Watching: I've started watching 보이스, which I'm really enjoying. I sometimes forget that there are genres of Korean drama other than romance (which I'm not really a fan of). I remember watching 송곳 last year and loving it, so I'm going to make more of an effort to seek out that kind of drama (미생 and 시그날 are on my to-watch list!). I'm really happy that I can enjoy 보이스 without subtitles. Although I don't understand much of the dialogue, it doesn't bother me; in fact, I hardly notice because I'm so absorbed in the story. This seems to be the ideal state to enjoy media, as it's easier to consume a lot of native content and get exposure to the language, but I don't find it easy to find that kind of material. I've often read that you should seek out content in your native language that is similar to what you enjoy in your native language. I suppose the classroom section (as opposed to the comedy sketches) of 아는형님 is the Korean equivalent of the kind of stuff I like to watch in English; I like banter, puns, and pop culture references. That kind of humour is difficult to understand when you don't have a good grasp of the language, so watching without L1 subs is a bit frustrating, and I feel like I'm missing 90% of the jokes. I have been watching unsubbed eps, but I'm so aware of not being able to understand most of it that it takes away from my enjoyment of the show.
I watched a couple of drama specials: 달팽이 고시원 and 카레의 맛. I like that I'm starting to recognise actors: 카레의 맛 starred 현우 whom I had seen in 송곳 and 월계수 양복점 신사들, and 전혜빈 who was a guest on 아는형님. As I was watching 달팽이 고시원 I was humming 달팽이 by 패닉 all the way through (pretty sure it wasn't part of the soundtrack, though!), so I ended up looking up the lyrics to try to learn them. I'd like to be able to remember the lyrics to certain songs that I like, but of course it's much more difficult to learn a Korean song just from listening to it a few times than an English song.
I found a website that streams Korean tv channels, which I hope will be good for discovering different things to watch and giving me a bit of variety. I like finding shows that aren't just the usual drama/variety/news - give me nature, travel, culture, and food!
Reading: I can't say I've done much reading, or rather, I haven't been doing much sustained reading. It's a few pages here and there of the various books I own, five minutes on Readlang, short articles on various websites. On one hand I'm getting a lot of variety, on the other I'm not progressing much with the books I'm reading. Hmm.
Listening: I've resumed my plan from last year to study one IYAGI lesson every day. I've been reading through the transcripts first and looking up unknown words, then listening to the audio while reading along. For some reason the lessons I've done seem much easier than when I was doing them before, even though I haven't done much studying since I last attempted them. Anyway, I'd love to make this a daily thing, and work steadily through them.
I actually want to focus more on my listening (which is why I'm watching much more Korean tv these days), and try to build up my listening stamina. I find I zone out really quickly when listening to Korean audio (podcasts, etc), and it ends up just being background noise, so I want to try concentrating on short clips and go from there. IYAGI lessons are usually 5-10 minutes, but as I'm reading a transcript along with it, I don't have much difficulty following it. I like the IYAGI lessons, but I would like to also have pure audio to listen to. The koreanclass101 advanced audio blogs are only about 2 minutes each (I downloaded them all last year and haven't listened to many of them), so I think they will be a good place to start. I've also got those children's stories which are about 5 minutes long each, so I have plenty of material. It's just a matter of remembering to use them.
Textbooks: After reading some reviews, I've ordered the Intermediate Korean Grammar in Use. Having looked at the contents, I think I know everything in the beginner book and only a fraction of the material in intermediate. I'll finally be able to start studying grammar again! Also, I read
Once Upon a Time in Korea: An Elementary Reader a while ago and really enjoyed it, so I was really happy when I found another book by the same author recently,
Cultural Readings from Folktales, Legends and History: An Intermediate Reader. For some reason it's difficult to find (maybe out of print?), so I was excited to finally find it. I ordered both of these online, so hopefully they'll arrive in the next couple of weeks.