#learningkorean

After years of not practising, I'm getting back at Korean ! I used to be a low advanced level, but now I'm rebuilding my skills with an immersive 6-day study plan to regain fluency and pass TOPIK II in October. If you're also learning Korean, feel free to join me on this journey ! 💪

✨ My Study Goals ✨

✅ Pass TOPIK II (October 2025) ✅ Watch K-dramas without subtitles 🎬 ✅ Read Korean literature & webtoons 📚 ✅ Speak naturally with native speakers 🗣️

📅 My 6-Day Study Plan (2 Hours Per Day!)

🌸 Monday – Grammar & Writing

📖 1h: Study grammar with a textbook (TOPIK prep, grammar review, exercises, sentence-making) ✍️ 1h: Write a diary entry, essay, or a TOPIK writing prompt & get feedbacks!

🎧 Tuesday – Listening & Speaking

🎬 1h: Watch a K-drama or YouTube video without subtitles, then rewatch with them 🗣️ 1h: Shadow native speakers (podcasts, drama lines) & chat via language exchange apps

🔁 Wednesday – Review Day!

📓 2h: Revise grammar, vocabulary, and listening mistakes from earlier in the week

📚 Thursday – Vocabulary & Reading

📝 1h: Learn new words from a TOPIK list, manhwa, or novel (Anki/Quizlet!) 📖 1h: Read a Korean article, webtoon, or book—highlight unknown words & look them up!

🎙️ Friday – More Listening & Speaking!

🎧 1h: Listen to a Korean podcast (e.g., Talk to Me in Korean) & summarize in Korean 🗣️ 1h: Have a real conversation! Send voice messages or chat with a language partner

📝 Saturday – TOPIK Practice & Fun Immersion

📝 1h: Take a TOPIK II practice test (listening or reading) under timed conditions 🎭 1h: Fun immersion! K-dramas, music, reading, chatting with native speakers

☕ Sunday – Rest or Light Korean

(Optional: Just listen to K-pop, watch a drama, or read for fun!)

🌿 Study Tools I’m Using!

📖 Textbooks 🎧 Podcasts 📱 Apps 📺 YouTube 📚 Reading

After a small break from posting to focus on Korean I've noticed I have hit a new roadblock, and one I hadn't anticipated at the beginning of the year.

Over the summer I managed to pass from the Int1 class to the Int2 class with my tutor and I was absolutely bricking it when she told me this because from my studies into Beginner was a big leap in work load, and Beginner to Int1 was insanity I had 200(ish, it varied by chapter) vocab/expressions a week and it was just impossible to clear a chapter before the next one was assigned. So the thought of it going up again was not fun, however so far that's not happened. It's only been about 20 words a week but all the grammar explainations are now in Korean so that's maybe the trade off there.

However, with this dip in the immediate workload I've noticed that I don't find Korean fun anymore. I feel like I'm just doing it for class now and it's just for a deadline and I feel stagnent with my progress I feel like I'm still a beginner and I'm a fraud in the Int2 class cause I may know 1200 words but I can't use 98% of them cause I can't make sentences and express myself in Korean.

I don't know if this feeling is burnout, it doesn't feel like burnout though it's more unlike being unmotivated and just not wanting to do anything with Korean even just getting my flashcards done is a struggle right now and I'd finally got them under 200 a day after the peak of 400+ in Int1 which did slightly fry my head near the end. I've noticed before I'd do work for my class but also do things for myself like topik grammar classes, or ttmik courses, or using my books, but now it's so hard to open anything to study for fun.

So with this I've basically been pouring an unhealthy amount of hours into animal crossing *again* which I say like I haven't done the same thing in Skyrim before several times over across I think 6 save files now and 2000 hours minimum not even going into other games but shhh.

I want to try and strike a better balance for the remainder of the year, I know it's not even 3 months but I think since I'm skipping my normal end of year activities such as Inktober and NaNoWriMo because I do not have enough time/energy this year and I'm not going to try and actually burn out again like 2018 because no, it should be doable to make small changes to try and regain the fun in Korean and not hit 1000 hours in AC before November because atm that's very likely.

At the moment my plan im progress is I want to try and doing daily writing in the vain hope of getting some progress with the sentence forming thing and hopefully it will help with getting comfortable with the grammar too. My friend very kindly made me a list of topics to write about to get started so we'll see how well I can answer those. I'd also like to wrap up my topik grammar class cause it will expire soon and there's only 3 classes left of the 23 total and it probably will be useful for some of the harder propmts cause there's some tricky ones in there. Though she may say the same for the ones I gave her so I shouldn't complain.