Tag: selfstudy

Posted in books, Selfstudy

Underestimating yourself and new goals

Posted on by 카밀라

Yesterday my newest Korean book arrived. For a while I have been looking at the 인디고 아름다운 고전 시리즈, as they truly are beautiful and the series features many of my favorite stories as well as a few I only know by name. However, I seemed to convince myself that I wouldn’t be able read them anyway, and therefore shouldn’t buy them. That’s what usually happens in my mind and I’m working hard on removing that thought, because I know I’m underestimating myself. In the beginning of my Korean learning journey, I was afraid of buying the TTMIK workbooks because I thought they would just prove that I didn’t understand anything, however it turned out completely opposite. Then I was afraid of joining HelloTalk, because I was terrified of making mistakes and I knew that I couldn’t even make a full sentence, but after doing it anyway I got over my fear in just a few days, and even though I was right about my sentence skills, they improved so fast that some of my language partners – and myself – was shocked. There’s no way I would have come so far without joining HelloTalk. After that, I was afraid of trying Italki, but this has also turned out to be one of my best decisions. I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this, so I’ll end it here.

Having gone through this process so many times in my head, I finally decided to just give the books a try. I found a list of all 23 books (I’m not sure if they are still adding more books to the list, so it might grow bigger) and then I just decided to start from book one, and read them as they come. I’ll post the list in the end of this post as well as a few random pictures of the book, for those who are interested.

Anyway the first book is 어린왕자, which is one of the books I only know by name, so I’m looking forward to learning more about the story. My plan (as I mentioned in my previous post) is to read at least one chapter pr week. The books are small and adorable, and each chapter is about 4-6 pages long The amount of text on each page variate, so I was wondering how to make my weekly goal more stable and specific, but in the end I just decided to not make it more difficult than it is, and just read as much as I can or feel like, with one chapter pr week, being the minimum. Having this goal keeps me motivated to continue, and it gives me the feeling of having accomplished something, which in general is the reason why I love making goals, but more on that in another post!

Here’s the list if you’re interested:

1) 어린와자
2) 작은 아씨들
3) 이상한 나라의 앨리스
4) 빨간머리 앤
5) 눈의 여왕
6) 피노키오
7) 오즈의 마법사
8) 아라비안 나이트
9) 백설공주
10) 키다리아저씨
11) 하이디
12) 오페라 의유령
13) 비밀의 화원
14) 플랜더스의 개
15) 호두까기 인형
16) 버드나무에 부는 바람
17) 피터팬
18) 로미오와 주리엣
19) 에이번리의 앤
20) 80일간의 세계일주
21) 크리스마스 캐럴
22) 메리포핀스
23) 거울 나라의 앨리스
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Posted in Selfstudy

My study routine

Posted on by 카밀라

On a normal day I study for about 2 hours. Studying Korean is always one of my biggest priorities – to be completely honest, I have a tendency to focus more on my Korean studies than on my normal school studies – and even though there are days where I just can’t find that much time, as well as days where I study for a lot longer, I always split my time in two.

1) ‘Must do’ time.
2) ‘What ever I feel like’ time.

During the ‘Must do’ time, I basically just follow the rules I made for myself.
1) I always start out with something light to get the Korean part of my brain, started. Lately I have started my study sessions with TTMIK’s Everyday Korean Idiomatic Expressions and Korean Slang Expressions, and the rule I made for myself is to go through two expressions from each book, everyday.
2) After this I move on to my next rule, which is to go through two grammar points in my Korean Grammar In Use (Intermediate). This is also something I do every day. I read the chapters, make the assignments, practice more if I feel unsure, and make flashcards if I find them difficult to memorize. These things changes every day, depending on how difficult it is, and how well I already know the grammar.
3) Find and read an article on Naver. I look up all the words I don’t know (and there’s quite a few of those) and write the most reoccurring words down in my vocabulary notebook, along with a sample sentence or two.

Of course all of the above varies from time to time, depending on what books I am currently using, but I always have 2-4 ‘Must do’ things, to go through. After doing these things I move on to the ‘Whatever I feel like’ part, and as you can probably guess, I just do what I feel like doing. Here’s a few examples:
– Write essays in my essay notebook (Yes. I’m addicted to notebooks.)
– Practice intonation and pronunciation by shadowing audio files from native speakers.
– Going through more points from my ‘Must do’ books.
– Study with my other books (Lately I use my TOPIK preparation books).
– Record myself reading or saying ‘short’ sentences and have my online language partners correct whatever needs to be corrected.
– Read. I am currently reading a 웹소설 on Naver. Like with the articles, I look up the unknown words and write the most reoccurring ones down.
– Take TOPIK Moct Tests
– Review things I have gone through earlier.

There’s plenty to choose from!
Lastly I also have my weekly ‘Must do’ goals.
1) Every friday I have a skype session with a native speaker through Italki.com.
2) Every week I must read one chapter in my book (This is a new goal and I’m still waiting for my book (어린왕자) to arrive. If the chapters are short then I’ll probably make some changes to this goal.)
3) Write at least 3 essays in my notebook.

Of course I also have several things that I do whenever I have time, or because I simply enjoy it. I love k-pop and k-dramas, which of course is also helping me learn. I always have a TTMIK workbook in my school bag, and I also have several apps on my phone that I use when I’m waiting for the bus. In the mornings I always listen to a podcast (TTMIK or ones that are completely in Korean) while I’m on the bus, and I have made many good Korean friends through the HelloTalk app, whom I talk to on a daily basis.

I’ll give an update on the book when it arrives.