Ddochii’s Learning Log

ddochii · April 2, 2024, 8:50pm

Hi everyone! I decided it might be fun to keep track of my learning through a learning log. Let’s see if I keep up with it lol.

First, I’ll introduce my Korea/Korean journey. I don’t think I’ve ever written it out before, so I’m sure I’ll miss some things…but it’ll be fun to reflect!

Early Years (2009-2015)

I first gained interest in Korean through K-pop, back in maybe 2009. I was a huge fan of Super Junior, Boa, Wonder Girls, After School…etc. I used to copy their names in hangeul in my notebook like I was drawing pictures lol. I even wrote out the whole song lyrics of Brown Eyed Girls’ songs! I never really got past learning to read hangeul a little bit though. I was able to learn through a random blog an American wrote about Korean; I couldn’t really find other learning materials. I watched a lot of k-pop content without English subtitles, out of pure dedication to my fandoms lol.

Formal Studies (2015-2018)

I slowly lost interest in K-pop once I got into high school. This changed when I went to college and my roommate also grew up listening to K-pop. We reminisced, and we formed a K-pop club with some other friends. This club became close to the Korean international student club and other Korean clubs. I made lots of friends, including my best friend who happened to be Korean American. I started taking Korean classes (my first language class ever!). I joined, and eventually helped run, a Korean Language Learning club where we offered conversation practice meetings, Korean food gatherings, and informal classes. I started tutoring other students who could not take Korean classes due to scheduling, or who just wanted to practice more.

Since I was studying education, I also started tutoring Korean students learning English. This helped me get to use Korean without feeling shy— neither of us spoke a common language that well anyways.

Throughout college, I took the Korean classes offered, practiced with classmates (most were Chinese students, so our best common language ended up being Korean!), and used apps like Hellotalk. Even though I couldn’t speak well, I would call people and just listen to them like I was listening to a podcast haha.
My best friend also only spoke Korean once she drank alcohol, so that also forced me to understand Korean and gave me an opportunity to practice without judgement LMAO.

I would say after 5 or 6 semesters of Korean class that I was at TOPIK level 4. Even though I was technically in ‘advanced’ classes, and I was reading articles and writing essays, I still felt I lacked a lot.

Living in Korea (2019-2023)

After graduation, I decided to work as an English teacher for a year. I thought it would be a fun kind of break before teaching in the US, while still earning money and practicing Korean. I had done my student teaching in Japan, and visited Korea for a week once that was finished (lol I missed my own graduation ceremony to visit Korea!). I was alone, so I met a people through Hellotalk every day I was in Korea (DON’T DO THIS!!!).

My first experience in Korea was rough. Workers ignored me (I guess because they were shy and didn’t know English?) and I had to pluck up my courage to even say ‘thank you’. Taxi drivers couldn’t really understand me, and I was so stressed out lol. I was able to speak with the people I met who wanted to exchange languages, though.

Despite this, I wanted to go back and actually use my Korean. I moved to Gangnam in May, 2019. None of my coworkers spoke Korean at all, so I ended up being the designated translator whenever we took taxis, went on trips, went shopping, etc. It was stressful to be depended on, but my Korean really improved.

I went to the same coffee shops and convenience store before work and tried to order in a slightly different way each time (I didn’t ever know what to say, so I just tried things…and if they said it back to me, I would copy that next time). I couldn’t quite understand what they said back to me, but over time I started to catch more and more. I became friends with the Starbucks worker and the convenience store lady (who I called my Korean mom) and they made it a point to ask me about my day or work. I learned a lot of phrases from them, though they didn’t speak English. I would memorize what they said that I didn’t know, then search it up or ask my friend later lol. It was slow going, but I got better and better. I briefly took 1 on 1 classes through HelloKorean, where I learned I read out loud like an elementary school student LOL. I also briefly took the free Korean classes through Sookmyung Women’s University, but the level was too easy for me. I tried the highest level and it was way too hard though. I quit the classes altogether once I moved away from Seoul.

I moved out of Seoul in 2021, and started a new job where some coworkers didn’t speak English too well. I talked to them in Korean, and even did parent teacher conferences in Korean. I started 1 on 1 tutoring again, but I wasn’t consistent. I only wanted conversation classes in order to get by in Korea more easily.

I did everything alone. I went to the doctor, went to immigration, scheduled movers to help move my apartment, went to the skin clinic, got my hair done, called maintenance, argued with the cafe workers who wouldn’t let foreigners in due to COVID, went to the city office to get my vaccination status accepted in Korea (I got vaccinated in the USA)…it was hard, but of course all these experiences improved my Korean. I still felt frustrated that I couldn’t express myself eloquently (especially when I felt something was unfair or I wanted to complain), but I was finally able to say I ‘spoke’ Korean. I read news articles (Dispatch helped a lot because I LOVE messy gossip), joined Korean twitter, went to K-pop events (where people I’d talked to online were embarrassingly shook that I was a foreigner lmfao), etc. I also read a lot of WEBTOONs and blogs on the Brunch app.

In 2023, I even joined some ‘clubs’ for workers. Most members were 30+, and I was the ONLY foreigner lol. This was the best for my Korean, even if it meant I felt left out sometimes. I’m not going to lie, once I cried on the way home since I couldn’t participate in group discussions and no one tried to include me. But it just meant I needed to learn more. I found my last Korean teacher, and she’s been THE BEST. I get to talk for an hour, then she teaches me some grammar or vocabulary. We realized I had gaps in my knowledge of Korean grammar since I hadn’t studied from textbooks or books lol. I started trying to read novels, I read 어느 날 색깔이 사라졌다, 죽고 싶지만 떡볶이 먹고 싶다, and 아몬드. Since my tutor was learning English, we started checking in every week to see how far we got in our respective books. It was really motivating!

But I was honestly tired of being in Korea. As time went on, I started focusing on the negatives more than the positives. I felt offended when people flat out ignored me until I went to them and spoke Korean, I was tired of the stares, I was tired of people following me and asking for English lessons, I was tired of people assuming I didn’t belong. I felt at home there in some ways, but in other ways I felt I would never be able to be myself there— and it wasn’t just due to language like I’d initially thought. And I wanted to be near my family, and have a support system. Although I had friends and coworkers in Korea, I don’t think I ever established a true ‘home’ in Korea. I became self sufficient, but not necessarily happy. So I came back to the US.

Now (2024-)

Before leaving Korea, my family came to visit. I was able to show off my ‘other home’ and introduce them to my life abroad. It felt fitting that this happened right before I left. I also decided to take TOPIK in Korea, just to have a record for all these years of efforts. With only a month to prepare (I decided really late lol), I was going insane studying with past papers. I kept reading novels and manhwa here and there as a ‘break’ from studying. I initially had the goal of TOPIK 5, but my tutor convinced me to try to TOPIK 6 since I am already at a TOPIK 5 level. AND I DID IT!!! I got TOPIK 6 (barely) lol. It felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders— I had something to show for my time in Korea and my time spent studying.

So now here I am, slowly forgetting my Korean LOL. I was so tired after TOPIK, I took a break from studying Korean. I am using Natively to start to read more, as that seems the easiest way to keep up my passive skills at least. I’m sad I spent so much time becoming conversational in Korean but now I don’t use it at all lol. But I’m sure I’ll use it again one day!

So I want to read more adult novels, and I also plan on reading some textbooks to fill in any gaps (since I’m no longer taking any classes). I might even read some beginner textbooks to just refresh everything haha. I also have begun doing some translating for fun.

Oh, and I recently started tutoring some friends who are traveling to Korea soon, which is also fun and gives me an opportunity to use Korean. Korean has been my biggest hobby, so I’m so happy to share that with others.

So, now I’m just hoping to preserve my current Korean level and start learning Spanish. I’ve been trying to study Spanish for years, but it just wasn’t as interesting to me as Korean was. But now that I am often seeing my family (who don’t speak English), I thought I really need to do it. And honestly, I have a lot of time haha.

I always say I am the worst language learner because I took the longest, least efficient route to become fluent-ish in Korean lmao. I hope I can do better when it comes to learning Spanish!

GOALS for 2024

Korean:

7000 total pages read in Korean (inc. novels, young adult books, manhwa, poetry, textbooks, graded readers)
15 books (inc. novels, young adult books, manhwa, poetry)
Review textbooks

Spanish:

20 books (children’s books, language study textbooks, graded readers)
Listen to all of Language Transfer
300 hrs of Dreaming Spanish (or other CI if I find more I like)
Complete Spanish to ch 20

shitsurei · April 2, 2024, 10:21pm

Not sure if you’re looking to add anything, but for Spanish, Dreaming Spanish is great.

ddochii · April 2, 2024, 10:36pm

Oh, I’ve heard of this! I’ll try it out, thanks

bungakushoujo · April 2, 2024, 10:44pm

I’m really happy to see another Korean learner on the forums! Looking forward to reading your log and maybe reading some books together in a book club some time.

ddochii · April 3, 2024, 3:44am

Yes, I’m really glad to see the Korean learning community here Honestly I don’t know many other dedicated learners so it’s been fun to read about everyone’s studies!

I keep meaning to try and catch up for one of the book clubs. I’ll stop procrastinating one of these days lol

ddochii · April 3, 2024, 4:40am

March:

Podcasts:

여둘톡: eps 71, 1, 2, 3
Language Transfer (Spanish): 1-10

Youtube:

뱀집: 태연 (1, 2편), 제시, 키, 민니, 텐 episodes
수탉: many
리로그: 3 videos

Books:
Finished

구미호 식당 2: 저세상 오디션 (특별판)
고양이 섬

Started

Dramas:

Doctor Slump

New things I learned:
Spotlight for some interesting things I learned!

흡혈귀 : vampire, 관 : coffin
I’ve always seen 뱀파이어 or 드라큘라 used to refer to vampires, so it was interesting to learn a ‘Korean’ word for it. Also, I can’t believe I never knew the word for coffin! I saw it in one of the 엘레베이터에… short stories, and then it also came up in a short story from 그들이 떨어뜨린 것. Fun!
늪 : 빠져나오기 힘든 상황, swamp
허무주의 : nihilism
I definitely won’t remember this word but lol.
-기 십상이다 : An expression used to state that the current situation can easily become the situation mentioned in the preceding statement or there is a high possibility.
I don’t often come across new grammar (?) phrases so this was fun to find!
호리병 : a gourd shaped bottle
This came up in two different stories in 엘레베이터에… which is fun. Pros of reading a lot from the same author— they use the same vocab!

ddochii · April 30, 2024, 4:32am

April:

                 Korean / Spanish totals
Listening:      4 hours / 1 hour 20 min.
Speaking:             — / 45 min. (iTalki)
Reading:       3 novels / 8 children’s books
Input: 11 hours 30 min. / 1 hour 13 min.
Flashcards:           — / 5 hours

Input here means specifically watching videos/TV in target language.

Korean

I read so much this month, I’m kind of shook lol. The short story collection 엘레베이터에 낀 그 남자는 어떻게 되었나 felt super slow and I didn’t feel like trudging through it, and I just finished a REALLY strange story in it, so I took a break with that. But I’ll be finishing it this month.

As for some books I did finish…
그들이 떨어뜨린 것 is a short story collection for the YA aged group, but it was actually so difficult. More difficult than 엘레베이터에…, which is for adults and has more various plots lmao. So strange! But it was still shorter, so I got through it. I even had my Korean friend look at both and give her opinion of which was more difficult language wise, and she agreed with my assessment lol. I really liked 2 of the stories and the other 3 were a waste of time so I’m not sure if I’d recommend it unless you particularly like short stories. I do like them so… I guess it was fine lol. Also, the author had a little passage after each story to explain her inspiration and what she wants readers to take away from the story which was nice.

세계를 건너 너에게 갈게 was a short, easy read. I’m glad I read it, though I did fall asleep almost every time I went to read it. A little too simple for me. However, in the end it was touching and I definitely cried.

그녀와 그녀의 고양이 was also a little boring. It’s for adults, so it was better in that way, but there wasn’t really a plot. I thought it was going to be a cute story about cats and humans, but it kind of wasn’t. It was just like peeks into people’s lives. Also the cats acted like humans and that always annoys me LMAO cat’s don’t shed tears when sad omg!!! But it was fine for language learning. I hope I can read a more exciting book this coming month.

I always have so much input for Korean (sorry Spanish) so there’s not much to say there. I watched a ton of horror let’s plays, one ep of BL web drama for my boyfriend Jiwoong, and I watched Queen of Tears (with English subs so it’s not counted here btw). I also listened to more of my podcast, which is always nice. They had a lot of write ins and reviews they read aloud, and I was surprised to hear from so many foreigners! Hello friends! Although most seemed to be Japanese lol. Still, fun!

I also really need to speak Korean cause I can feel my skills dropping…here and there I read aloud just so I don’t forget how to make the correct sounds in Korean lmao. I need to get back on Hellotalk…

Spanish

I really tried to hunker down and get some Spanish studying done this month with debatable results. I’ve been doing the Anki deck (through the SmartCards app) for the Complete Spanish textbook, but I need the vocab to get through the grammar exercises tbh so it’s been slowww going haha.

BUT I did go ahead and start Dreaming Spanish (I tried the Super Beginner videos in the past and ended up stopping…) and I can already understand more! I moved onto Beginner videos and upped the speed. I’m obviously not great at Spanish, but the super slow speaking speed grates on my ears lmao. Super Beginner was too boring tbh, so I’m going to go a little ahead into Beginner even if I sometimes have a few sentences I don’t understand at all lol. The topics are just more interesting and engaging. So I hope I can keep up with this for input since I’m severely lacking that.

I also did an Italki lesson, read some kids books, and did a few Language Transfer episodes. I do listen to each one twice, but I’d like to either add in Pimsleur or up the time spent on these episodes. I really want to SPEAK and read more fluently aloud. Sigh. I’m going to probably hold off on more iTalki lessons since I really suck at talking still and it feels like a waste of money lol if I can’t get my money’s worth by speaking Spanish.

I want to immerse more in (Latin American) Spanish but not sure what content is out there…Korean was so much easier tbh…

Podcasts:

여둘톡 (Korean): eps 4, 5, 6
Language Transfer (Spanish): 11-17

Youtube:

혜안: 4 videos / 3 hours
수탉: 10 videos / 7 hours 30 min.
Pat & Matt 재윤 이션 / 30 min.
Dreaming Spanish: 1 hour 13 min.

Books:

Korean Finished

Korean Continued

엘레베이터에 낀 그 남자는 어떻게 되었나

Spanish

7 children’s books, 1 graded reader
Complete Spanish ch. 1-3

Dramas:

풍덕빌라 304호 1 ep / 30 min.

New things I learned:

Honestly I was too lazy to read intensively this month so uh…not sure what to put here but maybe I’ll update it if I remember what I learned hahahahaha….

I also want to make monthly goals or something for each language? 2024 goals seem too big lol. I also don’t want it to be too stressful so. Maybe…

Korean
Listen: 4 hours
Read : 1-2 novels
Input: 4 hours

Spanish
Input: Language Transfer / other totaling 40 hours
Read: 2 children’s books, 4 chapters of textbook
Flashcards: 4 hours

(Also how to people keep track of how long they spent on something LMAO I also couldn’t decide if I should count by time or episodes of something or what…I just kept a list of times and activities in my notes app and updated it when I did something…tho I didn’t keep track of reading time cause I’m lazy lolol but it was super inconvenient to do tbh. 휴…)

HopeWaterfall · April 30, 2024, 9:06am

I use toggle! However it gets annoying with several languages, because I like to put log in exactly what I did, and what type of activity that was. For other languages where I don’t do as much I use another tracker app called simple tracker, but tbh it’s not as good imo. Or maybe I’m just too used to toggle’s layout .

Example of toggle

It ends up looking like this when you log, and then you get pretty pie charts of your activity over a certain time period.

shitsurei · April 30, 2024, 10:00pm

For French I have a spreadsheet and mark down durations of videos/podcasts/audiobooks because I don’t read on my own (yet).

For Japanese I just use the durations of shows watched from Natively plus I keep track of audiobook lengths and call that good enough. It’s enough for me to be able to get an order of magnitude estimate since there’s no way to know my total time in the language so I don’t feel as perfectionistic about it. It’s nice to be able to do a month to month comparison, and it’ll be neat to see how many hours I have at the end of the year. Tracking hobbies quickly becomes its own hobby and can wring the joy out of the first hobby if I let it…

ddochii · May 1, 2024, 3:50am

Ohhh okay that could be helpful! As long as I don’t need to do any math on my own lolol

ddochii · May 1, 2024, 3:53am

A spreadsheet would be nice to see everything at once…

I’ve only kept track for two months and I’m already a little tired tbh. So doing a vague estimation might be in my future if I get bored lol. At least I can easily check the duration of watched videos and podcasts listened to. I also totally haven’t kept track of any studying I do but I think it’s fine. Mostly I care about tracking and having consistent input from reading and watching things.

ddochii · June 4, 2024, 8:19pm

May:

I think I kind of dropped the ball this month but I’ve also been applying for jobs and interviewing and tutoring and taking my cat to the vet every week SO. I’m happy with what I actually got done even if it wasn’t that organized or did much towards my number goals lol.

                 Korean / Spanish totals

Listening:            — / 2 hours 21 min.
Speaking:             — / —
Reading:       4 novels / 2 children’s books
Input:          4 hours / 43 hours
Flashcards:           — / 1 hour 20 min.

Input here means specifically watching Youtube videos/TV in target language.

Korean

I can’t believe I FINALLY FINISHED 엘레베이터에 낀 그 남자는 어떻게 되었나. It’s DEFINITELY the hardest thing I’ve read, though some of the short stories in 그들이 떨어뜨린 것 were also difficult for me. Short story collections are sooo hard to grade and rate. But I’m so glad to be done with it HAHA. Would really like someone else to grade it so I can get a real view of my level/limit lmao but…not sure if I can 100% recommend it. Some stories were great, and some were just strange.

Also I kind of feel bad because a Korean friend started reading 엘레베이터에 낀… since I said I was reading it but that was before I got to the weird stories LMAO. Specifically (18+ content) when this guy caught caught jerking off in the ruins of Rome(?) by a weird chick, and then met that same strange girl later on a train. They did…things together and then he realized that she is HIM bc of some weird childhood trauma and then she disappeared bc he realized and he’s like. She’s always with me~ Idek what to make of that story but yeah oops really wish I didn’t recommend it to someone I’m not that close with/is older than me LOL.

I read 기억 술사 which was like the perfect level for me to read extensively. I think it’s not YA but it felt like YA lol not too complicated, and it was a little bit fantasy which kept it interesting.

I also read the short story(?)일 퍼센트. It was fine for what it was, a middle grade/YA book. It was short and the story moved fast, but somehow it did have unknown words that I had to look up. I think it’s a good starter story for those to want to read in Korean and are already intermediate level.

Finally, I read 연남동 빙굴빙굴 빨래방. I still have to write a review, but those who like ‘healing’ style books and changing POVs may enjoy this. You learn about different characters, and they do come to a connection in the end which is always nice. Their problems are realistic, and not simple. So some words and phrases were difficult to parse for me lol arguments about selling property, voice phishing scam processes, etc. But it was good for learning I think. It was a little sad and frustrating as not all the problems came to a perfect conclusion/happy ending but that also made it feel more real/mature lol. In the end, I’m glad I stuck with it (I don’t like too much changing POV or overly positive ‘healing’ stories so I almost gave it up lol I really should stop picking up these books). BTW I think this is so much better than 불편한 편의점 but it is similar style-wise lol. (Also yes I cried reading this one.)

I also started the Long Walk in Korean bc I’m a Stephen King fangirl and discovered a used Korean version. I don’t usually read translations so I’m interested to see how it goes. But it’s long so…uh…I hope I finish it lmao.

I didn’t do much besides read in Korean and argue in the comments on Instagram lmfao someone pls get me out of the comment sections bc it’s never good for my mental health lolol.

Spanish

Ok so I started really digging into Dreaming Spanish this month. I don’t fully buy into the method bc I’m an English teacher haha so we each have our own teaching philosophies and understandings of language acquisition. But it’s been a lot more fun now that I bought premium (which I never planned on doing…).

I’ve also been able to talk to my mom about some of the things that come up and it’s interesting to see her opinions on it as a native from Mexico. Word choice wise and cultural notes wise…but I also keep reminding my mom that while she visits Mexico, she doesn’t live there anymore so maybe her Spanish/experiences are different bc of that. My uncle is also a Spanish teacher and I wonder what he’d think about some of the topics that come up in DS…
Also I had to stop watching the one Mexican guide tbh I just couldn’t stand their content which sucks. And my mom was like…they’re wrong about certain things and now I can’t get that out of my head lolol I should’ve known better than to ask a native to confirm things since everyone is different but yeah. STILL I’m loving some of the other guides! I can understand every accent equally tbh so I’m just enjoying seeing the different content. I do think it helped my comprehension that I already had a base of vocab from my flashcards and reading.

I read only two kids books, finished up a chapter in my textbook Complete Spanish, did some language transfer, and listened to some podcast episodes from Cuéntame.

Podcasts:

Language Transfer (Spanish): 18-22
Cuéntame (Spanish): 1-11

Youtube:

홍홍자몽: 4 hours
Dreaming Spanish: 43 hours

Books:

Korean

Spanish

2 children’s books
Complete Spanish ch. 4

Dramas:

–

New things I learned:

체념하다: 갖고 있던 바람이나 뜻을 끊어 버리다. To throw away or give up one’s expectations, hopes, etc. To resign oneself, to accept your fate.

폐촌: Depopulated village, abandoned town. 廢 (무너질 폐) 村 (마을 촌)

시트: Konglish word for ‘seat’ which literally made me so ??? when reading lmao. I’ve never seen someone say that before, I’ve always seen 좌석 but it’s interesting lol. So many car words in Korean are borrowed from English so I shouldn’t be surprised but…시트…왜…

그륵: 사투리 for 그릇. There’s even a poem using it, I ended up watching a video lecture about it lol.

I’m going to Mexico at the end of the month so I’m gna try to grind Dreaming Spanish and my textbook and see if I can at least follow the conversations around me as the only American in my group lolol. Let’s hope my June wrap-up will be filled with Spanish input and maybe a positive story about using Spanish in Mexico!

bungakushoujo · June 4, 2024, 9:24pm

I hate when you recommend a book to someone before you’re done reading it and then it goes off the rails like that. The embarrassment is real. It sounds kind of interesting though?

ddochii · June 4, 2024, 11:36pm

lol yeah I didn’t expect they’d go buy it/read it after I told them about it! And they messaged me like oh…I can’t really understand why the characters do what they do/empathize with them…and I’m like. Omg. Me neither!!!

Yeah I read the section at the end, the 해설 by an author who explained that Kim Youngha intended to turn traditional storytelling on its head by using day-to-day problems as the basis, keeping traditional story structure as well, but use elements of fantasy, eroticism, melodrama, and/or radical nihilism to disturb the reader’s expectations. This really helped me understand the point of his stories, because they were mostly really just…어이 없어 lol. I would finish a story and be like…what? And feel adrift and confused as to what I was supposed to learn or ‘get’ from the story. I still don’t know if I would recommend it outright, mostly bc of the mature scenes that might disturb other readers, but knowing his goal makes it more enjoyable imo. I wish they put the end part as a foreword tbh as I may have been able to look at the stories in a different light.

At some points it kind of felt like women were just tools for the male MC’s desires rather than characters, but I think now he was using the unfiltered desire itself as a tool to show the crookedness of the MC. Perhaps. Or for some other representation that I can’t think of how to analyze in a foreign language

ddochii · July 8, 2024, 9:05pm

June:

Wow idk what I did this month lol. Vacation, I guess.

                 Korean / Spanish totals

Listening:    3 hr 46 m / 9 hr
Speaking:      tiny bit / some
Reading:         1 book / -
Watching:     1 hr 20 m / 24 hr
Flashcards:           — / -

Korean

I have no idea why I didn’t read much this month. I got a little discouraged when timing my read of the Long Walk, even though I made it to page 100 and it didn’t feel too hard…seeing how little I could read when timing 30 minutes made me a little sad haha. I was wondering if I should keep to YA until I get super comfortable? Maybe the jump to ‘real adult novels’ is too much since I’m searching one-three words each page? Or does it really not matter as long as I don’t feel bored/fatigued?

I have been jumping around though and haven’t gotten sucked into any books tbh. I started 정원의 계시록, 위저드 베이커리, 심 대를 위한 감정의 인문학 카페, and 오백 년째 열다섯 for the bookclub. But I haven’t felt like reading any of them even if they don’t feel especially hard or something…maybe I’m in a rut lol.

I did begin to listen to 시간을 건너는 집 as an audiobook. It feels very similar to Lonely Castle in the Mirror, but it’s an easy listen so.

OH I did finally finish 을의 연애 which is a 그림 에세이 책. It was cute little pictures of cats but it was all about being sad in a relationship so it didn’t really interest me LOL. I bought it literally years ago and finally just actually made myself get through it lol. It’s very easy.

I talked to the Korean store 아저씨 while traveling though, which was fun. He said I’m 99 프로 코리안 lolol accent wise. So he says, but of course I heard my own mistakes and later was beating myself up for not wording some things a certain way. Sigh…

Spanish

Did some more language transfer, and a lot more of Cuéntame. Also did a ton of Dreaming Spanish. Traveled to Mexico City, and I think it went pretty well. I was the only native English speaker in my group so I got a ton of input just from taking tours and listening to their conversations. My mom was there and translated some words i didn’t know, but I could generally follow what was happening. I think Dreaming Spanish helped a lot, so I’ll keep it up. I plan to go back to the flashcards and book for some basic foundational stuff though. Hopefully this month lol.

Oh, and my uncle is a teacher for little kids (in Spanish) so I’ll have some more resources.

Podcasts:

Language Transfer (Spanish): Ep. 23-27
Cuéntame (Spanish): Ep. 12-91
막걸리 (Korean): Ep. 350

Youtube:

홍홍자몽 + 혜안: 1 hr 20 m
Dreaming Spanish: 24 hr

Books:

Korean

을의 연애

Dramas:

New things I learned:

Weird month, I honestly forgot about tracking anything and I think it affected my study amounts lol. I need to consciously think about what I can log each week/day to make sure I’m making progress I think. Idk. But I’m glad I did anything at all I suppose ahah.

ddochii · August 5, 2024, 9:45pm

July:

                 Korean / Spanish totals

Listening:   11 hr 12 m / 10 hr
Speaking:             - / -
Reading:         1 book / -
Watching:    13 hr 30 m / 20 hr 45 m
Flashcards:           — / -

Korean

I got really into Supermarket Simulator videos so uh…13 hours of watching later…HAHA.

For reading, I read 가면산장의 살인사건 as it’s level 27 and that seems to be my ‘level’ I’ve discovered. It was so fun! I did have to note all their characters and their relationships (why are Japanese names so hard for me…) but it really wasn’t complicated at all. Yet still fun. I read it in three days haha. When I mentioned it to my old Korean tutor who I keep in touch with, she was so excited haha. She said his books are fun quick reads…though probably more quick for her than for me hah. She recommended I read the 용의자 x의 헌실 book, so I’ll have to give that a go sometime soon.

For listening, I listened to 이상한 과자 가게 전천당 1 and 2. A little young, probably for elementary schoolers but it’s great for audiobook listening. I like the voices (okay, excluding the little kids voices) and it’s not hard to follow along. Sometimes I do have to go back and hear a part at 90% speed but it’s overall 98% comprehensible for me as I’m assuming there’s words I don’t know that come up. Since I’m not reading it, it’s a little harder for me to notice the words I’m missing lol. It makes me a little unsure if audiobooks really help grammar/vocab or just listening skill…as I find I tend to skip over what word I didn’t understand without even noticing I did so. I guess this may mean I estimated the meaning, or it wasn’t necessary to understand for the sentence, but hm.

I also finished 시간을 건너는 집. I can’t recommend it enough! It’s not too childish, although the premise is pretty simple. A house appears only to those who have certain white sneakers. The kids get the sneakers in various ways…but it falls into the hands of those kids all by design. The kids meet and learn they have until the end of the year to choose the door of the past, present, or future. These kids will lose all their memories of the house and those in it. It’s very “lonely castle in the mirror” but tbh I preferred this one. We get all the kids’ perspectives and even the house ‘adults’ who run this whole thing. The kids all have various problems, and I was impressed that these topics were brought up in a YA book in Korea tbh lol. I somehow didn’t expect what happened to happen. I shed a tear here and there lol. The ending was nice and all wrapped up. I started listening to the sequel for August hehe. Oh, and I really like the different voices/voice acting in it.

Spanish

Doing a terrible job with Spanish. I’m starting my job soon too and I’m worried I’ll need Spanish but I just have lost all motivation after getting back from Mexico. I hope I can get into a routine…

This month, just Chill Spanish and Cuentame podcasts still along with Dreaming Spanish.

Podcasts:

Chill Spanish (Spanish): Ep. 1-5
Cuéntame (Spanish): Ep. 92-157

Youtube:

혜안, 깔수, 홍홍자몽: 13 hr 30 min
Dreaming Spanish: 20 hr 45 min

Books:

Korean

가면산장 살인사건

Dramas:

New things I learned:
Nothing interesting I guess.

Well this was a pretty good month as I really got to enjoy a bunch of audiobooks! Making good use of my 윌라 subscription lol. Wish I didn’t spend so much time watching Korean Youtube gamers but lolol. I should’ve done more Spanish with that time. It’s so brainless to watch Korean content like that, but Spanish takes focus and ugh.

ANYWAYS August might be my last real month for such amounts of input. The school year starts back up in early September so I have no idea what my free time will look like. I’ll probably do some Korean/Spanish here and there but not really sure if I’ll have the mental bandwidth for language learning, hah. Hopefully by the end of autumn I’ll be able to have more leeway. It was a fruitful summer though.

ddochii · September 2, 2024, 9:55pm

August:

It’s not my birthday, I’m just celebrating the end of my jobless 백수 life…sigh…

                 Korean / Spanish totals

Listening:   27 hr 12 m / 12 hr 40 m
Reading:         1 book / -

I’ve decided to give up tracking the other things I tracked since uh. They haven’t been a part of my studying these days lolol.

Korean

Since I was doing the listening challenge I reallllly sucked at reading. I did finish 살인자의 정석, a short story collection though. I thought it was the perfect level for me, only needed to look up some words here and there and was able to read it fairly quickly. The grammar seemed really simple too. I enjoyed it, even if it was super strange haha. It kind of reminded me of reading Orange World and Other Stories.

I did get done a bunch of audio stories/books.

어서오세요, 고양이 식당입니다
A cute short story about a cat restaurant that only appears on moonlit nights. The cat chef listens to other animals’ stories in exchange for food. Very cute and fun, will try to listen to the other stories. Some randomly hard vocab though.
그곳에 네가 있어준다면 : 시간을 건너는 집 2
A less interesting sequal to 시간을 건너는 집. A little predictable at times but still a nice story. Sometimes forgot who characters were bc they seemed somewhat similar. But still a good read for a YA book.
ᄌᄉᄏᄅ
Didn’t enjoy this once, though it was an easy listen for me. Am considering the sequel just because of that, but idk. A little cringe and predictable. But yeah def aimed at young teens so I get it.
이상한 과자 가게 전천당 3
Really great book! I liked it more than the others for some reason. Maybe because we’re getting some different kinds of customers and situations? Idk but this is a perfect audio series for me since I can kind of do other things while listening.
이상한 과자 가게 전천당 4
Good as expected.
남편이 자살했다
Just listened to this because I needed to listen to something for the listening challenge. I’d tried it quite a while ago and it was too hard, but it didn’t seem to hard to me this time. It is nonfiction, which I forget can be so much easier lol. Needed to look up some investigation words and some words dealing with her husband’s suicide but other than that it was pretty common words imo. It’s more of a memoir of her life with her husband, after her husband dies, and her grief. I enjoyed it because of her voice and how she admitted that she wished her husband dead. And that it wasn’t a common story of just forgiving just bc he died. But I didn’t connect with the author too much, so I couldn’t understand her train of thought sometimes.
책이 사라진 날
Really hated this book lol. It started off good and then just got too childish for me. I know it’s normal in kids book but the whole ‘the whole world recognizes how great hangul is, made by our genius King Sejong’ (which doesn’t even matter in the plot bc the aliens know all languages of the world, not just Korean so like idk why is this important lmao) and how this alien invasion is like ‘Japan’s occupation on Korea’ so Korea will def rise again just like before lol. Just felt random and obvious to me but I get that we want kid’s to know about history. Also the whole 흑인이 된 줄 알았다 thing I wrote about in my review LOL. Like I mentioned it to my friend and she was like yeah my mom/grandma def say that/have said that and I’m like that’s… fine lol expected but why in kids books?? It feels like such an outdated thing to say. Another reviewer pointed it out as weird, and also pointed out the cursing (미쳤다 level) and it made me hmmm. If this book targets 1st-3rd graders I find that language pretty inappropriate. So it just left a bad impression on me as a whole.

Spanish

This month, I finished Cuentame! Now just aiming to finish Chill Spanish and continue with Dreaming Spanish. One day I’ll hit the textbooks/books again lol. I need to get a library card from a bigger library where they’ll maybe have kids books in Spanish.

Podcasts:

Chill Spanish (Spanish): Ep. 6-90
Cuéntame (Spanish): Ep. 158-170
여둘톡 (Korean): Ep. 101, 107

Youtube:

혜안, 깔수

Books:

Korean

살인자의 정석
어서오세요, 고양이 식당입니다
그곳에 네가 있어준다면
ᄌᄉᄏᄅ
이상한 과자 가게 전천당 3
이상한 과자 가게 전천당 4
남편이 자살했다
책이 사라진 날

Dramas:

New things I learned:
idk I’ve been so lazy I haven’t written anything down um