Motivation
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Open your books
I once had a brilliant lecturer who told us that “you don’t get smart from just leaving the books on your shelf – you have to actually read them”. Wise words indeed. Way too often I find myself buying books with the intention to read them, and then just letting them collect dust in my…
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Why all Korean learners should learn (a few) Chinese characters
In my interactions with other Korean learners, I’ve frequently heard complaints that Chinese characters (which for the record do not appear often in written Korean) are hard. Using this as an excuse, many people avoid familiarizing themselves with these characters. In my opinion this is probably one of the biggest mistakes you can make as…
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Korea: A year in the life
“525,600 minutes, 525,600 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes – how do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. In 525,600 minutes – how do you measure a year in the life?” Well, the cast from the musical “Rent” didn’t…
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Making travel plans
Summer has finally rolled around here in Korea, and in less than a month I’ll be jetting off to Denmark for a full five weeks of vacation before going back to Seoul for another year. I can’t wait to go home for a while and see my family and friends again. I also won’t be…
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Getting back on track with Japanese
As regular readers of my blog will know, I gave a pitiful attempt at learning Japanese in the fall. Then I got busy with my Korean studies at Sogang, and I didn’t really feel like studying languages in my free time since I felt that it was all I did during the day. I never forgot…
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It’s Buddha’s birthday – and I need a break
Not from the festivities that is, it’s absolutely amazing to see all the lanterns hanging everywhere in Seoul these days. So colorful and bright that it’s impossible not to feel happy when you look at them. No, I need a break from school. Oh, I know I sound like a spoiled brat when I say…
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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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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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Korea preparations
As of today there are only six weeks left before I board my Seoul-bound flight. In many ways this is the worst amount of time to have to wait for something. It’s so close that everybody around me keeps talking about it and asking me about my preparations; yet still so far away that I…
Sofie to Korea 