KO+

[wnint]

Thanks for recommending the series! Anything mentioning 독학 sounds good I bought some Chinese textbooks the last time I was in Korea. I think they are called 중국어 마스터. They were recommended by the 언니 I shared a flat with for my month's stay. She majored in Chinese and used those in her classes. I'm not sure how well they'll work for studying by oneself, though. If there are problems I'll just try out the textbook you recommend. Did you buy it online?

Okay! Yep, from Kyobo. Shipping was like 50% of the total cost... At least the shipping was super fast.

I got into studying Korean through TV dramas. When I was a lazy university student I had a year where I watched countless Asian TV series. Mostly Korean, but also some Japanese and Chinese. I think I just fell in love with the sound of Chinese. For some reason, it sounds really elegant to my ears (when it doesn't sound shrill, that is )

Heh! I like it too. If I had unlimited free time I'd probably start learning Cantonese too.

If you only do half of your weekly to-do I'm sure you'll improve by leaps and bounds

I've never put this much effort into it (also never had less time to do so) so I really, really hope so.

[wnint]

Making a small update. Basically no free time and a lot of stress from work so I've fallen behind significantly. I hope to be able to get back to the initial study plan in a few weeks...

3 movies watched
~3 hours reading
50 new words on memrise
~5 hours listening

[wnint]

Another smaller update.

I have been focusing on memrise and reading. 250 new words since the beginning of this year which is exactly where I should be. Somewhat behind on the other goals. I have done a lot of reading also. Often just random topics on namu wiki. I always have to look up words and occasionally it does feel hopeless. But I think that if I compare the words I look up now and words I was looking up a year ago, the words I now look up more often only have entries in the Kor-Kor or are words that I don't need to know. For example as I was reading about palm trees ( ) and stumbled upon the word 외떡잎식물 (Monocotyledon or monocots). This words doesn't feel like a word I want to spend time memorising. It would be great to be able identify these kind of words (immediately), get a hunch of it's meaning and then move on.

Goals for week 10 and 11: Increase listening practice.

[Stassri]

I have done a lot of reading also. Often just random topics on namu wiki.

I don't like to meddle with other people's reading habits, But if someone asked me, I wouldn't recommend for anyone to frequently visit that wiki, especially if they're Korean learners.

I personally deem that site to be a cesspit at best. And so do most average Korean adults, in my opinion. The majority of the population of the editors of that site are immature Wapanese otaku kids obsessed with Japanese manga, anime, porn, and what not. To be fair, I acknowledge that some of its contents seem to have been written by people who work in the related fields, but the very fact that they willingly decided to contribute to that site goes to show that they're not exactly mature adult human beings.
Its articles turn up in Google search results and all, so you can't really avoid clicking on them, but as a Korean, I only read articles on topics on which I'm a totally ignorant outsider with the precautions mentioned above, or when I could profit even from extremely biased information, and sometimes plain wrong facts.

And if you're a Korean learner, I'd like to tell you that that site is filled with broken Korean language, influenced by their reading/watching Japanese stuff (mechanically translated into Korean) way too much, getting too much used to obscure Internet slang words and expressions, and totally unfunny memes at the level of grade schoolers.

A typical example of what I'm talking about is their inability to tell apart the sufixes -는 and -은 (as in 하는 vs. 한) which is just appalling. I wouldn't go as far as to say they're intellectually challenged, but it induces lots of thoughts on my end.

Some people say reading Wikipedia makes you stupid, but Namu takes it to a whole different level... Well, I don't think you'll really understand what I mean if I don't elaborate on this, but we're on a language learning forum, so I'm done with ranting here.

Anyway, good luck with your studies.

[wnint]

I don't like to meddle with other people's reading habits, But if someone asked me, I wouldn't recommend for anyone to frequently visit that wiki, especially if they're Korean learners.

I personally deem that site to be a cesspit at best. And so do most average Korean adults, in my opinion. The majority of the population of the editors of that site are immature Wapanese otaku kids obsessed with Japanese manga, anime, porn, and what not. To be fair, I acknowledge that some of its contents seem to have been written by people who work in the related fields, but the very fact that they willingly decided to contribute to that site goes to show that they're not exactly mature adult human beings.
Its articles turn up in Google search results and all, so you can't really avoid clicking on them, but as a Korean, I only read articles on topics on which I'm a totally ignorant outsider with the precautions mentioned above, or when I could profit even from extremely biased information, and sometimes plain wrong facts.

And if you're a Korean learner, I'd like to tell you that that site is filled with broken Korean language, influenced by their reading/watching Japanese stuff (mechanically translated into Korean) way too much, getting too much used to obscure Internet slang words and expressions, and totally unfunny memes at the level of grade schoolers.

A typical example of what I'm talking about is their inability to tell apart the sufixes -는 and -은 (as in 하는 vs. 한) which is just appalling. I wouldn't go as far as to say they're intellectually challenged, but it induces lots of thoughts on my end.

Some people say reading Wikipedia makes you stupid, but Namu takes it to a whole different level... Well, I don't think you'll really understand what I mean if I don't elaborate on this, but we're on a language learning forum, so I'm done with ranting here.

Anyway, good luck with your studies.

Thank you very much for your answer. I found the site found about a month ago and I got the impression that it was sort of a less moderated version of wikipedia. That is fine, but if it is riddled with factual and grammatical errors etc I'll pass. I'll revert to wikipedia for a majority of my wiki reading.

[druckfehler]

Wiki reading sounds like a great idea for a source of varied topics/vocabulary. I should make a habit of looking at wikipedia entries in Korean

[wnint]

Yet another late update.

Behind schedule on almost all goals. I've more or less decided to spend a couple of weeks in Korea next year so that has boosted my motivation a little bit.

Yesterday I printed five articles on wikipedia: 한국화, 주식, 설악산, 석가모니, 새누리당

I will read these multiple times. I usually don't try to nail everything before moving on but this time I'll try to get very familiar with the vocabulary and grammatical structures before moving on. I know that I lack a lot of vocabulary related to politics for example and I hope the 새누리당 article will help me identify some key vocabulary.

Tonight I will start to watch Misaeng, I hope it is as good as I remember it.

As I was cleaning up my computer I found about 700 screenshots of words and grammar. All from the first few months. I wonder if I would have been as motivated if I knew I would sit here almost four years later writing this post. I also found these early flashcard. I always get told that I write as a kid (I think it looks quite stylish though). My style four years ago is another story

[druckfehler]

That 새누리당 article is really complicated. Politics is probably the worst topic for me in Korean and I'm so lazy about it...

Your picture of old vocabulary cards reminds me of when I just started out. I also had a deck of these back then and not being familiar with Korean pronunciation and word formation, they were so hard to memorise

[wnint]

That 새누리당 article is really complicated. Politics is probably the worst topic for me in Korean and I'm so lazy about it...

Your picture of old vocabulary cards reminds me of when I just started out. I also had a deck of these back then and not being familiar with Korean pronunciation and word formation, they were so hard to memorise

There certainly are a lot of unknown words at this point and many of them words I've never seen before (I think so at least).

Heh! I still carry a deck with me.

[wnint]

Hello,

I've been wondering whether to resurrect this thread or not. Finally decided to do so. Health problems and work made me shelve my previous ambitious plans well before summer. Motivated by Steve Kaufmann, I'm doing three 90 day challenges with a week or so between each one. I should be finished with the last challenge just in time for my trip to Korea. Haven't decided what each challenge will consist of yet. I will however keep it less ambitious this time. I have realized lately that my biggest problem is lack of B2/C words. For example I have no problems with TTMIK's advanced lessons, mainly because I feel it is intermediate content but maybe at C speed. News, especially politics, however is much more difficult for me. So I will try to focus on these areas.

Challenge 1 - dec 1 to mar 1

Daily activities:
1 hour listening and/or reading. I will focus on news for listening and wikipedia, chosun ilbo etc for reading.

Weekly activies:
1 hour grammar review (이화 5/6, Grammar in Use Advanced)
>1 movie (mostly koreanfilm on youtube)
Every third week I will have a conversation in korean with a friend of mine who has started learning a couple of months ago.

Updates at least once a month.