Author: 카밀라

Posted in Uncategorized

My greed for learning

Posted on by 카밀라

I have always been a dreamer. I easily get caught up in my own world and I often forget to see what’s going on out there in the real world.
From the very beginning I wanted to go to Korea and after a few months of being a kpop fan, I  successfully turned my sister into a kpop fan as well as a kdrama lover. At that time we were in no position to save up money but we made a pinky promise and swore that one day, we would go together for sure. A few years passed and I unintentionally started learning Korean. It sort of just happened. However I weren’t studying very often or effectively and after 4 Months I still couldn’t introduce myself or understand/reply to simple questions. Back then I didn’t know what I was doing what so ever, and it weren’t really that important to me, whether I did well or not.
After 4 months, my economical situation changed just a tiny bit, leaving me with hope for a trip to Korea in my future. I immediately started looking into flight tickets, hotels, guesthouses, activities and so on, to figure out how much it would cost me. From the beginning we had decided that we would make this trip, the trip of our lives and we didn’t want to cut down on any expenses if it meant that we couldn’t see and buy all of the things that we had dreamed of, during all that time. After looking into everything I discovered that it would take me a little over two years to save up for this trip and I was actually okay with this. I sent my sister a text immediately saying “In may 2017, you and I are leaving for Korea”, and it has been a deal ever since.
When we started looking at different housing options we found a small guesthouse and we completely fell in love with it. Do you guys know that feeling? Seeing or reading about something and just knowing for sure that it’s the perfect place for you? The rooms aren’t very big, the walls are thin, you live with the owners and other guests, you share the bathroom and kitchen, and it’s in a different part of Seoul than what we wanted. In other words.. It’s the complete opposite of what we wanted. Funny how things work out, huh? To this day we are still planning on staying there.

Anyway, while reading about this place I suddenly felt a big amount of greed for learning Korean. I wanted to be able to introduce myself at the guesthouse and I wanted to be able to say at last a few proper sentences. From that very day I started studying every day, and that’s when I discovered how much I loved self-studying this beautiful language. Whenever I would have a bad day, I would go online and read about the guesthouse again, look at pictures of the area, or go through the internet looking for good food places in that area.
Yesterday I was going through all of our plans again, I was looking at pictures, reading all the new reviews that have been posted, checking flight prices, and I was reminded of this first greed again. I am now more than capable of introducing myself and creating small basic sentences. I definitely reached my goal. But now I want more. I want to be able to order food for my sister and I, without having to worry about messing up, I want to book the guesthouse using Korean, I want to try and order chicken at Han river, I want to go see a movie in the theater, I want to try all the food I possibly can (okay, almost all the food..), I want to go book shopping, I want to be able to pick up a random newpaper or magazine and actually enjoy it while sitting in a coffee shop without relying on my dictionary, and most importantly, I want to be able to get to know the owners and other guests at the guesthouse.
Once again, I am filled with greed – And I absolutely love it!

I guess I’m writing this post as a reminder to myself. Half of the waiting time has passed even though I thought it never would. In a month I go to London for the TOPIK exam. 2-3 months later I’ll be buying the flight tickets for Korea, and then everything will suddenly become very very real. I want to remind myself of the progress I have made in the first half of my waiting time, and even more, I want to remind myself of the things I want to achieve in the second half.
I’m going to work hard and I’m going to greet Korea with a smile.

Posted in books, Personal, Selfstudy, TOPIK, Uncategorized

It’s Official

Posted on by 카밀라

Ok guys! You all know about my TOPIK plans and guess what? It’s finally official! 아싸!
However, it most certainly wasn’t easy, haha! I had a lot of problems when signing up for the exams, and I have been patiently waiting for 2 weeks, to get a reply from the Korean Embassy. Phew! It’s been super nerve wracking!
Anyway, basically what happened was that I got the dates mixed up and therefore I was suddenly left with only 4 days to fill out all the papers and send them of to London. If you send a high priority letter to London, it still takes 3 days to get there, which means that if the letter had the slightest delay on its way, then I would pretty much be doomed. As you can imagine I was suddenly in a hurry!
Sadly, after this stressful discovery it all just started to go wrong. First of I had a ton of problems when trying to download the application form and once I finally got all that technical stuff figured out, I had no idea how to actually fill out the form. At that time I was already freaking out, and I was starting to think that I would never make it in time. When you download the application form, you also get a guide on how to fill it out, but the things is that the guide is in Korean and when I started translating it, I still didn’t understand what to do with some of the fields. In the end I got help from my awesome italki teacher (HI RACHEL!) and was able to fill out most of the form. I wrote an email to the embassy in London with my remaining questions and luckily they were able to answer my mail on the same day.

Just as everything was back on track, I suddenly couldn’t transfer the exam fee. It turns out that I was missing some of the needed information about the bank I was transferring to, and it was too late to contact the Embassy again. Sigh. Luckily my google skills were able to save me this time, haha!
In the end I was able to fill out the form and send it off to London, but as I mentioned above, I still had to wait and see if I made it in time. I have been checking my email and mailbox several times a day, and yesterday my conformation finally came!

Ah.. I would never have imagined that it would cause me this much stress, but now that things are finally set in stone, I definitely feel that it was worth it! I had many sleepless nights (starts singing 잠은 안오고 배는 고프고) but I have no regrets!
I now have everything prepared. TOPIK, new passport, flight tickets, a booked guestroom, money, days of from my internship and so on. It’s all ready!
LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN! – No seriously, I added a countdown Widget to the blog.

Now I just need to focus on studying which will be easy with all my new books and magazines! More on those later!

Posted in Kpop, Selfstudy, Uncategorized

Studying with songs

Posted on by 카밀라

So as most of you lovely people are aware of, I have been a kpop fan for about 4,5 years now. Just like with many other Korean learners out there, Kpop was one of the very first reasons to why I ever even considered learning Korean, and even though my reasons have changed a ton, I still enjoy studying with songs.
Lately I see more and more people seeking advice on how to study with songs and I personally feel that it is a very useful way of studying – especially if you are running a bit low on motivation or in my case, energy. Using songs makes it a lot more fun and also a lot easier to remember. Just think about all those learning programs for young children! It really does work.
Anyway, I have been using songs to study for quite a while now, and I have found it very helpful when it comes to expanding my vocabulary and even more useful for improving my pronunciation and talking speed. A while ago I thought of a way to use songs to improve my reading speed as well, so after testing it out for a while, I believe it’s time to share it with you guys. As I go through my study methods, I’ll be using a song that I haven’t studied with yet. This way I’ll get to study a bit too!

No matter what part of my Korean skills I wish to improve, I ALWAYS start out by translating the song. This is where you really have the chance to improve your vocabulary. Translating it yourself will make it a lot easier for you to remember because you have to read every word (usually we glance over a text a lot faster and we pay less attention, if it’s in a language we are comfortable with) and spelling the unknown words over and over again to look them up, will help you recognize and remember them faster (not to mention it helps you spelling skills).
I recommend choosing a song that you have listened to at least a few times as it will make everything a lot smoother when you at least know the melody a little bit, and that way you usually know if it’s a song that you like or not, and obviously it’ll be more fun if you actually like the song that you’re going to study with.

In my case I chose 칸버스 by 포미닛 (like that would surprise anyone). I have listened to this song many times but never actually listened to the words and sentences. When looking up new words I split them into two groups:
1. = Words I don’t know.
2. = Words that I know for sure that I have heard or looked up before, but just can’t remember.
Here’s my work with the lyrics. The words in green are the words that I have come across before.

새하얗다 – Pure white
엎질러지다 – To be spilled
위태롭다 – Risky/dangerous
완벽하다 – Perfect
배경 – Background
밤새 – All night long/ overnight
색칠 – Paint
해나가다 – Rub on/along
둘만의 – One-on-one/between you and I
채우다 – Fill/satisfy
오직 – Only/solely
정밀 – Accurate/precise
묘사하다 – Portrayal
작품 – Peice/work
물감 – Paints
검정 – Black
망설이다 – Hesitate
명화 – Famous work (film, painting)
펼치다 – Unfold/open
화가 – Painter
붙잡다 – Grab hold of
비다 – Empty
물들다 – To get dyed
거칠다 – Rough
덧칠 – Paint over
닿다 – Touch
영감  – Inspiration
대충 – Approximately
명작 – Masterpiece
흔적 – Evidence/marks/trace
넘치다 – Overflow
아낌없이 – Generously/freely
감다 – Reel in
조화 – Balance/harmony

Now, as for vocabulary there’s a ton of methods you can use for improving and remembering the new words, and we all have different preferences. I like to switch it up very often so that I don’t get bored. You can create flashcards or write down sample sentences. Lately I have been trying something new and very entertaining, but I’ll keep it secret for now as I’m working on another post for that one!

As for pronunciation and talking speed, here’s what I do: I sing. Yes that’s pretty much it! Now let me just make it very clear that I couldn’t sing to save my life, however I do find it super entertaining and very helpful. When listening to music you’ll be listening to the same words in different contexts and the words are often pronounced differently as they get adjusted to the melody of the song. Pronouncing them in different ways makes it easier for you to recognize the word in new contexts as well.
When I use this method there’s a lot of memorization going on as it’ll be a lot easier to sing the full song when you have memorized the lyrics. Memorization has both good and bad points, but if your goal is to improve your speaking speed then it won’t really matter. Learning the lyrics and trying to keep up with the song is very similar to shadowing, however singing the same song over and over again is a lot more entertaining than to say the same sentence over and over. Also, when you have practiced singing the song and you can finally keep up with the artist and maybe even have memorized the lyrics, you just feel more satisfied. At least that’s how I feel!

Now the new part that I have been trying out is similar to the previous part, except I avoid memorizing. After translating the song I immediately start singing along. Since I haven’t memorized anything I have to rely completely on reading the lyrics as I sing the song. If your Korean reading skills are slow as mine, then you’ll get lost quite a few times since it’s almost impossible to read as fast as the song goes (especially if you have a tendency to pick songs with rap parts in them, like me! sigh..) but it’s still fun which makes it a lot easier to continue even though you fail at it a few times. This is also why I recommend translating the lyrics as well as choosing a song that you’ve heard before as it gives you an idea about when the song is fast or slow, and you can recognize the words you read a lot faster, when you have already spelled them before. Of course you can make it more challenging by not translating the lyrics first but I find that this is the perfect balance for me – Plus you’ll be missing out on some great vocabulary.  I personally feel that this method is super helpful and I’m surprised by how fast I can improve my reading speed (even though I still have such a long way to go!).

Lastly I want to add that when you practice the same song over and over again, you will at some point naturally memorize it and it might give you a false feeling of improvement, which can be incredible disappointing in the long run. To avoid this I recommend that you try singing it once in a while without looking at the lyrics. If you are able to sing most of it, then it’s time to move on to another song.

I hope you guys find this post somewhat useful! If you are curious about the song that I’m currently working with, then here’s the full lyrics as well as the actual song.
Have fun!

 

새하얀 Carpet
엎질러진 Wine
하늘도 빨간 Sunset eh
조금 위태롭게
완벽한 배경 우리의

비밀스런 우리 드라마 밤새
서로를 색칠 해나가
둘만의 Canvas 가득 채워 나가
숨마저 색을 담아

너와 나 오직 우리 둘만의
미술시간 서로를 정밀 묘사해
이 작품에 물감이 왜 더 필요해
검정배경 빼곤 오직
우리 둘만 색 있네

더는 망설이지마 더욱 날 느껴봐
이 완벽한 명화 Feel 가득한 이 밤

Canvas 가득 우릴 펼쳐봐
Hey 거기 화가 어서 와서 붙잡아

빈 종이 위에 우리 둘이
서로에게 또 물들어가 Yeah
함께 그려가는 이 시간

이 밤이 가기 전에 너의
꿈 어서 나를 데려가
뭐든지 그려봐
여기 우리 둘만의 Canvas

Canvas
여기 우리 둘만의 Canvas
Canvas
여기 우리 둘만의 Canvas

그래 그렇게 널 볼 수 있게
거칠어진 그 숨을 더 느낄 수 있게

그리다 만 나쁜 드라마 마저
서로를 덧칠 해나가
오늘의 Canvas 가득 채워 나가
마지막 색을 담아

손 닿는 곳 어디든 영감을 꽃피워
여기저기 대충 명작의 흔적 넘쳐
아무도 몰라 지난 밤 우리의 View
아낌없는 Idea 밤새 서로의 Muse

새롭게 날 느껴봐 두 눈을 감아봐
이 완벽한 조화 또 날아봐 Tonight

Canvas 가득 우릴 펼쳐봐
Hey 거기 화가 어서 와서 붙잡아

빈 종이 위에 우리 둘이
서로에게 또 물들어가 Yeah
함께 그려가는 이 시간

이 밤이 가기 전에 너의
꿈 어서 나를 데려가
뭐든지 그려봐
여기 우리 둘만의 Canvas

Canvas
여기 우리 둘만의 Canvas
Canvas
여기 우리 둘만의

둘만의 리듬 안에
둘만의 리듬 안에
둘만의 리듬 안에
여기 우리 둘만의 쉿
Canvas

Canvas
여기 우리 둘만의 Canvas
Canvas
여기 우리 둘만의 Canvas

Posted in Personal, Selfstudy, TOPIK, Uncategorized

Final thoughts on my break

Posted on by 카밀라

Now matter how much I wish I could continue with my current schedule, there’s no way to get around the fact that my break officially has come to an end. I’ll be starting a new adventure on Monday and I honestly have no idea how packed my schedule will be, but since my Korean studies is one of my favorite ways of reducing my every day stress, there’s no way I can keep away from my books, haha! Hopefully it’ll be similar to my previous schedule. Anyway, I’m spending my evening here on the blog to write a short (no seriously! I’ll really try to keep it short!) post on my final thoughts.

As you might remember, I made a very detailed study schedule for my break, and I am pleased to let you guys know that I managed to stick to my schedule, almost every day throughout the last month.
I made a list of ‘end-of-break-goals’ and I have been working very hard on completing these.
The first goal was to finish ‘Korean Grammar In Use intermediate’ and I’m pleased to say that I did indeed finish it. I have been eager to start the advanced book, but I told myself to wait and focus on getting more familiar with the intermediate grammar first, so that’s what I’m working on right now. I’ll probably start it soon though, as starting new books is just too exciting ㅎㅎ
The next goal was to finish ‘News in Korean’, by TTMIK, and I accomplished this as well! I also had a goal about finishing the TTMIK grammar podcast and I can mark this goal as completed as well.
The fourth goal was to finish ‘작은 아씨들’, however this goal I have not completed. I felt a lot of problems when it came to focusing on the book and in the beginning I just forced myself to continue, but as you can imagine it didn’t have any good effect whatsoever. Even though I could still just continue, I decided to just put it away for the time being. I’m definitely a ‘books-over-movies’ type of person and since I don’t count my ‘book-reading-time’ as a part of my study time, I would rather be able to enjoy the book than to just go through it as fast as possible. However, I’m glad to let you guys know that I picked it up again about a week ago and I’m currently flying through it without any difficulties. See? Sometimes it just pays better of to put things away for a while. I’ll finish it in the beginning of March, at the very latest.
Now, as for the fifth, last and most exciting goal, I wanted to improve my TOPIK 2 skills. To be more specific I wanted to improve with 3-5 points on listening and reading in a TOPIK 2 mock test. During this last month, I have taken 6 mock tests and while the results obviously varied from time to time, if I look at the one with my lowest result, I have still gotten 3 points more than my first test, on both listening and reading! Not too bad if I may say so myself.

In other words, I have successfully completed 4 out of 5 goals, and I’m really happy about how I spent my break. I have no regrets. However, I can see that I semi-failed at my attempt to keep this post short. Sorry guys!

Anyway, I just ordered a ton of books on my birthday and I am currently experimenting with a few new study methods, and I can’t wait to share them all with you guys. Lot’s of new interesting things coming up!
Have a great evening guys! ^^

Posted in Personal, Selfstudy, TOPIK, Uncategorized

Language tag

Posted on by 카밀라

Good morning everybody! Sofie from Sofie To Korea has been so kind to tag me in a language tag, so I’ll start of my Wednesday by answering a few questions – Thank you Sofie!

What would you consider your native language?

Danish is without a doubt my native language, however it is not the language I find myself most comfortable with, and no matter how depressing it may sound, I’m actually not that good at it, haha! I stumble across words when speaking, randomly mess up my pronunciation and screw up basic grammar. Of course this doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens a lot more than when I use English. I almost NEVER think or talk to myself in Danish and my grades from English class has always either been identical or better than those from my Danish classes. Slightly depressing but nevertheless true!
My sister (and best friend in the entire world) is just like me when it comes to English VS. Danish so I keep thinking that I most have gotten in from her, however no one else in our family is like this, so I’m not sure where she would have gotten it from.. It’s interesting now that I really think about it.. Oh well, I’m sidetracking!

What was your first language learning experience?

I actually don’t really know. My sister is almost 11 years older than me and she always loved English. In Danish TV there’s a ton of american TV shows and movies with Danish subtitles, and watching all of this was of course very helpful, but there’s no doubt that my sister is the biggest reason for my English love. Since she loved English so much she would always talk to me in English from when I was very young, and as I grew up we would watch movies and animations in English, without subtitles. Our favorite is Happy Feet! Till this day I still cannot see it with Danish dubbing. It’s just wrong! Our favorite games was anything related to ‘hidden objects’ games and this gave me a huge advantage in school, as my English vocabulary was growing rapidly. (I suddenly wonder if I could find a Korean version? Hmm). I’m starting to sidetrack again. What I’m trying to say is that I started learning English naturally in a very early age while still learning how to talk in Danish. I don’t know how old I was, what my fist correct sentence was or when I started thinking in English. It just happened.
However what I do know, is that I had no idea that I was ‘unusual’ in any way until the end of 8th grade. In a random English class at my new school I realized that I was the only one who were more comfortable in English compared to Danish, and nobody was thinking in English, except me. When you think of your native language, you don’t think of it as something you have learnt. It’s not an accomplishment, it just happened as you grew up, right? That’s how I felt about English, but that day in that class, I realized that I was the only one who felt that way. I guess that can be considered my first language learning experience? Maybe. Haha!

What languages have you studied and why did you learn them?

Through school I studied English and Danish. For those two I don’t really have a reason. I was supposed to learn German in school as well but I ended up being absent more or less constantly from 4th-8th grade, however that’s another story! Also, that’s why I didn’t realize that I was different from many others until 8th grade, as I had never really been taught any English in a class before that. Even though I never got to study German, my understanding is pretty decent. Growing up in Ribe (Denmark’s oldest city, which is pretty close to the German border) meant that we constantly had German tourists so I would often listen to people talk in German when walking around, but even more importantly, my Mum is obsessed with German. She loves her German music, dramas, movies, and even German dubbed movies. This started a long time before I was born and as a result I grew up listening to German all the time. For some reason I never really felt comfortable with German. I wonder why I immediately felt comfortable with English and not German, since I was surrounded even more by German than I ever was with English. My dad had the same German obsession and I never understood them until I got my Korean obsession. Slightly depressing since my Mum still finds mine ridiculous even though her obsession is the very same!

Anyway, as mentioned above I don’t really have a starting time for Danish and English, so when I started learning Korean on my own ( 1 year and 4 months ago) it was the very first time I had to start learning a language (that I can remember at least) which meant that I had no idea where to begin. I had no idea where to start looking for supplies, what was basic knowledge or what I even wanted to do with my Korean skills, if I was ever able to create some. It is the best, most challenging, frustrating and scary decision I have ever made. Which is sort of a lie since I never actually decided to start learning it, but nevertheless – here I am!
I guess I don’t really have a reason for learning Korean other than liking the language and culture, however I do have a story on how it all started, right here.

How does your personality affect your language learning?

I can be super stubborn when it comes to learning and this is just as much a blessing as a curse. It means that I don’t give up easily but it also means that I can waste a lot of time because I just can’t move on due to some tiny and often irrelevant detail that I can’t figure out. Also I want to try figuring everything out on my own before asking for help, which again leads me to waste a lot of time.

Do you prefer learning a language in a class or on your own?

Definitely on my own! That special day (whoa, this sounds so dramatic!) in 8th grade, I discovered that I was on a higher level than the rest of my class which shows how much more effective it can be to learn in other ways than in a class, but in my case it also means that I can’t explain grammar what so ever. Don’t ever ask me why I choose certain answers when being tested, because I can’t answer you properly even if I wanted to.
However I quickly learned from this problem and when it comes to Korean I focus a lot of trying to remember why things work like they do, instead of just using it.

What are your favorite language learning materials?

Everything! Haha! I generally love books so anything in book format is usually a good start, but looking outside of that, I just love anything that’s natural. Novels, dramas, movies, music, newspapers, blogs etc. Anything that isn’t made for language learning purposes can make my day. I feel like it’s a lot more useful and I feel a greater sense of accomplishment when finishing anything from those categories.

How much time do you spend learning a language per day?

Normally I would spend about 2-3 hours per day, not counting things like watching dramas, listening to music, using memrise etc. but for the last month I’ve had an awesome break that means that I have been able to study for about  4-5 hours per. day. Sadly this is coming to an end soon!

What are your short-term and long-term language goals?

My short term goal is to pass TOPIK 1, in April. I will be taking TOPIK 2 as well, however I have no goals about passing this one yet. I just want to try it out while I’m in London anyway, and hopefully it will help me feel less nervous about it in the future. Though it isn’t a goal to pass TOPIK 2, I’m still working hard to get a good result.

I’m not sure what my long term goal is yet. I want to feel just as comfortable with Korean as I do with Danish and English, and I also want to pass TOPIK level 6. I guess that’s all I know for now!

What is your favorite language?

Definitely Korean!

What is the next language you want to learn?

I have no idea. Maybe Japanese? Maybe. For now I only know that I want to learn more languages in the future!

What advice could you give new language learners?

Don’t worry too much about pace and goals. Don’t compare yourself to other learners.
If you know yourself very well then use that knowledge to find what works for you, and if you don’t know yourself that well then think of your language journey as way of learning more about yourself. Just enjoy yourself. 🙂

 

Thank you for reading all of this! As for tagging new people, all the people I wanted to tag has already been tagged, so I’ll think carefully about it and get back to you later!

 

Posted in Personal, Selfstudy, Uncategorized

Finding a matching Language Partner

Posted on by 카밀라

In my specific case, my Korean language journey didn’t really take off until I made my first Language partner. Despite not being able to create even simple sentences at that point, it really took off faster than I ever could have imagined as soon I started talking with Korean people every day.

For quite a while now, I have noticed so many people struggling with finding a good language partner. Not because there aren’t any, because with a little WiFi access you can find plenty of people in a short amount of time. It seems like there is just more and more language learners out there who are giving up because they either don’t get properly along with their partners, because they get overwhelmed by the amount of crazy people out there or because their partner just disappears or simply end their contact.
Seeing how much language partners and Korean friends have helped me during the last year of studying, I really feel sad when I see people give up on this amazing resource, and since I too have met my share of weirdos and felt my share of disappointment, I thought I would make this post to help out and give some advice to those who feel discouraged, as well as maybe explaining some of the reasons behind these problems. Let me just start out with a warning and a disclaimer. This post will be one of my longer ones and as with anything else I post on my blog, this is 100% my own experiences and they might not help you at all.

When I first joined HelloTalk to search for language partners I was extremely lucky from the very first day, and if I hadn’t been so lucky, I might have given up like many other learners. On the very first day I wrote a message to a girl on my age and we immediately got along. We still talk today even a year after, though not as often as in the beginning. Just a few days later I was contacted by another person whom I consider one of my closest friends today. Unlike many people, it took me a while to discover all the odd people ㅎㅎ

Anyway, as mentioned earlier it seems to me that many people are giving up because they either don’t get properly along with their partners, because of the crazy people or because their partner just disappears or simply end their contact. So what’s up with all of this?
Well first of all, there’s crazy people everywhere and the chances are that you will probably run into quite a few of them. By crazy people I mean everything from people who wants your contact information even though you just met, people who wants to date and so on. I even had a random man propose to me in his second message as well as French person who practically bombarded me with French messages despite the fact that I made it very clear that I don’t speak French at all. However these people aren’t really that big of a problem in my opinion. They usually accept it when I turn them down and those who doesn’t, goes away after ignoring them once or twice. If you are super unlucky and they just won’t let you be, then remember that you always have the option of blocking them.
I know that writing all of this probably just makes some of you guys feel even more worried about language exchange, but it really doesn’t happen that often. I just want to make sure that you all have considered this part so that you can overcome the problem a lot easier, without being surprised or shocked. Once you have prepared yourself to the craziness you can move on and think about how you personally want to handle these situations and thereby move on from these episodes faster.
The next thing I want to talk about is when you get ignored. Either from the very beginning or after talking for a while. This is definitely the problem I hear the most about and I think this is one of the biggest struggles to overcome.
The first and most important point about this: DO NOT TAKE IT PERSONALLY! There can be so many reasons for this to happen and if you take it personally every single time, then online language exchange will be nothing but self-torture. I really can not stress this enough! Got it? Okay then.
As for the reasons. First of all, not everybody is as serious about language learning as you are. Some people sign up because they find the idea/concept to be brilliant, but they don’t really feel like actually using it. Think of it as a diet. Signing up for a certain program seems like a brilliant idea but after a week or two, your interest might have disappeared completely. The same happens for many people on apps like HelloTalk, and there’s simply nothing to do about it. Another reason could be that they just don’t feel like they match with your personality. This is also something that you just can’t change and you can’t really blame them either. I agree that being ignored sucks when they could just tell you the reason, but some people just really hates to be honest in that way, and therefore find it easier and more comfortable to just stop answering. A tip for this could be to carefully read the self introductions from your new possible partners, and then think about whether you would match or not. Most people only write a sentence or two, so this might be really difficult in some cases, but it is definitely better than searching blindly, right?
Another reason that I noticed very often in my own cases as, well as I have gotten confirmed from a few language partners, is that the amount of your replies depends a lot on your first message. In my case, when I write the first message to someone in English, I have a bigger chance of getting a reply, than if I write in Korean. Not because of my message itself, but because it shows a lot about my language skills. Let me explain: Not too long ago I wrote about how I easily ended up writing a lot in English if my language partner was good at it too, and therefore I learned a lot more when talking to those who doesn’t really know any English. The same goes for those who are trying to improve their English skills. I have talked to several of my Korean language partners and friends about this and most of them say that they find it very difficult for them to stick to English with me because they know that can understand them just as well (and usually better) when they use Korean. Of course you can make a deal about one person only using Korean and the other only using English, but that just often feels awkward to many people. If you are serious about learning a language and you know that you feel this way too, then it’s only natural to avoid those partnerships. Again you can’t really blame them. I couldn’t turn people down in the beginning which resulted in me talking to over 20 people constantly, and only 2 of those people where actually Korean. The rest were just random people who were bored and wanted to make friends. I don’t mind that people use language learning apps for this purpose,(you can learn a lot from those people too) but in the end I had to stop most of those conversations as it took all of my time away and I didn’t learn anything from those conversations. What I’m trying to say is, that if you don’t receive a reply from someone then it might just be because they are taking their learning seriously too. My best tips to overcome this problem is to always introduce yourself in Korean (or whatever language you are learning). This means that you might get ignored more often but it also means that the ones that does answer you, usually don’t mind you using mainly Korean, and then it’s more likely that they will keep in contact instead of just disappearing. Another tip is looking for friends instead of language partners. As mentioned just before, there’s many people who aren’t interested in learning languages but are just looking for new friends. My experience is that when you talk to someone who isn’t trying to learn anything themselves, then they usually prefer speaking completely in Korean too and they are usually more than happy to help you when you have a question. This is where I usually find the most ‘matches’. Again I’ll recommend that you look at their self introductions and choose the ones that write ‘I’m here to make new friends’ instead of ‘I’m here to learn’. Especially if you learn the best through casual conversations.

This blog post is mainly written based on HelloTalk as this is what I usually use, but the advice and reasons mentioned above is more or less applicable on every type of app/site.
I hope that some of these reasons made everything make more sense to those who are struggling and who maybe take things too personally, and I hope that the tips mentioned above can help you guys avoid getting in to those situations in the first place. 🙂
This post will be updated whenever I have something new to add.

Posted in Personal, Selfstudy, TOPIK, Uncategorized

Studying with TOPIK?

Posted on by 카밀라

As you probably know by now, I have been working a lot on my TOPIK skills lately and I do seem to be making progress, however I still feel slightly uncomfortable with TOPIK 2. It’s not so much the thought of maybe probably failing, but more the general writing part. Having practiced TOPIK 1 so many times I have naturally become very comfortable with the different questions, but as soon as I start working on my TOPIK 2 skills, I sort of just panic when I reach the 쓰기 part. Even when I understand the assignment description (which doesn’t happen very often I might note) and I know what I want to write as my answer, it’s like my mind just goes blank for a few seconds before restarting and letting me continue my test. It’s not really a problem now, but it’ll become a problem at the real TOPIK, when I have to spend my time wisely. Sigh.

I think everything will become easier if I become comfortable with TOPIK 2, in the same way I did with TOPIK 1, but since I don’t have that much time I have been trying out different things to speed the process up a notch, and as a result I now study everyday with a TOPIK 2 test. I don’t use it as a mock test though. I simply grab my grammar books and my phone (I prefer looking up words from my naver dictionary app.) and then I choose a TOPIK 2 test (usually one I have already tried and failed at) and then I go through it word by word.
It takes FOREVER to get through all three parts of the test, but I really feel it’s worth it.
Also I do not write anything down, except my answers. By doing it this way I am forcing my self to read and spell the same words over and over again whenever I forget it’s meaning and I do the very same thing with grammar. The good thing about working through a TOPIK 2 test in this manner, is that it uses grammar from both Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced, so I will not only be learning new grammar but also be reviewing all the grammar the I already worked with previously but either have forgotten or is still unsure about.
Also, since the TOPIK questions aren’t related (unless stated otherwise in the specific question) to each other, you don’t really have to worry about your possible lack of time. You can easily work though one question and then go back to living your life, without worrying about loosing some of the meaning.
I currently have that problem when reading 작은 아씨들 – the chapters are between 20-40 pages long and when I have to spend a long time on looking up words, then it’s rarely possible for me to just read 40 pages without putting away the book at some point during the chapter. Every time I return to my book and I am in the middle of some sort of situation or conversation, I easily loose the idea of what was going on and therefore have to work through the first part even slower than usual. Did that make sense? I hope so.. ㅎㅎ Anyway that was a short detour! This way of studying/reviewing can easily be adjusted to your personal situation.

Of course everybody has different preferences but I will definitely recommend that you give this method a try at some point – It just might work for you too!

Posted in Personal, Selfstudy, TOPIK, Uncategorized

Making progress! Or not?

Posted on by 카밀라

The last week have been full of Korean studies and so far I have been loving every minute of it! I have been sticking to my schedule and I’m feeling progress already. Feeling progress makes me feel slightly more optimistic about TOPIK 2!

I’m sure many of you know this feeling very well, but let me just mention it anyway! Everyday I see my book marks moving closer and closer towards the ending in all my different books, and I just feel so incredibly excited when my effort is psychically visible! Knowing that I have read every single word on every single page just makes me feel so proud of myself.

Anyway, I try to practice all elements of the language everyday, but there’s no doubt that I’m feeling progress in my vocabulary and my grammar the most. Its’s not that I learn a lot of new grammar every day, but I’m starting to recognize a lot of the grammar that I have learned previously but for some reason just keeps forgetting, which is even better than learning new grammar. I feel like I am closing some of the blank spaces I have here and there, in my Korean learning journey.

On a less positive note, I seem to be having problems with my head lately.. ㅎㅎ Whenever I’m reading my book, my brain reads words that aren’t correct. Just recently I got super confused by the word 미안해. It made perfect sense in that part of the book, but it seemed like that part suddenly didn’t match the part that I previously read. The 분위기 of the story that completely changed in just a few lines and I just didn’t get why. After reading the entire page 6-7 times I realized that it said 그만해 and not 미안해. Even though I had read it so many times, my brain just didn’t seem to accept or understand what it actually said. I have never had this problem before, but the last few days it has happened 3-4 times. Of course it’s a lot easier to deal with now that I know about it, but it still makes me really frustrated since I have no idea why this is suddenly happening. Hopefully it wont continue!

Before ending this post, let me just give you all an update on the Italki challenge! I’m 7 hours in so far, and I’m having a ton of fun. It doesn’t feel like a duty in any way! I feel like it is my Korean themed play time instead – I’ll definitely complete my 30 hour goal!

Well, time to get back to that 쓰기 book that has been staring at me for the last hour or so!

Posted in books, Personal, Selfstudy, TOPIK, Uncategorized

Making study plans

Posted on by 카밀라

These past few days I’ve been planning on making myself a new study schedule specially for this long break I’m currently on. Even though I get to study a lot these days I keep having this fear of wasting my time away. You know how sometimes you got nothing done during a long break because you keep thinking ‘Oh, I have plenty time so it doesn’t matter if I don’t do it today’? That’s the fear I keep having, even though I know that I am studying more than usually.
To avoid this, I am currently working on a new study schedule so that I can get to at least do some specific things, and then just study as I feel like it outside of those things.

I have decided to take on the TOPIK 2 (my mock test was less tragic than expected but nevertheless still tragic.. Sigh..) in April, so there’s no way that I will let this break go to waste!
Here’s what I have decided for now:

Everyday goals:
Morning:
– Go through 1 article from ‘News in Korean’, by TTMIK.
– Go through 1 article from Naver.
– Go through 1 story + assignments from ‘Korean folktales and Aesop’s fables’, by TTMIK.
– Listen to a TTMIK Podcast (grammar or 이야기).

Evening:
– Go through 2 grammar points from ‘Korean in Grammar intermediate’.
– Review 2 previous grammar points from ‘Korean in Grammar intermediate’.
– Complete 2 assignments in my TOPIK 쓰기 book.
– Complete 2 assignments in my TOPIK 읽기 book.

Weekly goals:
– Complete 5, 1 hour sessions with my italki teacher.
– Study with a practice TOPIK test from my ‘Pass new TOPIK intermediate’ book.
– Read one chapter in ‘작은 아씨들’.
– Write a short review of all finished chapters from ‘작은 아씨들’, using the narrative form.
– Go through each written review with my italki teacher.

End-of-break goals:
– Finish ‘Korean in Grammar intermediate’.
– Finish ‘News in Korean’, by TTMIK.
– Finish the 9th level of TTMIK grammar podcast.
– Finish ‘작은 아씨들’.
– Improve with 3-5 points on listening and reading in a TOPIK 2 mock test.

All of the things mentioned above is obviously just my lowest goals, and the more the better. Outside of these goals I will also be continuing my plan to surround myself with Korean, which so far is going very well!
Also, I got some other pretty awesome news today. Apparently the office at my soon-to-be workplace made mistake so I will be adding an extra week to my break. I can’t even believe my luck!
I made myself promise not to waste any time, so I’ll end my blog post here and return to my books!

Posted in Selfstudy, TOPIK, Uncategorized

Study vacation?

Posted on by 카밀라

Yesterday I had my final exam at my current school and because of some ridiculous rules, my classmates and I have to wait 4 weeks before we can start on the next part of our program. This also means that I will not have an income in February and in March I will only get half my usual pay, which quite honestly is bothering me more than it probably should.
Anyhow, there’s also a lot of good things about this forced vacation of mine and I’m sure you can already tell where I’m going with this!

6 months ago I decided that I wanted to take TOPIK 1 in London this coming April, but lately I have been thinking about taking TOPIK 2 instead. I haven’t completely decided yet but I think I’ll do it. I’m positive that I can pass TOPIK 1, but if I were to take TOPIK 2 at this very moment, I would probably fail it, and I would hate failing my first attempt at a TOPIK test.. On the other hand, it’s more fun when you’re really challenging yourself and I know I would feel more motivated in my studies if I’m reaching for something that I might fail. Or maybe I just enjoy torturing myself.. I’m not sure. But that’s where these 4 weeks might come in handy!
I never got around to trying that TOPIK 2 mock test, but I’ll be doing that later today, when I’m alone. Hopefully my result won’t be too tragic and I’ll have a more clear idea of what I can and what I cannot do. After that, I will be able to use these 4 weeks to really immerse myself in Korean. Since the registration is from February 15th to February 24th, I’ll be able Study for these 4 weeks  and then decide if I want to go for TOPIK 2 or not. It really couldn’t be timed better.
Also let’s not forget about the italki challenge! Starting from Monday, I’ll be having 1 session every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then 2 sessions every Friday. This means that I will be able to really immerse myself in Korean.
I’ll read articles, my webtoons, my books, my Korean TOPIK preparation books, as well as my usual text from Korean friends. I’ll basically be reading all sorts of texts.
The same goes for writing. I’ll be texting with different people in Korean, I’ll be writing when I complete the different assignments in my books, and I’ll be writing a short note in my new notebook every time I finish a chapter of 작은 아씨들 to make sure that I have understood everything properly as well as to practice my writing skills.
For listening I’ll be listening to music as usual, watch different dramas and movies, stream whatever is on MBC (It’s currently news in case you were wondering ㅎㅎ), have conversations with my italki teacher and exchange voice messages with a few of my closest friends. These things will also give me many opportunities to speak as well.

You can accomplish a lot in 4 weeks – especially when you have so many great opportunities at the same time! Just by writing this post, I have more or less convinced myself to go for TOPIK 2, haha! Ah I’m so excited!