์์~~ i just discovered your blog and absolutely love it!! Iโm 16 too and hope to carry on teaching myself german (my college doesnโt offer languages as a subject ;-;) and also to teach myself korean!! How did you start learning korean? And how do you keep up with learning so many languages at once?
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!~~ Hallo and Hi ใ
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Firstly, thank you so much for your kind words ใ
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This made my day (although it is currently almost 9 p.m. here ... heh~) It makes me really happy to see people enjoying my blog! @.@
What makes me happy too, is that you study German?! :o That is really cool but you must be very determined ใ
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since German grammar can be really tough, even for Germans ๐ Keep it up! If you need help or advice (I hope these two words don't exactly mean the same thing ใ
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), please do not hesitate to contact me ^-^
So, moving on to your questions (I always tend to talk too much ใ
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I started studying Korean by learning the alphabet first. Frankly, I did not even know that romanization was a thing at that time, which turned out to be good to not to know.
1. Start with Hangeul - ํ๊ธ
Probably the MOST important thing when studying a new language is getting familiar with the alphabet. I read/heard a lot of people say that "You can use romanization at the very beginning but you should not depend on it"
[DISCLAIMER: I am not quoting any specific person, so please do not be offended by my words. โก
Those are all my own opinions, based on personal experience. None of these are guides on how to study Korean, but rather advice that has helped me to get where I am now. โก]
I disagree with the quoted sentence. Be hard on yourself. Do not study to an unhealthy extend. But do push yourself to train your body and brain, as well as your mind, to actually study. Although my words might sound harsh, trust me - it is worth the result you'll get at the end.
So, to conclude my first point: Study ํ๊ธ.
It is worth the time. (Actually, it doesn't take to much time. I learned it within two hours. LEARNED. That does not mean that I was fluent in reading it. It means that I understood the basic principle of the Korean writing and reading system and knew the sounds connected to each character.) (To clarify, the last sentence doesn't mean that I could read every word I saw from then on. I could - when I saw the single character written in front of me - associate a sound with it.)
2. Practice Hangeul - ํ๊ธ
The key is practice, practice, practice. I assume everyone of us in the language study community was or is tired of hearing this at some point (including myself). But it is true what they say.
I practiced reading Korean by:
a) writing down basic words
e.g. months, days of the week, numbers, most common names in Korea
b) following many, many Korean accounts on Instagram
Call me a Koreaboo. (I honestly do not understand the point of that. Let people do what they want as long as they do not show disrespect towards a group of people/a culture or hurt anyone.) But I am - and always have been, and always will be - attracted to East Asian men. (In fact, I am more attracted to Japanese people than Korean, and I love the sound of Japanese more, too.) (Japanese is so hard to study, though. That's why I chose Korean.) (I am talking too much again and drifiting off. Oops. Back to the topic,heh~)
FOLLOW AND INTERACT. Read their stories. Really read their stories. Read the captions before translating. (This obviously works with official accounts [Korean musicians/actors/etc.], too.) Your first ten attempts won't be the best but after a while you will be able to read faster and recognize words that are often used. Make Korean friends. Talk to them. They will be very pleasured to see someone being interested in their culture, country and language!
(I created a whole new account where I am only following Korean people, mostly students around my age. I made it for the sake of the Korean content not drowning in the much more understandable english content ใ
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I started out with studying very basic grammar (sentence structure, basic conjugation, basic particles,...). For this, I took an old folder, emptied it and made it my Korean folder. Then I went through the first 10 lessons of Unit 1 of howtostudykorean.com
For every lesson I made handwritten and color coded notes. (Color coded means that I used different colors for โข basic information about the grammar rule โข important information โข main examples โข more/own examples .)
As everyone has his/her own methods of learning languages, try to find your own and do not be afraid to experiment!
Afterwards, I began studying wildly ใ
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. I learn whatever I want or need in the very moment. I try to stick to a schedule but that does not work for me since I have a lot of extracurricular activities.
E.g. when I read Korean webtoons and notice a particle I have never seen before, I study it. When I wonder at 3 a.m. about how "What if..." is expressed in Korean, I look it up the next morning.
5. Use what you have learned
Show the world what you know. Talk (text, if you aren't confident.) (Yet.) (Don't worry, I am still too shy to speak Korean in front of literally ANYONE. Do not pressure yourself. Be comfortable. ) Post photos with short (or long) captions in Korean.
By having conversations with native speakers, you will automatically pick up natural-sounding speaking habits. (Be careful, though. Especially in Korean language, there is a rather big difference between written and spoken Korean. As long as you are casually texting, it is more every-day/conversational and informal Korean. (Except you and your chat partner both talk on a very professional level.) (Which would be weird, to be honest.ใ
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If your Korean friend uses a grammar pattern or slang etc. try to use it as often as possible to manifest it into your brain. (Maybe you should warn them or else they are gonna thunk you are some psycho being all ๊ทผ๋ฐ ๊ทผ๋ฐ ๊ทผ๋ฐ ๊ทผ๋ฐ ๊ทผ๋ฐ.) (๊ทผ๋ฐ means "but", by the way. )
I think that is all for now, regarding how I have started studying Korean. And this blog is already longer than anything else I have ever posted ๐ณ.
Last but not least, you asked me how I kept up with studying languages. Honestly, I don't. And if you have other priorities, for example school, let them be your priorities. There is no rush with studying a language. (Well, except maybe some aliens force you to do so within a month or else they will destroy our lovely planet...which...let's be honest, is very unlikely to happen.) (Unless?) (Ok, I am so unfunny and it is definitely too late by now.) (Wow, I spent an hour writing this o0o it is 9:45 p.m. now.)
I hope this helped you at least a little ^-^ If you ever have any question I am here and will try to answer them for you!โก
