My Personal Learning Journey

Challenges & Triumphs 

• INITIAL MOTIVATION FOR LEARNING KOREAN 

Okay so let’s start with this perspective that we all are going through so many different things in life. And Everyone wants to settle & achieve their goals . But sometimes in this journey we all need a comfort zone. That kind of comfort zone which helps us to move forward in life. So when I was going through tough times in life I decided to make myself busy. There were some activities like 

• Drawing
• Journal writing
• Designing colorful paper cards 
• Reading Books 

and language learning was also one of the activities. So initially I had three options like Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Korean writing system ( 한글) grabbed my attention. So I decided to learn “Korean Alphabets” as a fun activity. But slowly It became my learning habit. This is how my journey started. 

• CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED 

At the initial stage it actually took me almost 7 days to master all the “Korean Alphabets” including  consonants, vowels, double consonants, strong consonants and all syllables. 

• Challenge No 1;

It was really confusing to remember the vowels and their sounds. Actually consonants were quite flexible but vowels took time. 

How did I overcome this? 

Of course I practiced so much but with listening. I used to listen to their sounds and solve quizzes. Duolingo helped me a lot with this. 

This is how different 한글 alphabets looks like. So you can listen to the sound and then select the right answer. 

•   Challenge No 2;

After mastering all the alphabets , I decided to remember vocabulary as much as I can. Words like 감사합니다 , 사랑해 , 안녕하세요, 괜찮아요  I already new. But still there were lot’s of words that I still needed to remember. 

How did I overcome this? 

I tried to remember the most common words used in the Korean language on a daily basis.  The word I used to remember I tried to use that word into a simple sentence. I always made my own sentences thinking “I was having a conversation with native Korean speaker. This channel helped me in this.

Learn Korean with Go! Billy 

• Challenge No 3;

At this point I was able to make simple sentences. But still I needed to understand the concept of past, present and future tenses with all verb endings. 

How did I overcome this?

When I was practicing simple sentences with “Go Billy Korean”. He introduced the “talk to me in Korean” youtube channel. 

TALK TO ME IN KOREAN 

They have free pdf  grammar books from beginner to advanced level. They have divided them into 10 levels. You can download them from their website. 

This is what their “free Korean lesson notes” look like. 

Also they have an option for a Level Test.

Website Link 

Important Note: 

• I never tried to remember all the grammatical rules because there are so many and it’s not easy to remember everything. I used multiple resources. By using different options, you can get the exposure to grammatical structures again and again. So It becomes easy to keep them in mind. 

• Challenge No 4; 

Sometimes it was challenging to translate Korean into English. Because English has a different sentence structure than Korean. Like Korean sentence structure is ( Subject + Object + Verb ). Verbs come at the end of the sentence. But in English it’s like ( subject+ verb + object) . 

How did I overcome this? 

Actually I am a Urdu speaker. So In urdu the sentence structure is the same as the Korean language. Verbs come at the end of the sentence. And all the Politeness Levels are the same like Korean language. So it was plus point for me to understand the difference between 감사합니다 and 고마워요 & 고마워. 

Note: 

Try to translate a Korean sentence into your native language If your native language is other than English. It will help you to remember sentences. 

FOR LISTENING, READING & WRITING 

• I visited different youtube channels 
• Instagram accounts 
• TikTok accounts 

( I have mentioned all of them in my other blogs. Where you can find their detailed explanations) 

For writing I used to write a journal in Korean. This activity is beginner friendly. This hobby made my Korean writing better. To get more information about it you can visit my Pinterest account. You can check “My Korean Journey” (How to write a journal in Korean). 

Pinterest 

Tips For Writing Korean journal ( For Beginners) 

•  SIGNIFICANT MILESTONES & ACHIEVEMENTS 

I have so many things to share. It’s been a long journey. Here are some achievements which I really want to share. I always try to find small opportunities. Because it’s my perspective that small opportunities always help you to move one step closer to your goal. 

These achievements are small but matter to me a lot. I always feel proud to be able to achieve them. 

• FUTURE GOALS & ASPIRATIONS IN LANGUAGE LEARNING 

In the future I am definitely hopeful to prepare myself better towards language learning.

 There are some things I really want to work on 

• Improve my listening skills 
• Going to read at least one short story book in a month
• I Hope to complete level 4+5 of good job Korean
• Right now I am at upper intermediate level. I am thinking about completing one course ( advanced level). Definitely start from next month 

NOTE: 📝🖊️

These are simple & real goals which I will definitely complete. My suggestion will be kindly make your daily, weekly and monthly “to do lists” and stick on them. You have to be consistent towards your language goals. Because consistency is the only key which is going to help you in your journey of language. 

I hope you find this blog useful. If you have any questions related to Korean language learning feel free to contact us. 

Regards, 

TASKEEN PEERZADA