My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
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

My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Tue Dec 26, 2017 1:44 am

Hello, everyone!

As the new year is approaching, I decided to start a new log. Here you can see my 2017's korean log.

For 2018 I plan to continue learning korean, but this time I want to try a somehow different approach.

Last year I experimented a lot, trying to find the best way for me to learn the language while having fun but, sometimes, I continued doing activities even after they had stopped being fun or even if they were not as fun as I had initially thought they would be.

For this new year I want to be guided by fun and enjoyment. This basically means that I'll be doing different activities guided by what I enjoy doing at the moment. If, at any time, I stop enjoying doing that activity, then I'll stop immediately and try another activity. I may intercalate activities, completely stop doing some of them, or come back to some of them after some time. Fun and enjoyment will be my guide.

Let's see what comes out of this! ;)
13 x
Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

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: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Tue Dec 26, 2017 10:49 am

As fun and enjoyment will be my guide, I won't make specific commitments to complete things; but I would like to have a space for me to summarize what I've been doing and what I've achieved. So this will be that space:

Easy to Learn Korean series: I've read 45 pages

A score of 88% on the Viki's K-drama Vocabulary Quiz (just one word wrong)

Korean reading speed practice: I finished going through the second episode of the Iyagi series.

Talk To Me In Korean: I've read up to level 2 lesson 6

Talk To Me In Korean: I've listened up to level 2 lesson 18

고스트바둑왕 (korean dubbed): Currently at 36/75

NOTE 1: I'll probably not keep note of how much korean TV I watch or how much time I dedicate to things like listening to korean songs because trying to keep track usually takes away part of the enjoyment I feel. (But there may be some exceptions)
Last edited by AndyMeg on Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:55 pm, edited 11 times in total.
0 x
Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

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: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Tue Dec 26, 2017 10:55 am

Reserved spot 2 (I'm not sure how I'll use it yet) ;)
0 x
Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

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: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Thu Dec 28, 2017 2:40 pm

As I'm already using my "Reserved spot 1", I'll make space for a "Reserved spot 3", just in case. ;)
0 x
Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

User avatar
Bex
Blue Belt
Posts: 562
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2016 7:10 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 77#p157977
x 1538

Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby Bex » Thu Dec 28, 2017 2:59 pm

Looking forward to following your new log.
1 x
Kwiziq
A0: 100 / 100
A1: 100 / 100
A2: 100 / 100
B1: 91 / 100
B2: 53 / 100

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: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Thu Dec 28, 2017 3:17 pm

Bex wrote:Looking forward to following your new log.
:D
1 x
Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

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: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Sun Dec 31, 2017 4:20 pm

These few days, having fun and enjoyment as a guide have been quite a pleasant and liberating experience even if it's somehow not as easy to achieve as one may think (I've been battling with myself by trying to enjoy the journey without overthinking about how much what I'm doing will help me with my language learning or if I'm doing/choosing the right things to do and making the best use of my time).

Now I'll list the activities that worked and the activities that didn't work. In the context of fun and enjoyment as a guide, at this moment I don't care how much I'm learning from each activity, but how much I'm enjoying each activity. If I enjoy an activity, it works; if I don't enjoy an activity, it doesn't work.

Activities that I tried but didn't work:

- Taking the Viki's K-drama Vocabulary Quiz more than once a day. I really enjoy taking the Viki's K-drama Vocabulary Quiz once a day and thought it would be a good idea to take it more times along the day. Well, it turns out it didn't work. I enjoy taking it once a day but more than that makes it feel like a real chore. I think this may be because of the way I work with the quiz: after I've taken it I look at the statistics and my overall score, then I see the kdrama recommendations's images based on words I didn't get right, then the words I got wrong, then the words I didn't try to answer and, finally, the words I got right. Each time I focus on each word and try to think about it: Have I've seen it before?, Where? Is it related to vocabulary I already know or to parts of vocabulary I already know?, How? etc. And, for the known words I also read one of the two columns (the korean word or the english equivalent) and try to answer the correct pair and then I look the other column to see if my answer was right or not. Of course, doing all of this takes more time than just taking the test, seeing the summary with my score and move on; and this is why I think I enjoy doing it once a day, but not more than that.

- Trying to stablish a routine (outside of taking the Viki's K-drama Vocabulary Quiz once a day). All days are different. Some days I have more free time than others, some days I feel more tired that others, some days are harder or easier than others. So, trying to set a routine of activities I enjoy, didn't work (it hasn't in the past either, so I don't know why I stubbornly keep trying from time to time).

Activities that I tried and did work:

- Reading the Easy to Learn Korean series: I read these pages actively: I try to relate the presented information with things I've seen before and I also ponder about different things. As most pages also have phrases/sentences with dual text (english-korean) and parts of these phrases/sentences are color-coded I compare the two versions and I try to relate each part with its equivalent in the other language and also I try to notice differences and similitudes in the way the same (or a similar) idea is expressed in both english and korean.

- Reading the notes I've taken from my work through ""맞춤 스페인어권 한국어-1: Coreano para la Comunidad Coreana Hispanohablante". Surprisingly (to me, at least, because I've just gone through the first 30 pages of that book), I have 12 pages full of notes in a medium sized notebook. I tried to read all 12 pages of notes in one go, but I had to stop after 4 pages (I discovered that beyond that I stop enjoying reading my notes and start feeling overwhelmed). I still have 4 more pages to read, but at a pace of 4 pages at a time, I'm enjoying the ride.

- Reading one lesson from TTMIK, then watching an episode of 고스트바둑왕 (korean dubbed) and then using Memrise to review some frequently used vocabulary (not specific to this anime but to the korean language in general).

- I continued practicing my korean reading speed with episode 2 from the Iyagi series.

- I continue to watch korean TV (mainly with english subs) and listening to korean songs.

Achievements:

I got a score of 88% on the Viki's K-drama Vocabulary Quiz!!!! :D :D :D
I only got one word wrong from the 30 I was quizzed on.
Last edited by AndyMeg on Tue Jan 09, 2018 12:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
6 x
Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

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: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Wed Jan 03, 2018 3:19 pm

Quick update:

I got my worst ever score on the Viki's K-drama Vocabulary Quiz: 1% :shock:
It's amusing how I can get my best ever score one week (88%) and then my worst ever score (1%) the next week. :lol:

On other news, I finally finished practicing my reading speed with episode 2 of the Iyagi series (I finally could follow most of the text without getting lost while listening to the audio at the same time. The only times I got a bit lost were when both people talked at the same time, but I quickly catched up with the right part of the transcript). This practice have recently increased my reading speed by quite a bit but, now that I finished going through episode 2, I want to take a break from this activity. :mrgreen:
4 x
Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

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: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Tue Jan 09, 2018 3:43 pm

Now, time to make a summary of the past few days:

I decided to discontinue some activities. I was actually enjoying those activities but, as time is limited, I decided to focus mainly on the activities I enjoy the most.

So, which activities did I discontinue?

- Watching 고스트바둑왕 (Korean dubbed): I enjoy watching this anime (it’s my favorite japanese anime) but, as I’m still a beginner in korean, I can’t understand the finer details even if I know what is going on because I’ve already watched it (more than once) in japanese with english (and spanish) subs. So I get distracted in some parts or I feel a bit frustrated at not being able to fully enjoy the story the way I would like to. So I decided to pause it for the time being, but I’ll probably come back to this activity when my korean level is higher.

- Reading the Talk To Me In Korean lessons: I enjoy reading each lesson but, as a whole, the way the series is organized seems a bit chaotic and for now I prefer something with a more logical and graduated order.

- Practicing my korean reading speed with the Iyagi series: I finished going through episode 2 and now I want to take a rest. I enjoy this activity but it takes a lot of time before I can move on to another episode and for now I prefer to use that time in other activities that I enjoy more.

Which activities I did and I'll probably keep doing for now?

- Going through book "Korean Grammar in Use: Beginning to Early Intermediate": Last year I read a few pages in order to get a general overview of how the korean language works. This year I decided to start reading the book again from the beginning, listen to the audios, do the exercises (in my mind), check my answers, and move on. Here I’m going just for understanding, I’m not intending to master anything. I’m currently on page 27.

- Using Memrise to get familiarized with the vocabulary used in the book "Korean Grammar in Use: Beginning to Early Intermediate".

- Dabbling in the book "재외동포를위한 한국어 (영어권) 1.2" (PDF): I had stopped dabbling in this series of books because I wanted to have a better command of its vocabulary before moving on, but I really enjoy these books and I don’t want to stop using them because of my lack of vocabulary. So I just printed the vocabulary list that comes at the end and I’m using it as a quick reference guide for when I don’t remember the words I need while doing the exercises (usually mentally or out loud). I’m currently on page 15.

- Reading the “Easy to Learn Korean” series: I’m currently on page 9. Last year I tried to use this series from time to time, but my Korean reading speed was so slow that deciphering the sounds of just one phrase was a torture. Fortunately, now I can read a lot faster and I can finally read all the information in each page at a comfortable pace. Another reason that, in the past, made me quit this series, is that I wanted to learn all the information in each page before moving on, and that multiplied my torture (as if trying to decipher the hangul wasn’t hard enough for me at the time). Now I'm taking things in a more relaxed way and with a more open mind: I don’t try to memorize anything anymore, but I do pay a lot of attention to the information in each page and I analyze and compare it before moving on. I really enjoy this series because it helps me not only to improve my korean, but also to get a better understanding of the korean culture and their daily life.

- Working with the book "맞춤 스페인어권 한국어-1: Coreano para la Comunidad Coreana Hispanohablante" (this book is a dual-text textbook: korean-spanish): I finished reading all my 12 pages full of notes and I started to progress with the book again (now I have a new page full of notes). What I do is: 1) Do the whole lesson/unit 2) Go back to the beginning of the lesson/unit and look for things I don’t know or for which I have doubts about (vocabulary, grammar, etc.). Here I go beyond what the lesson/unit is teaching because I try to learn from every piece of text in the lesson/unit, be it the instructions for each activity or, for example, the short text at the end that usually talks about one aspect of the korean culture and how it compares with the hispanic culture. I enjoy this activity a lot, but it is pretty intensive and it usually takes me many days before I can move on to a new lesson/unit. I’m currently on the second step, at the end of lesson 2 (on page 27).

- I’ve been transcribing dual text (korean-english) from some TTMIK videos while trying to relate one version with the other and to find equivalencies and differences. I enjoy this activity a lot but it feels somehow intensive, so I only work on a few lines (about five or so) each time.

- Taking the Viki's K-drama Vocabulary Quiz once a day: I enjoy this activity a lot and it has become kind of a habit now.

- I continue to watch korean TV (mainly with english subs) and listening to korean songs. I’m really happy because “2 Days & 1 Night” (1박 2일) is finally back after a long hiatus (I think about three months long or so). And I also felt happy because there was a short script part with no english translations but I understood it :) .

- I continue going to my once-a-week korean classes and doing related activities (homework, reviews, etc.)


Some reflections:

I know I’m just two weeks into this “fun and enjoyment as a guide” approach, but I want to share some of my thoughts so far.

As I’ve said before, it is a liberating experience, but now I’ve come to realize it is also a motivating one. Last year I often found myself procrastinating instead of doing the activities I was supposed to be doing, and then I felt guilty for not doing them. But now, with my new “fun and enjoyment as a guide” approach I don’t feel guilt any more. This is because this time I can freely stop doing any activity I’m not enjoying without feeling that I failed (that is one of the reasons why this whole approach is so liberating). But I’ve also noticed that, with my current approach, instead of procrastinating I’m continuously trying to find and squeeze time for engaging in my korean language related activities. It’s just so much fun!!! :D
5 x
Beyond The Story 10 Year Record of BTS Korean version: 36 / 522

User avatar
Bex
Blue Belt
Posts: 562
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2016 7:10 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 77#p157977
x 1538

Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby Bex » Tue Jan 09, 2018 4:15 pm

AndyMeg wrote:But I’ve also noticed that, with my current approach, instead of procrastinating I’m continuously trying to find and squeeze time for engaging in my korean language related activities. It’s just so much fun!!! :D


Maybe I need more of this "fun approach"...I might procrastinate less :roll:
1 x
Kwiziq
A0: 100 / 100
A1: 100 / 100
A2: 100 / 100
B1: 91 / 100
B2: 53 / 100


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: kraemder and 2 guests