This is my first time learning a language entirely from scratch by myself. In the past, my language learning experiences were usually in the classroom with a teacher. I have always enjoyed studying languages but I quickly found out that my learning plan for Korean was a bit too ambitious from the beginning, especially when I was also balancing my school schedule at the same time. And so, because it was hard to complete everything on my lesson plans, I began to improvise the tasks for each week as I went along. For example, two weeks ago, I started using the iPhone app “Eggbun” that Vivian recommended in one of her presentations, and I really like it! The iOS app is not as developed as the Android one, but it’s still pretty cool. Eggbun is particularly useful if you just want a quick and efficient way to learn the basics of the Korean language (Hangeul, greetings, self-introduction expressions, number system, etc.), which is something that would take my book several chapters to explain because it incorporates the phrases into scenarios and explains the grammatical structure in detail. I know that I had originally said that I would focus on using just my textbook, and that’s because I thought that it would be nice to learn the material from the same source for a consistent teaching style. I also thought that it would save me time from compiling materials from various sources that would also have different teaching methods. But now that I think about it, I think that finding material from various sources would actually force me to make connections between different sentence structures and learn multiple ways of saying the same thing, which would help make my sentences more fluid and flexible. I’ve also discovered that my book doesn’t always teach practical scenarios and phrases, which I realized after my friends asked me to say relatively simple phrases in Korean and I didn’t know how. As for the cultural aspect, I definitely learned a lot about Korean culture from both my own projects and my classmates’ presentations. What particularly intrigued me were the Korean drinking culture and the resourcefulness behind the creation of hanok, or Korean traditional homes.
Overall, I think that I can improve as a language learner by being more consistent with my learning plan. They say that one seeking to acquire a new language should study that language everyday, but daily language study was challenging in my situation. Throughout the semester, my learning sessions were less systematic and took place mostly during the weekends and holidays. However, now that summer vacation is approaching and I’m at the end of my college career, I think I’ll continue with my Korean Made Simple book at a slower pace. I think I enjoyed learning Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, the most. It was something that I felt I knew the most thoroughly about. It always excited me whenever I could pronounce unfamiliar Korean words because I knew the sounds of Hangeul.
I particularly enjoyed the readings about the survival of languages and bilingualism. Actually, I enjoy learning topics about applied language rather than linguistics and technicalities of languages. This is mostly because my primary reason for learning any language is so that I can use it. If I can get by without knowing the technical details, then I’ll probably skip it and go with the most practical route. Learning activities that I constantly do are ones that involve quiz and recall. Basically, if I learn new vocabulary, I would test myself by writing as many of the new vocabulary words on a blank sheet of paper from recall. No notes. Other times, I would play Quizlet games that use the same quiz and recall principle.
If there was more time, I’d like to learn more about how language structure changes on a microscale, in other words how do ‘slang’ and ‘vernacular’ emerge. I can understand how an official language can stay in country borders because it’s standardized and taught in schools. However, I’ve always wondered how regional dialects manage to stay within regional boundaries when there’s no one regulating the flow of speakers and non-speakers from the region. I also know that most of the East Asian languages have similar grammatical structure, and I think making these connections would help speed up the language learning process. I honestly don’t know if learning about a language’s history and origins will help me much as a practical language learner; perhaps, I would get a better context for when to use certain phrases in the language. But it’s still interesting to study how languages emerged, because I think creating a language is one of the most admirable things that human beings have done. It’s hard to believe that so many people are able to agree on a specific way of communicating and how we are able to ensure uniform language learning for so many years. Without a formal education system, I wonder if language learning would persist as it does today.
