Goddess of War

> Italian/Korean biracial relationship > World-culture enthusiast > Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner

[notinuseanymore11]

I love being in a white girl/Korean man relationship because the looks we get from other people on the street are pure gold.  Its so rare where I’m from to see a white girl with an Asian partner, and people (usually other Asians we’ve noticed) always do double takes when they see it.  It’s so good. 

Its not in a bad way or anything either.  I think they’re just genuinely surprised because of the whole stigma of interracial dating.

[notinuseanymore11]

Journey to Learning Korean

I’m going to start with - prior to meeting my Korean boyfriend, I was already pretty damn obsessed with Kpop & K-dramas. and he knows this.  So, the fact that I am about to marry the man of my dreams, all 6′2″ of idol gorgeousness, I am beside myself.

BUT ANYWAY.  For me, the most logical step to take when I’m in a relationship with someone whose native language isn’t English, is to learn their language.  Languages have always fascinated me, though I am not fluent in any language other than English.  I can understand a fair bit of Italian, enough to get me by but probably not enough to have a decent conversation.

I met Jihun (alternate spelling Ji Hoon) on Tinder, the same day he was going to deactivate his account, and I knew immediately I found the one I was going to marry.  But that’s a story for another time.

Jihun is Korean, and his native language is Korean.  He began studying English only 4 years ago when he arrived in Australia and I am so impressed at how quickly his English continues to improve.  Whenever I struggle or feel like giving up on learning, I remember how he has worked so hard to learn another language and it gives me the motivation to continue.

Apart from wanting to communicate with his non-English speaking family, I also want the satisfaction at being able to say “I can speak Korean”.  It would be awesome to be able to watch all my favourite K-dramas without subtitles, and surprise native Koreans by conversing in their language.

There are several steps I take to help me learn Korean:

Utilise language learning apps and websites

Talk To Me In Korean

Memrise

Duolingo

How To Study Korean

Learn the writing system

It makes sense for me to learn the actual alphabet system first before learning anything else.  I wanted to become comfortable with reading and writing in Hangul as quickly as possible.  I made myself a little chart and referred to it as often as I needed.  Over time, I began to recognise certain characters, especially ㅇ, ㅅand ㅁ.

I’m not sure why these were the ones I remembered first, but I made an effort never to refer to the chart when I saw these characters.  Over time, more and more characters embedded themselves in my memory and I found I needed the chart less and less. Now, I can read Korean with ease.

Learn the basic phrases

Annyeong haseyo/안녕하세요(hello), gamsahabnida/감사합니다 (thank you) and ne/네 (yes) are the easiest phrases to learn and the most commonly used.

Speak as much Korean as often as you can

I’m so lucky in that I have someone who is a native speaker to correct my poor Korean and practice with.  I’ve started speaking to him in Korean as much as possible, and he does the same to me.  I’m beginning to recognise words in other sentences he says to me though I still have a LONG way to go.

Listen to songs in Korean

And yes, I do mean K-pop.  I study the lyrics and see if there are words I can recognise.  It helps with pronunciation and also helps me understand what the hell they’re actually singing about.   And it means I can sing along too!  Got7 and BTS have been super important to my language journey.

These are only a few of the things that help me to learn Korean.  What are some of the ways you learn a new language?

[notinuseanymore11]

Goals

- Japan at the end of this year  - finishing my next degree - moving out with Yuta - adopting two puppies - getting married - having kids - becoming head physiotherapist

ahhhh I literally cannot wait

[notinuseanymore11]

So things panned out very differently two years later.

- I broke up with Yuta after realising I only stayed with him out of obligation, and I was a terrible person for doing so. - I didn’t end up going to Japan, considering I broke up with the person I was going with.  So, still, I have yet to travel overseas. - The school I was studying at shut down, so I was forced to end my studies.  It left me with larger debt, but it was a lesson learned.

Now, my goals for 2019 - Move out with Jihun - go overseas for the first time

[notinuseanymore11]

Its been an interesting 2018

If I could go back in time and talk to my 14 year old self, I would tell her that she has so much to look forward to.

Like any heroine, there will be countless obstacles in her way, but she will always perservere and find a way through it.  There will still be arguments at home, there will still be anxious nights, there will still be depressive episodes.  But overall, things will get better.

She will go through countless partners until finally, the planets aligned in just the right way and the universe introduced her to her soulmate. 

I am really looking forward to what 2019 brings, and I hope it will be more fulfilling than last year.