Postby The Real CZ » Sat Dec 22, 2018 3:25 pm
Woah, now I know why I haven't visited my log in a while. Please keep comments like that to yourself.
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Since I last posted, I have had a lot happen in my life, all good things. I went to Japan this summer with my mom, so I ended up speaking more Korean with her than I did Japanese with other people. We spent about a week at our main temple (my mom and I are Buddhist), so there were people from all over the world there. I remember some Chinese-speaking girls trying to ask me for directions, but I just replied to them in Mandarin that I'm Korean and didn't know much else. She followed my mom and I for a bit and kept on shouting "Hanguo (Korea in Mandarin)" to me, but there was nothing I could really do.
I have also moved to the DC area in October for a new job. I know there are plenty of Meetup groups for language learning here, so I can't wait to join them...in April. I'll be gone for most of January, and February and March are busy months at work for me. If I can find a group that meets up on the weekend (many I've seen meet up during the week), that would be great.
I have also gone back to Anki mainly because it is something I can use to review every day. I've realized that I can't read every day in three languages(plus English, which I tend to read a lot in), so Anki reviews help. I don't have many vocabulary cards yet as that hasn't been my main focus since the summer.
I have been focusing more on grammar study this year. Not traditional grammar study as in trying to remember rules and then creating sentences, but another method. I buy a bunch of note cards and write down the target language sentence and the corresponding English translation below. When I do this, I use Professor Arguelles's Scriptorium method. For those that don't know, that is where you say the target sentence out loud before you write the sentence, say each syllable (or equivalent) as you write the target language sentence, and then say the full sentence again once you're done. Then once I finish making some note cards, I shuffle the ones I just worked on and go through them again by saying them out loud. I save these in bundles of 50 cards, so I had to make a numbering system for my cards. Each day I review one deck each of Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin every day, if possible. I don't take these cards with me when I travel, so them being in physical form for this hurts in this respect. However, I know I learn better by writing with a pen/pencil than I do with typing. Plus, it gets me away from reading an electronic screen (which is why I still buy books in paper). I spend all day working with spreadsheets and software at work, so I like to take breaks from electronic screens as much as possible.
Obviously I'm still enamored with Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Taiwanese pop culture. I'm still watching dramas and anime when I can (getting older sucks in this regard in having less free time),and still listening to music every day. In fact, I'm even going to see Red velvet next year when they have their tour in the U.S.
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