SDLC 113 Language Learning Journal Post #3
Over the past two weeks, Jimin and I have been working on a lot of reading comprehension and writing skills. This includes reading recent news articles aloud and writing down vocabulary terms that I am unfamiliar with, along with multiple choice questions from Korea’s infamous college entrance exam- Suneung (수능). I somewhat dread but simultaneously anticipate these exercises drawn from practice exams for the Korean college entrance exam as they are extremely challenging to me and also rather long. However, I feel like this challenge is good for my language learning as it helps me to improve my Korean reading comprehension and problem-solving skills faster. We even tried timing myself, and though I didn’t perform as well as I could have if I wasn’t timed, I thought it was beneficial to have that extra pressure and mimic the experience that true Korean high school students go through. As I am currently studying for the GRE’s and even find the reading comprehension portion of that exam difficult, I can’t imagine trying to score well on the Suneung’s reading comprehension portion. I hope to try out the math section as well just for “fun.” As Koreans are stereotypically known to excel in mathematics, I expect myself to not score too well, but it never hurts to try. The website that we have been using is linked down below for those who are brave enough to try it out!
Additionally, Jimin and I went over more vocabulary (especially slang) and idioms. It was fun to work on my slang as I have always struggled with keeping up with the latest sayings, and I think it will come in very useful when I’m talking to my Korean friends both here and back in Korea. I find it rather awkward texting in Korean, and thus I hope that my recent addition of slang and other vocabulary will help me text more naturally. Finally, I was thrilled to learn that the Korean movie “Parasite” recently won 4 Oscars and made Oscar history. It was kind of a weird but good feeling to feel extremely proud over the publicity and success that the Korean movie has achieved. In celebration, I had to rewatch the movie on itunes with my friend, and it was a good cultural experience as I was able to pick up on some new parts of the movie that I hadn’t the first time. For example, I was able to understand what some of the sayings that the actors said meant more deeply. I hope that Korea is able to gain more respect worldwide through films, as I believe that they are an easy way to approach different parts of the world. Attached is a news article that I read about the awards and the excitement buzzing throughout Korea following the ceremony.
Lastly, I have been keeping up with my Korean language learning by making sure to facetime my family at least once a week. I find that even talking to them for an hour refreshes my speaking skills without it feeling like a school assignment. I also recently played a Korean game called “007” with a group of friends, and it came to me naturally to speak in Korean with them.
In the next few weeks, I hope to further advance my Korean language and cultural learning by hopefully visitng New Grandmart, playing more Korean games, and reading Korean childhood folktalks.
http://www.kice.re.kr/boardCnts/list.do?boardID=1500234&m=0403&s=suneung&searchStr=
http://www.sportsseoul.com/news/read/884348
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