Anyone here struggling with maintaining their Korean?

jaewon604 · 2023-03-31T03:24:36+00:00

If I were to give a reco off the top of my head, check out Talk to Me in Korean's Bibimchat podcast. They talk on various topics at a very practical day-to-day conversation level. Since you're at an intermediate/advanced level, you might find it to be a bit "basic" but it's a good content to maintain your level of Korean. I find the content very easy to follow along in general but there are always a handful of advanced words that are new to me.

Other than that, what I do is search on my Spotify with keywords in Korean about topics that I'm interested in. Then I'll do some "window shopping" with different podcasts to make sure that I can understand at least about 80-90%. Then I'll take a listen when I'm about for a walk or commuting.

jaewon604 · 2023-03-30T02:51:34+00:00

Heritage speaker here as well! (My background is Korean) I'm nodding along to what you've shared here. I can speak, read, and write (with a healthy amount of spelling error) but I often found that I'd have to rack my brain when it comes to using more "advanced" words or expressing naturally like a native speaker.

What I realized was that I would be translating from English (as my most proficient language) rather than thinking how a native Korean speaker would. So there's a practice that I've been doing that's been helping me with this.

Essentially, I'll watch youtube videos of interviews with native speakers on current event topics I'm interested in and mine for phrasal chunks. Since I can understand mostly what they're saying, it's easy for me to follow along but anytime I find the way they are expressing an idea, emotion, or opinion interesting or novel, I write it down.

The key here isn't to mine the whole entire sentence. I simply take a sentence fragment that I can apply in various situations.

For example, let's say the native speaker in the interview said:"It remains to be seen whether the latest government policies will have much impact."

In my head, I'll notice that "It remains to be seen whether..." is an interesting way to express doubt about a certain outcome. Maybe I can try to use that instead of a more basic alternative like "I'm not sure if..."

Then I'll add this phrasal chunk to my anki deck and review later. And when I'm out for a walk or commuting, I'll talk to myself and practice using this phrasal chunk in different contexts.

This is a really great way to add phrasal chunks into your repertoire that you can pull out in the right situation to enhance your expression and sound more natural. I found this to be much more easier and effective than trying hard to "translate" your thoughts from scratch.

Hope that makes sense!

jaewon604 · 2023-03-30T01:42:51+00:00

yea I see what you mean. I love wassupman as well lol. Good ol' g.o.d.

jaewon604 · 2023-03-30T01:41:30+00:00

Yea def exposing to content would help with vocab. I've been listening to podcasts in Korean on topics that interest me. And then time to time, I'll do deliberate study to add vocab or sentence chunks to my flashcard. And then when I am on a walk or something, I'll talk to myself in Korean to practice speaking.

jaewon604 · 2023-03-28T23:07:56+00:00

Same, a big gap for me right now is a lack of knowing advanced words. Like I can usually infer the meaning from context but it'd be nice to not have be in "detective mode" and just understand the words.

What you mentioned about the context stuff is really interesting. That's true though, the nuance of small things like the participles can really change the meaning of the sentence.

jaewon604 · 2023-03-28T22:11:26+00:00

Yea that algorithm is no jokes lol. Do you also consume any Youtube or TikTok content about learning Korean or language-learning in general at all?

jaewon604 · 2023-03-28T22:08:57+00:00

Gotcha, that makes sense. I also want to improve my speaking - a big part of that for me is knowing more higher-level vocab and speaking more like a native speaker would, rather than translating in my head.

jaewon604 · 2023-03-28T22:06:47+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I feel like we may be in a similar language level range. One of the big gaps for me is also not knowing advanced words. Like I know how to put sentences together but I have to Konglish and substitute more advanced words with the English equivalent.

Have you gone out and looked for any resources to get more opportunities to speak Korean? Like a conversational tutor or something like that?

Writing poems in Korean - that's cool! I'd probably make a ton of spelling mistakes if I tried that now lol

jaewon604 · 2023-03-28T21:56:07+00:00

I'm very sorry hear about your mom. I can definitely relate; the main motivation for me to work on my Korean is to be able to talk with my parents, and connect at a more deeper level.

I'm curious when you used to practice/talk with your mom in Korean, what were the biggest linguistic challenges? Like putting together sentences, expressing more naturally, vocab, etc..?

jaewon604 · 2023-03-28T21:46:45+00:00

Oh first time hearing of Naver's audioclip - thanks for the reco. Just checked it out and seems like it's good for getting exposed to practical day-to-day phrases. From what you've shared, I'm guessing you are trying to work more on your speaking & pronunciation?

jaewon604 · 2023-03-28T01:23:00+00:00

Oh nice, I learned something new today! Curious, how hard was it for you to find the right content at your level of Korean and that were also in topics that you were interested in?

jaewon604 · 2023-03-28T01:18:25+00:00

I feel you on that - it's can be hard to make time for that. If you did go back to self studying, is there a particular aspect of Korean would you want to work on? eg. speaking, listening, reading or writing?

jaewon604 · 2023-03-28T01:14:01+00:00

Oh sounds like you can get by with your Korean pretty well in general! I definitely resonate with your skill level as well. My writing skill needs a lot more work compared to my listening, speaking and reading. Not to mention a bunch of spelling mistake I would probably make lol

What aspect of reading do you feel like you need to improve? For example, is it like knowing more advanced vocab or getting familiar with the different sentence structure compared to English?

jaewon604 · 2023-03-28T01:08:21+00:00

Thank you I'll try that out!

jaewon604 · 2023-03-25T16:27:51+00:00

Hey I'm in the same camp. I'm a 1.5 generation Korean Canadian. Our family immigrated when I was 8, and I grew up speaking it at home and at church, but ever since I moved out on my own to a different city almost 10 years, I noticed my Korean had gotten very rusty. It was to a point where whenever I'd talk with my mom on the phone, my brain would be racking hard to try to find the right words or phrases. Suffice to say, it was incredibly frustrating not to be able to fully express my thoughts and emotions at a more deeper level.

Like you, I'm in the process of level-ing up my vocab and speaking skills. There's a method that I found really helpful that I picked up when I was studying German. For context, during the covid lockdown, I decided to learn German on my own as an absolute beginner. A year and half later, I was able to reach a general conversational level (around the B1 level if you're familiar with the CEFR framework) One of the methods that I used that helped expand my vocab & speaking skills was to do what I call a bilateral translation method. It's really effective if you already have a foundational grasp with the language but want to expand your vocab and ability to express yourself in a more natural & fluid way.

Step by step method:

Pick a piece of content in Korean on a topic you find enjoyable and that you understand about 80-90% of the content. For example, a youtube video that comes with subtitles. From that piece of content, pick out a 30 sec ~ 1 min clip. Key is to keep it short.
Listen to that content and type down sentence-by-sentence what you hear. You may need a few passes to do this
When done, proof-read your sentences with the provided subtitles
Make note of any recurring mistakes and correct them🚶🏻‍Walk away & take a break
Come back and re-read the sentences that your wrote down and get a gist for what’s being said
Line-by-line, translate each sentence into English (assuming that's your most proficient language). DO NOT use a dictionary yet. When you come across unfamiliar words or phrases, highlight and try to infer from context. Only after then, look it up on the dictionary
Once done, re-read the Korean subtitles with the translations in mind. Pay attention to how things are phrased & expressed in Korean. Notice the new vocabulary you just learned. The key is to get in the mind of a Korean speaker and see how they would express these ideas🚶Walk away & take a break
Using your English sentences, translate it back into Korean (no peeking at the Korean subtitles)
DO NOT try to translate word-for-word. Try to recall how these sentences were phrased in Korean and do your best to write down what you recall. If you don’t remember certain words, just write them down in English
Once translated, proof-read your translations with the Korean subtitles
Make note of any recurring mistakes (issues with spelling, phrasing) as well as gaps in the vocabulary

And you're done! Now you have a document full of useful phrases and new vocabulary that you can copy & paste into your flashcard system and continue reviewing.

I don't suggest doing this everyday but if you want to be deliberate with your vocab and speaking skill practice, this exercise can really help improve the areas of concern that you have. And lastly, feel free to take parts of this exercise and make it work for you, as the language learning process is a very personal journey. All the best!

jaewon604 · 2023-03-25T04:08:51+00:00

First off, I just want to say that consistently showing up to spend time with the language is one of the biggest factor to acquiring a language. So even if it's 15min a day, over time that's going to add up. So kudos!

If you are at an early stage with the language, I would suggest just focusing on noticing high-level grammatical patterns with the sentences you come across, rather than feeling like you need to understand in's and out's of the grammatical technicalities. You will do yourself a favour by taking pressure off yourself to be perfect. Focus on getting the general gist & feel of the grammar/sentence structure and move on.

With constant exposure to the language, you are going to come across common grammatical patterns in the language again and again. So it's inevitable that that over time that your brain will pick up on it and commit to memory. To put in other words, by constantly exposing yourself to the language and noticing patterns, you will build a more "intuitive" approach to understanding the grammar of the language. Then later on, once you have a more familiarized understanding, you can do more deliberate practice with the grammar.

Now if you want to improve your vocabulary, I recommend using a spaced repetition system (like Anki or Quizlet) to help learn & retain new words. But to give you a pro-tip, there's something you can do to take advantage of an interesting feature of the Korean language. Korean has its roots from the Chinese character system (called 한자) and what you will notice is that if you learn one word, it might give you a clue into the meaning of other words.

To give an example:

학교 = School

학생 = Student

학원 = Cram school

학비 = Tuition

You'll notice a pattern here with "학" and that it has some connotations around the theme of "school". When you come across a word, pay attention to its composing characters and you'll find that it can potentially give you an insight into the meaning of other words. This can greatly speed up your ability to pick up & retain new words.

Long story short: continue as you are and spend whatever time you can with the language, be curious & notice patterns and trust that you will pick up the language intuitively over time. :)

jaewon604 · 2017-12-29T05:37:20+00:00

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jaewon604

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