Learning Korean (한국어를 배우기) #1

Wow. It's been 7 months since I last updated this blog.

Life got in the way, I literally don't know what to say, bla bla bla.

Now I get to a point where I need to update this blog again - to track my progress.

Anyway - update.

I've been able to read 한글 (Korean alphabet/writing system) since 2015... I think? That was when I first visited Seoul. I bought a Korean language book with the full intention of learning the language before going - back then I have never even watched a Korean drama, not even Running Man, lol.

I only remember learning the alphabet on the actual plane to Seoul, and by the time I touched down, I sorta can read the language. Read, by slowly spelling the characters, and yes I was still bad at pronouncing them.

The Korean alphabet is really not hard to learn - like I did, you can learn it on the flight to Seoul itself (like a 7-hour journey from KL). But reading with the correct pronunciation, boy.. You're going to need a lot longer than that to be able to say things properly.

Why..? Well, let me just say the Korean language is very logical and yet it has its own crazy rules.

I guess, we must've felt the same way when we first learned English.

And that thought exactly, is what is keeping me motivated/determined to learn the language. Because I did learn a second language, didn't I..? And I consider myself fairly fluent in English.

Why I chose Korean as my 3rd language?
- Because I already learned to read the alphabet
- Because out of the 3 character-ish languages (Korean, Japanese, Mandarin), Korean is widely considered as the easiest
- Because I think the language is the cutest, seriously lol

And also.. I think the learning materials for Korean is easier to find than Japanese (hello Kdramas!). And I already tried to learn Mandarin in my university year once and dropped the class before the semester finishes lol. I felt it was THAT hard.

I've been keeping at my Korean lessons for the past month. I think I'm doing okay...... The lessons are getting harder and my brain is so scrambled from trying to learn to read, memorizing new words, understanding new sentence structures and word conjugations, and trying to pronounce things correctly with the confusing k kk gg omg.

Hangeul, if anyone's interested.

But hey, at least I'm quite lucky in the sense that when I'm tired from studying, I get to just watch whatever Kdrama or Running Man and consider that my learning session lol. And more often than not, I do learn something still, even just passively.

Maybe I'll share how I've been learning Korean.. It has not been an easy journey so far but I don't want to be a quitter (I've already quit at least 3x trying to learn the language before this zzz), so I'm keeping at it.

I really hope I can make somewhat a good progress.

Now what I really need is a proper teacher to correct my pronunciations.........

Till next time. Bye!