learn Korean

I had to return the Korean CDs to the library, so I did not have them for a week, but I re-checked them out today and I studied. Korean is becoming easier and easier for me!

Though I was not able to use the CDs, I was able to spend a weekend talking to two absolutely lovely Korean exchange students who let me practice my Korean on them and taught me a few new words! Meeting them made me feel more excited about going to Korea. It made the country and what I am jumping into seem more real—more tangible.

My mission to learn Korean is on track!

I am going to try to learn how to say some important vegan phrases now. :)

At first I had difficulty pronouncing words in Korean correctly. I was worried because I speak Thai and I studied Japanese and both of those asian languages came easier to me than Korean, but after some time spent with Korean the sounds are starting to become clearer for me! The sentences come pouring out of my mouth and I don’t have to stop and think out everything that I want to say. That being said, I am still at the very beginning stages of language learning and have a long way to go, but I think the journey will be more fun now that I’ve gotten over that first hurdle.

I practiced for 30 minutes today, so I’m on track. I’m pleased.

I am ashamed that I did not practice Korean today, but I was gone all day with my family buying stuff for my brother’s dorm room… We got home much later than I thought we would, so I had to help cook dinner and didn’t have time to study using the CDs… HOWEVER, I have a computer program that I got from the library that I am going to use now. :D

No more Mr… Ms…Captain! Yes, I’ll go with Captain. No More Captain Nice Guy…Lady… Person…

I need to activate my Serious Gloves and start really studying Korean. I studied today for 30 minutes and found that I have retained most of what I’ve learned even though I have been slacking!

I need to study everyday and I think that I need to post everyday whether I studied Korean or not, as I did with my hair pulling goal, to keep myself on track. If I have to post everyday, then I am more likely to study because I will be held accountable.

When I was applying for the JET program (to teach English in Japan), I used the Pimselur CDs everyday for about 30 minutes to learn Japanese and I think it was really an effective method for me. I have decided to do the same for Korean. The Korean language is very difficult to pronounce, so I am glad that I am able to hear how it sounds. Pimselur breaks down the pronunciation of each word, is interactive, and repeats the words several times in different contexts. I also write down each word that I learn with its English equivilent so that I will have a little dictionary that I can refer back to.

I just need to practice daily! Today was my first day using the CDs and I want to keep this up.

As with Japanese, I will do each lesson two or three times to make sure that I have the words down…

I have a booklet and computer disk to keep up with my written Korean. I have yet to use this, but I will start using this soon.

The library truly is fantastic.

When I was learning Japanese for the JET program, the Pimselur CDs were incredibly helpful and suited my learning style very well. My library did not have such CDs for Korean, BUT I was able to order them from another library. They came in today and I am so excited to begin using them.

I will continue using the writing-based book, but the spoken-based CDs will likely help me more.

I also won a signed copy of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” by John Berendt from the library.

I am of the belief that it is more important to learn to speak a languge before trying to read it (at least for me), but all of the books and CDs that I borrowed from the library focus on writing, so I focused on learning the Korean writing system. It’s a lot simpler than it looks, but now that I have that pretty much down (I sometimes have to refer back to my notes for a few of the strongly stressed vowels… still pretty good for a few hours work!) so I really want to focus on learning to speak the language.

I will (hopefully) be teaching in Korea this coming fall (autumn), and I want to have a working knowledge of the language before I go.