My first language is Cantonese but I took classes in Mandarin when I was a child. Therefore, transiting between Cantonese and Mandarin in daily life has gave me plenty of language learning experience. I started learning English in the third year in primary school with simple conversations. I enjoyed learning English from TV shows, drama and novels, which were more interesting and easier to focus on. However, as a Reading/Writing Learner, the best way for me to learn language is to write out the words again and again. I still remembered that the time preparing for SAT and TOEFL, I kept memorizing new words every days and also tested how many I could remember the next day. However, there were always some words that I easily forgot and I would write them down in the notebook or phone and re-read them whenever I was free. Hence, this time for studying Korean, I would like to write down favorite sentences or quotes in notebooks and read them when I have time. I strongly agree that writing and speaking are the best ways to learn a language. Besides, I think the alphabet is a good place to start when learning a language, especially if I hope to progress to reading and writing later on.
Now I am going to learn a new language Korean, which I am in noive low level. The most noticeable difference in learning Korean than learning English is that I am going to learn this new language all by myself. When learning English, sometimes I felt so tired and sick of memorizing new words and grammar. In case of this situation will happen, I may need to set up goals and plans firstly in order to keep study in schedule. I also need to find a motivation for studying Korean because it is easy for a self-directed learner lose interests when facing difficulties. My motivation for studying Korean is taking a trip to Korea this summer. I hope that I can learn basic communication skills and then I can plan the trip by myself. Regarding to the learning activities, I would like to start learning Korean with alphabet. I will look up online resources and then learn alphabet first. Later, since my interest in Korean was raised from Korean drama so that I would definitely use them as my learning tools. It is important to immerse myself in the Korean in order to learn it. So I will get a Korean radio app or music on my phone and then I can listen on the go. In addition, there are so many resources online shared by self-directed learners in Korea. I will definitely take advantages of these resources too. Finally, based on my experience of learning English, practice is the most important part of learning languages, especially for speaking part of a language. I look forward to talking more with my Korean partner and try to improve my speaking while practice with him/her.
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