Sofie to Korea

Since the upcoming week means Easter break for a Uni employee like myself, I now have plenty of time for studying Korean. I’ve already gone overboard in listening to TTMIK grammar podcasts, reading the last chapter in my Intermediate reader, reading and shadowing news articles, and cramming vocabulary on Memrise. Hey, this was supposed to be vacation, but I guess I can’t really help myself.

I sometimes get this nagging guilty feeling that if I put half as much energy into my job as a researcher, as I do when studying Korean, I’d be sure to win the Nobel prize in Economics in no time ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ^^ Well, apparently to me the TOPIK is more important than the Nobel prize – How’s that for motivation? ^^

But since this IS in fact a week of vacation and I also don’t want to wear myself out completely, as I have a busy time ahead of me at work, I needed to figure out a way to relax. Preferably in a way that still would allow me to include an element of Korean.

Obviously, I could watch a drama but I just finished wiping away my tears after having seen the excruciatingly tragic last episode of 가을동화. Before embarking on 여름향기 (yes, I know I have a very strong 송승헌-bias, when I choose dramas, but I mean… well, it’s pretty obvious why ^^) I need a break to prepare myself for another emotional (and educational) rollercoaster.

Solution: Read a book in Korean. I’ve long wanted to read an entire book in Korean. Since this is my first time reading a book completely in Korean, I wanted to start out with a book I already knew. For my 10th birthday my parents gave me “Anne of Green Gables” and I’ve read it at least 8 times since then. When I saw that TwoChois had the Korean version “빨간 머리 앤” I was absolutely delighted and quickly threw it in my shopping basket together with my Korean Grammer in Use. The book arrived in perfect condition, and is beautifully illustrated as well.

So far, I’ve read around 30 pages and it is actually working out better than I thought. Since this is supposed to be recreational reading I try hard to discipline myself into not looking up every new word I encounter and instead focus on just grasping the overall meaning from the context. Only in cases where a word occurs repeatedly or seems important I may look it up. It’s actually a very pleasant experience to relive my childhood memories in this way, while at the same time increasing my Korean reading pace. ^^

좋은 하루 보내세요!