Tag: learning

Posted in Personal, Selfstudy, TOPIK, Uncategorized

Italki Language Challenge – January 2016

Posted on by 카밀라

It’s finally here! As some of you guys already know, I have been wanting to try joining an Italki Language Challenge ever since July and I almost signed up for the one in October, but in the end I had to be realistic and accept the fact that I simply didn’t have the time. However I also made myself the promise that I would join the next one for sure, so when I saw that the countdown for the next challenge had started, I immediately signed up before I could change my mind.

I believe they have changed a few things since the last challenge, but since It’s my first time to join then I’m not really sure. You can go read about it here 🙂

I’m not really sure what goal I want to reach. Obviously the 30 hour one would be awesome but 30 hours is a lot of time and money. On the other hand I will be have 4 weeks forced vacation from January 15th (That’s a looong story) and the challenge is from January 16th to February 29th, so it matches perfectly! I mean come on, who knows when I’ll be able to put that much time aside for a challenge? Plus I’ll be taking TOPIK  1 (and maybe 2) in April – That would be an amazing thing to add to the list of preparation plans, right? 아.. 어떡하지… I think I’ll talk to my italki teacher on Monday and see what she thinks!

I’m feeling really excited already, haha! It’ll be fun! I’m positive.

Anybody else joining this time?

Posted in books, Selfstudy, TOPIK, Uncategorized

Last goal of 2015

Posted on by 카밀라

Today is the last day of 2015 and since I’m just lying here on my couch with the flu (Yep that’s right. A cold on Christmas eve and the flu on New Years eve.. Sigh..), I have more than enough time to think about what this year has meant to me. I have achieved many things this year and to be honest I feel like my Korean progress is the most important achievement. I started taking my studies seriously in January which means that it is almost a year ago now. It’s amazing how time flies. Let’s take a look at the things I love the most from this year!

  • During this year I have bought a ton of books and enjoyed all of them.
  • I have made some amazing friends through language exchange.
  • I have spoken in Korean with native speakers though skype as well as face to face, for the very first time.
  • I decided to start my ‘Korea-account’ so that 언니 and I can go to Korea in 2017.
  • I decided that I wanted to pass TOPIK.
  • I took my first TOPIK Mock test.
  • I started my Blog.
  • I have completed all of my Korean goals for this year except for one.
  • I have met many lovely fellow Korean students.
  • I started watching movies and dramas without subtitles.
  • I read my first Korean news articles/blogs (including those that aren’t made for study purposes).
  • I read my first book in Korean.

While remembering all these things I’m feeling proud and accomplished – Who would have known that all of this would happen when this year started? To finish it of in the best way possible, I’m going to finish my very last goal of 2015, which is to finish reading 크리스마스 캐럴 before midnight. I’m almost there so I’m sure it won’t be a problem. Also I have already ordered two new books so I’ll be ready to make more progress in 2016.

Have a good night wherever you guys are and stay safe. Thank you for celebrating my progress with me!
여러분.. 새해 복 많이 받으세요~

Posted in books, Selfstudy, Uncategorized

REVIEW: Korean folk tales and Aesop’s fables – BY TTMIK

Posted on by 카밀라

Later than expected but nevertheless, its here~
So without any further ado, I’ll just jump straight to the review.

Okay, so first of all, this is an e-book by TTMIK (whom you all know that I adore) and it is split into two different parts; “Korean Folk Tales” and “Aesop’s Fables”, but the assignments after each story is the same in both parts, so I won’t be reviewing them separately. I’ll try to be as objective as possible and then give you my personal opinion in the end.

Table of content from mykoreanstore.com:

Stories featured in this e-book + audio program

Aesop’s Fables:
1. Three Little Pigs
2. The Rabbit And The Turtle
3. The Ants And Grasshoppers
4. The Sun And The Wind
5. The Shepherd Boy
6. The Greedy Dog
7. The Fox And The Crane
8. Two Travelers And A Bear
9. The Lion And The Mouse Who Repaid Kindness
10. The Goose That Laid The Golden Eggs
11. Belling The Cat
12. The Donkey And The Salt
13. The Fox And The Sour Grapes
14. The Town Mouse And The Country Mouse
15. The Farmer And The Three Sons

Korean Folk Tales:
1. The Spring That Makes You Young
2. The Sun And The Moon
3. The Old Man With A Lump
4. Golden Axe And Silver Axe
5. The Green Frog Who Won’t Listen
6. The Fairy And The Woodcutter
7. The Magic Millstone
8. Heungbu And Nolbu
9. Red Fan, Blue Fan
10. Loyal Brothers
11. Kongjwi And Patjwi
12. The Tiger And A Persimmon
13. King’s Ears Are Donkey Ears
14. The Lazy Man Who Became A Cow
15. The Magpie That Repaid Kindness

NOTE: In the e-book, titles are all in Korean.

Okay so let’s get started – Here’s what you get.
1) As the very first thing in each story/chapter, you have the story 100% in Korean.

sto
2) After reading the story you move on you first assignment which is ‘번역 연습’ = Translating Practice. Here you can try translating the entire story on your own, sentence by sentence. Below each sentence you’ll have a short vocabulary list to help you translate the story.

tran pra
3) After translating the story, it’s time for ‘영어 번역’ = English Translation. In this part, TTMIK has provided an English translation which you can use to check up on/correct your own translation. In some cases they write more than one possible translation which also is super helpful.

tran
4) Now it’s time for ‘Grammar Point’. This doesn’t really need much explanation, but let me just talk about it anyway. Here you get to go through some of the grammar that was used in the story you just read. After the grammar has been explained, you’ll get to practice a bit with a few assignments.

gram
5) After practicing some of the used grammar, it’s time for ‘Vocabulary Quiz’.

vocab quiz
6) The vocabulary Quiz is follow by a ‘Comprehension Quiz’.

comp7) Lastly you get and ‘Answer Key’ and you can once again check your answers.answer key

This is how you go through all 30 stories. There’s about 500 pages of material to study with and believe it or not, it doesn’t end here!
Each story comes with two audio files as well. 1 audio file where the story is read aloud in normal speed, and one file with the story in fast speed.
In other words you get; 30 stories both as a book and audio book, as well as a workbook with different assignments. Obviously you can use it exactly as you want to.

mappe

My personal opinion

Good: First of all I have always loved these types of stories so I immediately knew that I needed to try this e-book, and I can honestly say that I’m not disappointed at all
The stories are good and they have the perfect length, so if you’re not a ‘reading person’ this will still be highly useful to you. This also means that it is perfect to use with your language partners, Korean friends, fellow students or teachers. You can bring a story to whatever type of sessions you might have and discuss it together, or use it as homework. The possibilities are endless!
The assignments are just as useful and most importantly they don’t overwhelm you in any way. All assignments are made in small bite sized pieces which makes it a lot easier to handle and it also means that you can make an assignment whenever you have the time. In my opinion this is 10 times better than having one large assignment. (I can’t possibly be the only one who HATES stopping in the middle of an assignment, right?).
The fact that you literally get the possibility to practice everything except speaking, is probably my favorite thing about this e-book!

Bad: I honestly have nothing bad to say about this. It is definitely on my top 10 Korean Study related purchases of this year!
The only things I can really point out so far is minor things like a spelling mistake or two. It doesn’t affect your studying whatsoever.

NOTE: I haven’t finished the entire e-book yet, so I might make an update if my opinion changes.

Final thought: Go buy this now! There’s still 3 more days with the TTMIK Christmas sale, so go make good use of your money! –> mykoreanstore

Now if you will have me excused – I’m gonna move on to the next Korean Folktale. Have an awesome Christmas everyone!

Posted in Selfstudy, TOPIK, Uncategorized

When things are looking brighter

Posted on by 카밀라

Okay, SO MANY things has happened lately and I’m not quite sure where to start, so I’ll just stick to the most interesting points. First of all, as I mentioned in my last post I finished 어린 왕자, and was pleased to see that I had underestimated my abilities once again. That’s always a lovely feeling!
However, when I decided to move straight on to 크리스마스 캐럴 my confidence sort of faded. Holy cow guys. Despite knowing the general plot (I have only seen the movie once as a child, though.) I find myself feeling lost quite frequently. I look up the words I don’t know, but in several cases I still don’t seem to know the actual meaning of the sentence. That is one of the feelings I hate the most when studying. Sigh..
Anyway, I’m not giving up. I’m sure that I can finish it without being lost in the end, but there’s no doubt that it’ll take a lot longer time than first expected. Luckily I’m not in a hurry! 할 수 있어요!
The next update is that I just bought 4 new e-books from TTMIK. That’s always a good way to start the week! Also, in case you don’t know, they are currently having a 40% Christmas sale on their e-books – Don’t miss it! I bought: Korean Folk Tales & Aesop’s Fables, Korean in Action, Street Korean Ep. 4 and Street Korean Ep. 5. I can’t wait to begin! It’s not like I really NEED anymore materials right now, but how could I possibly resist?

My third update is about my TOPIK goal. I was planning on taking two Mock Tests this weekend, but due to my IT exam, that wasn’t possible at all.. However, the actual exam will be tomorrow 11.20, and it only takes 30 minutes, so I since I’m finally finished preparing for it, I’ll be studying for at the rest of this evening, and I’ll have most of my day tomorrow available for studying as well!
The fourth and last thing I want to share for now, is about the promise I made to myself in a previous post. Remember how I promised to try harder to use Korean in my conversations with my good friend, even though he’s fluent in English? Well we talked all Saturday (from around 9AM to midnight – Yikes), and much to my friend’s surprise, I only wrote 4 English sentences during that time. The first two was in English because we were talking about something very serious and personal, and I didn’t want to risk creating any misunderstandings. The other two sentences were in English because I made some mistakes and he needed to know what exactly I meant, so that he could correct me at accurately as possible.
The next day (yesterday) we talked again most of the day, this time with no English at all! Needless to say, I’m quite satisfied with myself!

I believe that was the most interesting Korean related things that happened. Ah.. I can almost hear my Christmas vacation calling my name~ Things can only become better now, right?
Now its time to eat Christmas cookies and watch the last episode of 사랑하는 은동아  study!

 

Posted in Selfstudy, TOPIK, Uncategorized

Study update

Posted on by 카밀라

So the last 3 days have been quite hectic and I haven’t felt this exhausted in a very long time. I suppose that’s just the way things are when it’s time for your exams.
Anyway, despite being super tired I have been studying diligently. Most of my studying haven’t changed but I did successfully finish  어린 왕자 yesterday, and I am so incredibly happy that I decided to give it a try. I didn’t feel lost and even though I spent way too much time on looking up words, I still finished it a lot faster than I thought was possible. 아싸!
It just feels like such an accomplishment! After this post I’ll watch another episode of 사랑하는 은동아 and if everything goes as planned tomorrow, then I’ll start reading 크리스마스 개럴. I haven’t made any goals with this one as I seem to read more than planned anyway, and these chapters are a lot longer, so I’m not sure what goal to set.

I have an exam paper that I need to finish before Sunday. My goal is to finish it by Friday and if I succeed then I’ll be taking two TOPIK mock tests over the weekend. I want to see if I have made any progress since the last test, but I also want to try a TOPIK 2 test. It’ll be my first try with TOPIK 2, so I’m sure it’ll be interesting 😉
I’ll also be reviewing a lot during this weekend and hopefully write an essay. That’s my extra goals for the week.
I’m looking forward to the 18th when my classes ends, and I’ll have a lot more time on my hands.

Posted in Selfstudy, Uncategorized

Sudden confidence?

Posted on by 카밀라

Have you ever had a sudden boost of confidence after realizing progress? In my case, I work hard every day and that usually results in a general feeling of progress. This also means that suddenly realizing progress and therefore getting a boost of confidence, is a rare feeling to me.

About a week ago, I was talking to my awesome LP/Friend and he mentioned that my Korean seems to improve a lot faster lately, and that he could feel my progress even though it hadn’t been long since we talked the last time. I was happy as always, but I didn’t really think more about it until this weekend. Last Friday I had my usual italki session, and my teacher told me that my Korean indeed improved noticeably every week, which caused me to think about how that could possibly be? Where does all this progress come from?
The friend I talked about in the beginning of this blog post, is definitely one of the best language partners you could wish for, so shouldn’t I be making less progress when we don’t talk for a little while, rather than making a bigger progress?
I have been thinking about this all day yesterday – I mean let’s be honest here! We all want to know where our progress comes from, so that we can improve even more, right?
Anyway, today it finally hit me. I was looking through my conversation with another LP, and I realized that I hadn’t written anything in English for almost 2 months. After going through a few other conversations I could see that I was generally not using English anymore, with several LP’s. This answered my ‘Where does all this progress come from?’ question, but it also gave me another one. ‘How did this happen?’. I most certainly haven’t done it deliberately and if you asked me to stop using English, then I would probably have told you that it wouldn’t last for long. I didn’t decide to stop using English.
After thinking about it for a while, I realized what these specific LP’s had in common. None of them are confident in English and these specific LP’s aren’t really interested in learning it either. They just like to help people who are learning their language. This is when I realized that my still-quite-lacking Korean, has become better than their English. This obviously means that when I feel lost or have a question, I always ask in Korean, since I at this point feel like I understand their explanation in Korean better, than when they try to help me in English.
I speak a lot of English with my good LP/Friend, since he’s fluent in English and therefore I understand his English explanations a lot better than if he explains it in Korean. Also, when I’m in a hurry or if I’m doing something else while talking to him, I usually use English until I’m finished with whatever I’m doing, as it is a lot easier when I don’t have to look up words or focus too hard on writing.
This however, simply isn’t a possibility with the other LP’s anymore. I’m forced to look up grammar and vocabulary all the time, and I’m forced to create complex sentences that I would never have tried to make, with some of the other LP’s. Either that, or I simply have to only have super simple conversations and since I’m able to do this in Korean already, I wouldn’t be using English anyway. Now matter how I twist and turn it, I’ll only be using Korean. This of course also means that I make a lot more mistakes, but my LP’s always understand what I mean and I always understand their corrections, so I suppose those mistakes are pretty useful anyway.

This sudden (and honestly quite shocking) realization, has caused a big and sudden boost to my confidence. We can all probably do a lot more than we think. It also made me think that I should put more effort in my other conversations as well, and more importantly I should stop choosing the easy way as often as I seem to do.

I think I’ll start making dinner now, and then return to my Korean books and maybe even my drama. Remember to celebrate your progress! 🙂

Posted in books, Selfstudy, Uncategorized

Korean day

Posted on by 카밀라

Yesterday I woke up to an email from my teacher, saying that she had gotten sick and as a result my classes for the day had gotten cancelled. What an amazing start to my Thursday! Since I was already wide awake, I decided to just stay up and start studying Korean. I had to enjoy the early and quiet morning, right?
I started with my usual routine and after studying for a little over an hour, I decided to take a break. By then, my boyfriend had woken up and was about to leave the house, so I figured it was a good opportunity to be productive. Being productive in this case meant putting on my favorite Kpop songs and getting some cleaning done. With the cleaning out of the way, I felt like I was able to focus again, and I returned to my books. I honestly felt like I was on a roll yesterday, and when the postman knocked on my door, I realized that I had been sitting by my desk for over two hours. Yikes!
I unpacked my new books – excited as ever – and after looking through them all, I laid down on my couch and watched not 1, not 2, but 3 episodes of 사랑하는 은동아.. I can’t remember the last time I had time enough to binge watch a drama!
While making dinner, I was reviewing TTMIK’s grammar podcast, and after dinner I returned to the couch with my laptop, and started reading my second article that day. Normally I don’t read too many articles each day, as I find myself getting frustrated quite easily, but I just felt like I had all the patience and motivation in the world, and how could I possibly pass on such a rare feeling?
Later in the evening my little family (My boyfriend, the two long eared fluffies and me) all sat down to eat Christmas snacks and watch Pyrus (Old Danish Christmas TV Calendar), and once the episode was over, my boyfriend continued to watch a movie, and I picked up where I left with 어린왕자.
It wasn’t until I went to bed that I realized, that my day had truly been full of Korean. And what a joy it was!
During the day I was talking to one of my LP’s as well, and he was helpful and entertaining as always!

Today on the other hand, I have been insanely busy and haven’t read one single word of Korean.. Sigh.. Can we just go back to yesterday? No? Okay then..
Well it’s okay. My dinner is ready soon and after that I have my second Italki session this week. 아싸! After my session I will watch the 4th episode of Pyrus and then start my usual studying. And guess what! I have no plans and no homework this weekend! I’ll be working extra hard now that I finally have the chance!

I bought all these books during November, and actually, I also pre-ordered TTMIK Level 3 (Surprise!), so that’ll make it 8 books in total (Let’s not talk about the e-books, haha!). Whoops. I regret nothing! I might need a bigger desk soon though..

novbooks

Posted in Selfstudy, Uncategorized

Shadowing and a little motivation

Posted on by 카밀라

I think most of you guys know about shadowing, but for those who might not know, I’ll start of this post with a super short introduction ^^

Shadowing is a learning technique that can help you speak more fluently. It can help your intonation, pronunciation and your talking speed, which is all a very big part of sounding fluent.
What you do is, you listen to a native speaker talking, and you repeat what they are saying while trying to make it sound as similar as possible. Shadowing is a really great language learning tool and it’s something that everyone can do.
Also I would recommend that you do this while you’re alone or with someone who understands what you’re doing, because other people will look at you like you’re a nutcase. Just a heads up! 😉

So now that we’re all on the same page here, let me tell you about my struggles.. sigh..
I haven’t been shadowing as much as I would have liked, and lately I have been getting more and more frustrated with my awkward pauses and slow speaking, whenever I speak Korean. It made me decide to focus more on shadowing and speaking in general, but that’s where my struggles really begin. Whenever I decide to shadow something, I just keep getting more and more frustrated if I can’t make it sound very similar. The more I listen to myself ‘not getting it right’, the more frustrated I become and the worse my intonation becomes. It’s a never ending circle and it’s not doing me any good. Normally I don’t mind getting things wrong as I believe that we learn from everything, and usually getting something wrong or not doing something very well, just motivates me to try even harder and keep practicing. However for some reason, I just don’t feel that way with shadowing.
I guess language learning can’t be done without bumps in the road, and luckily, I have a really great language partner and friend (ㅋㅋ 안녕 오빠!) who have helped me feel more positive, when I fail at my usual positive attitude. Since his wise words of encouragements has helped my so many times, I figured it could be helpful for other language learners too.
Whenever I feel hopeless he reminds me that I am not a native speaker and the fact that I am even able to try doing something, is an achievement that shouldn’t be forgotten.
I am NOT a native speaker. I am NOT supposed to do these things perfectly. In fact I am NOT supposed to know the language at all. However despite not being supposed to do these things, I’m still trying. Learning a language is an achievement in itself. Being able to try and fail is an achievement in itself. Doing something that isn’t very well done, is still something that you have done. Let’s all try to remember this when we get frustrated on our language journey. 🙂

Before returning to my shadowing, I though I would share one of my favorite, less known YouTube channels, 한국언니. She makes super short but helpful videos with different themes. It’s great especially for beginners and for leaning phrases for specific situations, but my favorite things about these videos are that they are short and thereby easy to get through on stressful days or when you feel like you might loose your focus fast + the sentences are said several times with different natural intonations -> perfect for shadowing.
For all you T-ara fans, this sentence (Jeon Won Diary) will probably be quite familiar!

Enjoy your language journey people!

Posted in books, Selfstudy, TOPIK, Uncategorized

Preparing for TOPIK

Posted on by 카밀라

Lately I have been thinking more and more about TOPIK and I have been trying to figure out how i can prepare myself in the best possible way, without boring myself by working to much with the same materials, and I think I have found a decent balance.

Basically I have decided that the best way to prepare is to expose myself to as much Korean as possible. Reading, writing, speaking, listening – you name it. At the same time I’ll be studying with a variety of books.
I finished my last two TOPIK 1 mock tests with a decent result, and I’m currently in the process of deciding whether or not to take both TOPIK 1 and 2, in April. I know I won’t be able to make a decision any time soon, but I also know that even if I decide to only take TOPIK 1, then my TOPIK 2 preparations will never go to waste. I WILL take TOPIK 2 eventually, and preparing for TOPIK 2 will only make TOPIK 1 seem easier, right?

Anyhow, this is how I have been studying for the last few days!
I go through 2 grammar points from my Intermediate book, as well as review the two previous grammar points. At some point all this grammar will hopefully stick to my brain! This book has a quiz after each chapter, in the same format as the TOPIK test, so that is definitely a plus in my book! (I’m working on a few reviews, so more on that later!)
After that I go through 1 article from the TTMIK news in Korean book, which also has a quiz after each article, in the TOPIK format!
The next book I work with is my TOPIK 쓰기 book. Here I make sure to make at least one assignment every day, and I get my answers checked by my language partners, through the native speakers on italki, or by my italki teacher.
Lastly I continue reading 어린왕자 and articles on naver. All these things are improving my reading skills, my vocabulary and my grammar skills as well.
When it comes to listening, I’m using a variety of materials as usual. Most of the time I listen to kpop, watch tv shows, dramas, movies and listen to different podcasts. Whenever I travel or exercise, there will be something Korean in my ears.
When writing with my language partners I make sure to challenge myself over and over again. That’s the best way to make the grammar and vocabulary stick properly.
My weekly italki sessions are continuing as usual.

This is how I am studying right now, but as soon as I feel a bit more comfortable with TOPIK 2, I’ll start using my other two preparation books for 쓰기 and 읽기. Also, I have ordered 7 books so far this month, and since only two have arrived, there will probably be some changes. I ordered the PASS NEW TOPIK books through TTMIK, and I’m currently trying to decide if I should buy the Video Course as well. I mean I WILL end up buying it, but I think I will wait till January, since I have plenty to work with right now. We’ll see.

Here’s all the books I’m using or is about to use, featuring 토끼 because he follows me everywhere.. And yes I named him 토끼.

24 november 1

Posted in books, Selfstudy, Uncategorized

Making myself feel better

Posted on by 카밀라

So yesterday I ended my toughest week in a very long time. I had to finish my exam report and then attend my schools open house, where I had to present our project a billion times for different judges and guests. It was a ton of fun, but around noon I started to feel unwell and when I reached the end of my 12 hour school day, I was feeling really sick. I was hoping that I was just feeling sick as a result of a really long and stressful week, with no sleep, so I went home and straight to bed.
Sadly that wasn’t the case so there I was: sick, tired and really in need of something to cheer me up. So how is the best way to make myself feel better? Well if you know me just a little, then you probably already know that I immediately turned to my Korean books!

Today I started my day by opening up my TTMIK Level 1 grammar book. I ordered it when the pre-orders started, simply because I wanted to support the people who made my Korean journey possible, and because I really wanted to have a signed copy of the book! To be honest I didn’t buy it because I thought it would be useful to me, since I’m currently about to start Level 8 of the TTMIK podcast, and I have listened to the Level 1 podcast several times as well as read through the PDF and finished the workbook.
However when reading through the book, I immediately started to feel better, because I realized that I was actually right. The book didn’t teach my anything that TTMIK hadn’t already tought me back when I started. I already knew it all, and it seemed so easy and logical, unlike when I went through the Level 1 curriculum the first time!
This experience is more than enough to make me feel better about everything!

After reading through the Level 1 book, I decided to continue reading  어린왕자, and I then realized that I am already more than halfway through chapter 3, which means that when I finish this chapter (I’ll read the last two pages as soon as I finish this post), then I will have doubled my weekly goal, despite having an awfully stressful week! I don’t think I need to explain how happy that makes me feel!
I also realized that the 인디고 books are placed in the ‘advanced’ category at twochois, and even though that doesn’t really mean anything (let’s be honest here. A persons ‘language level’ is an extremely individual thing and we all have different ideas of when someone is a beginner, intermediate and so on.) then it still made me feel really good, because I am doing surprisingly well. I just recently started to think of myself as an intermediate learner and this my first try with a book that isn’t made for learning purposes, so that makes me feel even better. Even though it takes quite a while to read (compared to anything I read in Danish or English) and I sometimes have to look up many words, I actually CAN read it. I do NOT feel lost.

These two things aren’t big accomplishments in any way, but they made me feel so much better, and they really made me realize that you should never underestimate yourself or your small accomplishments for that matter.

Anyway.. It looks like this post turned out to be more like a rant, than an update, haha! Now I’m going to make myself a cup of 유자차 and lay down on the couch with my book. Since I recently ordered ‘크리스마스 캐럴’, it would awesome if I could finish 어린왕자 before the middle of December as the latest!
여러분 화이팅!