kangmi: learning korean

The briefest of updates

I’ve been studying Korean again for the last few weeks.

Will have more shortly.

Posted by kangmi on August 19, 2007 at 4:22 PM3 comments

Whereupon I ease up on my Korean studies

That was quick, wasn’t it?

Tomorrow I begin a month-long writing project (no, it’s not NaNoWriMo, but a close relative). Thus I must curtail my Korean studies for the time being.

I’ll keep up with my Supermemo repetitions, and I’ll still listen to Korean audio on my solo commute days, but more intensive study will have to wait.

In fact, past experience has shown that writing not related to the writing project will twinkle and twirl in the sunshine and compete for my attention, so I may add a few words here and there to make the bad writing fairies go away. I might also put up the first draft of the long Pimsleur review and add to it as I am able. Otherwise you’d all be twiddling your thumbs for a while.

Posted by kangmi on October 31, 2006 at 12:21 PM0 comments

Breaking through

Last night I needed to study Korean, but I just didn’t feel like it. I sat down at the computer, knowing it was going to be a hard slog. The ringing of the telephone five minutes in was all I needed to push away from the desktop and media multitask through two hours of Everybody Loves Raymond, Gilmore Girls, and Civ II.

There are two ways I get out of studying Korean: I plead lack of time, or I don’t because I don’t feel like it. When I started studying Korean again, lack of time wasn’t an issue; my life had already been stripped to its bare essentials. Although it’s not always easy, for the most part I’ve purposely kept it that way, as it’s the only way I can do the things I really want to do. There are weeks where it’s harder to fit in than others, but by and large it’s not a valid excuse.

Posted by kangmi on June 8, 2005 at 7:12 PM3 comments

Getting out of the groove

In a recent comment, Scott suggested that I add a reading component to my Korean language study.

His comment inspired me to spend the last few days thinking about the state of my language study. It seems that every time I get into a comfortable groove, I start to think about changing it: How can I make it better? Are there pockets of time I could be using? Do I need another book or tool?

But the groove is good, because it helps me to stay on track. I don’t get distracted by kangmi, or by whatever other people think I should be doing, or by whatever else I think I should be doing. I just follow the groove, around and around and around.

Posted by kangmi on June 8, 2005 at 6:23 PM2 comments

Language study update

My daily language study looks something like this:

- 5-10 minutes of Supermemo repetitions.

- 5 minutes of reviewing a portion of a long-ago Sogang lesson (what I review changes from week to week).

- 15 minutes of studying last week’s portion of a Sogang lesson.

- 30 minutes of studying this week’s portion of a Sogang lesson. I look up new vocabulary, write out sentences for my commute, listen to the audio (10-15 times), and read it out loud (5-10 times).

Posted by kangmi on June 1, 2005 at 2:01 AM2 comments

Good news

Long ago (well before my blogging days) I had another Korean tutor, 덕수. At the time, I was more interested in talking about Korea than actually learning the language, so the whole thing kind of fizzled.

I had thought about asking 덕수 to take over while 인선 was gone, but she said he wasn’t going to be around this summer. Then she learned that he was in fact going to be here, so I fired off an e-mail and he agreed.

He said he wants to see how my Korean is now. Well, 덕수씨, it’s better, but it needs a lot of work.

Posted by kangmi on May 11, 2005 at 7:33 AM0 comments