Learning languages is really a lifetime pursuit 🙂 Almost 10 years into learning Korean, there are still sooo many things that I do not know, and so much more I should do to improve my proficiency. Compared to the first few years of studying Korean where I really put in x10 effort, progress in the past few years have been rather slow due to the usual reasons (lack of time blah blah). The past year has been exceptionally busy and even till now, I’m still struggling to find time (actually energy and discipline) to read in Korean or do some writing (very rare).
For the little time I spent on Korean, I have been concentrating mainly on reading, mostly on economic-related issues. The goal is to familiarise myself with the jargon / writing style, as well as gain knowledge in general (as mentioned in previous posts). Happy to note that I’m underlining less new vocabulary!
The challenge now is actually to improve the reading speed and stamina. I can’t imagine having to do university-level readings in Korean. I’m reading SO SLOWLY. -.- A chapter will probably take me a day to complete, and even then I don’t actually have the stamina to read for long periods at one go. I lost count of how many times I got distracted by Instagram (or some other site) in a 10-minute period LOL. Did a bit of reading in the morning and evening today, and I only completed 22 pages :|. Not even a chapter hahaha.
Other than being disciplined and read everyday, I don’t quite know how else to improve the speed and stamina. I want to get to this stage where I can read as comfortably in Korean as in English 🙂 I can do it.
I’m in the midst of chapter 2 of the above-pictured book. Hoping to complete up to chapter 4 in the next week!
(After being in a funk for the past 1 year (or more), I think I need to wake up ><. Difficult, but I’ll try!)
Happy October everybody ♡
9 Comments
Raffa
2 October, 2017 at 12:17 AMI totally understand you!
Although I am at a beginner level in this very complicated language learning journey, I’m following your steps on this page and I wanted to thank you for sharing your journey! I really appreciate it! Big hug!!!!
Anne
2 October, 2017 at 5:34 AMI’m agree with Raffa !
Happy October to you too and happy reading ! You can do it 🙂
Karla
2 October, 2017 at 1:02 PMI missed visiting your blog. I used to read and re-read your posts. How are you Shanna? I’m a reader from the Philippines.
Dhdjdj
4 October, 2017 at 12:34 AMI honestly think it’s the book itself rather than your ADHD tendencies. If it was a page turner you wouldn’t be interested in instagram. Are you really interested Inc economics or are you doing it because it’s challenging . I’ve read a lot of Japanese novels and of Those maybe like 10% are real page turners with amazing writing styles that are compatible with me. Don’t compromise on the content or lie to yourself that you like it when you don’t etc etc
Dhdjdj
4 October, 2017 at 12:36 AMI recently read Korean short stories by kim yong ha and Han kang and it was immediately obvious that I love kim yong ha’s writing while hang kang’s writing doesn’t do anything special for me… (it’s readable of course )
Dhdjdj
4 October, 2017 at 8:39 AMYou have to read a lot ( I MEAN A LOT) if you wanna gain a huge vocab and thus feel fluent. the only way to do that imo is to read stuff that’s amazingly fun to read. You seem to be in the mind set of I should read this to improve or read this because it’s challenging rather than I just want to read this and it happens to be in Korean. By the way is that economics a book translated from English to Korean or is it an actual Korean book. I personally have no desire reading translations when I can read the title in the original language
Also your story doesn’t add up. Why do you have no energy and time? Don’t you still live at home? Do you have a two hour commute each way? Do you have poor sleep hygiene? Do you have a smart phone addiction? I know you have free time… what do you during your free time … smartphone crap??? I work full time and I still have time to read and learn Japanese . Of course it’s nowhere near the amount when I was in college
Dhdjdj
4 October, 2017 at 8:44 AMDon’t you have days off ? Usually I try to read 100 pages of Japanese on my days off. I don’t always succeed but usually I do
Dhdjdj
4 October, 2017 at 8:39 AMKorean people waste time away too on their smartphone except they do it in Korean
Dhdjdj
4 October, 2017 at 8:43 AMI think at this the rate of progress is completely irrelevant. It’s just a matter of the number words you learn