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TOPIK (Korean) with Benefits | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| LangWanderer Diglot Pro Member Australia digintoenglish.com Joined 4530 days ago 74 posts - 97 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, French, Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 22 22 June 2012 at 2:39am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you all for taking the time to read my log. It will be a complicated one!
I've previously had an account here (as Mayfair) but that unfortunately fell into disuse. Luckily, that isn't to say that I ditched my language studies - far from it! In the meantime I passed the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test and made significant progress in my Korean and French, and, for better or worse, added a new language to the mix. I created this new account so that the username syncs with my as-yet empty Youtube channel (I hope that's not a problem). Finally motivated to join what seems to be a vibrant language-learning community on Youtube, I'm planning to post videos of myself there. I'll link to them from this log. In the meantime, here is my modest attempt to juggle the affections of four languages while trying to spend quality time with one. I'd love to hear the suggestions of anyone who has been in a similar situation, or to share any advice I can with others looking to embark upon such a manifestly insane journey. KOREAN - My mistress I've been self-studying Korean for two years on-and-off, but at the moment it's my major focus. On a good day I spend two hours with Korean and I hope to maintain this until the TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean) Test in October. I'll be sitting the intermediate (level 3-4) test and aiming for level 4, although level 3 is probably a more realistic target. For the grammar portion I should be fine; I'm not sure about the reading or listening, but the writing section will give me trouble I should think. For help with the latter, I'll turn to that bastion of good intentions, Lang-8, where I always tell myself I'll write, only to give up a week later. I'm working through Ross King's Continuing Korean, the grammar portion of which is mostly revision, but the drills help output. I also use Talk to Me in Korean's audiobooks and Iyagi lessons. I recommend anyone studying Korean get a hold of these excellent resources! I also have three Japanese-Korean bilingual readers: a newspaper reader, a general reader and a radio drama, . All come with recordings too! I can't wait to dive into them. After finishing the 120 articles in the newspaper reader I'll turn to online newspapers. In total, I hope to read 500 before the test - four per day. I might have to modify this later if it proves to be too ambitious. Goals: Complete Continuing Korean [] Read 500 newspaper articles [] Write 10 posts on Lang-8 [1/10] JAPANESE - My long-suffering wife I've studied Japanese since I was about seven and I can't imagine what life would be like if I didn't know it. I work as a part-time translator while writing my Honours thesis on Japan-Korea relations, so even if I wanted to escape this language, I wouldn't be able to. I've passed Level 1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, and the lack of an immediate goal after that makes it difficult to get motivated. Goals: (to be expanded upon later) Write 10 articles on Lang-8 [1/10] FRENCH - A vengeful ex-girlfriend I technically have a degree in French, although I don't think my proficiency reflects that. I finished three years of classes in 2008 and it's been a struggle to maintain my language since then. I can get through simple novels without too much difficulty, but my listening comprehension at natural speed is atrocious. I haven't had to speak French for a long time either, so my output is not even measurable. I'm currently shadowing Using French and my first goal is to finish that before drilling my grammar again with a grammar book (I have the old Teach Yourself French and Teach Yourself Everyday French, so I'll give them a shot. Goals: Shadow the whole of Using French [] Have ten conversations with native speakers [] BAHASA INDONESIA - The cute girl across from me in the bus I have no delusions about Indonesian - It's only going to play a minor role in my language studies. Since I began my studies as a procrastination cure on the 26th of May, I've been aiming for half an hour a day and have been fairly successful. There have only been four days when I haven't studied at all. My only resource is the old Linguaphone Indonesian course, which is excellent. Goals: Study for 30 minutes per day for one month. [] Finish Linguaphone (as of this first post, I am on lesson 4 of 40). [] Edited by LangWanderer on 26 June 2012 at 4:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LangWanderer Diglot Pro Member Australia digintoenglish.com Joined 4530 days ago 74 posts - 97 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, French, Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 22 22 June 2012 at 3:39am | IP Logged | ||
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A major reason that I signed up for this forum again was how motivated I feel by reading everyone's posts. The challenges seem to be a fantastic way to feed off of each other's motivation so I signed up for *gulp* three.
Japanese Super Duper Mega Challenge (200 books, 200 films, 100 hours of conversation, 200 essays) Even the name fills me with dread. I would have done a smaller challenge, except that they are reserved for B1 learners and below. 20,000 pages (100 pages counts as a "book") is daunting, but doable, especially considering that I have to read Japanese almost every day for my thesis. Unfortunately I can't count my job, since I translate web pages. That would have helped a great deal! I have no great love for Japanese television, but for the "film" aspect, I'm planning to get by with a little help from President Bartlet, as Ringo Starr would have said had The West Wing been around in 1967. I've found the entire series box set on Amazon.co.jp for 18,600 yen, which is a steal for 100 hours of material. I've never seen past season four in English, because I could never justify devoting so much time to it, but such an intimidatingly-titled challenge gives me enough of an excuse. Korean Super Duper Challenge (100 books, 100 films, 50 hours of conversation) I think I can do this. I certainly have the motivation. Finding 10,000 pages' worth of content might be more difficult though. Any suggestions? French Half Super Challenge (50 books, 50 films) We'll see. Time, rather than language ability or motivation, will be my major enemy. Wish me luck! If you're studying any of these languages and are doing one of the challenges, please drop me a line in this log. When things are looking dire - and they will at some stage - a friendly word of encouragement will be hugely helpful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5527 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 3 of 22 22 June 2012 at 4:56am | IP Logged | ||
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The challenge threads can be quite motivating. I haven't signed up for any of the "Super Challenge" threads, but I am participating in the TAC for the first time this year and have made quite a bit of progress with Korean vocabulary due to the goals I set for that challenge.
That said...challenges for 3 languages at once? Wow...that's brave. ㅋㅋㅋ 그래도...화이팅! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4860 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 4 of 22 22 June 2012 at 12:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome Back! Good to see another person sign up for the Challenge in Korean. It looks like for Korean we have
very similar goals. I originally planned to take TOPIK in October with a highly optimistic goal of level 4, but now I found out that TOPIK is only held in April in my country... So I have a little more time to make level 4 more likely. I can only recommend DLI's Global Language Support System (G.L.O.S.S.) for practicing reading and listening comprehension. I'm currently doing lessons from their level 1+ I feel like I'm making very good progress with their free lessons. The lessons are made up of news reports and newspaper articles and each lesson guides you through them from an understanding of the topic up to the point where you understand the whole article. Maybe you should check the rules for the Challenge again, because I'm pretty sure that articles were discussed as counting for 1 page, but I'm not sure if that made it into the final version of the rules. Good luck with all your challenges! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| LangWanderer Diglot Pro Member Australia digintoenglish.com Joined 4530 days ago 74 posts - 97 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, French, Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 22 22 June 2012 at 12:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Warp3: It's only brave if there are consequences for failure! Unless there's some punishment I haven't been told about(!), the benefit from the added motivation will outweigh any disappointment that might result from failure.
I'll be sure to keep up with your TAC thread as well. It's always good to see how other learners grapple with Korean. druckfehler: Thanks for the recommendation. I've used GLOSS before, but only once or twice over a year ago. I'd forgotten about it, but I'm sure it'll come in handy. I'll let you know how the TOPIK prep goes! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5527 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 6 of 22 22 June 2012 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | ||
True. I've made little to no progress on several of my TAC goals, but I've gained enough benefit from the goals that I *am* attaining that I couldn't possibly regret the attempt. I'm starting to get a similar notion from my Hanja studies. A few times I've tried studying a larger number of Hanja per week, but a lower percentage of them stick which is discouraging. However what I need to keep in mind is that even if the ratio is lower, if the actual number of Hanja that stick is still higher than with the lower count, then it's still a win. In other words, if I try to learn 20 characters per week but only 50% stick, that is still better than doing 7 per week (which is my actual target) and having 100% recall. (In fact, I believe AJATT had an article on this very idea at one point.) Plus those other characters do seem to eventually stick after I miss them several times, they just take longer to finally grab hold. If one doesn't stick after failing it a few times, I throw together a mnemonic for the character and that usually gives it the boost it needs. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| LangWanderer Diglot Pro Member Australia digintoenglish.com Joined 4530 days ago 74 posts - 97 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, French, Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 22 23 June 2012 at 12:31am | IP Logged | ||
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MY first day of challenges, and I'm quite pleased with myself so I'll post here what I managed to do. Yesterday was a unique day because I spent most of it reading for my thesis, which gives an instant boost to my I won't do this every day, since I'm likely to be more embarrassed about my workload on some days!
Japanese 105 pages (a bit over one "book") 46 minutes of TV (half a film) - Read a six-page academic article, twice, on the history of the Korean people in Jiandao (now part of the Yanbian Autonomous Region in China) for a class. - Two chapters (57 pages) of a book, 拉致問題を考えなおす, about the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea - The first chapter (32 pages) of a history book unrelated to my thesis, 読むだけですっきりわかる日本史. I now know a bit more about ancient pottery, and I'm sure that tomorrow I'll know exactly the same amount as I did before reading the book. - 4 pages of a bilingual text for learning Korean - Episode 4 of 新参者 with Japanese subtitles. It's a police drama with Abe Hiroshi, who I basically want to be. I struggle to motivate myself to watch Japanese shows, so this challenge might be a good way of improving my habits. Korean 41 minutes of audiobooks 11 pages of reading - 41 minutes of intensive listening to TTMIK (Talk to Me in Korean) audiobooks and Iyagi lessons - The first three pages of a Korean-English bilingual version of 안네의 일기, Anne's Frank's Diary of a Young Girl. I was surprised how much I understood and how pleasurable it is to read bilingual texts. My reading speed was slow, however, and the print is tiny, so I would like to read this once during the challenge, but perhaps it would be inefficient to read it straight away. - The first four articles, twice each, in 1日1文、短い 文を読みこなす韓国語リーディング, a Japanese-Korean bilingual reading book. It's difficult and the vocab killed me, but I'll keep rereading the articles and as I work my way through, I hope to assimilate some of the vocab. I'll count them as one page each, even though they are all two pages, because of the large print. French 40 minutes of film - 40 minutes of Le Dîner de cons with French subtitles Edited by LangWanderer on 23 June 2012 at 12:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LangWanderer Diglot Pro Member Australia digintoenglish.com Joined 4530 days ago 74 posts - 97 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, French, Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 22 23 June 2012 at 12:49am | IP Logged | ||
This is an excellent way to learn. As long as you don't get too worried about forgetting things, they will stick eventually if you see them enough times. I'd say it's particularly true for your hanja study, because you'll see the hanja root so many times that you'll begin to learn it even if you forget how to write the character. And plus, you'll probably learn the writing in Japanese anyway, when your Japanese gets to that stage. Of course, this applies to vocabulary as well as hanja, which is the reason that bilingual texts and extensive reading - and repetition of interesting material - are so effective. 漢子를 조금씩 繼續 熱心히 工夫하세요! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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