alaart's log (Chinese, Korean)

[alaart]

Went on a spontaneous trip to visit people that are important to me in Shikoku and Kobe, I know you are not supposed to travel around in Corona-times, but the travel buses and city connecting trains are almost empty in the morning (always took the earliest). Mainly there were only around 3 passengers per Bus, and maybe 20 per train, and I mainly spent the time away from high traffic areas (only Kobe-Station was unavoidable).

Not much internet during the trip, so not much chances to progress in Korean, I did like 3 or 4 lessons on Koreanclass101 when I had the chance, and reviews of previously learned material.

Then I had another go at the novel メリーゴーランド from 荻原 浩 (Hiroshi Ogiwara), the same I tried reading in September. I still have trouble reading it, but it is more enjoyable. - I started from the beginning again, and I only managed to read 7 pages, which took a long time, so I haven't yet reached the pages when I stopped, when I was reading half a year ago.

Then I also read "Fluent in 3 Months" by Benny Lewis - which was very inspirational, and probably will help me a lot. The thing is, since I study a lot through talking too, like Benny does, I wondered why I never had this kind of breakthrough and success with languages so far. Very important was that he described the limits of working through speech only, and described various ways to break through the plateau - something which I haven't managed in a single language other than English. Also I found a lot of other useful tips, and I'm a bit inspired about the open minded traveler lifestyle, which is something I could try out for a 1 year or so sometime in the future.

[alaart]

Japanese:
I finished the Anime "One Punch Man" (Second Season), and now started "Attack On Titan" - again I only paused as little as possible and just let it flow, trying to figure out things I didn't understand by context. So far I watched 7 or 8 episodes. - Since it doesn't look like we will have university soon, I'm trying not to add too many new words to Anki, since I cannot handle the review amount without commuting. The review numbers have dropped from 800 to 250ish, so I finally I'm less exhausted from all this vocabulary crunching, hope to continue learning from context with less Anki.

Korean:
Today is the first language exchange. But because of my trip I was kind of disconnected from Korean, and the vocabulary still didn't sink in. So yesterday and today: I first reviewed everything I studied so far, then I took the audio from the two websites (KoreanClass101 and KoreanFromZero), downloaded it and attached it to all my Anki cards. Then I deleted the review progress from Anki, studied everything from scratch, after I was done - 2 more times from scratch.
The flashcards from the English cards forced me to produce the words.. they still don't stick, but I'm getting closer.
Following the advice from "Fluent in 3 month" I made a "cheat sheet" to use in todays language exchange via Skype.

Then I also did some more lessons on KoreanClass101, so I have done 10 around now. On Korean from Zero, I did the basic grammar lesson (which is lesson 4 or so), before everything else - and now I'm starting regularly, currently crunching the numbers lessons.

I'm kind of a listening type, so I think with audio and speaking today, learning will finally work.

[alaart]

Japanese:
I set up LWT, and imported and read the relevant parts of the Wikipedia Article about Aomori-Prefecture, I'm not sure how far I go - but if possible I want to read a bit about some prefectures in Japan I'll probably never visit. I want to try out LWT for a bit for reading, the adventage over LingQ is that it doesn't split up Japanese words in weird way. A big disadvantage, is that I have to teach the software all the words I already know, which is kind of tedious. Still reading should be key, after I used it a bit, I'll compare to reading normally with dictionary and making notes on paper, which I did last week.

I also watched a couple more episodes of Attack on Titan, and played 1-2 hours of CrossCode in Japanese.

Korean:
A couple more lessons on koreanclass101.com, not much. Ah, had language exchange - I mainly went through vocabularies and phrases, no conversation yet.


With my new Italian room mate, who speaks Spanish, Spanish became even more dominant in my shared house. Still not so keen on learning it, but who knows. Although we are not under lockdown, the prefecture is in an emergency state and we are effectively encouraged to not do anything since today. University will probably be held via online lessons soon.

[alaart]

In LWT, you can mass upload terms. I just find word lists that included what kind of word it is and uploaded everything that isnt a verb or adjective. Could also add those but would have to decide if you want to add all the conjugations too or just leave it in dictionary form.

Thanks, it was actually your effort of collecting several posts in the forum on the topic of reading, that made me try it out. I'm still in the progress of reading all those posts, and so far I have not continued reading, it is super hard after all - but I will continue soon.

Japanese:

Instead, I finished the first season of 'Attack on Titan', it was difficult - but it was easier than the first animes I tried to watch in January and February. I'm proud I could do it , especially since it had many plot twists and I was required to know exactly what was going on, so I had to pause here and there, and decipher some unknown Kanji.

Also I played more CrossCode in Japanese, the game is still more difficult than Netflix, I guess because of the missing voices.

Korean:
I continued with Phrases, and a lot of listening. I also tried to read a bit on LingQ. But here and there, problems emerged - as the pronunciation was often different than expected. So I revisted the rules of Hangul, I have now studied them from 3 sources: youtube series, KoreanFromZero, and a Book - and shockingly there are differences, and nuances that each of them don't cover.
So I started to make screenshots and write out some words I encounter with different than expected pronunciation, I'm still in the process of this - but will do this while I learn.
I then took some of those to a teacher from iTalki, and had my first lesson today, which we spent on spelling. So slowly my grasp of the alphabet is growing, as I plan to be even more attentive while I dive into new material. Will continue to take some lessons, even if I'm short of money - but I think I won't succeed without.

The claim that Korean is supposed to have the "easiest Alphabet"

Still no grammar, and no speaking - just phrases. Tomorrow I will talk again with a friend, and will pronounce more phrases - than I have some stuff to do, and maybe towards the weekend I'll have time to learn some Korean grammar. Also in Anki, I try to add audio to every Korean word I learn, and I speak them out loud once a day during repetition. This takes some work, but I hope it will give me better pronunciation.

Despite my focus on sound, I will probably have a strong German accent at the end (like always )

[alaart]

Korean:
I had language exchange with my friend online, where again we went over word lists, but he also explained some grammar to me. And we checked pronunciation.

Then I discovered a website called How to Study Korean, thanks to a recommendation of a French class mate, who also is learning Korean right now. It covers the grammar, with Audio examples, and so far I learned the first 3 lessons there.

Japanese:
Since I can't go out, I did language exchange too. My first since a long time. I went over grammatical problems and text I didn't understand from netflix / reading.

Also I finished the second Season of "Attack on Titan", so I watched another 5-6 episodes of Anime.


I noticed my Chinese has gone bad, and I plan to do some maintaining soon.

[alaart]

Korean:
I have done the fourth lesson on How To Study Korean , but I noticed that although I get through the grammar quite nicely, the website is using vocabularies in lists and then proceeds using all new words: Those vocabularies won't stick for me, even if I add them to Anki - there is just too little context to remember them. I think I'll remember the vocabulary better in context, or with output. But for language exchange I still miss some basics, so for now I use Duolingo with Keyboard input. So far I have reached the first checkpoint, and I think the output helps me remember all the words.

I also want to look for some resources how certain sounds consistently change between Chinese, Japanese and Korean. I think something like that would help me a lot.

Chinese:
I did language exchange, and will do another tomorrow. The language has become very rusty.

Japanese:
Watched 4 more episodes of Anmie, still 'Attack on Titan'. Also did language exchange. I plan to step out from Anki, as I created my decks for roughly 90 min of review daily, and planned to study those in the subway. But there is lock down, and there won't be a return to commuting it seems. I think I can use my time better and learn more effectively than crunching Anki at this point in Japanese. I'll still use it for Korean.

[alaart]

Japanese:
Japanese is kind of on a break, I continued playing CrossCode, and watched another episode of "Attack on Titan", but it is already more difficult than when I worked on it daily. Also due to the corona break, I don't speak the language much. I can allow myself a break, because I only registered for the JLPT3 and not for 2 which I originally planned.. if the test is going to be held as scheduled remains to be seen though.
University courses on Japanese will start next week, since I didn't make it to a higher level, I take courses from the same level as last semester. Could be boring, will see.

Chinese:
Had another language exchange, and I started to "think" and speak to myself in Chinese. The language, although rusty, is still strong inside me, and once I hear a word again it quickly reactivates. Not sure how accurate my tones are after this long break, for me they sound alright , but I recall from another break I had, that I loose the tones quickly, will have to see. Plan to do weekly language exchanges from now on again.

Korean:
I had trouble progressing with https://www.howtostudykorean.com/How%20to%20study%20Korean, the vocabulary just didn't stick. I tried Anki and speaking/listening, and since the site has a memrise course - I tried memrise for the first time (also doesn't really work great for me - but will continue for a while). It is really hard to learn systematically for me - and I probably will change towards a quick skim through to the rest of the basic grammar and will instead try to learn from language exchange and input.

I forced myself through lesson 5 and halfway through 6 (I covered present- and past-tense, but still have to cover future tense). I then started preparing some sort of story I could try to go through in language exchange, and I kind of had my first "conversation" like this - with a lot of help. Immediately, I recognized everything better once I was forced to speak the words and change the conjugations while speaking. I want to write down my dialogue I had in my next post, still haven't found the time to review. (from experience: reviewing after the language exchange helps me big time, but I'm sometimes lazy and won't review, or postpone it).

My Korean friend knows I speak a couple of languages, so he is kind of enthusiastic to teach and challenge me, and get output from me in Korean. He probably expects me to learn fast, oh dear.

I registered for a Korean course in university, but was rejected - so the lessons will all be Japanese lessons. Instead I think I will search for a second Korean language exchange partner on iTalki once I progressed somewhat through the most basic grammar. Still not totally confident

[alaart]

Japanese:
Mainly watched Anime, I'm on the last episode of "Attack on Titan". I made notes of everything I didn't understand, and had language exchange with a friend going over all of my questions.

Korean:
I found another language exchange, so I'll try to do 2 per week now. I went over what we spoke about in language exchange, but I'm not finished. Added all new verbs, and also from my grammar lesson to Anki with audio.

I finished the grammar lessons 6 and 7, and I am now halfway through 8 at How to Study Korean. It's not like I can use all the grammar now, actually the grammar is too heavy for me to remember properly. Too many rules, unbelievable - it's like my native language German. I'll aim for a quick read through, with just a rough understanding, followed by diving into content.

I want to have another go at a new pronunciation guide too. I decided to keep studying Korean for at least another month, so I also registered for the 6WC.

[alaart]

Thanks for the recommendation. Yes something else might have been quicker. But I guess I'll stick to it now, at least until I finish the first grammar segment.

I like the website mainly because of the sample sentences with recorded audio, those are just easier to learn for me than straight vocabulary lists. I just add them to Anki, and read them out loud every morning. The in depth grammar explanations and structure is something that will allow me to look up things quickly later.

[eido]

If you ever need help with Korean grammar, I'm happy to assist you!

Korean is my passion.

알랏씨도 지원을 필요하면, 몰어하세요.

한국어 사랑해.