Category: Tips & Thoughts

Language Learning for Introverts

 

As the title suggests, this is a language learning guide for introverts from a fellow introvert.

But before we start, let us first examine the definition of an introvert.

According to most psychology experts, introverts are people who prefer calm, minimally stimulating environments. They are more internally focused, and are more prone to overstimulation when exposed to external stimuli, including social interactions, for a prolonged period of time.

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How I’ve Been Studying French

   

I started learning French in January 2019. Taking into account of the 3-month hiatus I took later that year, as of today, 13 September 2020, I’ve been studying French for about 1 year and 6 months.

This post outlines the major milestones of my journey so far, as well as the resources I’ve been using. I’m documenting all this mostly for my own sake – in case I need to revisit all this information some day – but also to provide some ideas for other aspiring francophones out there.

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How I Prepared for TOPIK II

   

Two weeks ago, I took the TOPIK II test for the first time. I had a year to prepare for it, so I got to experiment with all sorts of exercises – reading news, listening to radio, writing articles – with varying degrees of success. In this article, I’ll be talking about the ones that I found the most effective.

I also wrote an article on the test-taking strategies that I used during the exam, which you can read here.

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Growing Up in A Language

 

Or more specifically, growing up in your target language.

The other day, I was watching a video on one of my favourite Korean learning channel. It was an interview with Lindie Botes, a polyglot content creator I really enjoy watching. They talked about various aspects of the language learning process, but what stood out to me the most was the host’s story on how differently he feels about English, a foreign language he speaks fluently, and German, the language he’s actively studying at the moment.

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Studying with Netflix

  

For the past few weeks, I’ve been practicing my French listening skills with a French series on Netflix called Plan Cœur. I do this via an exercise where I listen to the same clip repeatedly – the same method I used with Korean and English. It is still to this day one of my favourite ways to improve listening skills, so I thought I’ll do a quick breakdown of the process and share it with you guys!

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