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I was thinking of joining the Super Challenge but I don't want to do the reading part, so I decided to set my own video-watching goal without the time-frame constraints and with some special rules. So here is my personal Super Challenge:

To watch 300 hours of videos in korean without any kind of subs.

- I'll continue watching korean TV with english subs too, but only the videos I watch without subs will count towards this challenge.
- So that I don't unnecessarily stress myself and so that I can keep the fun, I won't set a time limit for this challenge.
- I don't want to become over obsessed with this, so I'll only count complete videos or segments. If I skim through a video, but don't watch it completely from beginning to end, I won't count that time as progress towards this challenge.

AndyMeg wrote:I was thinking of joining the Super Challenge but I don't want to do the reading part, so I decided to set my own video-watching goal without the time-frame constraints and with some special rules. So here is my personal Super Challenge:

To watch 300 hours of videos in korean without any kind of subs.

Sounds like a great challenge...good luck.

Now I'm wondering if I should've done this instead of the SC...

Bex wrote:Sounds like a great challenge...good luck.

Thanks!!!

Bex wrote:Now I'm wondering if I should've done this instead of the SC...

The Super Challenge just started, if you want to change it for something else I think you still are on time to do so.

Quick update:

I've decided to continue reading the Easy to Learn Korean series: Last time I read until page 24, so now I decided to continue from where I had left on. I think this series can be a good complement to what I'm doing because they teach vocabulary and phrases organized by topics and they also talk about the korean culture and society (in english) which I think can help me boost my listening (and general) comprehension. And I love that the series is full of images and color!

I read these pages actively but I don't try to memorize anything: 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.

My idea is to read at least one page every time I finish watching a k-drama episode.

Quick update:

I watched another episode of "Switch: Change the World" (스위치 - 세상을 바꿔라) with english subs. Then I read four more pages of the Easy to Learn Korean series (up to page 29). I really like that the korean writing comes with a reading/pronunciation aid. For example, I was confused about how to read 닭꼬치 (skewered chicken), but the guide helped: dak-kkochi. So I realized that in that word you omit the ㄹ sound.

Most of the pages I read were about "Street Food" and it was fun to remember some scenes from TV dramas while reading them (food is featured a lot in k-dramas and also in TV shows like "1박 2일"). It was also interesting because in a recent episode I watched (without subs) of "High Kick Through The Roof" (지붕 뚫고 하이킥), Julien (a foreigner) and the grandpa of the main family are introduced to each other, but Julien mistakes grandpa's name and grandpa (angrily) tells him that he is called Soon-Jae (순재) but Julien keeps calling him "Soon-Dae" (순대) which, thanks to the "Easy to Learn Korean series", I realized is a type of korean street food (a Korean pork sausage) .

I don't know how long you've been learning Korean, but what helped me the most was going without subs all the time. I started that a year after studying and led to me improving my Korean rapidly because I had to focus more on the Korean instead of having the English subs as a crutch. I even did this last year when I got back into learning Korean after a three year break.

Sounds like you've been making lots of progress since the last time I was online! That 300-hour challenge sounds gruesome though
But that might be because I just really like knowing what's going on haha.

The Real CZ wrote:I don't know how long you've been learning Korean, but what helped me the most was going without subs all the time. I started that a year after studying and led to me improving my Korean rapidly because I had to focus more on the Korean instead of having the English subs as a crutch. I even did this last year when I got back into learning Korean after a three year break.

I started learning it on mid-January, last year.

I agree with you on the importance of watching without subs, but I think that for the time being I'll keep the mixture of some TV shows with english subs and some TV shows without subs. I have three main reasons for this:

1) Last year I tried completely going without subs and that didn't work because before I could reach a breakthrough I got bored of not being able to understand as much as I would like and that made me significantly reduce the amount of korean TV shows I watched during that period. I'm faring better now, but I'm sure that if I tried to watch everything without subs I would have a similar experience to last year and I would again end up reducing the amount of korean TV I watch.
2) I watch korean TV not only for the sake of language learning, but because I enjoy their TV shows (I started watching korean TV long before starting to learn the language). Watching korean TV helps me to relax and entertain myself. If I were to try to only watch without english subs I probably wouldn't enjoy it as much, and then those TV shows would stop being an activity for enjoyment.
3) Contrary to what happened before I started to officially learn korean, now when I watch korean TV I engage with the language aspect actively: I've gotten into the habit of comparing the korean I hear with the english subs I read and to also read some of the written korean I find while watching those TV shows (signposts, the text messages a character sends to another, name tags on uniforms, titles of books, names of places, the tags on supermarkets, etc.). With this approach I actually become aware of many things and I reinforce some stuff I already know or have heard/read about somewhere else.

Christi wrote:Sounds like you've been making lots of progress since the last time I was online!

Thanks!

My main goal is to keep engaged with the language, and with my new "fun and enjoyment as a guide approach" I've been achieving that objective so far and I've also been having a great time.

Christi wrote:That 300-hour challenge sounds gruesome though
But that might be because I just really like knowing what's going on haha.

It is a Super Challenge, of course it has to be big . But, even if for the challenge I only count the videos I watch without subs, I still watch plenty of TV shows with english subs too (I need a way to keep my sanity and secure my enjoyment too ).

I also like knowing what's going on, that's why for now I'm only tackling one (and maybe, in the near future, two) no-subbed TV show(s) at a time. Reading the summary/recap after each episode also helps me to be up to date with the story and to discover the important bits I may have missed while watching without subs.

AndyMeg wrote:My main goal is to keep engaged with the language, and with my new "fun and enjoyment as a guide approach" I've been achieving that objective so far and I've also been having a great time.

I also like knowing what's going on, that's why for now I'm only tackling one (and maybe, in the near future, two) no-subbed TV show(s) at a time. Reading the summary/recap after each episode also helps me to be up to date with the story and to discover the important bits I may have missed while watching without subs.

I've also been trying to make studying more fun so have been watching shows using Viki learn mode and am working on rewatching Shopping King Louis for active vocab aquisition and listening practice. Have also started playing Pokemon

What kind of shows do you watch? And good to know you also watch things with subs haha.