¡Hola!
Ever since elementary
school, that has been the greeting I have given or received when walking into a
foreign language class. I’ve learned the basics of the Spanish language, and
concluded my studies last year with the final exam of Spanish 2. I’ll be
honest, some part of me wishes that I had continued on to Spanish 3 and beyond.
The largest lesson that I took away with my dabbling in Spanish was that I love
to learn new languages; the whole concept is just very appealing to me. I love
the idea of being able to communicate with others in new ways. Being able to
connect with people who I would otherwise not have been able to because of a
language barrier is one of the coolest things out there. Some of my greatest
memories that are tied with Spanish are texting friends using new vocabulary or
testing out my knowledge with a native speaker.
So now I’ve decided to learn Korean.
Seems like quite the
change from Spanish, right? Well, that’s sort of the point. While learning
Spanish was cool, I’m ready to switch it up and step outside of my comfort
zone. To me, learning a language that is so completely different from my own
seems like a daunting task. That being said, I’m up for it and excited for a
challenge that will hopefully prove to be a rewarding experience.
Why Korean?
For ten years, I did
Tae-Kwon-Do. In the process of doing so I picked up on some very basic Korean
vocabulary. As we did warm-ups or exercises we would count reps in Korean, and
all of the names of the forms as well as some of the moves we did were in
Korean. That was how I was introduced to the language and what prompted me to
learn it now (in addition to what I mentioned earlier about the challenging
aspect of it).
As for my goal for this
whole 20-time experience, I’d like to become fluent in the language. While I
don’t think that is a remotely attainable goal for the time this project spans,
it is a long term goal that I am shooting for. Another nifty goal of mine is to
write a whole blog post in Korean. ;)
So far, I’ve done some
research as to what the best way to learn the language is. My original thought
was to invest in Rosetta Stone, however- upon reading reviews - I’ve decided
against it. According to many, the program didn’t prove as worthy as they had
hoped. Ultimately resulting in a waste in money, people commented that it was
hard to follow and that its program structure is sub-par. A few people
commented some recommendations for other methods of learning Korean. Books seem
to be my best option next to having an actual teacher teach me (which could
possibly be something I look into). After paying the library a visit, I now
have Korean for Dummies in my
language-learning arsenal. Additionally, it was advised to watch Korean dramas
and listen to K-pop to get a better feel for Korean. From here on out my plan is to do just that
and plow my way through Korean for
Dummies as well as get some advice from outside resources.
I’m just going to end this post now with a nice little inspirational quote:
“The limits of my
language are the limits of my world.”
-Ludwig Wittgenstein
Wish me luck!
Lauren
