Language learning
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All work and no play…
As we know, there’s not a happy ending to that sentence. No matter how busy you are it’s so incredibly important that you allow yourself some time to relax by doing things that you thoroughly enjoy. I find that whenever I’m stressed out by work or upcoming tests (which certainly is the case at the…
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My midterms, my week in Denmark, and my hurt Korean pride
I’m back, and brace yourselves for a long update. I haven’t been active on the blog for the past couple of weeks due to, well, the title of this post should be self-explanatory. It may seem like three random concepts without any rhyme or reason, but put toghether they pretty much summarize what has been…
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Big Bang is back!
This week, Korean boy band Big Bang released their new album, and two singles have already reached several million views on youtube. I’m a big fan of learning Korean through songs since there are often so many cool expressions to learn from pop songs. I love learning slang (신조어) and cool expressions, although I’m under strict…
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Back to school
I’ve just finished my first week at Sogang University’s Korean level 5 program, and I thought I’d share my experiences with you. To summarize my first week in one word: WOW! Seriously, just wow! I’m amazed at how intense and effective the classes are. I heard so many good things about the Sogang language school…
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Entering Sogang Korean
As many of you know, Sogang University is famous for their excellent Korean language program. Their textbooks are sold worldwide, and I’ve heard several Korean learners praise the super-intense language program for the specific focus on building speaking confidence. Since I’m already working at Sogang, I thought it would be a pity to miss out…
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What makes you happy?
This may seem like a mundane question, but how often do you really think deeply about this? As we go about our lives, it happens much too often that we fail to pause and really think about what truly makes us happy. In the end, finding out which things make you happy and putting in…
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Could you speak up, please? Korean speech levels
This post is motivated by some questions I’ve received here on the blog. How exactly does age and social status determine how people speak to each other in Korean? Since this is a quite technical matter, I’ll try to make it as simple as possible using my own experiences from different situations and interactions here…
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How I’m learning Japanese
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve taken on a 90 day Japanese learning challenge. I’m learning a little Japanese everyday (obviously in addition to my never-ending Korean studies), and then we’ll see how far I’ll have come by the end of those 90 days. For me that’s until December 17. So, basically, I’ll…
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A new language challenge
Several people in the language learning universe have inspired me to do a challenge, among them are my good friends Jeremy and Jonson from the Spongemind podcast. I’m obviously still studying and speaking Korean every day, so no changes there, but just to push myself a bit further, I’ve taken on a new 90-day challenge…
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Awesome Korean slang expressions
I’ve started to become a regular guest at the Playground café in Hongdae. (If you look through their facebook pics, you’ll see proof that I was there.) This café is an awesome place where Koreans and foreigners can get together and exchange languages. This week, I went there on Tuesday and met a couple of…
Sofie to Korea 