I was able to meet Prof. Sumi Kim and we went over a lot of new vocabulary and lots of new particles and how/when to use them. She also gave me some reading practice which was really nice because that is what I have been focussing on lately. I kept up my speaking practice that I mentioned in my last journal, and reviewed what I have learned so far with Prof. Sumi Kim by asking and answering questions as usual. I also realised that it has been a long time since I have reviewed Korean numbers and Sino-Korean numbers, so obviously I did some sudokus with different types of numbers to review them in a way that I find fun. I also started watching a new Korean drama called Itaewon Class on Netflix and so far it has been really interesting.
This is going to be my last journal entry, and I will not be taking Korean next semester at least, so I want to take some time to reflect on my language learning journey.
I first started learning Korean because of my interest in BTS. Eventually, my interest in BTS has kept reducing as my priorities changed but I started really enjoying simply learning Korean. I find Korean culture fascinating and I am really grateful to have had the opportunity to dive into it and see new traditions and perspectives. I have come a long way from when I first started. Going from basically knowing nothing to being able to reading, write, and speak basic Korean feels amazing. I was able to really acknowledge how much I have grown when I was telling my family about learning Korean and they asked me whether I could do certain things and my response to most of them was ‘yes’. My grandfather randomly came up to me and said, “ask me what I ate in Korean,” and I was able to use the word for grandfather, use the right honorifics, and had good enough vocabulary to respond to his request on the spot and it made him and me really happy.
Simply learning Korean with Prof. Sumi Kim and Gavin has been extremely fun. They made it a very comfortable space to learn where I made a lot of mistakes, and did not always get the right answer, while also learning a lot, and getting a lot of things right. Them along with my friends who supported me through this journey by helping me practice and making sure I understand are people I am grateful for. As I reflect right now, I see that a lot of why I appreciate Korean as a language and a culture is because of the people I have met through it and the memories that I have made. So, I will make sure to carry forward what I have learned and keep making more memories with different people. I hope to definitely dive deeper into Korean. For now, as this semester comes to an end, there is one thing I can say for sure: I definitely need to eat more Korean food!
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