Korean - from scratch to B2 in one year

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Will he make it?

Yes
58
74%
No
20
26%
 
Total votes: 78

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leosmith
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Re: Korean - from scratch to B2 in one year

Postby leosmith » Thu Jan 05, 2017 7:10 pm

qeadz wrote:Wow! How many hours worth of speaking have you had so far? Thats an amazing achievement.

Thanks! 15.5 hours (19 lessons). I'm pleased to say I feel today was also B1, and my teacher told me I was intermediate. I'm going to make a video at the end of this month. I'd planned on it being my A2 video, but maybe it will be B1. I'll let you guys decide.

I'm crushing this language for some reason; maybe because I want it so much. I'm dealing with 3 major issues in my life right now, 2 of them health related, and I'm playing them off each other somehow to give me even more motivation. Seems to be working.

(edit - right after posting this I started doing my flashcards, and for some reason I wondered "what if I forget it all?", and I temporarily did. Complete blank. Then my mind went into a strange state of panic it's rarely been in. I lay down for a few minutes, got up, and became extremely happy for about a minute, came back to my flashcards and kicked them out with great joy. Again, this isn't normal for me at all. I blame it on the anaesthesia from the surgery. I'm going to see the doc tomorrow and I'll ask them what the hell they had me on :lol: )
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Re: Korean - from scratch to B2 in one year

Postby outcast » Sat Jan 07, 2017 1:18 am

I hope the health problems will bite the dust just like the list of languages on your profile. Keep up the good work. I don't have as much time as you because I want Mandarin Chinese so bad to a solid B2 before leaving China, but even still I put a 2-3 solid hours of Korean on an average day and just in the last few days I feel my listening has improved markedly. Reading is becoming easier too: not necessarily faster, but quite a bit more accurate. My speaking is still pretty negligible though since I have been on a bit of a silent period. I do talk to Koreans here in very short bursts, but not sustained convos. It's ok I have plenty of Korean friends who will help me in the future.
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leosmith
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Re: Korean - from scratch to B2 in one year

Postby leosmith » Mon Jan 09, 2017 6:22 pm

outcast wrote:I don't have as much time as you because I want Mandarin Chinese so bad to a solid B2 before leaving China, but even still I put a 2-3 solid hours of Korean on an average day

That's pretty impressive! I remember working 60hrs/wk for many years and still managing 2-3hrs per day on the average. I look back now and wonder how that was possible. 8 hrs/day is about all the time I can devote to it now, even though I'm not working.

Well, I'm definitely not B1. The reason I felt B1 before is that I had covered that typical first hour of conversation (introductions and small talk) quite a few times, and had developed some automaticity. So when I had a good day with a good teacher covering the same material, we both thought I was intermediate. And for that special situation, I suppose I was. But overall, I still have a ways to go in a lot of topics. As soon as I had a mediocre teacher, or covered a new topic, I sunk back down to A2. I feel pretty safe in saying I'm A2 now though.

I studied grammar a little yesterday , specific points that I wanted help on, and I was surprised at how much it helped with todays conversation. The formula of systematically reading TTMIK's pdfs and spending extra time on the more useful grammar points seems to be working. I'd like to do it every day, but I usually only manage every other day.
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leosmith
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Re: Korean - from scratch to B2 in one year

Postby leosmith » Wed Jan 18, 2017 4:41 am

I can't decide if I'm a 사실 or 솔직히 man. I've been told I need to be an 아마 rather than 혹시 man.
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Re: Korean - from scratch to B2 in one year

Postby leosmith » Thu Jan 19, 2017 1:09 am

I haven’t been posting much lately because not much has changed, or not much has been worth noting lately. But I did want to mention that I decided to buy something from TTMIK to show my support. In step 1 I listened to their podcasts and watched their videos every day. Now I’m reading and listening to their iyagi every day (I’m on #19), and I use their grammar pdf’s every day.

On the grammar, I’m systematically working through their pdf’s every other day, 5 lessons at a time. On the other day, starting today, I’m picking a point that I want to get better at immediately in my conversations, and trying to master it. What I’ve found so far is that essentially all the lessons in levels 1-3 are ones that I think I need to have mastered to become a good speaker, and the lessons in levels 4-9 are grammar points that I need to be able to understand, but don’t need to use myself. At least that’s my opinion so far. I’m half way through level 4, and I think I’ve only found one lesson in it that I’d consider mastering.

That’s not to say that working through the other levels is a waste of time. Far from it. But I’m going to target the first 3 levels for mastery, at least for the time being. How am I doing? There’s only one lesson in level 1 that I’m not quite automatic at yet, about 10 in level 2, and I need to work on almost all of the level 3 lessons. It will take a while, but if I can really master all those points I’ll have pretty good grammar. In my conversations, I’m sure I’ll find some things that aren’t covered in the 3 levels, so I’ll go after those individually.

I debated on buying all the iyagi or all the grammar lessons from TTMIK. Due to the slow site and to what I thought was the poor arrangement of the grammar lessons, I decided it would be much more convenient to have them all neatly arranged and downloaded. So I bought them, but came to find out that there was no index. So I wrote to them and requested an index, and they gave me a link to this page. Haha. Well, I was honestly wanting to support them so I don’t really mind. Love using the index on their site – very convenient!
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qeadz
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Re: Korean - from scratch to B2 in one year

Postby qeadz » Fri Jan 27, 2017 10:08 pm

*poke*

Whats happening in the world of Leosmith Korean From Scratch?
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Re: Korean - from scratch to B2 in one year

Postby Xenops » Mon Feb 20, 2017 3:03 am

qeadz wrote:*poke*

Whats happening in the world of Leosmith Korean From Scratch?


I'm rather curious myself.
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leosmith
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Re: Korean - from scratch to B2 in one year

Postby leosmith » Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:51 pm

Xenops wrote:
qeadz wrote:*poke*

Whats happening in the world of Leosmith Korean From Scratch?


I'm rather curious myself.

Wow, 2 months later...haha. I had a month of personal health issues, followed by a month of recovery. I finally feel back to normal. I didn't get much done in that first month, or I should say, not as much as usual. But I made up a lot of lost ground in the second month, and I'm still on track. In fact, I bumped the reading goal from 20,000 known words to match Lingq's Advanced 1 level (24,550). I also bumped the listening goal from 600 hrs to 800 just because it's reasonable in the time frame, and one can never have too much listening.
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leosmith
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Re: Korean - from scratch to B2 in one year

Postby leosmith » Mon Apr 03, 2017 1:18 am

Just a quick note to fellow Korean learners - the dialogs for episode 1 of 힐러 can be found here. The rest will follow eventually.
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Sol
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Re: Korean - from scratch to B2 in one year

Postby Sol » Mon Apr 03, 2017 4:11 pm

I was a bit doubtful when I read the title of your log. B2 in a year? In Korean? Especially after studying Korean for half a year and still feeling so much of a beginner myself. But then I saw that you had reached B2 in so many languages already, including the other 2 "main" Asian languages. How much do you feel Mandarin and Japanese are helping you with Korean?

I also had a bit of a break/setback from my studies for 3 months unfortunately :(

Good luck with your Korean! You might also want to check out How to Study Korean, it's like an online textbook and has a lot of grammar, but after all those languages you probably have a routine that works great for you already. I'm still trying to find out the best way of learning for me :)
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