I went out of town for a few days and I've also been sick these past days. I didn't get any real interaction with korean during my trip, except for reading the name of a korean restaurant I found but which was actually closed that day and would not open again until the next week, when I would already be back home (my poor happy self had already started to make plans to eat lunch there
).
On the last day of my trip I found a nice japanese restaurant which also happened to be closed that day, but I got to speak a tiny bit of japanese with a native who was watering the restaurant's plants. I felt really happy to see his reaction when I spoke to him in that tiny bit of japanese (just some greetings and a thanks after he handed me the restaurant's card and information).
For the time being I decided to stop doing the following activities:- Using Memrise: I don't enjoy it as much as other activities.
- Dabbling in the book "재외동포를위한 한국어 (영어권) 1.2" (PDF): I decided that I want to properly tackle this series of books later.
- The second step I used to do with the book "맞춤 스페인어권 한국어-1: Coreano para la Comunidad Coreana Hispanohablante" (this book is a dual-text textbook: korean-spanish):
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 enjoy this activity a lot (some days ago I even spent 4 straight hours engaged in this activity), but it is too intensive and it drains my mental energy too much, and I currently need that mental energy for other not-language-learning-related higher priority activities in my life.
Activities I did these past days:- Reading the “Easy to Learn Korean” series:
I’m currently on page 24.
- Working with the book "맞춤 스페인어권 한국어-1: Coreano para la Comunidad Coreana Hispanohablante" (an adapted version of step 1: doing the lessons and analizing and comparing the dual texts, but without going out of my way to look for things I don't know, except for things strictly related to what each lesson is trying to teach):
I finished page 40 and now I'm ready to start unit 4.
- Transcribing dual text (korean-english) from some TTMIK videos: Just a few lines.
- Taking the Viki's K-drama Vocabulary Quiz once a day- LingoDeer: I skipped the Alphabet section and went straight to the second unit (Nationality).
Now I'm on lesson 2 of the third unit (Determiner).
- I've been experimenting a bit with Viki's Learn Mode: I started to watch a k-drama with dual subs (korean-english), pausing at each line, comparing both texts and analizing them, using the pop-up integrated dictionary and replaying each line many times while focusing on the sounds, pronunciation and prosody. I started with this drama 밀회 (Secret Love Affair) but there was so much unknown vocabulary so, after 45 seconds of video, I decided to change to a somehow easier k-drama which I have already partially watched: 아버지가 이상해 (My Father is Strange).
I'm currently on minute 1:19 of the first episode.
- I continue to watch korean TV (mainly with english subs) and listening to korean songs.
Others:- Going to my once-a-week korean classes and doing related activities: For various reasons I have not had classes these past weekends.
- I also do other activities that are hard to measure: for example, when watching a TV program with english subs I often find myself comparing the korean I hear with the english subs I read and I analize them both. Sometimes, also while watching korean TV, I repeat outloud short lines of korean dialogue, and sometimes I pause the video to pay special attention to things like street signs and any hangul I find there (for example in uniforms, supermarkets, etc.).