My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

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

Postby AndyMeg » Sat Jan 12, 2019 7:01 pm

ロータス wrote:I recommend Papago over Google Translate

I'll use Papago then. Thanks!!! :D
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AndyMeg
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:06 pm

Trying to balance korean and chinese is a bit hard at the moment. So I decided to cut most of my korean activities.

I still plan to go back to my weekly korean classes on February. But, besides the classes, for the next few months I think I'll only be doing activity number 1:

1) Rewatch k-dramas with korean subs. I'll try to pay attention to the subs, but I want to have more of an extensive approach here, so I won't be pausing at each and every line and instead I'll just read whatever I'm able to read and understand whatever I'm able to understand without pausing the video. There may be exceptions to this "no-pausing the video" approach, but they will be exceptions and not the rule.

I decided to rewatch old dramas because this way I will have a better idea of the general plot and I won't get lost. Later, when I'm better at korean, I may try to do this with new dramas.

I decided to start with My Love From the Star (별에서 온 그대). This is a drama for which I had already watched the first episodes with english subs. I don't remember why I stopped watching it (I probably got busy and then forgot to go back to it), but I want to finish it. My current plan is to rewatch the drama with korean subs up to the point I had left it before, then I'll have to decide if I continue with korean subs or change to english subs.

My idea is to always being watching a k-drama with korean subs so, if I start to watch the rest of this drama with english subs, I'll look for another drama (that I had already watched) to start watching it with korean subs.

Besides this, I'll just continue watching korean TV with and without english subs (and listening to korean songs) as I feel like it (I continued to do this even during my break from "officially" learning korean).

I've currently rewatched (with korean subs) up to episode 4 of "My Love From the Star (별에서 온 그대)".

I enjoy this activity a lot and for now it doesn't seem to conflict with my chinese learning journey. :D
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AndyMeg
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:21 pm

Quick update:

Watched up to episode 6 of "My Love From the Star" (별에서 온 그대) with korean subs, which is near to the point I had left it before (when it was still airing and I was watching it with english subs). I decided to continue watching the rest of the drama with english subs in order to be able to fully enjoy it.

As my plan is to always be watching a k-drama with korean subs I started to rewatch Signal (시그널) this way.
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Sayonaroo
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby Sayonaroo » Thu Jan 17, 2019 10:02 pm

I think you'd be better off studying from the episodes with korean subs or korean script whether it's a couple scene or the whole ep after watching the eps with english subs rather than passively watching with korean subs (or are you actively looking up words and adding them to your anki deck). if you have the video files I highly recommend workaudiobook.
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AndyMeg
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Fri Jan 18, 2019 12:58 am

Sayonaroo wrote:I think you'd be better off studying from the episodes with korean subs or korean script whether it's a couple scene or the whole ep after watching the eps with english subs

I'm already doing this. That's why I'm rewatching old dramas (which I've already watched with english or spanish subs) instead of new ones:

AndyMeg wrote:1) Rewatch k-dramas with korean subs. I'll try to pay attention to the subs, but I want to have more of an extensive approach here, so I won't be pausing at each and every line and instead I'll just read whatever I'm able to read and understand whatever I'm able to understand without pausing the video. There may be exceptions to this "no-pausing the video" approach, but they will be exceptions and not the rule.

I decided to rewatch old dramas because this way I will have a better idea of the general plot and I won't get lost. Later, when I'm better at korean, I may try to do this with new dramas.

I decided to start with My Love From the Star (별에서 온 그대). This is a drama for which I had already watched the first episodes with english subs. I don't remember why I stopped watching it (I probably got busy and then forgot to go back to it), but I want to finish it. My current plan is to rewatch the drama with korean subs up to the point I had left it before, then I'll have to decide if I continue with korean subs or change to english subs.

My idea is to always being watching a k-drama with korean subs so, if I start to watch the rest of this drama with english subs, I'll look for another drama (that I had already watched) to start watching it with korean subs.

Besides this, I'll just continue watching korean TV with and without english subs (and listening to korean songs) as I feel like it (I continued to do this even during my break from "officially" learning korean).


Sayonaroo wrote:rather than passively watching with korean subs (or are you actively looking up words and adding them to your anki deck).

My general idea with this activity is as follows:

1) There are spoken words that I can recognize but for which I don't know how they are written, so this activity helps me to associate the spoken form with the written form.
2) There are written words that I can recognize but for which I'm not always sure about how they should be pronounced, so this activity helps me with that as well.
3) Seeing the korean subs while listening to the spoken version helps me to better associate meaning with words/phrases/sentences and to reinforce my general familiarity with spoken korean.
4) When we read words at high speed we usually don't read each and every letter, instead, we see words as images. So I'm trying to increase my familiarity with the written form of spoken korean, so that I can eventually read the subtitles faster and see the words more as complete images than as individual letters.
5) I want this to be more of an extensive activity, but if I were to look up words (and add them to anki) that would make it an intensive activity, and that's not what I'm looking for right now. But, as I'm consciously paying attention to the korean subs while trying to associate them with the spoken form, I don't think this activity can be called "passive".

Sayonaroo wrote:if you have the video files I highly recommend workaudiobook.

Thanks for the recommendation! I'm currently using Viki, but I'll keep this app/software in mind for future language learning purposes ;)
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Sayonaroo
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby Sayonaroo » Fri Jan 18, 2019 1:12 am

I think you should still try to do something more active with the drama like one scene (so it's less of a burden) you really liked on top of what you're doing because what you're doing is very passive. You're missing out on opportunities to notice stuff by not looking up anything. Even if you limited yourself to looking up 5 words per episode or something, that's 5 more things you have to notice when you watch passively with english subs or Korean subs. I feel like you're shooting yourself in the foot by missing out on opportunities to reinforce what you learn since you are watching this 20 something episode drama.

I imagine that after you do your watching korean subs, you can hear/understand the drama better if you were to watch it again with no subs but you'd still not gain a significant increase in comprehension in terms of vocabulary since you didn't look up anything (I'm sure you still picked up some words from the english subs, context, etc). I think you'd be better of just re-listening to the audio multiple times and intensively studying lines from a scene or something than this passive activity.

if you want to read korean text with audio there are sites like this
https://audioclip.naver.com/channels/57

after clicking on the topic, click on "CLIP NEYONG" for the transcription.
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AndyMeg
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Fri Jan 18, 2019 2:02 am

Sayonaroo wrote:I think you should still try to do something more active with the drama like one scene (so it's less of a burden) you really liked on top of what you're doing because what you're doing is very passive. You're missing out on opportunities to notice stuff by not looking up anything. Even if you limited yourself to looking up 5 words per episode or something, that's 5 more things you have to notice when you watch passively with english subs or Korean subs. I feel like you're shooting yourself in the foot by missing out on opportunities to reinforce what you learn since you are watching this 20 something episode drama.

I imagine that after you do your watching korean subs, you can hear/understand the drama better if you were to watch it again with no subs but you'd still not gain a significant increase in comprehension in terms of vocabulary since you didn't look up anything (I'm sure you still picked up some words from the english subs, context, etc). I think you'd be better of just re-listening to the audio multiple times and intensively studying lines from a scene or something than this passive activity.

I think we have different concepts of what "active" and "passive" mean. I usually watch k-dramas in an active (but not intensive) way. Even when I watch with english subs I've gotten used to actively compare the korean I hear with the english translation I read. And I learn from it.

I deeply appreciate your concerns and your advice.

Sometimes people care a lot about time and I can understand this point of view. But I care more about enjoyment and energy levels. An activity may be "more effective" than other in terms of time spent, but if I don't enjoy that activity I won't stick with it, and so I won't reach the expected improvement from it. But if I enjoy an activity, I stick with it, and even if it takes more time, I improve.

Energy levels are also important for me. Intensive activities require more energy. Besides korean, I'm currently learning (mandarin) chinese as well. For (mandarin) chinese I'm doing some intensive activities and I'm learning a lot from them in a short period of time, but they leave me exhausted (and add to this other life commitments that require lots of energy). So, when I turn back to korean, I usually have more time to spend but less energy to spend. In that case, the best activities for me are the ones that require lower energy levels even if they take more time.

Sayonaroo wrote:if you want to read korean text with audio there are sites like this
https://audioclip.naver.com/channels/57

after clicking on the topic, click on "CLIP NEYONG" for the transcription.

This resource looks great! Thanks!!! :D
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AndyMeg
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Sun Apr 28, 2019 1:55 pm

Hi!

It's been a long time!

I continue improving my korean little by little.

I've stopped logging as much as before because I'm trying a more casual (stress-free) approach to language learning.

Instead of making big plans I'm rather enjoying just going with the flow each day.

I've been watching the k-drama "Clean with Passion for Now" (일단 뜨겁게 청소하라) with dual subs (korean-english) and I'm up to episode 6 now. And I've also been watching short clips and complete episodes of the "High Kick Through The Roof" (지붕 뚫고 하이킥) sitcom. The short clips are being uploaded by the MBCentertainment official channel in Youtube and are like mini-stories. A lot of them come with english and spanish subs (and ocassional korean remarks), which gives a lot of flexibility when you want to use them to learn korean. And it's also nice that, as they are around five minutes long and tell a "complete" mini-story, it is easy (and not boring) to put them on a loop and get lots of repetition to assimilate things and improve understanding. Here are two of my favorite clips so far:





I recently bought a bunch of books related to korean. Some are physical books (that I found at a big book fair I went to in another city) and some are Kindle books. From the Kindle books I love the "Pronunciation and spelling" section on the "Speed Up Your Korean" book, because it covers common mistakes made by foreigners and gives very helpful tips for correct pronunciation. (I have yet to read the other sections of the book)

I also got my hands on some physical books from TalkToMeInKorean and I'm eager to start using them.

Besides that, I bought three non-language-learning-targeted books written in korean: two are beautifully ilustrated children's stories texts and the other one is a book about the Aspects of the Novel (creative writing is one of my biggest passions). I hope these books will help me get a more direct contact with korean native material besides my usual TV/movies-based approach.
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AndyMeg
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Thu Jun 13, 2019 2:40 am

I've been using the Nuri Sejong Hakdang website quite a lot over the last few weeks.

Today I watched two 30-minutes-long-episodes from the drama "Angel’s Last Mission: Love" (단, 하나의 사랑) without subs and I could completely understand a lot of dialogue lines. It made me feel so happy :D. It's so nice when things like these happen because it makes me feel and see the progress I'm making.

Lately I had been reading a lot about the Lexical Approach. This motivated me to start a new acitivity: handwrite parallel sentences (korean-english) taken from different sources and use colors to match meaning fragments in both versions of the same sentence. I don't have a color-code established. Here are some examples with sentences from the book "A Frequency Dictionary of Korean: Core Vocabulary for Learners" by Sun-Hee Lee, Seok Bae Jang and Sang Kyu Seo:

-
아이들은 가게에서 아이스크림을 먹었어요.
The children had ice cream at the shop.

-
오랜만에 우리가 영화를 같이 봤군요.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a movie together.

-
저는 먼저 이를 닦고 샤워합니다 .
I first brush my teeth and then take a shower.

I really like this activity, but I do it in short bursts of about 5 to 10 sentences each time. The coloring part makes it feel like a fun game :)
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eido
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby eido » Thu Jun 13, 2019 3:15 am

That's one of my favorite ways to approach any language. Glad it's working for you! :)
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