Study methods
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(Dramatic) progress
I’ve been studying harder than usual this week and am really starting to notice a difference in my Korean skills. Strange how the time you put into studying something is so strongly correlated with your learning outcome. ^^ I’ve specifically noted improvement in three areas: speaking, reading, and vocabulary. As I mentioned in my previous post,…
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My Korean week
So…. Easter break is officially over, and I’m back at work (currently spending my coffee break writing this post feeling that I deserve a break given that I was teaching the earliest class of the day right after a week of vacation).^^ It has been one of my most productive weeks (Korean-wise) in a very long…
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Recreational Korean (… or how to study when you’re actually not)
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…
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The challenges of Korean intonation
Yesterday I met with my awesome language partner for two hours. I had told her that I still considered my speaking skills my biggest weakness (well, essay writing too but we have to start somewhere), and she suggested that we warmed up my Korean vocal chords by reading an Iyagi lesson out loud. The lesson…
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New language partner(s) – and my first compliment in Korean
“한국어 이렇게 잘 할 줄 몰랐어요” These encouraging words were uttered by my new language partner ^^ Yes, I finally managed to find a new language partner through facebook and yesterday was our first time to meet. She’s a super sweet Korean girl from Sogang University doing a one-semester exchange at the uni where I…
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The challenges of building vocabulary (…and how TTMIK once more saved the day)
In my recent book haul from www.heyeonni.com in Korea, I got two books on how to prepare for the TOPIK. While I’m still undecided about whether I should actually sign up for the test in October, I convinced myself that educating myself on the format of the TOPIK probably wouldn’t hurt. I soon realized that my supposedly “solid vocabulary”…
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Let’s play the shadow game!
Recently I’ve been struggling with my Korean listening skills. Whenever I would stumble across a Korean variety show on youtube or watch unsubbed interviews with K-stars I realized how much I lacked in terms of listening comprehension. Sigh… What to do? I realized that the problem wasn’t that I didn’t understand the words, as my…
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It’s easy to give up when you’re studying alone (혼자 공부하면 포기하기 쉬워요…)
The above sentence was actually a sample sentence from my super awesome “Weekly Korean Vocabulary book” published by my language gurus at http://www.talktomeinkorean.com (see bottom of post). Nonetheless, it got me thinking about what we self-learners can do not to lose our interest, drive, and motivation. I’ve been studying Korean on my own for 6…
Sofie to Korea 