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My Korean and Vietnamese challenge | ||
Tags: Vietnamese | Korean | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Cat Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6751 days ago 30 posts - 33 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Vietnamese, Korean | Message 1 of 8 22 March 2011 at 1:01am | IP Logged |
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Well, after I graduated in Vietnamese in 2007, my ability in the language has withered away to almost nothing. I never used it, had no Vietna,ese friends (not for want of trying)... well, anyway, I'm almost back to square one.
I live in Korea now and one of my biggest reasons for coming here was to study Korean full time. It's proved to be much more expensive than I had bargained for and so at the moment I am teaching English here to save the money, and will quit in December to start my studies. This year I want to make major progress in both these languages. I've become ashamed of my language skills and I know I have the intelligence and capability to do well, it's just down to... well... laziness. Which is even worse. So... I live in Korea, all my friends are Korean, my boyfriend is Korean... though I can't afford to study formally until beginning of next year, I'm sure I'm in a pretty good situation to make decent progress now. I have a Mon-Fri job where I finish at 3 every day, meaning I have lots of free time. I don't like studying at home or library (the former has too many distractions, the latter is too quiet) but I found the perfect book cafe where I like to study - lots of light, quiet but not deathly. And open until 11pm every day. Because I'm still a relative beginner in Korean (I can make light conversation... VERY light) I am using the book Elementary Korean and once I finish that I will go onto the next book in the series (maybe called Continuing Korean... can't remember right now) both by Ross King and Jae Hoon Yeon. A little dry but the grammar explanations are pretty clear. Of course they in5rodice vocabulary too slowly so I am supplementing this study with vocan flashcards I'm making myself from 3 books I bought (500 most common verbs, 500 most common adjectives, and a bunch of random vocab covering everything). I am making these into flashcards and learning them in chunks alongside the textbook. Then of course I must try to SPEAK what I am learning with my friends and boyfriend (harder than it sounds as they speak good English and it's easy to be lazy here too). Vietnamese is a little more tricky. I have a Vietnamese housemate which I was so excited about until I found her schedule is completely opposite to mine and we barely see each other. I've also managed to find 2 VNese people in Seoul who I'm getting friendly with and hoping to do language exchange with but nothing is really regular or settled. I am just using Teach Yourself Vietnamese and the moment, just to get back into the language again, and again using flashcards to supplement the vocab. In terms of schedule, I have come up with this: Mon-Fri lunchtime (1 hour, at work): Vietnamese Mon-Thu evening: Korean Fri eve and weekend: both (whichever I like) I'm not sure how I can measure if my skills have improved reasonably over the course of this year... I may try taking the beginners TOPIK test for Korean. Except for that... ? Does anyone on here have any advice, or comments about my plan? Something I should change or try? People on here seem so knowledgeable about learning languages and I'm just muddling through... Thank you! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cat Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6751 days ago 30 posts - 33 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Vietnamese, Korean | Message 2 of 8 22 March 2011 at 4:32am | IP Logged |
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Short-mid-term motivations:
*5 week trip to Vietnam this summer *TOPIK test *the more I study this year, I may be able to skip a grade in my Korean course next year, saving time and money I will also use some kind of incentive such as marking off how many hours I've studied and for every 50 hours, treating myself to something. There's lots of little things I want to buy myself (perfume, a dress, get a massage...) but somehow I never get around to doing it. This would be a nice way to tie this in so I can feel I "earned" my reward, and motivate me to study more... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hkboy Groupie Hong Kong Joined 5667 days ago 65 posts - 86 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Cantonese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 8 22 March 2011 at 4:51am | IP Logged |
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Hi Cat,
Good luck on your studies. I really wish I could quit my job and study full time. How much speaking practice do you get with your bf and other friends? Isn't Sogang University one of the major universities there? Seems I saw they had a lot of their language course available online. Have you tried that? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| CatW Newbie Korea, South Joined 5069 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Vietnamese, French | Message 5 of 8 22 March 2011 at 10:42pm | IP Logged |
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Edited by CatW on 23 March 2011 at 12:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cat Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6751 days ago 30 posts - 33 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Vietnamese, Korean | Message 6 of 8 23 March 2011 at 12:37am | IP Logged |
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hkboy - yes, Sogang is one of the major universities here in Seoul, and the one I'm most likely to take my course at. And thank you for reminding me - I actually knew about their online program but completely forgot about it (or simply ignored it, for some reason) but I just took a look and I think it'd be very useful - and though I don't usually study from home, I think I could do that at home without problem. So thanks! I usually wake up early so I could do some of it every day before going to work.
Hmm... how much speaking practice do I get? Honestly, usually I speak English with them which is really bad and what I'm trying to change now. If I start making an effort, I could be speaking in Korean AT LEAST 2 or 3 hours a day, and sometimes all day because most days I meet my boyfriend or a friend. It'd be a struggle though, because of my current lack of vocab and grammar - but of course, practice makes perfect, only way to improve, so guess I should quit complaining and get on with it! Paranday - yes, definitely, there is nothing better than feeling you've "earned" something 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6427 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 8 27 March 2011 at 2:51pm | IP Logged |
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Good luck on your Korean journey! :)
By the way, do you live in Seoul now? If yes, which part? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cat Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6751 days ago 30 posts - 33 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Vietnamese, Korean | Message 8 of 8 12 April 2011 at 2:12am | IP Logged |
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Hey Jiwon, yes, I am still here in Seoul. I live in Haebangchon (near Noksapyung) and work in Gireum. You live in Seoul? Whereabouts?
Well I started using the Sogang online course but I'm going too slowly. I'm on lesson 4 of Novice I now. A lot of it I already know but there are quite a few new things too as they are introducing them in a different order compared to my original textbook. I feel lazy... even though I work full time and do 2 part time jobs too, I feel guilty. My boyfriend studies French and he goes at it hardcore... but then again, he is Korean and that kind of intense study method has been hammered into him over many years. Still, I want to be more like him in that regard... Ok, need to spend more time on my studies. Looking at the Sogang online course, realistically I could finish lessons 4 and 5 this week (they are not too intensive, nor cover too much material, so it's possible). And for Vietnamese... finish units 3 and 4. Because I have actually already studied them several times in the past, so it's more a kind of revision because it's been a while... That's my goal for this week and I will update on Sunday evening to let you know how it goes! Edited by Cat on 14 April 2011 at 11:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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