Moops Last Chance! Spanish and Korean

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moops
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat May 20, 2017 11:10 pm
Languages: English (N), Spanish (B1?), Korean (beginner?)
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Moops Last Chance! Spanish and Korean

Postby moops » Sat May 20, 2017 11:46 pm

Hi everyone!

I wanted to keep track of my language learning, and thought this looked like a very nice community!

I'm currently studying Spanish and Korean. I studied Korean a long time ago, but never got any good at it. In fact my progress was just so frustrating that I just stopped. I would say over 5 years passed without doing anything with it.

Last year (March 2016) I got interested in Spanish, and was surprised to find it so much easier to learn. After 3 months, I was able to move to native materials - it was so wonderful! I have no idea what my level is - but I would say that I can almost see B2 (I was in B1 for probably 9-10 months and I expect it will take me, at minimum, 2 years to reach C1 level.

Seeing my great progress with Spanish made me want to try Korean again so in April (last month) I started studying Korean again. I thought I could use methods that I used in Spanish but what a joke. Totally not possible given the huge difference between the two. But, my approach is different this time.

Things I will not do: memorizing words, studying in a formatted way (out of a grammar book)
Things I will do: lots of writing

Anyway, that's it for now. I need to start studying ya know. -_^
Last edited by moops on Fri Jun 02, 2017 4:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
3 x
Spanish Output Challenge - Jan 1, 2017: 13820 / 50000 13820/50000
Korean sentences - May 1, 2017 start: 290 / 600 290/600 (jul 12)

moops
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat May 20, 2017 11:10 pm
Languages: English (N), Spanish (B1?), Korean (beginner?)
x 12

Re: Moops Last Chance! Spanish and Korean

Postby moops » Mon May 22, 2017 2:33 am

The plan

Spanish - I would like to aim for a minimum of 250 -500 words a day, either through translating or writing in a journal. Google Translate has been my greatest teacher, and I am impressed by it's capabilities. Whatever looks weird or insufficient, I'll cross reference with other sources (I love using Linguee). And if that doesn't work, I'll use Lang-8. I am also going to listen to podcasts with transcripts more. I used to just watch tons of youtube videos, but I'm still not catching things. I need to fine tune some things. I don't get many opportunities to speak, so I'm hoping writing will in turn help me with speaking. We'll see.

Korean - I would like to learn grammar through writing. I already know the basics so the plan is to try to write 5-10 sentences a day on a topic then post it on Lang-8. This is really hard for me! It can take me about 2 hours to find the right grammar and right words this way. And I still get a lot of corrections. My sources are Google Translate (mostly terrible, but occasionally good), and Naver. At this point in time, I'm not going to work on speaking, or listening too much.

I'll try to post a month later to evaluate and give an update on the progress.
3 x
Spanish Output Challenge - Jan 1, 2017: 13820 / 50000 13820/50000
Korean sentences - May 1, 2017 start: 290 / 600 290/600 (jul 12)

moops
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat May 20, 2017 11:10 pm
Languages: English (N), Spanish (B1?), Korean (beginner?)
x 12

Re: Moops Last Chance! Spanish and Korean

Postby moops » Fri Jun 02, 2017 7:15 am

Spanish

[May] Speaking: 7 1/2 hours
[May] Writing: Writing a journal is not too hard, but I don't think it's challenging enough because I write the way that I speak, which is somewhat ineloquent. Instead of writing my own things, I am going to try to translate passages. Sadly, I find it difficult to focus on two languages at once, and Korean is taking priority right now.

Korean

[May] Listening/Speaking: < 1 hour
[May] Writing: For the whole month of May, I stuck with my goal of 5-10 sentences every day. Did it help me? Yes! But, I'm not sure exactly how much it helped, since these things are so hard to measure. I can't say that I picked up a lot of active vocabulary this way, but it definitely helped me get back into Korean, and remembering the words that I studied a long time ago. When I started a month ago, the first few sentences I made in Korean were literally mental constipation!

To be honest, writing took up a lot of my time and I couldn't do much else, so I'd like to try something different for the month of June. I think I'm going to play Korean in the background as much as possible (not music). Although I don't want to memorize words, as I recall, I did do it for about a month while I was learning Spanish before it became such a miserable task, but perhaps it helped push me past some point? Again, I don't think I'll work on speaking this month either.

Goals for June
1) review flashcards with sentences and words
2) play Korean in the background
3) 5-10 sentences a week

Kay, I'll update in a month!
2 x
Spanish Output Challenge - Jan 1, 2017: 13820 / 50000 13820/50000
Korean sentences - May 1, 2017 start: 290 / 600 290/600 (jul 12)

moops
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat May 20, 2017 11:10 pm
Languages: English (N), Spanish (B1?), Korean (beginner?)
x 12

Re: Moops Last Chance! Spanish and Korean

Postby moops » Fri Jun 16, 2017 10:44 am

June Mid-Point Update

Spanish: Although I've been focused on Korean, I do try to read and watch Spanish content every few days. However, I have this awful terrible feeling that my speaking and listening skills are getting worse. It really depresses me because I spent a lot of time on my Spanish, and to see it actively get worse in only two months (can't recall certain words, interference with Korean, etc) bums me out a lot. I'm not sure what to do, honestly. Should I study one language for a month and then swap? I really thought I was at a decent enough level to handle two languages. :(

Korean: Goals for June

1) review flashcards - PASS. It's really boring, but I've been doing it. I'm still going to do continue though.
2) play Korean in the background - FAIL. I have a total of about 13 hours. I know it's important....I'll try harder...
3) 5-10 sentences a week - PASS. So far, I have 55 sentences that I wrote.
4) I'm reading! I found a few blogs, and I'm trying to make sense of the posts. It has been very helpful, and I think my reading skills are improving bit by bit.

Lang-8 Frustration: For some reason, I noticed that Korean users don't seem to like to use the colors when they edit! It's really, really hard sometimes to spot the differences. I did a search here, and some people say that it's because they are using their mobile to edit, and color corrections can't be done that way. Sigh...sniff.

Other thoughts: It's really hard to remember words, so I found that recognizing Sino-Korean characters are helpful. I'm not actively trying to learn these, but it's definitely something I take a note of. From learning Spanish, one thing that I've learned is to never underestimate the power of passive knowledge!
1 x
Spanish Output Challenge - Jan 1, 2017: 13820 / 50000 13820/50000
Korean sentences - May 1, 2017 start: 290 / 600 290/600 (jul 12)

AndyMeg
Blue Belt
Posts: 633
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2017 2:44 pm
Languages: Spanish (N), English (B2-C1), Japanese (A2-B1), Korean (Lower Intermediate?)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 02#p201902
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Re: Moops Last Chance! Spanish and Korean

Postby AndyMeg » Fri Jun 16, 2017 1:57 pm

I'll reply in spanish to help you practice ;)

moops wrote:June Mid-Point Update
Spanish: Although I've been focused on Korean, I do try to read and watch Spanish content every few days. However, I have this awful terrible feeling that my speaking and listening skills are getting worse. It really depresses me because I spent a lot of time on my Spanish, and to see it actively get worse in only two months (can't recall certain words, interference with Korean, etc) bums me out a lot. I'm not sure what to do, honestly. Should I study one language for a month and then swap? I really thought I was at a decent enough level to handle two languages. :(


Me citaré a mí misma de otro hilo:

AndyMeg wrote:I see it like this:

- The brain needs time to process new information.
- The already known information is organized in a specific way in the brain.
- When you add new information, the brain has to reorganize "all" of its current (and related) information in order to make space for the new information to fit in a way that makes sense (this is called "assimilation").
- When you add too much new information at once, the brain needs more time to process all of it and reorganize everything in a way that makes sense. The more information you add at once, the more complex and slower this process becomes (so, for some time, you may experience difficulty even with things you already knew).


Yo estoy estudiando coreano (A0) y japonés (B1). Por ahora me estoy centrando principalmente en el coreano, pues al intentar estudiar ambos idiomas al mismo tiempo había mucha interferencia. Mi plan es estudiar coreano por seis semanas y luego, como "descanso", pausar mi estudio del coreano y centrarme en estudiar japonés durante dos semanas. De todas formas, y para no dejar mi japonés totalmente de lado mientras me centro en el coreano, una vez por semana hago junto a un amigo una sesión de juego de roles usando como base las transcripciones de un dorama (primero, entre los dos, intentamos descifrar un segmento de la transcripción; luego, cada uno elige a un personaje y practicamos actuando los diálogos correspondientes). Además, de vez en cuando veo anime o doramas o escucho canciones en japonés (pero no tengo una rutina específica para esto. Simplemente lo hago cuando me apetece).

En cuanto al coreano, un curso que estoy disfrutando muchísimo es este (el curso está en inglés): Memrise's "Talk To Me In Korean" course. Me gusta intercalar el estudio de este curso con la interacción con material nativo (principalmente viendo k-dramas o programas de variedades, o escuchando canciones coreanas).
2 x
Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

moops
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat May 20, 2017 11:10 pm
Languages: English (N), Spanish (B1?), Korean (beginner?)
x 12

Re: Moops Last Chance! Spanish and Korean

Postby moops » Sat Jun 17, 2017 4:38 am

Muchas gracias por los consejos útiles. Recientemente, estaba un poco desanimado por lo que realmente era tan agradable para recibir una respuesta como así! He pensado un poco en esto y lo que usted dijo es muy razonable. El cerebro es algo misterioso y potente. Por lo tanto, es importante confiar en el proceso y dejar que el cerebro haga lo que necesita hacer. ^___^

좋은 팁을 주셔서 대단히 감사드립니다. 최근에 저는 약간 좌절감을 느꼈는데 이런 친절한 답변을 읽어보니 갑자기 기분이 좋아졌어요. 저는 이 주제에 대해서 좀 생각해 봤고 AndyMeg씨의 말씀했던 것이 정말 말이 되네요. 뇌는 신비하고 놀랍다. 그래서 과정을 뇌에게 맡기고 저 자신을 믿고 계속 노력할 겁니다.

Thank you so much! I was really feeling a bit deflated so it was such good timing to get your very nice response! I've been thinking about it a little, and what you say makes a lot of sense. The brain is really amazing and powerful. I should just try to put my trust in it, and I'm going to continue working hard.
1 x
Spanish Output Challenge - Jan 1, 2017: 13820 / 50000 13820/50000
Korean sentences - May 1, 2017 start: 290 / 600 290/600 (jul 12)

AndyMeg
Blue Belt
Posts: 633
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2017 2:44 pm
Languages: Spanish (N), English (B2-C1), Japanese (A2-B1), Korean (Lower Intermediate?)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 02#p201902
x 1302

Re: Moops Last Chance! Spanish and Korean

Postby AndyMeg » Sat Jun 17, 2017 2:55 pm

Me alegra poder ser de ayuda :)

Sí, solo recuerda darte un descanso (o variar la intensidad de estudio) cuando lo necesites , y luego recuerda también volver a la carga ;)

¡Gracias por escribirme tu respuesta en tres idiomas!

Aprovecho para hacerte una pequeña correción:

"por lo que realmente era tan agradable para recibir una respuesta como así!" quedaría más natural así:

"por lo que realmente es/fue muy agradable recibir una respuesta así"
1 x
Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

moops
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat May 20, 2017 11:10 pm
Languages: English (N), Spanish (B1?), Korean (beginner?)
x 12

Re: Moops Last Chance! Spanish and Korean

Postby moops » Mon Jul 10, 2017 7:06 pm

June Update and Goals for July

Spanish
It's Korean time now, so I'm holding off on this. However, as my daily upkeep, I do try to read a minimum of 1 short article and watch a minimum of 1 short YouTube video per day. I am going to come back to Spanish a little bit later.

Korean
Listening- I need to listen to more Korean. Fortunately, this is my strongest area. I'm very weak on the vocabulary though, so I think this is my biggest setback. I think I don't listen that much because I can't find anything interesting enough (that also has Korean subtitles <-- important for me!)
Writing - It's fun to write interesting things, and get help from others. I think the interactive aspect is what makes me keep up with it. Also! I find it interesting that when I try to use trickier grammar, most Lang-8 users just correct it to the basic ones. So I'm really going to try to master those basics because my ultimate goal is communication (in a natural way).
Reading - I read every day now. Most of the things I read are food blogs because they are much easier to understand and the pictures really help. They are relatively short too, so it doesn't hurt the brain too much.
Speaking - I haven't done any speaking yet. For the next month, I'm going to try to think and speak to myself a whole lot more. After another month or two, I'll try to find a language partner. Some people say to start talking from the beginning, but I tried that in Spanish and it was mostly hard and not very helpful. It was only until I was somewhat intermediate that it became helpful.
Vocabulary - I'm honestly not able to retain vocabulary very well. Sometimes I need to see the word 10 times in context before I stop looking it up. I hope to pick up vocab through reading because I decided that I just cannot do flashcards anymore (I do collect a ton of sentences, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with those).

July Goals: thinking and speaking to myself in Korea, and keen noticing
0 x
Spanish Output Challenge - Jan 1, 2017: 13820 / 50000 13820/50000
Korean sentences - May 1, 2017 start: 290 / 600 290/600 (jul 12)


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