My Korean Anniversary approaches! Sometimes you just find something and it’s like you didn’t know you were missing it until it fits snugly into your heart never to leave.
My love for the Korean language and K💜Culture has been like a whirlwind romance but instead of breaking up after seeing each other’s faults, it has kept on like an olympic flame, happy and cosy like a warm happy marriage.
Some days I’ve felt so full of passion I could burst. And some days I have stared up helplessly at the mountain that is the Korean language and wondered if I’d forever be hanging around at the bottom trying to acclimatise to the grammar and sentence endings and those smug particles that just when you think you’ve understand them, show you ‘another variation’ and you drop down a few feet back to BASE camp….
But one thing that’s always been there is love.
Would I have kept this passion burning without K-Dramas. After all I watch at least one episode every day. I think so. Because just hearing the sound of Korean spoken makes my heart glow a little brighter. As comforting as drinking tea while the rain dances down the windows. As bright as an ocean full of luminescent plankton. I just need to hear one word and my heart is just singing with happiness.
HOW IS MY KOREAN?
I still feel I could have learnt faster, I should have spent less time reading about learning Korean and actually studying it. I probably should have watched a few less dramas but that was never going happen ^_^ It’s been a year and I’m now Level Three on TTMIK. I sometimes wonder if I could have got there faster, well yes I could have listened to the audio’s in that time but I wouldn’t have learned it. I don’t want to just listen, kind of get it and move on.
But I’m also aware I’ve stayed on one subject for too long because I didn’t get it. I’ve learnt that it’s ok to move on from it, it might come up later, or you might see a different way that it’s taught.
I’d struggled for a while with turning verbs to adjectives, because the word was still a verb, why was it an adjective. But then my tutor mentioned the subject in passing and I just got it. As I said to my tutor, “I understand the Korean part, it’s the English bit I don’t get.” I need to study more grammar.” And my weakness is definitely my Korean spelling. Luckily that’s nothing a bit of old fashioned obsessive writing can’t change.
As for positives I’ve been told my actual pronunciation is good. I do listen to K-Dramas with my eyes closed sometimes, going over each words and copying it until it feels right. My reading has really improved. Before it was a bit like wading through mud, occaissonally falling forwards only to get stuck again. But when I started translating song lyrics with my tutor I was shocked at how fast I could suddenly read.
But the best thing about learning Korean and joining the K💜World, is about the happiness that it has given me. From dusk till dawn my heart sings with my love of the language and dramas. I never expected something like this to completely take me over but it has changed my life. And changed it into such a happy one. Like I was a happy butterfly before but I upgraded my cocoon and emerged in an even brighter world!
FUTURE PLANS
I’m so excited for the day when I meet someone talking Korean, in the street, or a shop. I hope I’m brave enough to start talking to them. I hope I’ve learnt enough to be able to understand them. I dreamt last night that I was reading a map with someone and part of it was in Korean. I smugly said ‘Do you know what these characters say.” Only for the girl to start talking in Korean. But I could follow it. My brain in my dream had put all the Korean words I knew into a conversation. It was so cool and we had a great chat. Wow even studying in my dreams.
As for my second plan, well so many interviews with K💜Drama idols don’t have subtitles and I always see comments begging for an English translation. I would love one day to be able to translate those videos for my fellow fans.
And the biggest plan, just to keep learning, to keep loving and enjoy every second on this wonderful adventure.
The Chopstick Noodle 