My New Plan for Language Study

          In my previous post, I talked about my struggles as someone who wasn’t exactly intermediate but definitely NOT a beginner. This month has seen my language studies stutter and kind of stop. They definitely stopped for Chinese and they sort of stuttered for Korean mostly because I have an awesome native Korean language teacher who at least is trying to drum some stuff into my brain. So today (Monday, June 29) I sat down to really look at what is going on with me. Why did I stop my Chinese studies and why is my Korean suffering and it is not JUST about the beginner/intermediate struggle. I found some points which I can take action on. Let me start with Chinese, because this one was easy. 

CHINESE:

I realized I had no specific goal that I am working towards. I don’t know what I am doing or where I am going so I set a goal for myself. This month (to be re-assess at the end of the month) I will be focusing on Pinyin and learning it to the best of my ability. The point is that I can read Pinyin so I can go on to HSK 1 books. I might throw in some character writing but Pinyin is my goal.

To this end, I went on Udemy and bought some courses that focus on that. I am also going to look at YouTube videos.

KOREAN: 

1. I like Talk to Me in Korean books so I am keeping those as-is. So for the next month, I will focus on Level 3 as well as reading Easy Korean Reading. There is also a book that I am slowly working through which is about patterns in Korean grammar.

2. I asked my teacher to give me homework. I told him I wanted a paragraph that I could look at on my own figure out what the meanings of the words were and what the sentences mean then answer questions about in Korean. In case anyone is wondering my teacher is the best, check him out on Instagram. He is just the beat and most patient teacher. 

3. I’m going to watch the Drama 날 녹여주오 (Melting Me Softly). I am currently watching it with subtitles on Vik.com. Then I am going to use their teaching mode which they have on most dramas and just focus on the phrases and the words I don’t know. 

4. Now let me talk about what didn’t work. Ehwa Korean is a great book from a great institute but...like Sogang University books just don’t work for me. So I’ve decided to put them away for now. 

5. I am substituting Korean From Zero books instead of the Ehwa Korean books. If those don’t hold my interest I will try a different set of books, God knows I have tons of them from different Universities 😬. 

This is my plan to revive my language studies. My hope is that sharing my struggles can help others with theirs.