Christi's Korean studies

[Oscard587]

Umm...Here are some corrections to aid your studying.

이번 달는 한국어를 공부만 할 거예요 Just kidding.

이번달에는 한국어만 공부를 할거예요.
~에 disappeared in the first sentence but I think it's just a mistake

++

이번달엔 한국어만 공부를 할거예요.
이번달엔 한국어만 공부할거예요.

에는 shortened to 엔 in spoken language frequently.
Koreans tend to omit a lot of words in their spoken language. ~를 is also one of them.

저는 운공을 하는 것보다 자는 것을 더 좋아해요.

저는 운동을 하는 것보다 자는 것을 더 좋아해요.
Perfect sentence, also it can be used in spoken language without any problem.

++

저는 운동보다 자는 것을 더 좋아해요.
'~을 하는 것' could be omitted because it appeared in later again.

저는 운동보다 자는게 더 좋아요.
The most colloquial form of this sentence with ~에요 ending.

암스테르담에 날씨가 이상했어요.
첫가 눈이 많이 왔어요. 정말 시원했어요! 집에 출발하고 싶지 않았어요. 그런데 다행히 밖에 아름다웠어요. 봐 보세요!
(video)

이 예쁘지? 한국가 예쁘기도 했어요?

이번 주는 날씨가 이상기고헸어요... 이 것은 폭풍이에요...저는 싫어요....많이 장소가 손상되다..

암스테르담의 날씨가 이상했어요.
집에서(or 집으로?) 출발하고 싶지 않았어요. 그런데 다행히도 밖은 아름다웠어요. 보세요! (or 보실래요?)

이번 주에는 날씨가 이상하기도(?) 했어요.

이 것은 폭풍이에요. 저는 싫어요. 장소가 많이 손상되다.
To make the last sentence more clearly : Things are not clear in this sentence that which thing you didn't liked.
이 것은 폭풍이에요. 저는 장소가 많이 손상되는 것이 싫어요.
이 것은 폭풍이에요. 저는 이 날씨가 싫어요. 장소가 많이 손상되었기 때문이에요.

피해 would be a better word for describe damage by weather in general.
but I'm not certain about what means 장소 - right word but not certain about this usage, so I just left it like now.
Perhaps 곳 would be used more frequently...

It's just a thought, I can't recall natural Korean expression for 장소가 많이 손상되다. when I saw that sentence first time
I can feel that my native language getting rusty time after time!
Thankfully, In Italki, there are many Koreans who are better than me for knowledge of Korean grammar and corrections.
Usually, they are only focus to correct Korean writings in there, not language exchange.

[Christi]

Umm...Here are some corrections to aid your studying.

Thanks for all the corrections! Are you here to study English? Do you know ask/reddit? It's a site where people hold discussions in English on various topics. If you want to improve your English it might be a fun way to practice

Anyways, moving on!
I've been ill lately so just did some small amounts of studying. I had a language exchange and will have another one tomorrow. Still am unsure how useful this is. I just talk about my day/week and do use a variety of words but because of this I feel like I'm not moving forward since I'm not really learning how to talk about a specific topic. I want to try talking about topics but I think it will be way too time-consuming. So I guess I'll just keep talking about my daily life and hopefully it will pay off in a few weeks. Probably looking at months though.

On another note, I finished two chapters of the study book I'm using and discovered that I know almost all the words in the book already. Same goes for grammar. There are only 4 chapters left and I think there are only about 7 grammar rules in it that I haven't mastered yet. So now I am wondering if instead of going to Korean class (still undecided) I would be better off getting an italki tutor and work through the book by myself.

I'm also thinking of getting the book Yonsei Reading 2. I think 1 might be too easy for me based on the topics but I really want to try reading some more diverse materials so I can move on to native reading material. I got myself Essential Korean reader but to be honest I think this book is for more advanced students. The first chapter is on the culture of bowing or shaking hands I will try my hand (lol) at it this week but there are 18 chapters which get progressively more difficult as you move on in the book.

[Christi]

So, a short update by me.

I've decided not to attend Korean class on Saturday because I think I'm too busy with my studies for school. So I've not really consciously worked on that list of goals I made a few weeks ago. I did do some more iyagi etc but have not studied all those grammatical structures. I think I mostly just learn things by using them so right now my studying is more organic.

For the past 1,5 month I've been doing language exchanges. I try to do 1 every week but sometimes things come up from either side and then we just skip having one. But so far, I have learned 133 new words just by doing this and have also been able to figure out what grammar I need to brush up on or learn.
Since this week I will also try to send a short amount of written text to my exchange partner. Let's see how this goes.

Once Easter comes round I should have finished my papers, thus have more time to actually start reading more comppicated texts in Korean. I have a graded reader that I am planning on using.
I'm also thinking of booking an Italki tutor to work on my pronunciation since I think I still have some difficulty producing all those consonants and the o and e vowels...Hope it won't take up too much time to really learn this.

[Christi]

Okay, Easter has come and gone and I have got a bunch of new deadlines that take priority

I have been sort of keeping up with my Korean studies.
Have been continuing my language exchanges and the last couple of talks were just spontaneous talks without preparing anything! The topics aren't very complicated and I'm glad to have access to the Naver dictionary app so I can look up a word if I need one. But doing this is pretty good for my confidence.

I've also been watching a few Korean dramas using Viki's learn mode. It's really good for increasing my reading speed and also for learning new vocabulary when I decide to focus on this instead of on the story. My new plan is to rewatch Shopping King Louis. I've watched the first two episodes again so far and was surprised by how much I understood! After skipping the parts about marketing and succesion issues of course I am also making a memrise for this show.

If anyone wants to try watching this show feel free to use https://www.memrise.com/course/1915148/shopping-king-louis-vocabulary/. I probably won't update this course until mid June though.

What else have I been doing? I played some Harvest Moon but had to quit because I couldn't figure out how to actually earn money in this game. Even using walkthroughs didn't work out. But I didn't let this get me down and have since moved on to playing Pokemon! Actually, I think this game is a much better option since I already know what happens in-game and can also decide to skip conversations when I feel like it. It's also pretty easy to just spend a few minutes playing the game without getting overwhelmed.

I also made a course for this so if anyone wants to use it, be my guest: https://www.memrise.com/course/1946906/korean-pokemon-heartgold/.

And lastly I've been reading a fairytale book and managed to read the first page of Harry Potter! Tried reading the second page too but that went right over my head. Am now planning to just keep playing Pokemon, reading the fairytales and Iyagi and then will make a second attempt at Harry Potter around August.

To end on a bright note: No idea if this is correct but Memrise says I ''know'' around 1300 Korean words. Let's be ambitious and bet that I can increase this amount to 2000 in August by reading and playing games.
What do you think? Is this doable?

[AndyMeg]

It sounds like you've been making lots of progress too!

Thanks for sharing the Memrise courses!!!

I want to read the Harry Potter books too, but I'll wait for a while because for now my main focus is to improve my listening comprehension.

In case you want to try it, you could use this when reading korean texts: FLTR (similar to LWT)

To end on a bright note: No idea if this is correct but Memrise says I ''know'' around 1300 Korean words. Let's be ambitious and bet that I can increase this amount to 2000 in August by reading and playing games.
What do you think? Is this doable?

Yes, I think it is. You can do it!

[humerusthings]

Hi Christi,
Following along with your log, it's really interesting! Also loving the memrise pokemon korean courses, thanks for sharing!!

[Christi]

Another quick update by yours truly!
I've had to stop my language exchanges on Skype for a while but will probably pick this up again in a week or two.
In the meantime I've been using TTMIK Slow Korean and Beginner Iyagi to improve my listening abilities. I think my listening skills have improved a bit. It seems like it's been a bit easier to understand kdramas lately.

I've been watching a few kdramas lately and have to decided to just jot down a bit of vocab while doing so. Like I mentioned before, I started a Memrise course for Shopping king Louis but tbh I think doing it this is way too time intensive and not really enjoyable. So I've decided to just do extensive watching and to write down some vocabulary whenever I watch a new show. This way I can just follow a new story without getting bored. This is a new decision I've just made so I've only added two new episodes of Because this is my first life. Will watch the new episodes of What's wrong with secretary Kim this weekend and update this course: https://www.memrise.com/course/1915148/ ... abulary-4/

Also, as you can see by looking at my signature, I've decided to try my hand at reading stories!
Two books are on Korean and Western fairytales and the other one is a Korean children's book (123pages!) about a family-run restaurant: https://mykoreanstore.com/collections/r ... tesreading
It should arrive in 2 or 3 weeks. My goal is to have finished most of these stories around August. But while some fairytales are easy to read I also want to make sure to have enough time to really learn any new words I encounter. So let's just see how it goes and if I will actually manage to read several stories per week.

Will update again in 2-3 weeks and let you how I'm doing. And probably count my Memrise stats, if I'm not feeling too lazy

Hi Christi,
Following along with your log, it's really interesting! Also loving the memrise pokemon korean courses, thanks for sharing!!

Thanks! Haven't been playing lately because of my studies but will probably play regularly again once my summer holidays start

Edit:
Found this really cool site with info about the books and poems in Because this is my first life: https://shiningkorean.com/2017/12/06/th ... irst-life/

And I also found this site with Korean poems and their English translations! https://jaypsong.wordpress.com/
The internet has so many hidden treasures! Have you found any other hidden gems?

[Christi]

So, I haven't updated this log or my stats for a while. Decided to update my log and will update my stats sometime soonish.

I've been reading a lot of stories lately and instead of reading the stories from my stats (am also doing those) I have taken a gigantic leap into the dark and started reading Harry Potter! It's going well and I like the fact that the sentences are more complicted than the fairy tales! I will finish the fairy tales though since it's really good for vocabulary building. I think the most difficult part of reading Harry Potter are all the unfamiliar words I keep encountering. But it really helps that I am familiar with this story so I will try to read a bit every week. I'm taking things slow

On a related note, I've started my own Korean study group in my city and it's been really motivating and also fun to meet all these people who are also reading Korean! Hope people will continue to show up.
And this week I will probably sign-up for Korean class, I'm aiming for intermediate 1. I think I might also qualify for intermediate 2 but I think I need to really solidify some grammar parts and get better at speaking and listening first. Will ask the teachers what they think since to be honest I just want to learn new things and not really repeat grammar I already know.. am afraid it might demotivate me.

Anyways, I've made a lot of progess since I just read an old log on here and I mentioned not being able to read Harry Potter haha. Unsure if I've hit the 2000 word mark though. Maybe? I'd need to count and also update my memrise courses but am feeling lazy today. Might do it later when I feel like taking the time. I think I might have crossed it though.

[Christi]

I passed the test so will be taking intermediate 2 classes in a few weeks! I did feel pressed for time so think I definitely need to start using Yonsei Reading so I can become quicker.
And I definitely need to improve my listening skills too. Guess I will focus on these two skills instead of reading for now. I'd feel awful if I'd go to class and be unable to understand anything or reply to people.
Guess I'll be taking a break from reading Harry Potter for a bit

I'm really looking forward to learning new things and getting more comfortable with speaking and listening.

[Christi]

I've had my first Korean class last week and omg, it's going to be so tough. A lot of my classmates have spent time studying Korean at one of the universities there and can speak Korean really well and then there's me...I couldn't even understand their introductions. I did manage to understand the teacher's summary and the listening exercises though. I think they just have a way larger active vocabulary than I do. I really hope I'll be able to understand them next time I see them, otherwise class will feel a bit uncomfortable.
Also, I really need to get used to counting since the text book is just littered with phone numbers, dates and other kinds of numbers.

So I guess my new short-term goal is to really get the hang of counting and long-term would be to somehow get more listening in. Guess I'll need to find some show with Korean subs to watch. I really want to watch Goblin so will see if I can make time to occasionally watch an episode with dual subs.

As an aside, I recently watched My ID is Gangnam beauty after having read the webtoon (which really outdoes the drama) and I starting thinking of maybe reading the webtoon in Korean. Haven't done that yet since there's just so much reading going on for my studies, but I did find this youtube channel called LearnKoreanWithComics which basically scrolls through a comic while adding translations in the video. Very useful if you need a little bit of help or want to check if you've translated everything correctly.