So I'm in the middle of learning Korean (or at least attempting to haha) and I was wondering, how did you improve your Korean abilities (speaking/reading/writing/etc.)?
Hmmmm...now when did I start?
I think it all started around the end of 2011 when I began getting into BIGBANG (Yes, I'm a HUGE VIP) ...I would listen to the songs...and realized reading romanized Korean was a whole lot more difficult than reading Romaji (Romanized Kanji-Japanese). The solution: Learn Hangul.
I think my first online reference was BusyAtom. I was surprised at how easy the alphabet was. (Plus my knowledge in Japanese (which also follows a syllabary system) helped me. For me, my 'learning' is mostly from songs since I like singing and being able to understand what I'm singing about helps me understand the producer's mindset. Plus, It would take me a while to get into Kdramas and the rest of Hallyu. Another learning source for me was seemile. The lady with the short hair is the bomb! I also took 2 semesters of the language for my language credits during my undergrad but I think learning Korean, just like learning any other language, is all about exposure. Because I love the music that comes from the country (there's a whole lot more to Korean music than KPop), I'm constantly on my I-Pod listening to songs, and now that I've started to translate, I'm learning the language on a whole another level!
THINGS I HOPE PEOPLE WILL RELATE WITH ME
1. I have this weird habit of turning on a Korean radio station and sleeping to the people talk...i don't know if that helps?
2. If there's a show I like, I watch it without subs first, and try to learn new words by rechecking later with the subs on.
3. I have this bilingual Korean story book which I take with me to the bathroom when taking a dump so that I can practice my reading.
ALRIGHT, THAT WAS SO LONG...HMMM BOTTOM LINE: Keep yourself exposed! Even though technically you can never learn a language at a native level after you've hit 12-13, you can still be fluent and to do that, you need to expose yourself to the language. A baby is not 'taught', a language, it picks it up. I still think that goes the same for us too!
Become exposed to it to such a point that you'll start 'thinking' in the language, so that you don't have to mentally translate things in your brain. I believe that's how you 'feel' the language and not simply understand it. :)
discoholicmusic
stormborns
dailybridgerton
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
titsay
romaincrisis