Assimil lesson 52 today. Today’s lesson covered common expressions and greetings, some of which are different from English, like good bye, which has two forms: one for the person staying behind, one for the person leaving. Same thing for “bon appétit”, where it appears like there’s one expression for the person who prepared the meal, and another for the person eating the meal. This lesson also felt pretty easy comparatively. It feels like the past couple weeks were very grammar heavy, and now we’re just working on a bit of review, some new vocabulary, and some cultural notes so that it’s not too crazy heavy.
Lesson 3 of the active wave. This was just stating one’s occupation simply. Not super challenging.
I’ve got some free time now so I might as well write a little update on my current situation.
I’m feeling pretty good about Korean right now, but I also don’t really have any reason to learn it other than because I find it fascinating, especially coming from Japanese. So many aspects of the language are similar, feel like Classical Japanese, or are basically just exactly the same. It makes learning the language feel pretty easy.
I’m actually quite happy with my progress. I’ve never really been very organized when it comes to learning languages. For French I was in French immersion for 12 years, so all I really had to do to get better when I decided I wanted to be actually good at French was immerse myself and brush up on the grammar on the side. With Japanese, I just studied the grammar and kanji when I was bored and somehow managed to get good at it after a few years. With Korean right now, I feel like I’m going at 4 times the speed I’ve ever gone because I have a consistent schedule with a thorough course. I think the addition of an i+1 vocabulary deck to kickstart my studies has also helped a lot. I’ll likely use a similar method for the next language I pick up.
I don’t know if I’ll continue much after I finish Assimil, but there’s a part of me that does want to continue because I know I won’t have reached a level where I’m likely to be able to put it aside for a long time without seriously losing what I’ve learned. As a result, I’m leaning towards putting in a few more months at least, which means I need to have some materials lined up for when I’m done my current course.
I’ve been looking at Talk to Me in Korean, because I did get their one book,
Real-Life Korean Conversations for Beginners, which I’ve enjoyed. I took their placement test, and it put me at level 3 of 10 in their curriculum, so I’m assuming I might be somewhere like 5 or 6 when I’m done Assimil, which means the
intermediate level of the same series would likely be a nice continuation of my current studies. Their
IYAGI course appears to be for levels 7 and up, so I don’t know if it’ll realistically be an option afterwards. I imagine my grammar will be up to snuff, but my vocabulary might not be there yet. Although, I suppose that doesn’t stop me from powering through it.
It would be the same for their
News In Korean book that I’d be very interested in using at some point. Japanese news definitely has some very particular formulations that I got used to by simply reading the news often, but a gentle introduction would likely be more efficient. I suppose there’s nothing wrong with working through it anyways if it’s just a question of learning the vocabulary.
Korean Folktales in Everyday Conversation: Must-Know Stories for Korean Learners could also be a nice bridge alongside the intermediate conversations book before starting IYAGI, but I suppose we’ll see.
I don’t really know what other quality courses there are out there with audio and transcripts, so I might have to look at that at some point. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
I’d also eventually want to take up a tutor to get some guided conversations/writing exercises, which I might do after I’m done with Assimil. I haven’t had great luck with online tutoring in the past, as I usually don’t feel like I vibe with the teachers I find, but I’ll have to suck it up if I want to really solidify my knowledge.
Anyways, those are my thoughts at the moment.
My grandmother had surgery this past Tuesday, and we've been having to take shifts as a family to stay with her throughout the day and overnight, so a lighter week would be very welcome.