Sofie to Korea

I’ve been listening to 세바시 talks almost non-stop for the past few days. Sometimes I listen to the same one 3-4 times in a row, just to see how much more I can understand compared to the first time. Even though I don’t understand it all I actually do understand quite a bit, and I cannot begin to praise the wonders it works for my listening skills. Going from these talks and back to TTMIK’s iyagi lessons make the iyagis seem so easy that I sometimes even forget that that they are speaking in Korean. Yay! This feels so great as I was struggling with understanding the iyagis just 4 months ago. Ahh, progress….

Since this post is about repetition, I’m currently reviewing my KLEAR Korean textbooks (Intermediate 1 & 2). I finished the second volume a few months ago and in my eager to progress as as fast as possible, I immediately turned the first page of the Advanced Intermediate volume 1. While I feel perfectly comfortable with this book, I was longing for that sense of accomplishment you get when something that used to seem difficult suddenly seems easy. In my experience that feeling doesn’t come when you constantly keep on climbing towards the peak of “Mount Fluency”. It is always wise to allow yourself to sit quietly on one of the small plateaus toward the top and just enjoy the view and give yourself credit for having made it this far. While this is a crucial part of my language learning philosophy it is also a part that I unfortunately practice far too rarely. However, having spent the past two days doing mostly Korean revision I feel I have become more confident and (in my own head) a better Korean speaker than if I had just carried on with all the new material as usual. I should probably designate one day a week for this purpose entirely.