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Monday, December 9, 2019

My Korean Learning Journey

Hewwo!
I haven't officially stated it, but now i am i guess.
It has been a year since i've started learning korean weee~

Honestly, i didn't want to tell people about it because it's my own choice and journey and i just don't want to have to answer to questions, like why, where, how, blablabla.
I don't want to feel like i have to prove myself or anything.
People usually have some kind of prejudice with people learning korean because of the entertainment industry, namely, kpop.

But let's not go there. I just like learning the language and i'm also self-studying mandarin.

Learning a new language is really a new kind of learning. Since i started doing this in my 30s, i realise that it's hard to let go of what i know to absorb new stuff. For example, learning new grammar forms (and korean is completely different from malay & english!😭), i can't just accept it for some reason. I subconsciously reach out for ways to tie it to what i know.

Now that i'm used to it already, it's ok la. But still, even a year later, i am still crawling.

Mandarin pulak.. i started it quite recently but my brain is still not adjusted to the tones and characters.

Oh well 💁

Even though it's not easy, i definitely am enjoying it, which is why i can stick to it for this long.
Also, through learning other languages, my love for malay grew.

Kita punya bahasa cakap & bahasa tulisan punya la lain sampai i rasa kalau orang luar nak belajar bahasa malaysia, mesti susah nak faham bahasa cakap kita. Baca buku ke, tulis ke tu agak senang. Grammar pun takde hal la kot.
Cuma kita ada all this: kan, kot, ek, nya, lah, etc, yang tak boleh nak explain kat buku sebab dia lebih kepada emosi. It's very interesting!

I don't really know how many people in malaysia who are currently learning korean, but if you are, high five!
Whatever the reason you're learning it for, who cares. It's a cool skill and i respect polyglots!

Anyway, i just wanted to share the materials i use to help me with practicing korean.
Since i don't have any korean speaking friend, my good friend is myself and books, like these ones:


News In Korean, Easy Korean Reading For Beginners, Real Life Korean Conversations For Beginners and Real Life Conversations: Intermediate. These books are from TalkToMeInKorean but if you want to buy it (with quicker postage), you can get them HERE.

As of now, i consider myself at pre-intermediate level, which means, i can read hangeul, i can understand easy sentences, but i cannot speak properly. Still struggling with that because to speak, i need to know a lot of vocabs, and my problem is, i tend to translate what i want to say, so grammar wise when speaking - horrendous. 😑

This is embarrassing to share, but here's me practicing my reading & speaking using the book Real Life Conversations for Beginners:



When i contemplated about learning korean, i googled and watched so many people on youtube with their "korean learning journey" and they made it seem so easy and fast!
I remember a few of them said they can speak after 6months and i was like "WOW! If it's that fast, then YES PLEASE!".

Little that i know... I think for people who know mandarin, vocabulary would be easier to remember. But for me, dah la slightly dyslexic, memang berpinar pinar segalanya hehehe!

I also forgot to factor in my life, like kids, business, family, so i can't really give 6 hours a day to studying 😂 Thankfully with these books, i can pick up things albeit slowly. Slowly but surely!
Just recently i was watching When The Camellia Blooms, i was pleased to know that i can understand some of the things they're saying without looking at the subs.
I can even detect the difference between the subs and what was really said. Rasa cam "waaahhhh not bad, not bad!".

A small achievement for me bahahaa!

Learning a new thing can be very scary at first, but if we can be patient, be diligent and have strong intention, inshaAllah one day, we'll be like "eh eh! I can do this pretty well!".
We're never too old to start and we'll never know our capabilities if we never try.

If you have something you've been wanting to do since long time ago, whether it's language, or painting, or craft making, cooking, swimming, whatever it is, go on and do it =)
Plan your time and finances properly. InshaAllah boleh!

All the best to you all! Let's rekindle our fire 💓

ps:in case you're wondering.. my skin is by www.marzea.com 

5 comments:

Zafirah Ripin said...

I love this! I really wanted to learn Korean since I love Kdrama so much and yes, BTS too hehe. Well at least, it’s still an advantage right?.

Unknown said...

Yes of course!
The more interest you have, the more you're able to stick it through!
Kalau tak, memang takde semangat.
Good luck!

Kak Niwa said...

Kak Mariaaa. You should try the Duolingo app. It's a really fun way ( and super easy ) to learn a language.

TunungD said...

Sis, are you self-learning or did you attend classes?

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