#htsk

When I first started learning Korean seriously about a year ago, I already knew hangeul very well and knew some basic phrases. So I thought it was going to be easy. And to be honest, at first, it was. I went through my first beginning level textbook (Vitamin Korean 1) with ease and supplemented with TTMIK and watched tons of Korean dramas. And then I moved on to Vitamin Korean 2. I was making progress fast. Or so it seemed.

Because then I hit The Wall™.

I stopped making progress and suddenly found myself unable to make use of anything I had learned. Making sentences by myself? Impossible. Getting new grammar into my head? Nope. I was not making progress whatsoever and on top of that found myself forgetting everything I was once so sure of. I was back to square one: I could read hangeul just fine but that was about it.

I got frustrated and upset but nothing was making sense anymore. I asked people on the learning Korean subreddit about what I was experiencing and what they said wasn't helpful at all.

"That's the intermediate plateau. Everyone experiences that."

But I was nowhere near intermediate. I was still a beginner.

"Just use immersion to study, don't rely on books."

After listening to kpop for nearly a decade and watching an endless amount of Korean dramas and taking in as much Korean content daily as I can, I can tell you that immersion isn't working for me either. Not now at least, where I still struggle with the basics.

So I took some time "off" and ironically started learning Japanese during that time. (Now I'm kind of learning both) After a while, I started looking for different resources for learning Korean because I figured I needed a fresh start. After much consideration I decided on the Ewha Korean textbook series and am now slowly making my way through their 1-1 level. Which is mostly (or maybe all of it) basically just review but I want to start with the very basics and slowly work myself up again. And maybe this time it'll work for me, as I got very frustrated with my Vitamin Korean series.

Right now I'm finally actively studying Korean again, not as harshly as I used to though. I take more and longer breaks when needed. There's no rush and no need to become fluent (or even intermediate) anytime soon. I'm going to take it slow.

Moral of the story: Take a break when you feel like givng up.

my notes arent that pretty or anything cuz i dont waste time trying to make them look cute (personally doesnt work for me lmao) i just try to write so i can read it so excuse the messy? writing 😩

Spent the day reviewing and learning korean lessons.

Okay, so I guess I haven’t posted in a week. I learned a couple new words after last weeks post. But mostly, I’ve been getting 60-90 words to review every day, and when I do 1 review session of 10 words, instead of having to review 10 less, I’ve been needing to review 20 more...I guess that’s just how the timing of my words are on Memrise...

So anyway, I couldn’t get to really learning new words until 2 days ago, and it’s been slow. On the 18th I knew 190 words, as of today, I know 252 words. It’s not really about the number of words I know, but instead the lessons I know. The next lesson I should be learning on HTSK is Lesson 8, and I was still on Lesson 5 vocab on memrise (I do one HTSK Lesson per day, and it’s hard to retain 50 new words a day...) So like I said in my last post, I was going to finish up to lesson 8 vocab before starting HTSK Lesson 8.

I don’t want to burn out from learning Korean like I did a few months ago, by studying literally all day, so I’m doing it little bits at a time. I finished lesson 5&6 vocab, and I’ll move onto lesson 7 in a couple hours, after I review the new words I’ve learned, and take a break and such

I have FINALLY finished Lesson 1 of Unit 1 on HTSK.

Let me say that again: F I N A L L Y