For 2022, a Zen approach to language learning (Asian Languages, but mainly Korean)

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AndyMeg
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For 2022, a Zen approach to language learning (Asian Languages, but mainly Korean)

Postby AndyMeg » Thu Jan 13, 2022 11:08 pm

Hi!

I'm back! :D

Last year I was busy with so many things that I could not dedicate enough time to language learning.

This year I'll still be busy with some big projects I have in other areas of my life, but I do want to come back to language learning in a more "daily-basis" way. But as I don't want to force things and distract me from my other big projects, I decided to take a Zen approach to language learning.

My main focus for this year will be Korean, but I'll be doing one activity aiming at increasing my familiarity with Chinese Characters (I explained that activity in this link, in case you want to know about it).

I'm trying to work daily (except for Sundays) on these five activities for Korean:

- Using "Language Learning With Netflix" (now "Language Reactor") for watching new Korean shows (dramas, movies, variety programs, etc.)

I have the auto-pause button activated, so that it automatically stops the video after each line. I have dual English-Korean subs activated, but the English subs are hidden.

If I understand the sentence right away I just move on to the next line. If not, I use the pop-up dictionary to get an idea of what the unknown words mean, and I try to understand the whole line from just the Korean CCs (Closed Captions). I may replay the audio of a specific word, or replay the whole line's audio as many times as I want or none at all if I don't want to. After I'm done with a line, I uncover the English subs to make sure I understood it right (or to correct any mistakes in my understanding) and then I let the video play normally until it automatically stops at the end of the next line.

As part of my Zen approach I'm using only one video at a time for language learning purposes, but I can watch other kind of Korean content with English or Spanish subs whenever I want to.

For this activity I'm currently using the series "지옥" ("Hell" or Hellbound"), but I'm also watching other Korean content with English or Spanish subs just for entertainment purposes.

- Read outloud "A Frequency Dictionary of Korean"


I'm loosely trying to do 50 words/sentences each day (from the "Main Index"), but I actually don't really stress over it and just read as many or as few words/sentences as I can each day.

- Read outloud "Korean Grammar for Speaking Vol. 1 and 2" by Song Won.

I read as much or as little as I can each day and I mark where I left.

I'm currently on Unit 6 of Vol. 1.


- Read outloud the explained version of a BTS' song in the website "Bangtan Korean".


I'm currently going through the song "Life Goes On" from the album "BE". Sometimes there are links to more information about grammar points or other info of interest and if I see fit to, I read the info in those links as well.

- Read outloud the "K-Grammar Through Kpop" section from the website "Learn Korean through K-POP"

I'm currently reading the "K-Grammar Basics" section.


As long as I dedicate even a tiny bit of time to each activity each day, I mark it as done for the day. But if there comes a day when I can not engage in one activity or in any activity at all, I don't stress over it, because I consider each day a new beginning and I don't carry the bagage from previous days. Also, even if I've marked an activity as done for the day, I may come back to do more of it at a later time on the same day if I want to and time permits.

And well, I think that's it for now.

Happy New Year! :)
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Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

AndyMeg
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Re: For 2022, a Zen approach to language learning (Asian Languages, but mainly Korean)

Postby AndyMeg » Mon Jan 17, 2022 4:15 pm

After the first week, I've decided to make some adjustments to the activities.

I worked on every activity the past week, but I could not work on all the activities on the same day.

My main activity is the one with Netflix, so I prioritized that one, and worked on it almost every day.

There was one time when I was enjoying the Netflix activity a lot, but felt a bit bad because using so much time on this activity would leave me with no time left for others I hadn't done for the day. But, anyways, I continued with my Netflix activity because I wanted to stay true to the Zen approach.

Now that a week has passed since I started this bunch of activities, I've come to realize I need to cut off one and modify another.

The activity I'll cut off will be this one: Read outloud the "K-Grammar Through Kpop" section from the website "Learn Korean through K-POP". The reason for it is that I'm already reading another grammar series and in the BTS' songs activity I'm also seeing grammar from their songs, so this activity feels extremely redundant and I wasn't inclined to do it most of the days even when I had the time to do it.

Now, the activity I want to modify is this one: Read outloud "A Frequency Dictionary of Korean". The reason for it is that reading the sentences outloud takes away time that I would prefer using doing the Netflix activity. But as I do find benefits from reading the Frequency Dictionary, I decided to ditch the Main Index (the one that comes with the sentences) and instead just read outloud the "Alphabetical Index" (which comes just with the Korean word and its English meaning), the "Part of Speech Index" (which presents the words in a similar way to the Alphabetical Index, but also shows their Frequency ranks and groups them in different grammatical categories) and "Appendix B" (which is an "Irregular Conjugation Table" that I think would be good to get familiar with).

I'm really enjoying the other three activities, especially the Netflix one.

Many years ago I drastically increased, in less than a year, my English vocabulary by reading English translated manga. Since then I've been trying to replicate that experience with other languages but I've never been as successful as I was with English. Nevertheless, I think I finally got it right with the way I'm using Netflix for Korean now.

One of the main differences from my previous attempts is that I'm watching something new instead of rewatching something old.
That alone is making a huge difference because I don't usually rewatch or re-read things in my native language (Spanish), so forcing myself to do so for the sake of learning a new language was never fruitful for me in the long term and instead it was very energy-draining and stressful.

Another key difference from my previous attempts is that I'm focused on enjoying the K-drama's story instead on focusing on the language learning part of it.
While in past attempts I would focus more on the study part and continue trying to study with the same drama even if I wasn't enjoying the story anymore or as much as I would have liked to enjoy it, just for the sake of "completing it" before moving on (though I eventually would burn out and never complete it anyway :roll: :lol: ).

And I think I finally found a balance by allowing myself to use the pop-up dictionary and the English subs on my first (and probably only) time watching the K-drama, while other times I tried to watch the first time without subs or only with Korean subs (and it was fine at the beginning with dramas like romantic comedies, but as time went on, the unkown information tended to pile up until I was not understanding enough to continue enjoying the K-dramas. And, as I said before, I'm not one that tends to rewatch things even in my native language, so watching each episode a second time with English subs or other help to get a better understanding became boring and stressful for me pretty fast). Actually being able to completely understand the story on my first watch has made such a huge difference on my motivation to continue this activity!

And the decision of only using one K-drama/video at a time for language learning allows me to fully enjoy other Korean content with English or Spanish subs in a "non-study" mode and not feel guilty about it! :)

Also, the focus on enjoying the story first and foremost for my Netflix activity makes that I don't try to look for grammar or word explanations outside while I'm watching the drama (I just make do with the pop-up dictionary and the English subs and move on). It makes that I don't take notes about it (except if something catches my attention as a part of the story and I would like to look more into it as I would do in my native language or in English). And all of this makes it such a joyfull experience that I'm looking to do more of it every day, even if at the beginning I progress through the story very slowly (I'm just halfway through episode 1); just as it happened when I started reading English translated manga just for the sake of enjoying a story I was very curious about and that I came to like a lot. And it's that very same feeling of enjoyment that is making me look forward to this activity every day, which I think is also a key factor for this method to work properly (how often you engage in this activity, the more consistent you are with it, the more fruits it bears).

After just a week I haven't made a leap in my Korean vocabulary yet (and I wasn't expecting it), but I'm feeling a rate of progress similar to what I felt when I started my journey of reading English translated manga many years ago (I'm starting to remember the meaning of the new frequent words, even if just in the context of watching this drama for now, so I'm using the pop-up dictionary less and less for these words and I'm slightly more able to extract full meaning of the lines with just reading the Korean CCs), and all of this is making me feel very excited because I had been looking for this same feeling for so long!

Just to give you and idea of how much I'm enjoying my language activity with this drama, there were two dialogues I liked a lot. They were about four to six lines long and just because I found those dialogues so interesting, after I finished understanding the last line of each dialogue (with the help of the pop-up dictionary and the English subs), I went back to the beginning of each dialogue and played all the lines while feeling the joy of now being able to understand their meaning and nuances without having to use the English subs (which actually lose some nuances from time to time) or the pop-up dictionary. The feeling of understanding something you find really interesting in the language it is originally spoken is so great! :D
5 x
Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

AndyMeg
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Re: For 2022, a Zen approach to language learning (Asian Languages, but mainly Korean)

Postby AndyMeg » Mon Jan 24, 2022 5:09 pm

Time for a weekly update!


- Using "Language Learning With Netflix" (now "Language Reactor") for watching new Korean shows (dramas, movies, variety programs, etc.)

I finished episode 1 of "지옥" ("Hell" or Hellbound") and I'm ready to start episode 2.

I'm learning a lot of vocabulary related to religion: 지옥 (hell), 죄 (crime/sin), 죄인 (criminal, sinner), 신의 의도 (God's intention/ God's will), etc.

The above words have stuck rather well in my head, but there are others that I now have a vague feeling of familiarity with, but I can't freely retrieve from memory yet even if I have an idea of some of the letters those words may include.

I also started to use the "Papago dictionary" as an additional help for when I want to know about things that are not translated and do not have Korean CCs (like when a character is doing a search on the internet and just a key line is translated from what he/she is reading). I also may use this additional help for getting a better understanding of some words or expressions that are not so clear to me after using the pop-up dictionary and reading the English subs.

On one ocassion I got side-tracked for about an hour while watching the drama. In the drama a detective was reading articles about the sentence given for the murder of a woman (10 years in jail) and how the perpetrator had gotten out of jail earlier (in just 6 years) thanks to good behavior. In K-dramas the sentences for some crimes seem too light and others too heavy for the crime, so I felt curious about the Korean judicial system and I ended up reading Wikipedia articles related to it.

Overall, the first episode was very interesting and I'm excited to start episode 2 soon! :D


- Read outloud the explained version of a BTS' song in the website "Bangtan Korean".

I'm still going through the song "Life Goes On". One time I just put the song on repeat while I washed the dishes. Sometimes I put the song on the background as I read the explained version. Sometimes I just read the explained version without listening to any music, and sometimes I listen to the song at least once before finishing a session.

The website first shows the line in Korean, so I try to guess the meaning of the line before reading the explanations below.

I enjoy this activity a lot!


- Read outloud "Korean Grammar for Speaking Vol. 1 and 2" by Song Won.

I'm currently on Unit 10 of Vol. 1.



- Read outloud "A Frequency Dictionary of Korean"


I decided to stop doing this activity for now.

I think three activities for Korean is the most I can do each day if I want to try to work on all of them, so I needed to cut off one activity and I decided on the "Frequency Dictionary" one.

I think I'll be doing the Netflix activity and the BTS' songs one for a long time, but I'll probably rotate between different activities for the third one.


OTHER LANGUAGES:

I'm currently practicing the writing of the "Elementary 4th grade" group of Kanji and recently finished with the "Elementary 3rd grade" group in the "Japanese Kanji Study" app.

I'm also thinking about starting to practice writing the Thai alphabet just like I'm doing with the Chinese Characters. I already have an Android app for that called "Write Thai". I've dabbled a tiny bit in Thai before, and would like to eventually focus on this language to reach a solid intermediate level. Let's see how this week goes...
6 x
Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

AndyMeg
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Re: For 2022, a Zen approach to language learning (Asian Languages, but mainly Korean)

Postby AndyMeg » Wed Sep 21, 2022 9:19 pm

Hi!
I'm back! :D

This year has been very different from what I had imagined at the beginning.

I had to stop my subscription to Netflix for about two months, and the "bangtankorean" website I was using for BTS' lyrics suddenly disappeared and never came back. That put my Korean learning to a halt (although I do have a lot of material from that website that I had previously saved for offline stuying) and I also got super busy with other areas of my life, so I eventually stopped working on all other languages as well.

I got some new job opportunities, and I got busy trying to adapt to them.

I also started to focus more on my creative writing than on my language learning.

I went to a week-long vacation to the coast and that inspired me to re-start a fiction project I had outlined some years ago and had left "indefinitely on pause" since then.

I also had to solve problems with new stuff that were not working as expected, and dealing with that took a lot of time and gave me lots of stress over a prolonged period of time because I needed to use those defective items on a daily basis, but was not able to, so I had to look for alternatives in the meantime.

But even if I didn't do much language learning, I still kept thinking about language learning and how I would like to approach it, and now that most of the issues are solved and I start to have more time available, I plan to go back to actively work on improving my Korean.

A few weeks ago I started to teach basic Korean to an acquaintance's daughter and that kind of put me back on the Korean learning track.

A few months ago I discovered a very nice website/app called Mirinae, that not only translates full Korean sentences, but also analyses them and divides them into smaller meaningful parts and when you click over those parts you can get quite a lot of information (so it is more advanced and gets more in deep than the Language Reactor pop-up dictionary available for Netflix, for example). It's still in Beta, though, so it's not super polished yet; but very useful, nevertheless. Here a video about it:



I liked it so much that I started reading some Korean stuff with its help, but eventually I got sidetracked with exploring way too much inside the app, and I stopped enjoying what I was reading with it. So now I decided on a simpler and more direct approach:

I'll read whatever I want in Korean, but I won't look for grammar explanations for now. I also won't use pop-up dictionaries, because I feel I remember better when I type things on my phone or computer, than when I just put the cursor over an unknown word or expression. And I'll focus just on getting the meaning with the help of a translator, without stopping to analyse the Korean sentences because my main focus will be on keeping the momentum of my reading, and for that it's better If I move fast from one sentence to the next. Only when a sentence is too confusing with just the help of the normal translator, I may use Mirinae, or other resources to help clarify its meaning.

So, in summary, for now I'll focus on doing lots of extensive reading with the help of a translator.

And I won't care about the perceived difficuly level of the texts. I'll just read whatever I feel like reading at the time, because I'll have the help of the translator. :mrgreen:

I think this is the closest I can get to what I did when I drastically increased my English vocabulary while reading manga, and I want to focus only on this for a while to see how far it can take me.

Oh!, and I'll still keep watching English/Spanish subbed K-dramas and programs for entertainment. And other Korean subbed/captioned or not-subbed/not-captioned programs whenever I feel like it too. But my main focus and priority will be on my extensive reading for now.

I feel happy about this decision because I have quite a lot of books in Korean I've been wanting to read for ages, but I hadn't done so because many of them were too difficult, and if I used a dictionary or a translator I felt like I was cheating. But now, cheating or not, I'll just enjoy those books (and also some webtoons). ;)
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Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

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Re: For 2022, a Zen approach to language learning (Asian Languages, but mainly Korean)

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Thu Sep 22, 2022 5:53 am

Welcome back!
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AndyMeg
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Re: For 2022, a Zen approach to language learning (Asian Languages, but mainly Korean)

Postby AndyMeg » Thu Sep 22, 2022 3:40 pm

jeff_lindqvist wrote:Welcome back!

Thank you! :D
I missed the forum a lot!
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Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522


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