I enjoy watching k-dramas and it's upsetting that I'm unable to comprehend a single word without the help of an English subtitle. To put an end to that, I installed Duolingo to learn the Korean language.
I didn't choose to learn Korean for the movies alone, I did because I love the language and want to be able to communicate, if not fluently, construct sentences or phrases that are comprehending and also to be able to transcribe in Korean.
I'm doing fine learning the vowels as it's just the basics. I've been able to master how to write the letter “m” using Korean symbols. It's been a week since I started and I challenged myself for a ten day streak class, so far, it's been good even though I seem to not want to open the app on some days especially after a hectic day at school due to my exams at hand.
Practice makes perfect, they say and I'm doing my best to keep up with the challenge. I'm also striving to memorize the vowels and their characters by challenging myself to read a Korean text.
Currently, I'm watching the movie “Red Sleeve” and it's really helping as there are lots of written texts. After practicing my vowels, I turn on the movie for a few minutes, forward it to where they have something written down and then rack my brain on how to pronounce the words. It's fun but also needs a great amount of patience. If I'm being honest, the only Korean symbol/character I'm able to write down is the “m.” The others, I just have to listen to their pronunciation to get what letter or vowel matches it.
I love Duolingo. Their teaching method is applaudable. I understand my lessons and I believe I'll do better as time goes by if I'm consistent. It'd be a great pleasure being able to communicate in Korean.
Language acquisition is tough especially when one has left the stage of childhood. For children, it may be easier to learn the language despite it not being a mother tongue. Being in the environment and watching the behaviors of the first language speakers make them comprehend the language without much hassle. This theory doesn't apply to adults as much as it applies to children. Children are more likely to grasp a language more than an adult would.
Anyway, with the help of the movies, I believe I'd be able to learn faster than I think. I didn't know the basics when I got to understand some words just by paying attention to the behavior of the speaker.
I can't wait to be done with exams so I can take more than fifteen minutes a day to learn Korean. Right now, I only spare fifteen minutes out of twenty four hours for my lesson. When I'm done with exams, I'll extend the learning time.
For now, I'm excited about my little achievement of being able to write the symbol for the letter “m”. Would have loved to put it out here but I don't know how to get my keyboard to do that; the symbol has the shape of a square.
Learning Korean is fun, watching myself fail and getting opportunities to go all over again makes me want to do better plus the warm remarks I get when I do great, gives me the thrills and makes me think of my next study session.
other images are screenshots