Izumi's Language Log (Korean, Japanese & maybe French)
Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 6:17 pm
Hi everyone! I'm still new around here but I've decided to make my own little log to hopefully hold myself more accountable.
Some background info:
My interest in learning languages started around the time I was entering high school. When I choosing classes everyone talked about how foreign languages looked good on you transcript for college and such, so I ended up choosing French, despite my mom suggesting Spanish.
I took French 1 and 2 in highschool, but didn't continue further since I wanted to try other electives, mostly art related (ceramics, and fashion production).
High school was also a time were Japanese media was becoming popular so it soon became another language that I had interest in bit not too seriously yet. I also developed a budding interest in Korean when one day, my mom brought home a floppy little Korean-English dictionary that I found myself curiously flipping through from time to time.
It wasn't until my second semester of college, that I had the chance to take a Japanese class. Unfortunately, the next semester I changed my major from a general degree to a computer science one, so taking another Japanese class was out of the question as far as student financial aid was concerned. So, if I wanted to do anymore language study I was pretty much on my own.
This was around 2008/2009 so I wasn't very internet savvy as I am now to finding resources online to study with was difficult for me.
I just spent the next 4 or so years rping in anime fandoms until I was introduced to KPop in late 2011/early 2012, which sparked my interest in Korean again.
It wasn't until 2015 that I actually first attempted self-studying Korean using TTMIK. I went through Level 4 before I stopped. While I was good for grammar, I didn't have much vocabulary to work with and it was a bit demotivating. So Korean was shelved for a bit. I looked up various textbooks online/aquired some pdfs here and there and when I got my first job in 2016, I bought my first Korean textbooks and a subscription to KoreanClass101. Since then I've pretty much been on again off again with my studies...
Languages
Korean - I'm pretty much a false beginner. Truthfully, I'm at more of an A2/pre-intermediate level. I've finished my beginner textbook and started the intermediate one. And I've had long conversations with native speakers (through text) on various language exchange apps. I had also finished all of the Beginner seasons at KClass101. Recently, I've started my beginner textbook from scratch to review what I previously learned.
My resources of choice:
College Korean, Intermediate College Korean, Modern Korean: An Intermediate Reader and KoreanClass101 for listening purposes and extra grammar study.
Japanese - I'm also a false beginner here as well, though I can't say I'm anywhere near close to where I am with Korean. Probably A1. I self-studied a bit with minna no nihongo but i admit that i burned myself out. I'm considering holding off on Japanese and waiting until my Korean is better. Then I'll ladder the languages using Korean to learn Japanese.
My resources of choice:
Japanese For Everyone and JapanesePod101 for more listening practice. I also own a book called Reading Japanese that teaches Kanji and is basically a reader.
French - Honestly I haven't touched this language since highschool and I really don't know where to start as far as self-study goes. I do want to pick it up again at some point though.
That's pretty much it for now. I should actually get back to studying.
Some background info:
My interest in learning languages started around the time I was entering high school. When I choosing classes everyone talked about how foreign languages looked good on you transcript for college and such, so I ended up choosing French, despite my mom suggesting Spanish.
I took French 1 and 2 in highschool, but didn't continue further since I wanted to try other electives, mostly art related (ceramics, and fashion production).
High school was also a time were Japanese media was becoming popular so it soon became another language that I had interest in bit not too seriously yet. I also developed a budding interest in Korean when one day, my mom brought home a floppy little Korean-English dictionary that I found myself curiously flipping through from time to time.
It wasn't until my second semester of college, that I had the chance to take a Japanese class. Unfortunately, the next semester I changed my major from a general degree to a computer science one, so taking another Japanese class was out of the question as far as student financial aid was concerned. So, if I wanted to do anymore language study I was pretty much on my own.
This was around 2008/2009 so I wasn't very internet savvy as I am now to finding resources online to study with was difficult for me.
I just spent the next 4 or so years rping in anime fandoms until I was introduced to KPop in late 2011/early 2012, which sparked my interest in Korean again.
It wasn't until 2015 that I actually first attempted self-studying Korean using TTMIK. I went through Level 4 before I stopped. While I was good for grammar, I didn't have much vocabulary to work with and it was a bit demotivating. So Korean was shelved for a bit. I looked up various textbooks online/aquired some pdfs here and there and when I got my first job in 2016, I bought my first Korean textbooks and a subscription to KoreanClass101. Since then I've pretty much been on again off again with my studies...
Languages
Korean - I'm pretty much a false beginner. Truthfully, I'm at more of an A2/pre-intermediate level. I've finished my beginner textbook and started the intermediate one. And I've had long conversations with native speakers (through text) on various language exchange apps. I had also finished all of the Beginner seasons at KClass101. Recently, I've started my beginner textbook from scratch to review what I previously learned.
My resources of choice:
College Korean, Intermediate College Korean, Modern Korean: An Intermediate Reader and KoreanClass101 for listening purposes and extra grammar study.
Japanese - I'm also a false beginner here as well, though I can't say I'm anywhere near close to where I am with Korean. Probably A1. I self-studied a bit with minna no nihongo but i admit that i burned myself out. I'm considering holding off on Japanese and waiting until my Korean is better. Then I'll ladder the languages using Korean to learn Japanese.
My resources of choice:
Japanese For Everyone and JapanesePod101 for more listening practice. I also own a book called Reading Japanese that teaches Kanji and is basically a reader.
French - Honestly I haven't touched this language since highschool and I really don't know where to start as far as self-study goes. I do want to pick it up again at some point though.
That's pretty much it for now. I should actually get back to studying.