class. I am also not an expert in Korean politics, so the conversation topic itself is already limited. I retain information mainly by talking to other people with general vocabulary words, but I do not know if it’ll be possible for these words. Therefore, I am going to try to write sentences using the words that I learned.
I’m also still watching Korean television shows that use more conversational Hangul. I think that shows are a good break from the more academic Hangul and keeps my casual conversation skills intact. Watching television is also a fun way of learning Korean. Sometimes, I watch with some of my friends, transforming a solo activity into a group one.
Comments
I’m all for finding fun ways to learn a language, especially because there are so many. I also like improving my language skills with other people, as opposed to by myself. There are definitely times when I have to study alone, but ultimately, we learn languages in order to communicate with people.