I was learning the types of symbols that go on the bottom or top, and the sounds that they take.

I also tried learning the order of how to form words and what exact position they need to go in, in order to make sense out of them. For example, if going left to right, whether it is the vowels or the consonants that go on either side, or in the order of top and bottom, which place the consonants or vowels take the place of.

After learning this, I had tried some exercises to write romanized Korean into standard Korean using the the Korean alphabet to test my understanding, however this did not turn out well.

I did not do well on these exercises because I forgot to keep in mind the rule about the placement of the vowels and the consonants.

Today I learnt about different types of vowels using the website that I use for my lessons called LearnKorean.net and from this, I also learnt about the construction of a word and how it is mixed up with consonants and vowels and sometimes an extra vowel called "patch'im".  I learnt that the consonant always comes at the start with the vowel at the end. The only exception is o which is known as a null character and if this is used a constant may not be needed.

For example: = 영.

From this lesson, I also learnt that I just need to keep going over my alphabet (한글) so that I can better familiarize myself with what I see.

Today I worked on some Grammar as well as learning how to ask for things. I found this bit more complicated since there were so many rules and complications that I had to be aware of  and exceptions in certain grammar sets. This at first made me struggle to understand the pattern that was being used, but later I just realized that I needed to be careful of context. For example, whether I was referring to whether a male or a female.

I also learnt how to make my sentences polite by adding  요 (-yo) to the end of a sentence. This was particularly important because in Korea, elders in particular are really insistent on whether you speak formally or informally based on who you are speaking with.

I feel for these topics that I am learning, it is important to just keep revising the rules and to try to formulate sentences from them from time to time.

I was learning the types of symbols that go on the bottom or top, and the sounds that they take.

I also tried learning the order of how to form words and what exact position they need to go in, in order to make sense out of them. For example, if going left to right, whether it is the vowels or the consonants that go on either side, or in the order of top and bottom, which place the consonants or vowels take the place of.

After learning this, I had tried some exercises to write romanized Korean into standard Korean using the the Korean alphabet to test my understanding, however this did not turn out well.

I did not do well on these exercises because I forgot to keep in mind the rule about the placement of the vowels and the consonants.

 

Today I thought of something doing different for my learning process.

Today also, realisation hit me. It hit me hard. The reason I started to be be so interested in the Korean culture is because of Korean dramas. This started 5 years ago if I recall.

Now I can certainly say I am an avid Korean drama watcher with the amount I go through every month. So the idea hit me. I can try to first watch a short Korean web drama episode without English subtitles, then later with English subtitles.

I specify on the word short because if you do not fully understand something when you are watching it, the watching may be ruined for you, especially if it is for a long time.

That it why I have chosen web dramas. In which episodes only last up to around 15 minutes which is very helpful. I plan to try this for 2 weeks each time I watch a drama, noting down the struggles I face and things I notice while and after watching.

It has been approximately 2 weeks since I went on my challenge to watch some Korean web drama episodes without any subtitles first, then later with subtitles, to see if I understood the gist of what was going on. 

I can honestly say that I struggled a lot when I could interpret that what was going on was interesting but I could not fully understand at times. It made me frustrated.

 This occurred in the first week, and I am happy to say that my skills improved much more in the second week.

For example, I could definitely say there were times when characters spoke, and I could actually understand exactly what they were saying! I could even translate some subtitles a bit better than were given!

 Needless to say, through this challenge I believe I improved my listening skills for Korean because I was more observant and cautious to listen to every word that was said. This helped me to build one of the core language skills (listening) individually and much better.

Therefore, I can definitely say I would try this again and for an even longer period of time.

I found the podcasts of the organization Talk to Me in Korean (TTMK) which really helped as they had individual lessons of different phrases and categories.

To start, I tried a harder level being Level 6 to test how much I already knew. I realized after 2 to 3 lessons,  it was challenging in a good and bad way. Good, in the sense that since I had learned the alphabet, it was easier for me to put sentences together, however it was hard, in the sense that there was a lot of vocabulary I was not aware of, which I had to keep checking the dictionary for.

In the end, I decided to go back to level 1 and just start from the basics, learning words such as "Hello" and "Thank you" again.

I hope by doing this I can be thorough and have a better approach towards learning Korean and languages in general.