Author; Heather

Just your average language learner.

How I’m Studying Two Languages at the Same Time

    

I’m currently learning Korean and French. I started learning Korean in 2016, and French about 6 months ago. I’ve been trying to find a way to study both at the same time, but it wasn’t until very recently that I managed to make it work.  I actually tried to pick up French earlier last year, but I had to quit because I couldn’t come up with a sustainable way to keep studying it without losing my progress in Korean.

This time, however, I’ve managed to establish a routine that works. I’ve been using it for 3 months, and it works great so far! Here’s how I came up with it.

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Thinking Out Loud in Korean

   

If you watch a lot of Korean content, you might have noticed that Koreans have the tendency to think out loud.

As I’ve explained in this article, they often express their thoughts or feelings as if they are quoting themselves. Instead of saying, “Watching him practice made me feel like I should work harder”, they might say “I saw him practice, and the thought ‘Ah, I should work harder’ popped into my head.”

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8 Ways to Sound More Natural in Korean

   

This article is a compilation of all the things I wish someone had told me when I first started practicing speaking Korean. None of them are ‘hacks’ – I’m not going to give you a list of 10 Korean slangs that would ‘make you sound like a native’, or cool phrases that’ll help you impress your language exchange partner.

What I’d like to share with you, instead, is a collection of ‘patterns’ that I have picked up over the years, while I was studying Korean. Some of them are grammar structures, while others are quirks I find unique to the Korean language.

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How to Practice Your Target Language While Travelling

   

When I first bought the plane ticket to Seoul, I was extremely excited. Not just about experiencing the food and culture of South Korea, but also at the opportunity to finally practice speaking the language. I had been doing language exchanges for about two years, but nothing face-to-face. And since I was going to be there for 3 weeks, I’d expected to get a lot of practice out of this trip, just by being physically in South Korea.

And it turned out that wasn’t the case. At least, not really. I’d gone into this with minimal preparation (I’d picked up a phrasebook) and a vague notion of improving my Korean skills just by surrounding myself with the language. Simply put, I’d kind of expected that just by putting myself in a purely Korean environment, my brain would somehow absorb all the knowledge by osmosis and magically activate half of my passive vocabulary.

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A Language Learner’s Guide to Pen Pals

     

Writing letters has always been one of
my favourite things to do. As a language learner, I find it to be one of the
most effective ways to practice my target language. It is essentially writing
exercise, vocabulary revision, reading comprehension practice and cultural
exchange rolled into one.

If you’re old-fashioned like me, snail mail would be right up your alley. But if you prefer something more fast-paced, you might want to start with email.

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