Asarena's Korean Log

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Asarena
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Asarena's Korean Log

Postby Asarena » Fri Jun 29, 2018 5:41 am

Hello! I've been lurking around this forum for a little while now, and I finally decided to sign up and start a log.

Background
I originally became interested in Korean though Kpop, which I became a fan of in 2012. At that time, I didn't really have any thought of learning Korean though. I picked up a few phrases and words here and there just from watching Korean shows, but that was it really. My first conscious effort to learn Korean came in the form of learning 한글, the Korean alphabet, near the end of 2012. I made the decision to learn 한글 so that I would be able to know the correct pronunciation of Kpop idols' names. After that, I grew more interested in the Korean language, and I would dabble in it a bit here and there, starting to learn Korean, stopping, starting, stopping, and so on. It wasn't until January of this year that I finally decided that I truly wanted to learn Korean, and that I needed to make the proper effort to do so. Since then I've been studying almost every day, give or take a few days where I couldn't/decided not to study due to various reasons.

Resources
1. Anki - There are two decks that I use every day. One is a vocabulary deck that I created, and the other is a deck called Korean Grammar Sentences by Evita. For my vocabulary deck, I try to include audio and pictures when possible. For both decks, I try not to look at the screen when tapping to the next card so that I can try to understand based on just the audio. I do ten new cards per day for each deck. At this pace, I'll run out of new cards in Evita's deck in a little less than a month. After that, I think I'll either try making my own sentence/grammar deck or just add on to the Evita one, since I'll still have to review it anyway.
2. Korean Grammar In Use - I'm almost finished with the first book in the series, and I think I've learned almost everything in the book fairly well so far. I'd say that indirect quotations and their contracted forms are probably the only grammar points from the book that I'm still a little unsure about. A lot of example sentences from this book are actually used in the Evita deck I mentioned above, so I think that helps.
3. Lingodeer - I've finished all of the currently available lessons, so now I just do the challenge mode of a lesson each day as well as use the review feature in the app. With the review feature, I do 15 sentences. I don't use the vocabulary option because any words from Lingodeer I didn't know have already been added to my Anki deck. I'll do any new lessons that they add in the future as well.
4. TTMIK's Iyagi Series - With these, I'll listen to the same one or two multiple times over the course of a week or so. They're a bit of a mix of parts I understand completely, parts I somewhat understand, parts I can just get the gist of, and a few parts where I don't really understand at all. I can definitely understand more on the second listen than the first though, and sometimes I'll understand even more on a later listen. I also went through all of the beginner Iyagis, but I could understand those almost completely, so I didn't linger on them for too long.
5. Korean Shows - I watch a lot of Korean variety shows, Vlives, etc. I usually watch them with English subtitles, but, sometimes, there are things that I watch without subtitles. For the most part, things I watch without subtitles are live shows that I'm watching while they're live. For example, I mentioned Vlives. Vlive is pretty much an app/site where Kpop idols livestream, although some videos are also uploaded there. If a group I like is doing a Vlive when I'm awake and able to watch, then I'll definitely watch it. Given the difference in time zones between Korea and the U.S., that doesn't happen super often though. The one thing I don't usually watch is Korean dramas. I have started watching Signal recently though, and it's good so far.
6. Other - There are some other resources I use at times as well, such as Talk To Me In Korean podcasts, How to Study Korean, Prof. Yoon's channel on YouTube, etc. I also listen to Kpop songs a lot, but honestly I don't really focus on trying to understand the lyrics when I'm just listening to the songs. Another thing I try to do daily is to write a journal entry of some kind in Korean.

My Biggest Weakness
Maybe you noticed on my list of resources that there wasn't anything related to speaking in Korean. Well, speaking is kind of my weakness in general. I have autism and social anxiety, so even in English, my native language, it can be difficult for me to carry out a conversation at times. I definitely want to try to speak with others in Korean if possible, but I feel like I won't do very well, not due to my limited Korean skills, but due to my limited social skills. I guess I probably need to try anyway though, eventually.

Goals
I would say that my main goal is to be able to understand Korean shows, videos, etc. without needing English subtitles. I really like Korean shows, but sometimes a show that sounds interesting never gets subbed, so it would be nice if I could understand them on my own.
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eido
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Re: Asarena's Korean Log

Postby eido » Fri Jun 29, 2018 3:41 pm

Another Korean learner!

What k-pop groups do you like? (I say, nosily...)

For me speaking in Korean is difficult because the pronunciation is still an obstacle. I get a little nervous sometimes trying to get things out, and I mess up usually because of this. So most of the time I just talk to myself in my head or out loud when no one's there to listen. With languages I intend to use for speaking purposes, this is a bad thing because I get conditioned to fixing myself with my "self-talk" and don't actually work on speaking fluently, just perfectly. I think I have all the time in the world. In the real world, you have to speak well, or at least passably on the first go and not say (like I do in Spanish) "he said that I like it" when you mean "I said that I like it".

I hope you can do it soon, though. Good luck ~
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Asarena
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Re: Asarena's Korean Log

Postby Asarena » Fri Jun 29, 2018 5:05 pm

eido wrote:Another Korean learner!

What k-pop groups do you like? (I say, nosily...)

For me speaking in Korean is difficult because the pronunciation is still an obstacle. I get a little nervous sometimes trying to get things out, and I mess up usually because of this. So most of the time I just talk to myself in my head or out loud when no one's there to listen. With languages I intend to use for speaking purposes, this is a bad thing because I get conditioned to fixing myself with my "self-talk" and don't actually work on speaking fluently, just perfectly. I think I have all the time in the world. In the real world, you have to speak well, or at least passably on the first go and not say (like I do in Spanish) "he said that I like it" when you mean "I said that I like it".

I hope you can do it soon, though. Good luck ~


My favorite groups are Exo, VIXX, NCT, Stray Kids, and Pentagon. I also like Blackpink, Red Velvet, Oh My Girl, Seventeen, The Boyz, SHINee, and so on.

Pronunciation is definitely an obstacle for me as well. I'm not sure if my pronunciation of ㅡ is always right in certain words, and I'm also not confident that I always pronounce ㅅ and ㅆ differently. I do self-talk as well, and I think I have some of the same issues as you. It's easy for me to get hung up on speaking perfectly.

Thank you! Good luck to you as well~
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Re: Asarena's Korean Log

Postby Xenops » Sat Jun 30, 2018 1:02 pm

Welcome to d the forum, Asarena. :D I hope you have an enjoyable time here.

I have experience with difficult pronunciation with French, and I'm still hesitant to speak it in public compared to Japanese or Spanish. If circumstances allow it, I would recommend trying to find an exchange partner or a in-person tutor to coach you with pronunciation. This would definitely boost your moral when trying to speak. At least now I can speak French if the occasion warrants it, whereas before I would not dare try.
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Re: Asarena's Korean Log

Postby neilgrey » Sat Jun 30, 2018 4:10 pm

Awesome! I'm really interested in following along with your log as I'm starting into Korean as well.

I'd totally forgotten that Lingodeer does Korean... may be playing on that for the rest of the evening...

For your self-made Anki deck, where do you source your vocabulary from? Are you just adding any new words you encounter from everywhere?
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Asarena
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Re: Asarena's Korean Log

Postby Asarena » Mon Jul 02, 2018 3:54 pm

Xenops wrote:Welcome to d the forum, Asarena. :D I hope you have an enjoyable time here.

I have experience with difficult pronunciation with French, and I'm still hesitant to speak it in public compared to Japanese or Spanish. If circumstances allow it, I would recommend trying to find an exchange partner or a in-person tutor to coach you with pronunciation. This would definitely boost your moral when trying to speak. At least now I can speak French if the occasion warrants it, whereas before I would not dare try.

Thank you! Yes, I would definitely like to find a language exchange partner or such at some point.

neilgrey wrote:Awesome! I'm really interested in following along with your log as I'm starting into Korean as well.

I'd totally forgotten that Lingodeer does Korean... may be playing on that for the rest of the evening...

For your self-made Anki deck, where do you source your vocabulary from? Are you just adding any new words you encounter from everywhere?

For the most part, I take any new words that I encounter from Korean Grammar In Use or Lingodeer and add them in. Then, I also put in random words that I come across at times. If I hear a word a lot on shows, for example, then I'll usually end up looking it up and adding it in. Sometimes I'll also look up a word that I need when trying to write my journal entry and then add it to Anki. I also take vocabulary from the How To Study Korean website.
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Asarena
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Re: Asarena's Korean Log

Postby Asarena » Mon Jul 02, 2018 3:54 pm

Saturday and Sunday were really busy, so I didn't have time to do much besides my basic daily studying. I did Anki, Lingodeer, my daily journal entries, and listened to some Iyagis. I also reached the end of the beginning Korean Grammar in Use book. I did watch one subbed Vlive each day as well. For grammar, there are a few grammar points from the Korean Grammar in Use book that I'm still not as familiar with, so I think I'll review those for a bit and then I'll go to the next book. I should be less busy today, so I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things.
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Asarena
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Re: Asarena's Korean Log

Postby Asarena » Tue Jul 03, 2018 4:44 am

Today I did all of my daily stuff as usual, and I did some other things as well. First of all, since I was still a bit unclear on indirect quotations, I watched a video on Prof. Yoon's channel about them. I think I understand them a lot better now. When I first learned them from the KGIU book I felt a bit overwhelmed. I also decided to listen to a few Korean songs while trying to actively listen to the lyrics. Then I tried looking at the lyrics while listening. For most of the songs, I could just understand bits and pieces here and there, but there was one song that I could actually understand most of the lyrics for. It's a song called Starlight by Suho ft. Remi. I hadn't listened to that song in awhile, but it's a nice song, so I'm glad I remembered it. Then I ended up finding a pdf of Beauty and the Beast in Korean, so I read some of that. I'll keep reading a bit each day until I finish it. In terms of Eng subbed videos, I watched episode nine of Unexpected Q, and I also watched half of episode three of Produce 48. I'll probably watch the rest of it tomorrow.
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Christi
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Re: Asarena's Korean Log

Postby Christi » Tue Jul 03, 2018 10:40 am

Hi from a fellow learner of Korean!

How's Beauty and the Beast in Korean? Is it difficult to read? To be honest, I don't think I've ever read that story before, in any language. I only just recently watched the Disney cartoon and the movie with Emma Watson in it.
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Asarena
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Re: Asarena's Korean Log

Postby Asarena » Tue Jul 03, 2018 2:38 pm

Christi wrote:Hi from a fellow learner of Korean!

How's Beauty and the Beast in Korean? Is it difficult to read? To be honest, I don't think I've ever read that story before, in any language. I only just recently watched the Disney cartoon and the movie with Emma Watson in it.


Well, the one I'm reading is a children's book. On the cover it says "엄마와 함께 읽는" and there are a few words in the story that are asterisked and then have a short definition in Korean at the bottom of the page. It's 48 pages long, and a few of the pages are taken up by a picture. It seems fairly easy to read, although at my level there are definitely parts I don't understand and words I don't know. I think I read some version of Beauty and the Beast in English when I was younger, but I don't really remember it. I definitely watched both of the Disney movies though.
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