Tag: language

Posted in Personal, Selfstudy, Uncategorized

Korean habits

Posted on by 카밀라

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!

Posted in Personal, Selfstudy, Uncategorized

A new experiment

Posted on by 카밀라

I decided to try out something new for a few weeks or so. As you might remember, I stopped writing down new vocabulary (unless it was super important) and instead just kept looking it up until i remembered it. This turned out to be a great choice as it really helps to keep reading and writing the words that you can’t remember, over and over again. However I have been really curious as to why some words just stick instantly while others keep disappearing from my memory. So I started a new experiment last Saturday.
From now on, I write down every single word I come across with only one exception which is when I read 버드나무에 부는 바람. I usually read a few pages in the morning before work, but other than that I usually read it on the go and I hate having to switch my attention between the book and my phone dictionary while sitting in a noisy train, crammed full of people. Also, I haven’t really felt a need to use a dictionary while reading. I understand enough to follow the story line and I’m quite good at understanding through context. I guess 버드나무에 부는 바람 has become my dictionary free zone!
Anyway, back to the experiment. The idea is that on every Saturday, I’ll ‘restart’ my notes. By restart I mean that I’ll write down all new words as well as those that I can’t remember, even though I wrote them down before. This way I can compare my notes from week to week and – if I don’t become lazy – from month to month. Which words just stuck with me and which didn’t? Maybe I can learn something new about my personal learning abilities and preferences. That’s always interesting, right? (asked the geeky Korean lover)
When I forget a word even though I wrote it down just a few minutes ago, I’ll still keep searching for it on Naver, instead of looking through my notes. That way I can still get a lot of practice even though I sort of switched back to my old methods.

I might share my weekly words on the blog and I might not. I haven’t quite decided yet! But I will definitely keep everyone posted about my results!

Posted in Personal, Selfstudy, TOPIK, Uncategorized

My first TOPIK experience

Posted on by 카밀라

Last Saturday I finally took TOPIK 1 (whoa, it already feels like it was ages ago!) and surprisingly enough, my sister and I actually found our way to the Korean Cultural Center without any trouble!
When we got there we waited outside for a while, not really sure whether to enter the building or not since we were there pretty early, but soon other Korean lovers joined us and we all got invited inside by one of the employees. After waiting for a while in the waiting area, we all had to get our registration slips and then we got to go to the room where we had to take the actual test.

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My first impression was that it seemed just like a normal written exam just like back home in Denmark! I walked in to the dark room and had to find my seat. All desks had names and registration numbers, so you had to find the one with your name. Not too long after finding my desk, the supervisors joined us and started to collect our phones while explaining the structure and rules of the exam. As I mentioned in my last post, I actually had an anxiety attack right before I found my desk, but at this point I was starting calm down and this actually ended up being my favorite part of the exam. Why? Because the instructions were mainly in Korean. Only a few things got translated to English and somehow I just found it so incredibly satisfying to actually use my knowledge and be able to understand what was going on! Honestly, that’s probably the reason why my anxiety started to fade away. At that point I had already considered quitting and just leaving the room before the test started, but I knew that I would regret it SO badly! Passing level 2 in April 2016, has been my goal and a big part of my motivation in 10 whole months! Not only would I be incredibly disappointed in myself, but I would also leave the Korean Cultural Center with a really bad memory filled with anxiety and I might never be able to get over that. So I decided that I would skip TOPIK 2 (which was just a bonus since I was already there) and stay for TOPIK 1 no matter what. And I did!

After waiting for a while, we got out TOPIK pens (I have read about many people keeping these pens as a souvenir, but I never understood why until I got mine. I had no idea that the pens where made specifically for the exam!) and soon after we got our papers too. Soon after, the exam finally started but sadly it didn’t last for long. We started with 듣기 but our audio player kept stopping in the middle of the tracks. I felt really sorry towards some of the other test takers. Some of them where really nervous and had been sitting with their books, cramming, until the very last moment, and these unexpected technical issues obviously made them more nervous! After a few tries we were told to jump straight into 읽기 while they tried to find another cd player. This is my second favorite moment of the exam! You see, there was no clock in the room so I had no idea whether I was behind on time or not, which was quite stressful. Also, I haven’t taken a TOPIK mock test since September, and I had completely forgotten how much time we had and how many questions there was. I literally had no idea what I was doing so I just tried to focus on the current question in front of me. At some point one of the supervisors pokes me on the shoulder and asks “You ARE aware that you need to fill out the answers on that separate paper, right?”… Oh boy! My face must have been priceless! I DID know that had to do that because they said so in the beginning and I DID understand it. However, I have never used that separate answer sheet at home and after my anxiety issues I had just put all of my focus into the test and had almost forgotten that I was NOT home in my own living room and I was NOT just taking a mock test! Having no idea how much time I had to fix it, I semi panicked and tried to fill it out as fast as possible, which obviously caused me to accidently mark a few answers wrongly. At the exam you are not allowed to use your own pen or correction tape, so I had to raise my hand and wait patiently for the supervisor to bring me the tape. I got it corrected and finished the last few questions and then while I was thinking about what a silly mistake that was, one of the supervisors declared that we now only had 10 minutes left! Turns out I had more than enough time! This brings me to my point: This is my second favorite moment! As mentioned above, I haven’t taken the test since September and back then I just barely passed it + I had to skim through the last 3 questions in order to answer them in time. This time I was able to read some of the questions several times, I could fill out the answers twice on different papers, erase a few answers and then correct them, and still be able to finish with 10+ minutes to spare. If that’s not progress, then I don’t know what is!

After the 10 minutes had past, they gave us two extra minutes to finish up, since we had to start the 읽기 so sudden. We then picked up where we left with 듣기 but the new player also seemed to be against us! Once again I felt really sorry towards the other test takers, and the supervisors too! They were definitely worried about what to do if it didn’t start working properly soon! It the end one of the supervisors just had to stand by the player and be ready to restart it if it stopped, and that worked out perfectly.
In the end we finished without too many problems and I left the room smiling and feeling really good about myself! Like most of the other test takers, I brought my pen back home with me. It now has a special place on my desk (aka my favorite study place) and it will stay there to remind me of my first TOPIK experience, and motivate me to study for the next!

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I have already thought about my next TOPIK goal, but I have decided to just study without a goal, until May 26th, where the results from the 46th TOPIK will be published. I can’t wait to see my result and I can’t wait to learn more Korean and see more progress. Things have been a bit hectic since I got back from London, but it should be back to normal now. Hopefully that means that I can spend my long weekend with my first post-TOPIK study session!

Have a great day guys!

Posted in books, Kpop, Personal, Selfstudy, TOPIK, Uncategorized

My London Trip

Posted on by 카밀라

Now that I’m back from London, I believe it’s time for me to share the highlights of my trip! We (my sister and I) left for London on Thursday and it was the first time flying for both of us. The trip was chaotic from the very beginning as one of the trains I had to take, got cancelled last minute. Luckily there was another train leaving shortly after that I could take and in the end I made it to the airport in time. After getting on the plane, things got really chaotic! It turns out that I get airsick (I haven’t had trouble with any types of motion sickness in almost 10 years, so none of us had seen it coming) and vomiting is actually one of my biggest fears. I’m not sure why but I have always felt this way and I would do pretty much anything to avoid vomiting. In the end I made it through both of my flights without vomiting but the trip and the fear alone was enough to trigger my anxiety attacks. I have only suffered from anxiety a few times before so this was yet another surprise to me. I ended up having 4 attacks on the trip which was super exhausting and I ended up only taking TOPIK 1 as a result.
Even though my trip had quite a few bad surprises, I actually had a really good time and I would gladly do it over again! I had so much fun with my sister and I got to practice a lot of Korean!

On Friday we took the long trip out to New Malden. New Malden has a big Korean community and the streets are filled with Korean restaurants, convenience stores, Korean hair dressers, bigger Korean markets etc. My sister and I went there to shop and eat dinner but in the end we got there pretty early and decided to go shopping and then eat lunch instead. It felt so strange and exciting for me to walk along the streets and be able to listen to small pieces of Korean conversations while reading Korean signs and looking at Korean products everywhere! It is probably the closest I’ll get to Korea, until next year! I ended up buying a ton of snacks, some beauty products, a kpop cd, and a ton of other things. We then chose a random restaurant where we sat down to enjoy a big meal and plan the next day’s activities. We ended up in a restaurant called 징기스칸 and we had a great time there! The restaurant had a great 분위기 and the food was delicious. We were the only non-Koreans there but we could easily chat with the staff and they even cheered on my sister when she was struggling with her chopsticks! It was really just a great experience and I would definitely go there again if I could!

genkis
CREDITS TO ORIGINAL OWNER http://shinhan.eduhouse.net/community/community_tongsin_view.asp?curr_menu=community&curr_loca=community_tongsin_view&search_field=&search_word=&VLI_page=1&report_article_code=39286&list_type=&view_type=&user_seq=645396&rnum=84&sel_nation=2&sel_course=

On Saturday we headed towards London Centrum and I took TOPIK 1. It was a great experience despite of my anxiety, but I will have a separate post on my TOPIK experience soon, so I won’t really talk about it now. After getting lost a few times in the giant crowd of people, we finally found our way to Foyles. My sister and I both love books and I actually just wanted buy a new crime novel to read later, but we obviously had to stop by the language area – How could we not? Much to my surprise, they actually had quite a few books in Korean (mostly famous books translated to Korean) and there was no way I could leave without bringing one of them home with me! I read a few lines on the back of each book and ended up with two finalists. I couldn’t choose so I closed my eyes and let my sister switch them around a few times. I ended up choosing the one in her right hand but because my sister is simply that awesome, she actually bought the other one for me! 고마워 언니~

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We spent some more time in that area but decided that we actually had liked New Malden more, and therefore we went back to our little Korean playground. We finished up our shopping and then ate dinner at a restaurant called 소라. This place was even better than 징기스칸 and we really enjoyed the food and small talk! I wished I had a better camera at that point as my phone camera truly sucks, but nevertheless, we had the times of our lives! Sister time and Korean food – does it get much better?

My trip back home where a lot easier to handle. I got some motion sickness tablets so I only had to worry about the anxiety itself and I’m usually pretty good at dealing with it when it happens.

I have definitely learned a lot about myself on this trip, and now I know what to expect and how to handle it, when we go to Korea next year! Despite a few uncomfortable moments I would do it all over again, anytime!

Here’s some of the random things I brought back home with me!

 

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!