The Studies

It's been nearly a year now since I first began studying Korean as a language. First independently then moving on to a classroom setting. I have to admit that it was a big commitment on my part. I was doing well in studying Spanish, hardly did I ever study or care about the upcoming exams. But when I switched my academic language to Korean it all changed for me. I am consistently pushed to my limits to curb my learning, replace English words such as "Library" with "도서관" and phrases such as "where are you going" with "어디 가 세요?"  Dedicating about at six hours to studying or practicing.  This incredibly different language is incredibly difficult.  Spanish was easy and I would of became an awesome fluent speaker in Spanish  if I would have kept with it, but It wasn't rewarding to me and I actually grew a bitter hatred for it. So I dropped it.


When I first began to learn the Hangul Alphabet I easily studied for 7 hours at a time straight through without moving from one spot. Working through with the different sounds and syllables eventually leading up to the ability to be literate on a 2nd or 3rd grade level. Today I'm no longer only sticking with phases I was taught, but able to think about a sentence I want to say and using my knowledge formulate simple sentences. Sometimes I surprise myself when a friend tells me that I was correct in my guess.

What's more shocking to me though is how much I understand. My ability to understand a conversation is far better then my ability to speak, which is actually my weakest skill yielding to reading and writing. I love it when a group of cuties walk into a room speaking to one another in Korean thinking that their conversation is only understood among them. Haha. I am amazed when I am able to to jump into a friend's conversation whether it be in simple Korean or in English, just because I was able to understand. Its just astonishing to see how far I've come in just a year, but am completely more aware of how much more I need to go, to learn. My friend Jayme always gets a kick out of it when I first meet someone and introduce myself to them in their native tongue. The shock value never gets old.

Korean is a tough language for most Americans, though considered the easiest to learn among all the other Asiatic languages, but for me I have never had such a passion to learn something so badly. I have never considered that I would spend so many hours of my day thinking about a subject and wanting to study for it non-stop. Never. 


Learn a quick 15 minute lesson in reading Korean here