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Advancing Korean, Year 5/6: TAC15 東亞

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druckfehler
Triglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4664 days ago

1181 posts - 1912 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean
Studies: Persian

 
 Message 313 of 344
23 March 2015 at 10:41pm | IP Logged 
2015년 3월 23일. Week 13.

Textbook Lessons: 3
TV News Items: 10
Written Bits and Pieces: 1

Current Super Challenge Count
Books: 46
Movies: 54


I'm still busy with the flat, but it's slooowly coming together. Despite a lot of distractions I've been making steady progress with the popular psychology book about emotional regulation. It's very good for study purposes as it's written in a very repetitive style. I learned quite a few new useful words thanks to that. It also contains an interesting list of words/expressions sorted by the basic emotions they are classed under. There are so many differently nuanced words! I know maybe one-third or one-fourth and have seen another third before. But all those different shades of meaning? Most completely elude me. Grasping nuances really is the pinnacle of language ability, I guess.

I'll be on holiday in Croatia in May, so I've taken that as an excuse for starting to watch 꽃보다 누나 (4 Korean actresses between 35 and 70? and Lee Seung-Gi travel to Turkey and Croatia). Although I've only watched up to their arrival in Croatia this far, it's fun. I'm really not used to variety shows, though. All those subtitles popping up on the screen... Isn't it completely impossible to follow everything at once? I think I'd even have trouble taking it all in if it was in German... How do you variety veterans do it?

I haven't done any more specific preparation for TOPIK yet. I'm starting to feel like just testing my level as it currently is, without making a lot of efforts to optimise my score. I do think I'll pass level 5 and I don't think my skills deserve to be called level 6 yet, so it's all good. But we'll see, I might just start to practice writing after all ;) I've been thinking about collecting useful phrases for argumentative essays which I come across in my reading. Really should start on that someday soon as it seems a good starting point for writing practice - not too difficult but still very effective for stylistic improvements.

Edited by druckfehler on 23 March 2015 at 10:44pm

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druckfehler
Triglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4664 days ago

1181 posts - 1912 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean
Studies: Persian

 
 Message 314 of 344
08 April 2015 at 10:18am | IP Logged 
2015년 4월 8일. Week 15.

Textbook Lessons: 3
GLOSS Lessons: 1
TV News Items: 10
Written Bits and Pieces: 2

Current Super Challenge Count
Books: 46
Movies: 55


TOPIK is approaching and I've intensified my Korean studies a bit. I have finally taken the plunge and written my second text for this year. I did my first level 3 G.L.O.S.S. lesson. It was an editorial about the recovery of the job market but continuing problem of unemployment for young Koreans (내 아들•딸이 취직돼야 비로소 경기 회복). I was pretty happy to realise that I was able to read the text fairly well. I learned a couple of new useful words like 고용 (employment) and wrote a summary of the text. Writing wasn't as difficult as I anticipated either, but of course that is due in part because it was a summary and I was able to take most vocab from the text.

Although I still have a few pages of the psychology book left, I also started reading "Inside Korea" - the bilingual book about Korean history, politics, economy, culture... - again. I finally finished the history portion and am now on to politics. It's not easy, but I think it helps me a lot to improve. It's also pretty dry - I'm reading about the Korean constitution and the official roles of the president and the National Assembly. I'm looking forward to the next chapters, which will probably be more interesting (North-South relations, economy, society, culture...).

I don't have much time left before TOPIK, but I'm still using long-term study methods. The immersion will certainly help with the test and I don't feel like cramming vocabulary or something like that. I need to sit down and do a couple more practice tests, but I need several hours without interruption and find it difficult to make time for it.

Edited by druckfehler on 08 April 2015 at 10:19am

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Evita
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Latvia
learnlatvian.info
Joined 6348 days ago

734 posts - 1036 votes 
Speaks: Latvian*, English, German, Russian
Studies: Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 315 of 344
09 April 2015 at 11:09am | IP Logged 
Since you are taking the TOPIK just for yourself, not to get into a Korean university or a Korean company, it makes sense to keep doing what you do and see where your level is at.

How are you doing with the Korean Grammar in Use books? How much of the grammar would you estimate you know at the moment?
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druckfehler
Triglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4664 days ago

1181 posts - 1912 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean
Studies: Persian

 
 Message 316 of 344
20 April 2015 at 11:00am | IP Logged 
Evita, you're right, although... maybe one day I'd like to use Korean professionally, but that's not in the near future and I can always retake TOPIK then. Actually, I'm already half-planning to take TOPIK again next year to motivate myself to really get into essay writing.

Regarding Korean Grammar in Use, I have no idea how much of the grammar I know. To be honest, I've hardly used them and still rely on the grammar patterns I learned a long time ago and those pick up here and there. It would do me good to go through these books and I'll try to answer your question once I have my stuff sorted (still chaotic from the move ;)).
2 persons have voted this message useful



druckfehler
Triglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4664 days ago

1181 posts - 1912 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean
Studies: Persian

 
 Message 317 of 344
23 April 2015 at 3:18pm | IP Logged 
2015년 4월 8일? Week

Textbook Lessons: 3
GLOSS Lessons: 1
TV News Items: 10
Written Bits and Pieces: 2
TOPIK (practice) tests: 1 1/2

Current Super Challenge Count
Books: 46
Movies: 56


I overwrote this post by mistake :( I think it was talking about not using the internet anymore and getting 88 points in reading on a TOPIK practice test

Edited by druckfehler on 06 May 2015 at 2:01pm

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druckfehler
Triglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4664 days ago

1181 posts - 1912 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean
Studies: Persian

 
 Message 318 of 344
24 April 2015 at 8:55am | IP Logged 
Update: I did the listening part yesterday and got 88 points as well. It felt easier than last time, but I still don't really get some of the questions (like "what attitude does the man/woman have" or "what is this person doing - explaining, stating their opinion...". For me these are always ambiguous).

I'll look at writing today and maybe learn some words and constructions and then just take the test tomorrow and go back to not feeling bad for not practicing grammar/writing/reading about boring topics :D

Edited by druckfehler on 24 April 2015 at 8:55am

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The Real CZ
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5445 days ago

1069 posts - 1495 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 319 of 344
25 April 2015 at 2:05pm | IP Logged 
Druckfehler, without the Internet, how do you plan on looking up new words? Do you have a
really good Korean dictionary or something?
4 persons have voted this message useful



Warp3
Senior Member
United States
forum_posts.asp?TID=
Joined 5331 days ago

1419 posts - 1766 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese

 
 Message 320 of 344
26 April 2015 at 9:06pm | IP Logged 
That's a good point, CZ. For example, I own a great K-to-E print dictionary...which I never use
because Naver's and Daum's dictionaries are 100000% more convenient. Plus those sites
have other dictionary modes (K-to-K, K-to-J, etc.) for which I don't have print versions.

Edited by Warp3 on 26 April 2015 at 9:07pm



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