My current strategy

For about five weeks I’ve been learning Korean and since I really enjoy reading about how others study I’d like to share my approach.

When I wake up I launch the app “memrise”. I’m currently taking four “courses” in Korean in the app and I have them set on a daily goal of 1500 points, which translates into about 5-10 minutes four each course. Each morning I review words and learn new ones in this app. One of the courses I’m taking is a course that I’ve completed with the Korean alphabet Hangul and every morning I go through it quickly.

When I get ready I listen to one episode of “Talk to me in Korean” and repeat whatever they say. This is like grammar lessons where they go through tenses and how to actually use the language.

I take the buss to school every morning and during my 30 minute ride I read a new lesson on Lingq. I read the text and makes lingqes as I go. Then I listen to the lesson as I read it once more. After this I put the lesson on repeat and for the rest of the ride I listen to the lesson and try to follow along and understand. I find that when I listen to the text repeatedly like this I tend to understand the text better and better. More words pop into their place and so on.

When in school I usually have about 25 minutes before my lessons start and I usually use this time to go through my vocabulary and SRS. I go through about 25 level 1-2 words and then look through the level 3 words to move up the words I know. There are usually words hiding in level 1-3 that I know and I move up those.

After school I don’t do a lot of Korean studies because I’m usually rather busy but I always write a bit in my journal. I try to keep a small diary in Korean and since I love to doodle and draw I usually fill this book with drawings. Then I describe the drawings with korean words. Whatever I learned in the “talk to me in korean” episode that morning I include in my daily ramble.

Because I like to watch series I watch Korean dramas and I usually watch 1-2 episodes of this every day depending on how much/little time I have.

Lastly, I really love music and in particular rap and indie so I’ve filled my playlists with Korean music. This is really fun because every day I hear new words that I understand and I feel as if this really helps me to tune my ears! They also have some pretty cool music…!

Wow! You’re really committed to learning the language.
I’m sure you’ll improve fast. :slight_smile:

Thank you! I have a hard time doing anything half heartedly and this is not always something good but in terms of learning and studying, it benefits me :slight_smile:

Hehehe! Intensity has its drawbacks but at the end of the day it’s better to be passionate than lifeless. :slight_smile:

Surely! Personally I’m all for lazy intensity such as simply replacing downtime with a little work. It’s easy to replace playing games on my phone or checking instagram for the fifthousand time with checking glossary. Instead of looking at a youtube video or just sit in the buss looking out of a window I can listen to some content from Lingq. When I want to find new music, why not look for it in my target language instead?
I love to draw, why not connect it to the language I’m trying to learn? I want to keep some sort of journal, why not try to do it in Korean?
Lately, I’ve been researching in French instead of Swedish or English when studying or just looking up random stuff. I like the approach to just integrate the language! It makes it more comfortable and less frightening!

Hi Juli!
In a nutshell, the highlights of your strategy are the follwoing:

  1. Each morining, after waking up, you review words and learn new ones using the app “memrise”. Then You listen to one episode of “Talk to me in Korean” and repeat whatever they say.
  2. During your daily 30 minute bus ride to the school, you read a new lesson on Lingq and make lingqes. For the rest of the ride you listen to the lesson and try to follow along and understand.
  3. At school, having about 25 minutes before lessons start, you usually use this time to go through your vocabulary and SRS.
  4. After school, being rather busy, you use to write smth. in a small Korean diary, enjoying to fill it with some of you nice drawings and to describe them with korean words.
  5. You watch Korean dramas - usually 1-2 episodes every day.
  6. Every day You listen to Korean music, smth. that you really love because you hear new words you understand and it really helps to tune your ears!

In addition, you use some tricks as integrating the language you learn in what you love to do and doing anything half heartedly.

Nothing to say, Juli, your strategy is great! Though, it appears to me as it sets a too intensive learning process (but it’s individual).

I would like to ask you, Juli, whether you could assess which of the positions I pointed above you feel as being the most contributing.

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Of course everything helps me out a lot all together but the most important to me is the reading and listening! Listening to “Talk to me in Korean” is very good since it helps me out with grammar and how to actually use words and create sentences. I started out learning through this podcast and I don’t think that I would have come as far without it. But even if they are very important to me I don’t always remember or feel like listening to one.

After actually learning grammar and how to use words I think reading is also a big thing. This is where I get to see sentences and words actually being used and it’s where one gets a vocabulary. Listening to what I’ve just read is also very important because I find that listening and understanding is the hardest thing about learning languages!

Thank you for praising my strategy! When I wrote it down I realised that it sounded pretty intense but since I really enjoy doing all this it doesn’t feel like a lot of work. If/when I feel that it’s too much I’ll slow down but for now this works good for me!

Thank you too, Juli, for bringing up such important topic. I read what you wrote with sincere interest and wish you great advancement in your endeavour.

See you

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Love this routine. Sounds doable and you can fit it easily into your everyday life as a lot of it seems to be during down time that is usually wasted.

I listen whilst driving, even at work when what I’m doing isn’t too taxing. I also listen more intently when I have time to sit down and really try to understand what’s being said. I sat on my couch and listened to a podcast for about an hour and a half this mornimg (day off), I’ve never done that much in one sitting before but I was understanding it and it was enjoyable.

I need to start writing like you do. I’ve neglected that tbh, I’m not sure if writing a diary would work for me as my days are mostly the same. I guess I could make stuff up!

Anyway, nice to know someone else is using those pockets of time in-between daily tasks as their main study time. I sometimes wonder if I’m ever going to learn a language when I read about people putting in 4 hours+ a day of dedicated study! I guess there are many ways to skin a cat. Here’s to hoping small steps made frequently ultimately gets us where we want to be.

Good luck, and thanks for sharing. :slight_smile:

I love your routine. You’ll be fluent in no time! And yes, Korean music is pretty neat. K-pop is pretty catchy haha.

I do something similar. If I see the lesson has little yellow words, I’ll make lots of LingQs. If it does, I’ll listen to the lesson without reading along to see if I can understand.

I then listen to the lesson while reading along after the LingQs are made. Afterwards, I do random sessions of reading while listening, reading, and then once I can understand a good amount, do just listening.

I’m impressed.

Thank you! It’s nice to hear about someone else who also studies when there is time. I do make some time but keeps it rather simple and interesting.

I find the writing to be very enjoyable! It’s a nice way to sit down with a cup of tea and just think about what happened during the day.

I think that concentrated focus for short periods of time repeated many times is very effective! Good luck to you too :slight_smile:

Thank you! K-pop is oddly catchy :stuck_out_tongue:

Maybe I should try to start by listening some time… I’m just slightly afraid of listening right now haha but I’m getting a lot better! Today I listen to a full test/sample dialog for 2 minutes and understood at least 80% of it so I feel good!