So, as some of you guys already know, I recently started a new short internship which to be honest has taken majority of my time and energy, but more importantly it have meant that I once again needed to change up my daily schedule and find a new balance between work and my Korean studies, not to mention my social life and things like cleaning etc. It has been a really tough month and even though I seem to have found a decent balance between everything again, I really felt like I was doing nothing productive whatsoever with my studies. It’s actually quite interesting! This past month I have been thinking that I haven’t been studying enough for me to make any progress – which in itself is super silly since even short and rare study sessions will have some sort of impact on your learning – and that isn’t true at all! I agree that I haven’t been studying just as intense as I did before this internship, because I simply don’t have enough time, but I have still accomplished a lot! I still chat in Korean every day, I still read my books and magazines every day, I still have my weekly Italki session, I still listen to Korean music and podcast when traveling, I still actively watch different dramas and make an effort to learn from them, and I still managed to make over 40 pages with notes on different language related things and add over 200 words to my memrise, during this month. How could that ever turn into being ‘nothing’? Don’t ever underestimate yourselves.
Anyway, during this month I felt like I just couldn’t find a proper balance or make any good habits to make my daily life better and easier. Until today that is. I guess sometimes you just don’t realize your habits until you somehow break them.
Today I had my first Saturday shift and since I live in the countryside, that was kind of an issue. You see, the local bus only takes 3 trips on Saturdays and the earliest one was 2,5 hours after my shift was supposed to start – obviously I had to fix that problem! Luckily my boyfriend was able to give me a lift and the problem was solved. Easy! However, throughout the day, I kept feeling like something was as just completely off in my mind and I kept making guesses to why that might be. I mean, there was so many new things for me to digest today since it was my first Saturday shift. The Saturday schedule, the Saturday customers, the Saturday special offers etc., but I kept pushing the thoughts away as none of them felt like the real reason.
As I was heading home, it suddenly hit me. Every single work day throughout this month, I have spent 45 minutes reading my Korean books at the bus stop by my workplace. Every single morning for 45 minutes. I don’t look at my phone, I don’t talk to anyone, I don’t actively study, I just sit still with my book and enjoy the story. As soon as I had that thought I realized how important that morning ritual is to me. Thanks to my boyfriend I was able to sleep for longer and be at my workplace in time and I am forever grateful, but apparently I shouldn’t have dropped my reading session.
After realizing this, a whole list of new Korean habits came to mind. For instance, every Sunday evening I go for a 40-60 minute walk on my own, while listening to a Korean podcast, and every Monday afternoon (the only day I get to leave work early) I go online and find some different study material on Naver (whatever seems interesting), and print it all out so it’s easy to pick up as soon as I have time. Also, every single night my boyfriend goes to bed around 10-15 minutes after me, and every single night I use that time to relax in bed while playing around with all my words on memrise. I Guess I really did find a balance! I may not go through grammar points as quickly as I used to, but I still get through one every other day as the very minimum. And that my dear friends, is totally fine with me!
Now, I need to eat my yummy leftovers and then I’ll sit down and read a few pages in my book! Time to make this day right!
Oh! And the TOPIK result came out! I wont be discussing it now as I have a lot to say about all my new goals, but I will let you all know that I did indeed pass level 2! Horray!
Cammilla's Korean 