alaart's log (Chinese, Korean)

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alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
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A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (Korean - back in Germany, page 16+)

Postby alaart » Tue Jul 05, 2022 8:53 pm

10 hours of studying Korean again last week, sadly not more. Also spoke Portuguese and Dutch with friends. Both languages are rusty (actually all my languages are).

I continue with translating drama, translating children stories and I'm doing language exchanges.

Today I had a quick glance at the 경상 Dialect, because one women in the drama used it and I had to make sense of words that were not in my dictionary.
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alaart
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Location: Kaoshiung
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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6 month of study - overview

Postby alaart » Sat Jul 30, 2022 8:04 pm

So study times have been between 1 and 2 hours constantly, I was aiming at 3, but it's not really happening (today and yesterday I did it, but it's the exception).

Well, goals met or not. I'm still making progress.

So far during the last 6 months or so I consumed the following native content completely in Korean:

5 episodes of the drama One more time on netflix, and a bit of the 6th episode.
1/2 episode of the dating show Single's inferno in Korean.
1/2 episode of the drama "Romance is a bonus book" in Korean.
1/2 episode of the drama That winter the wind blows.
3 Episodes of Easy Korean - Korean street interviews on youtube.

I did 3 TOPIK I test exams.
And I read the children story 황양에 하루 on http://두루책방.com/ - which is in grade 6, the highest on the website (also read some lower grade stories).

I also did regular language exchanges, around 1 or 2 per week for the last 6 months.

So, that being said. I'm looking forward to meeting more Koreans in real life, but I have to put in some effort and hope that it works out. I talked to some people, will see. I'm also talking to some more people on Tandem.net - although study partners there have been extremely unreliable.

I spoke some Portuguese on Tandem, also with a random Brazilian women I met on the street (I happened to hear she said something in Portuguese to her German friends). And I started dabbling a bit in Tagalog. Had a look at some basic vocabulary, pronunciation and personal pronouns and such. Just as a light distraction from Korean, because I have signed up not only for Topik I, but also for Topik II which I will almost certainly completely fail. With this I pressured myself to study more, but so far I haven't. :roll:

Next will be more of the same: I will continue to translate the Easy Korean episodes, more language exchanges and more reading on http://두루책방.com/.

Japanese I haven't practiced, but I'm usually translating from Korean into Japanese, so it hasn't gone that dull. But my Chinese is in an awful state.
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alaart
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (Korean - back in Germany, page 16+)

Postby alaart » Thu Aug 25, 2022 10:44 pm

I was sick a lot this month, but in general I'm learning Korean, and sometimes some Tagalog. I translated 1 or 2 more Easy Korean videos, and watched more grammar lessons in Tagalog.

I'm chatting with Filipinos in Tagalog but also partly in English. I use that method where I write down correct phrases I learn from one conversation and reuse them in another conversation to get new answers and new words.

I also talk with Koreans, more freely, but it's still not easy for me. Both languages on tandem.org. The talk with Koreans is helpful, as I notice that although I have decent comprehension by now, my ability to form grammatical correct Korean sentences is quite limited. So Korean production is key and the next step I need to take.

I got a new roommate, he is Chinese (yay student dorms!). I spoke some Chinese with him, my Chinese is rusty, but it's still good enough to have conversations. But I sometimes hit a dead end. He is very eager to help me learn Chinese. As I don't have many Korean friends and they always are busy, maybe Chinese will take over, but for now I'm still focused on Korean.

Would be cool if I could write a bit more often into the log too. Well, we'll see what happens.
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alaart
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (Korean - back in Germany, page 16+)

Postby alaart » Sun Sep 04, 2022 9:50 pm

China decided to open it's borders for some students, and although my country was not in the list of countries for people that can get a visa the university, where I registered contacted me and if I understood it correctly it was probably possible to move to China for me right now. But it wasn't 100% clear, would have been a lot of chaos and very stressful because the semester there starts right now. Also I didn't really have the funds to pay the now overpriced flights and the quarantine hotel necessary for immigrating to China, so I withdraw from the exchange program and forfeited my scholarship there.

It's in a way not a surprise. But I'd have probably liked to go if China if they would have made the decision to open the borders a bit earlier and didn't wait until like one week before the start of the semester there :roll: . But in the end I'm a bit angry at myself, because I could have prepared better - and so maybe I let a good opportunity slip there, but that's how it is now.

Well, my situation in Germany is also not too bad. I spent quite some time with my new roommate from China, and his Chinese colleagues and friends. That means speaking Chinese in a group situation. It's tough, but I still speak the language better than I thought I would. I can follow the topic that they talk about, but I don't get the details. So I've been refreshing my Chinese, my Korean is suffering because of interference. I talked with a Korean friend online today, it was difficult.
But Korean will still be my main focus until the 15th of October when I will do the Korean language exam.

Tagalog, I only study it when I'm tired and need something lite. - not much progress there.
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alaart
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Social language life

Postby alaart » Mon Sep 19, 2022 3:34 pm

Soo.. I'm living in the university dormitory, but until now it was pretty empty (it was newly build and isn't even finished), but now some of the university departments are starting, and it's filling with foreign students.

I talked Chinese a lot, very badly, but still. I'm often in a group of native speakers, alone - and I just sit there quietly and ask about stuff I didn't understand. I was on the Mid-Autumn festival with Chinese friends, I tried dating a Chinese girl (was rejected - but good language practice). I also made a Korean friend and hang out with him, and some Japanese friends. My Japanese seems to be still very fluent in conversations. I could explain difficult concepts and cultural phenomenons without much trouble. Even some Kanji and Hanzi memory is coming back without me having read something, that's quite peculiar.

I have added a lot of vocabulary I picked up from conversations. Most of them are already in Anki in some old folders from 2019 (when I studied a lot of Chinese) and from when I was living in Japan. So, they are not really new words - I apparently have studied them before, but they seem like new to me.

My Korean is suffering. I study around 2 times per week currently, not enough to really maintain it. So Korean still needs a lot of work until it is "stable" (meaning I won't forget it when I neglect it).

On the same floor there seem to live a lot of Latinos. I haven't met them but someone told me they had a party with 18 Spanish people. One of my friends will move exactly into this dorm, and I'll probably end up there sometimes. I hope I won't learn Spanish now and get even more distracted, but the opportunity is there.

So, a lot of speaking and not much else. No reading, no grammar. It's tiring but it's also fun and exciting.

Oh, negative highlight was eating snale soup. Never again.
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alaart
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Re: alaart's log (Korean - back in Germany, page 16+)

Postby alaart » Sun Oct 16, 2022 2:33 pm

Small update. I did the Topik I exam, didn't do the Topik II. Results will come around end of November.

Topik I was just around the right level for me. Otherwise I spent some time with Chinese and Japanese foreigners who live here in Germany, so I was actively using the languages, but in a fun environment and I haven't really studied much.

Now I'm taking a small break to reevaluate my goals and ambitions. I think focusing on Chinese might be what I'll do for the next 6 months.
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alaart
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Note about immersion

Postby alaart » Tue Oct 25, 2022 12:13 pm

Wanted to make a note for myself to come back to later.

So, my Chinese roommate surrounds me with Chinese friends. Cooking, learning - Chinese people coming to our flat and hanging out. They speak Chinese non-stop, and I'm left there to figure out what's going on. I'm sitting there and basically I'm listening, as the conversations moves too fast for me to reply and I'm missing too much vocabulary.

I have to admit, it's a bit tough, and I feel a bit lonely and left out. But it's absolutely crazy effective. I'm sitting there with the Pleco-dictionary app and just input everything and try to follow the conversations. This is possible since my listening ability is usually well developed in my languages. After a couple hours of hanging out, there are hundreds of words in the dictionary history, and at the end of the day I'm adding them to Anki and review the conversations this way.

Not everyday is like this, but I just had 3 days like this in a row and my vocabulary is exploding. The words seem to stick for some weird reason too. Maybe I just understand enough to follow the context and this cements it somehow.

Note to myself: Get a good dictionary app for Korean (does it even exist?) and try this study method later. But for now I'll have to practice some writing (I will retake the HSK3 since my certificate has "expired" and is not valid for a scholarship application anymore).
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alaart
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Topik I result

Postby alaart » Thu Nov 24, 2022 3:24 pm

Got the Topik result today, I've passed the Topik I level 2. So that means my minimum goal for this year was reached.

Otherwise not studying that much, still hanging out with Chinese people though - so I'm at least using my languages socially. Made Korean friends too, although they encourage me - I'm chickening out using English a lot.

I practiced writing some Chinese characters, forgot writing pretty much - but once reviewed I can write them again. My plan is to review around a 1000 characters which will take me a couple weeks.

I don't think I will blog here a lot though - but who knows.

topik2.png
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Re: alaart's log (Korean - back in Germany, page 16+)

Postby rdearman » Thu Nov 24, 2022 4:18 pm

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alaart
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Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (Korean - back in Germany, page 16+)

Postby alaart » Tue Dec 13, 2022 1:17 am

I can write now around 250 characters again in all 3 variations (Simplified and Traditional Chinese and Japanese). This is far less than I hoped to review, but it's still something :!: - I'm doing a daily writing review too.

I have chronic hand pain so writing is exceptionally difficult for me. I'm really not that into characters, for example I never noticed before that the Chinese 对 and the Japanese 対 are not exactly the same, but differ in one stroke :lol: - or like the Traditional difference from 歲 to Japanese 歳 where one stroke in 小 goes to the left instead of to the right.

These small variations don't really matter much, but it's just interesting that I didn't notice them before, or that I learned and forgot them already.

I have not studied Korean, but when I met some Korean people I was able to speak Korean. That was surprising, since when I still learned it I wasn't able to. I think my brain is now starting to get comfortable with both Korean and Chinese use at the same time since I also started talking more in Chinese. It's still a long way to go, but I do feel a bit more "comfortable" in a sense that my head doesn't blank as much and I really can switch a bit back and forth without being totally lost.

I also spent time with Chinese and Taiwanese people, but more socially and I haven't studied as much. I will now continue to try to substitute English and German out of my social life and talk more and more Chinese and Korean.

I spoke Dutch, Portuguese, and Japanese - each exactly once last month. Seems everything is still sharp enough, so not much focus going into maintenance there.

So yeah, speaking seems to be my main goal, and a conversational level in all my language at the same time seems to be in reach again. It gives me a lot of benefits socially and just by speaking languages I made a lot of international friends here in the student dorm.
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