Sofie to Korea

어차피 해야 되는 거니까, 재미있게 해요!

I love this sentence. It is originally a sample sentence from level 6 lesson 7 of TTMIK’s (www.talktomeinkorean.com) grammar podcasts. I find that this sentence pretty much sums up my learning philosophy: If you have to do something, you may as well have fun in the process. Of course I realize that I don’t HAVE to study Korean, as I’m not being paid to do it, or doing it for others. But I want to become fluent and in order to reach that level I WILL have to study everyday. In my previous post I mentioned the various resources I use to make learning feel less monotone, however there are a few things that I do everyday. 매일 하는 일이 있어요.

As a person I’m really fond of setting goals and measuring progress. Luckily there are plenty of resourses available for learning Korean that help me do just that. I listen to TTMIK grammar podcasts everyday, and I always make notes to each of them. I love how they are divided into levels (1-9) with 30 lessons in each level. Completing a new level always gives me a wonderful sense of accomplishment. I’m currently working on level 7. I also frequently go back to previous levels/lessons and review, as we all know that revision is key to retaining a new language. I combine this with studying one new word in TTMIK’s “My Weekly Korean Vocabulary Book”. Every day has a new key word with 20 sample sentences that increase in complexicity. I find this an excellent manner to acquire new vocabulary while practising grammar points and natural Korean sentences. As a bonus feature, many of these sentences are quite funny, which really helps them stick to your memory.

I try to watch at least half an episode of a Korean drama every night to expose myself to natural conversations in Korean. I just started watching the drama “Lie to me” or in Korean “내게 거짓말을 해봐”. It’s a cute romantic drama, which so far seems promising. Watching dramas definitely help making learning more fun. And when I hear new vocabulary I can usually relate it to a certain scene of the drama, which makes the word easier to remember.

In total I usually end up spending 2 hours a day studying Korean, and when you spend this much time on anything, you simply have to make it fun and worthwhile.