Thank you! I don’t think I’ll do so many updates, but one final one yeah, once I’m finished with the day. I do have a study log here (that I’ve been neglecting, because whenever I start writing an update I get distracted by something else and then forget, but shhh, don’t tell anyone), so at the very least I’ll do a readathon recap, combining both Japanese and Korean
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It’s a wrap!
Here are the final results:
349 pages (bug me that it isn’t 350, but my brain is fried), for a total of 5 hours and 31 minutes (why not 30 
). In other words, about 1 page / minute, though to be fair it is more 1.34 pages of manga per minute, and 0.2 pages of a novel 
All in all an incredible result, I am really happy that I got to do that.
I’ll keep on reading everyday and I’m sure I’ll see an improvement the next time I attempt a readathon!
And now… I need to do my Korean homework because I’ve got class tomorrow and totally forgot about homework… So more Korean tonight, and then 3 more hours tomorrow. Talk about immersion 
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Oooh, congrats! I love the fancy graphic as well!
If I didn’t have friends over today, I’d be really tempted to do a mini Spanish readathon. Maybe Sunday; I’ve still got socials planned, but I could probably get away with one or two hours, and that’s one or two hours more than I’ve been reading in Spanish lately. 
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update: end of quarter 1 musings
- I’ll wait until the actual end of March to do a recap of the month, because I like to see the exact number of pages I’ve read.
- I have been thinking about what I want to do next, and I feel like after 3 months of the same routine I can allow myself a few changes without risking to fall off the read-everyday wagon.
- I’m currently in a hiring process for a position that would be mostly in English, so I’ll keep to English for now just to get into the habit.
April-May-June goal: Try out self studying and get a feel of how it goes
My one goal for the year is to read every single day in Korean, so I’ll keep at it for this quarter. The most important thing for me is to maintain this habit, so if I have to drop other things to allow reading to happen, I will.
On the other hand, I want to try my hand at self-studying. Why? My Korean classes are going too slow for me - I feel bad saying it to my teacher and I would never mention it to the rest of the students, but here I feel like I’m allowed to complain.
In general I feel like I have a good grasp of the basics, and whatever the reason may be I understand grammar quickly (”whatever the reason” being that I am already fluent in 3 languages, majored in foreign languages, and have a solid understanding of grammar, syntax, and know how to learn a new language). That, combined with all the free time I have been having since leaving my job, has allowed me to make some solid progress, in parallel to the class. All that to justify saying that the classes are too slow for me… and I want to go faster.
So here is my idea. My Korean course finishes in June, and the course starts back up in September. I want to get into a routine of learning by myself from April to August: that give me 5 months to finish the Korean Grammar in Use Beginner textbook, and maybe start the Intermediate. Once I’m done with those 5 months, I’ll see if I actually am able to study on my own, if the routine I’ve established is compatible with working full-time, and if I can see myself continuing with that routine for the foreseeable future.
In which case, I might take a few one-on-one classes to get some output in, but more importantly: starting September I would register for a Japanese in-person class. Because that is the “at-some-point” goal, and “at-some-point” might as well be September this year.
So back to this quarter’s goals:
- Read every day
- Up my listening input to a baseline of 5 hours a month
- Finish KGU Beginner
January-February-March wrap-up
Wild to see that in January, reading a book (any book) in Korean was a milestone 
Now I’ve read 16 of them!
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It feels weird to read your update entirely in English, haha. Amazing how quickly you get used to having things in a certain language.
English and Spanish are two, I presume; what’s the third, if you don’t mind me asking?
I’d say it’s for the best. School classes have to be geared pretty slowly and can’t focus on specific areas (reading, listening, etc.) as well as a dedicated self-learner can, so being able to break free and move on on your own is only beneficial imo. You do lose that dedicated access to a (presumably) native or fluent speaker to ask questions to, granted although I can count on one hand how many of my Spanish teachers were actually good teachers, but I definitely agree with you that moving to self-study will have you see quicker gains.
Oooh, adding in Japanese, huh? Time to fill up your JP TBR with thousands of books. 
Man, congrats! It’s an awesome milestone, and it’s been wild to follow along and see your progress!
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That would be French, my native language.
Yes exactly, that’s why I was thinking of asking my current, or any past teacher, if they offer private classes, and try and fit that into my budget to practice speaking, have them go over my writing occasionally, and mostly ask questions about grammar / culture. But if I can progress at a better pace it might be worth it. Seeing so many people on here having a blast self-studying is also very encouraging.
I really have been trying not to, but it’s already started 
Nothing I can do to stop it now.
Also thank you for always reading & replying, engaging with people on here is really motivating! I’ve been meaning to be more active in other people’s study log as well.
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Of course! I have a lot of fun chatting with everyone here on the forums; it’s always so interesting to see what others are learning and reading and striving for.
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I took a year of classes for exactly that reason, just so I’d have someone on hand to ask questions to. Didn’t continue because I noticed the classes were too slow for me, so I was spending time there that I could’ve spent self studying and progressing much faster. What I settled on is Go Billy, if you’ve heard of the channel? He has live streams on Sundays (3 weeks in a row then one without), and so if I have a question that I can’t get an answer to otherwise, I ask there! The 5€ a month I pay to be a channel member and thus guarantee he answers my questions is much cheaper than what I used to pay for in person group classes.
You might want to look into Italki too, to get someone to go over your writing and for conversation practice. Prices vary of course, but community tutors are usually cheaper, so that’s something to search for.
Wow, your Q1 really is impressive! I’m looking forward to see how you progress in the future 
.
A sidenote, but funny coincidence, you’re taking almost the same path as me language wise. French of course, plus English, Spanish, Korean and now Japanese (I just got distracted by Italian before starting Japanese). Any chance you’re planning on learning Mandarin Chinese in the future? ㅋㅋㅋ
I’ve been slowly gathering books and adding them to my wishlist, even though I’m mostly just reading graded readers for now, so that when I can read native material I’ll have ample choices already.
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I’ve heard of Go Billy but I didn’t know about the livestreams, that’s good to know!
Ha that’s funny! And yes, Mandarin Chinese is definitely on the list but since I plan on starting with Japanese, I think I’ll need to get to at least an intermediate level in that language before adding the simplified hanzis or I might just give up lol.
Speaking of, how are you finding the experience of learning Korean and Japanese at the same time? Is it more challenging because the two get confused, or do you think it helps you understand the other language more easily?
That’s the thing I was worried about and why I postponed Japanese for so long, I wanted to be more comfortable with Korean before potentially getting everything mixed up.
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I haven’t been mixing the two up, it’s different enough that this doesn’t happen. I’ve actually found that my Korean knowledge is helping me rather than hindering me. Grammar concepts are often very similar, so there’s not as much mental gymnastics to get used to things. Whether it’s the S-O-V word order, markers, or suffixes added as grammar, it all makes sense at first glance, because the same thing happens in Korean!
In turn, Japanese helps with Korean as well. I’ve been lagging behind on hanja, and there’s just a lot more resources for kanji, so I’ve been able to find something that works for me pretty easily (that is, Wanikani). So now, recognizing hanja is actually a lot easier.
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Fantastic, that’s all I needed to hear. I really hope I can stick to a self-study routine for Korean because starting a Japanese course would be amazing. Thanks for sharing your experience!
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update: resumen de marzo 
back to our regularly scheduled Spanglish.
Objetivo número 1 para marzo: leer todos los días → hecho.
Leí 1749 páginas, es decir más que en enero, pero más importante aún es esta curva:
Estamos subiendo de nivel poco a poco
(
Y otra cosa: empecé a ver series / películas con subtítulos coreanos 
resumen del mes
leí 6 libros, todos mangas.
vi una peli (Ponyo on the Hill) y 8 capítulos de series (숨이 벅차 S1 | L19?? y https://learnnatively.com/season/d8b603866c/)
abril
- leer todos los días
- escuchar algo todos los días
libros que quiero leer:
-
Series de mangas ya empezadas
히카루가 죽은 여름 4 (no está en Natively lo añadiré en cuanto pueda)
숲속의 담 5 | L18 quizás el 5 y el 6? dependiendo de cómo vaya.
나빌레라 4 | L19 el 4 y el 5 también al poder ser. -
Manga nuevo
노인의 꿈 첫 번째 이야기 | L22 -
Novelas
https://learnnatively.com/book/bb3ad93d1a/ me queda menos de 40%!! Exciting.
Korean Fiction Book Club 
parece que el libro será 기억술사 1 | L24?? which is also very exciting! -
Otros
우리가 함께 걷는 시간 | L19 me queda un 40% del libro por leer. Es muy fácil de hecho, mucho más que el libro anterior.
기분 좋아지는 책 | L21
podcasts
Quiero escuchar todos los episodios de 요모조모. Me encanta tanto Didi님 como 태웅쌤, this is my absolute dream crossover.
A por otro mes!!
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update: vocabulario y gramática
entre el readathon y el fin de mes / del trimestre llevo 2 semanas sin hacer un update real. así que a por ello!
gramática
En mi último update me quedaban por estudiar unos 27 puntos del libro Korean Grammar in Use - Beginner. Happy to report que ya sólo me quedan 11. De los que estudié estos días, los que realmente no conocía (bien porque no los había encontrado o no me había fijado en ellos, bien porque no me quedaban claros exactamente el significado y las reglas de uso) son:
- V-고 나서: hacer algo y luego otra cosa.
- V-(으)ㄴ 지: pasó tanto tiempo desde que hice tal cosa.
El resto de puntos son cosas con las que ya estaba familiarizada, y leer el libro y hacer los ejercicios no me aportó mucho. Quiero acabar el libro rápidamente para aprender cosas nuevas, necesito un challenge! Lo bueno es que, al ser gramática básica, me ha pasado un par de veces que justo después de estudiar algo lo veo en un libro o lo escucho en algún lado.
EN
In my previous update, I had 27 grammar points left from the Korean Grammar in Use Beginner Textbook. Happy to report that I now only have 11 left to study! From those I went through these days, only 2 were not 100% familiar to me:
- V-고 나서: to do something after finishing something else.
- V-(으)ㄴ 지: how much time has passed since doing something.
I am now really looking forward to finishing this book and starting working on things that are new to me, to give me the feeling of actually learning something instead of reviewing.
listening
Estoy viendo 무브 투 헤븐: 나는 유품정리사입니다 S1 | L21?? con Language Reactor. Tengo los subtítulos en coreano, y cuando no entiendo algo (es decir… siempre) miro la traducción de las palabras que no entiendo, y si sigo sin entender la frase (es decir… muy a menudo) miro la traducción entera.
Al principio me sorprendió lo mucho que estaba entendiendo, y luego me empezó a gustar tanto la serie que tendía a mirar la traducción frase por frase sin realmente hacer suficiente esfuerzo para intentar entender por mi cuenta. Pero el último par de capítulos me fue mejor!
EN
I’m watching Move to Heaven with Language Reactor. I have the Korean subtitles on, and whenever I don’t understand something (so pretty much all the time) I look at the translation of the words giving me issues. If I still don’t understand the sentence (quite often) I look at the full translation.
At first I was surprised at how much I was understanding, but then I got really into the show and I started looking at full-sentence translations before I really made an effort to try understanding them on my own. That being said, once I noticed I was falling into this pattern, I was able to avoid doing it too much, and things are going better!
También estoy intentando ver vídeos en Youtube, sean vlogs o entrevistas, o un poco lo que me encuentro, pero es mucho más difícil que los podcasts dirigidos a gente aprendiendo el idioma.
Creo que las mejoras tardarán más en hacerse sentir que con la lectura, pero seguiré practicando el listening todos los días, y seguro que después de un mes me sentiré más segura.
EN
I’m also trying to watch some Youtube videos, whether that be vlogs, interviews, or whatever I come across, but it’s a lot harder to understand than podcasts aimed at learners.
I think improvement will be slower than with reading, but I’ll keep listening everyday and I’m sure I’ll feel more confident after a month.
libros
이상한 과자 가게 전천당 1 | L21
aún no lo he acabado 
me quedan unas 70 páginas - no son muchas, pero me está costando. El libro es divertido, pero no deja de ser un libro para niños. Sé que a mucha gente le encanta, pero por mi parte, no es un libro que leería en inglés. Y como ya mencioné, no me interesa tanto leer libros sólo por el aprendizaje del idioma, quiero leer cosas que disfruto, es decir, que leería aún si no me ayudaran con el coreano. but anyway, mi objetivo es acabarlo en abril.
nivel de comprensión por semana del book club: so far, about over 85% overall.
- semana 1: comprensión 82%
- semana 2: comprensión 86%
- semana 3: comprensión 92% (!!)
- semana 4: comprensión 87%
- semana 5: comprensión 84,5%
- semana 6: comprensión 86%
- semana 7: comprensión 86,5%
- semana 8: comprensión 85%
- semana 9: comprensión 88%
EN
Still not done with it
우리가 함께 걷는 시간 | L19
tampoco lo leería en inglés (no es que no me interesen las relaciones románticas, pero no me interesan las relaciones románticas), pero es muy sencillo, tiene poquito texto, y el arte es bonito. lo acabaré rápido.
EN
Also woudn’t read it in English (it’s just pure romance, and I clearly have very limited interest in that), but it’s an easy read, it has little text, and the art is nice.
노인의 꿈 첫 번째 이야기 | L22
ah, por fin un libro que realmente me está gustando! tengo ganas de seguir y aprender más sobre los personajes.
vocabulario
por algún motivo me acordé que en enero (a día 1 de hecho) había hecho un par de tests para evaluar mi vocabulario en coreano, y los volví a hacer hoy para ver la evolución.
A día 1 de enero, conocía aproximadamente unas 2.141 palabras en coreano.
A día de hoy unas 2.525! Not bad eh.
EN
I suddenly remembered that on January 1st I did a vocab test to see where my Korean vocabulary stands, and I took it again today. I went from around 2,141 known words to 2,525!
A brief note on that (actually not that brief)
I first looked at those numbers and thought “yeah, ok, that’s good”. But while writing this post I actually looked at how many words I supposedly have learned per month, from January to March.
If those numbers are right, I have learned 128 words a month! Wild!!
Now keep in mind that in January when I first took the test I wrote this:
→ to learn 1.000 words a year you need to learn over 80 per month.
And I found that sobering because I thought I would never be able to do that, at least not without putting extra, conscious effort onto it… well, look who was wrong!
I can’t remember why I thought I would want to learn 1.000 words a year, but I find that extra motivating, proving my past self wrong. Just goes to show I am much more capable than I give myself credit for… Feel free to take that thought and apply it to yourself. As you can see, my scientific method is foolproof.
Es bueno ver que estoy ampliando mi vocabulario, porque es lo que más problema me está dando a la hora de leer. No paro de buscar palabras, y palabras, y más palabras.
EN
It’s good to see that my vocab is growing, because it is the one thing that’s hindering me the most when reading. I feel like I am constantly looking up words, it just never stops.
That’s all for me today!
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I thought this was interesting. How does the test work? Does it test you on a selection of words and then estimate your vocabulary?
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Yes, this all came about because of mitrac’s study log and vocab experiment. I was curious to see if I could get an idea of my Korean vocabulary, so I looked up several tests, and decided to take two of them, and look at the average:
- How Many Korean Words Do You Know
This one lets you choose the sample size you want to go through, from 10 to 1,000. In January I went with 500, this time I only did 100. - 17-Minutes Languages
In this case you can’t choose the sample size, but it gives you a second sample depending on how you did with the first one.
Both times I took the tests I scored higher in test number one than test number two, which is why I am only looking at the average number.
It is probably not very accurate, but still a nice way to monitor progress.
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These are super interesting websites, thank you! A good way to measure progress indeed.
I ended up at 3555 words averaging the two test, which, considering I’m in intermediate limbo, feels accurate enough
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1,000 words to catch up to you, I’ll be there in a year 
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Ningún update, pero acabo de ver esto y quiero que conste que sólo estoy leyendo libros de niveles morados ahora mismo
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update: semana más lenta que de costumbre
I didn’t do much in the way of Korean, but I did get a job, so I can’t complain 
EDIT: woopsie, forgot to translate 
gramática
realmente no toqué el libro esta semana, así que antes de escribir este update me puse con ello
Acabé la unidad 16, aunque no hice mucha práctica, solo los ejercicios del libro. Debería escribir un texto usando los puntos que acabo de ver.
V-(으)려면 was new to me, pero realmente es la forma reducida de V-(으)려고 하면, así que tampoco es muy difícil de entender.
Me quedan por ver 6 puntos, y habré acabado el libro Korean Grammar in Use - Beginner. Me gustaría hacerlo antes de empezar a trabajar, el día 21, para así poder empezar el siguiente libro.
EN
I didn’t touch my book this week so i actually sat down and studied a bit before writing this.
I finished unit 16, although i didn’t practice anything, just did the book exercices. I should probably write a text or something using the grammar points i just learned.I still have 6 points left for this book, and then I’ll be done with it! I’d like to do that before I start working on the 21st, to get started on the next book
Unit 18. Changes in Parts of Speech
- A-게
- A-아/어하다
Unit 19. Expressions of State
- V-게 되다
Unit 20. Confirming Information
- V-는 데 걸리다/들다
Unit 21. Discovery and Surprise
- A/V-네요
Unit 22. Additional Endings
- A-(으)ㄴ가요?, V-나요?
I already know most of those, so it should be nice and easy.
listening
nada que ver aquí
libros
이상한 과자 가게 전천당 1 | L21
no lo toqué esta semana 
노인의 꿈 첫 번째 이야기 | L22
estamos viendo más de la vida de la protagonista. el libro es muy bonito, y relativamente fácil de entender.
기억술사 1 | L24??
no es tan difícil como esperaba, pero por alguna razón estoy tardando mucho en leerlo… estoy en la página 22/504 (del libro electrónico), se supone que tengo que llegar a la página 50 antes del lunes para seguir al día con el bookclub… erm…
aun así, me resulta más fácil de leer que Zenitendo, porque no tengo que buscar tantas palabras (y hasta ahora ninguna onomatopeia yujuuuu).
EN
기억술사 is not as hard as I thought it would be but still for some reason it is taking me a long time to read. I’m on page 22/504 (of the ebook) and I’m supposed to get to page 50 tomorrow to be up to date with the book club, lol.
Still I am finding it easier than Zenitendo, because I don’t have to look up so many words - and especially no onomatopeia.
To be honest I haven’t been feeling in a reading mood lately, probably because I am reading all of my books on my phone and my eyes are getting tired, but also because I was upset about my job situation - which is now solved, so hopefully next week I’ll enjoy myself more.
vocabulario
esto es lo que tengo pendiente en memrise:
할 수 있어!
plan para la semana que viene
estaré de vacaciones, y quiero aprovechar para:
- mantenerme al día del bookclub
- leer más zenitendo porque lo quiero acabar este mes
- acabar el libro KGU Beginner y posiblemente comprar el KGU Intermedio
- acabar de aprender todas las palabras que tengo pendientes en memrise, así como los repasos of course.
EN
plan for next week:
- keep up to date with the book club
- read more zenitendo because i really want to be done with it this month
- finish KGU Beginner and maybe buy the next one
- finish learning all of the words I have on memrise, and of course go through all my reviews.
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Congrats on the job! Espero que es vale la pena de tus esfuerzos y que estás orgulloso de tu mismo.
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