Failing The 90 Days Korean Challenge And Still Keeping At It

Difficulties of learning Korean as an absolute beginner and overcoming it.

I began learning Korean for the love of K-dramas, the softness and rhythm of the Korean language captivated me. I started with a deep passion and determination but as I moved ahead I realized that I am not keeping up with the language and just learning random words here and there. I had been cramming words and making a list of vocabulary for my Anki deck. I failed to understand how to build sentences and use different honorifics. More importantly, I didn’t know why and for what I was putting in the amount of time and energy into learning a language I liked because I loved many dramas. I began to feel the unnecessary pressure I had built upon myself that's how I started to understand that I was failing to learn the language all by itself. I changed the way I studied and decided to keep an audio journal. Korean or any other language requires a lot of practice in speech. The best way to learn a language is to speak it I understand that now.

Let’s Begin With Why I Started To Learn Korean

It all began with the animated movie I saw called ‘Seoul Station’ on YouTube and my first K-Drama called ‘Start-Up’ I didn't stop watching dramas after this one I continued with various others. While starting I didn't know much about Korea or The Korean Wave but I was hooked on the content that was being produced in Korea. I got stuck on K-Dramas and it made me understand some basic Korean Vocabulary. The language itself sounds so beautiful and lovely on the ears that it intrigued me to learn it. I casually used some words in my daily life with my fellow lovers of K-Dramas but it wasn’t enough later on I moved towards music and variety shows. It gave me a strong base and confidence to begin the language learning journey. I got drifted in the Korean wave and am having the best time of my life.

Reasons Why I Failed And How I Changed My Methods:

Lack Of Planning And Aiming Too High

I got started on the wrong note itself, studying a language takes time and dedication here I am not talking about fluency but the basic use of frequent vocabulary and daily conversation. I aimed too high in the beginning itself which I should not have done. I set a target that was way too unreal people spend years learning a language, most of us are not even masters of our mother tongue and here we are talking about a completely foreign language. I ‘planned’ to study the basic conversation level and got myself confused with all the honorifics and ignored grammar which was a bad move. Speaking is essential but without a basic foundation, one can not even ask for directions or have a basic introduction. Here the only solution available was to study basic grammar, not to focus too much on honorifics, aiming for an achievable goal. Fluency should not be the ultimate goal but to have a normal conversation with fellow speakers.

Using Too Many Resources

Resources are essential to begin anything new and get a kick start, but the problem is deciding on how many of them are actually required and what purpose they will serve to the learning. I started by searching YouTubers for help on the use of apps and books recommendations. What I realised is that I had downloaded way too many apps and some books were difficult to keep up with. I went all over the place from listening to podcasts, watching Korean YouTubers, K-Dramas, K-Pop songs, etc. I soon felt that I am not able to enjoy the things I liked the songs and dramas all had become my studying material rather than things I enjoyed in my free time. I started to feel the burn of it all. I will recommend sticking to one resource rather than going all overboard with the learning so I did what I suggest above, now I only use one app and use Talk to me in Korean and have continued with my daily dose of songs and a weekly dose of dramas. Learning with different resources is alright but too many resources may lead to a messy studying time. Stick to one thing at a time and if it doesn't work out change it. Tweaking things is important to make things easier and not to get stuck.

Learning without Purpose

Starting with the love of dramas is not enough to learn an entire language. You’d need a stronger reason that will help you in the long run. Realising learning without a purpose won’t take me any far and I will be needing a good reason to keep the passion alive and utilise the time well. Learning a language needs time and dedication so going about it without any purpose won’t help to keep at it. If you know the purpose at the beginning itself it can be a great foundation for the learning process, but if you don’t have it try to figure it out soon while studying, so you don’t feel lost. I asked myself ‘why’ every day and figured that I would want to work in the Tech industry of Korea someday for that I would need command over the language that's how I found my purpose beyond dramas now it is career-related. It could be being able to communicate with your idols, watching dramas without subtitles, being able to read anything whatsoever. Find that purpose no matter how simple or great, have a PURPOSE.

Aiming For Fluency

Yes, the concept of fluency has made many beginners quit. Fluency should not be one's target at the beginning itself. Fluency is achieved with time and practice. As a beginner, I should not have focused on fluency and just focused on achieving conversational skills. I did understand the basic greeting thanks to all the dramas but getting by a normal conversation put me in a place. Fluency is a good target to have but please understand making mistakes is a part of the learning process, not knowing everything is fine and learning a bunch of vocabulary but not being able to use them can make things difficult for beginners. Learn little by little and with time we all can get there. Even the natives struggle with their own language so keep an open mind and study what is required.

Losing Interest

Interest is what gets us started into anything but is it enough to continue with just interest. Over time the problem of losing interest exists everywhere. Losing interest and still continuing could lead to burning out and finally into quitting eventually. As I started to lose interest, I took a break for 2 weeks and took a little bit of a creative approach. Playing songs on the guitar got me back on track. Singing the lyrics made my pronunciation better, it bought back my interest and I started to study Korean from where I had left. Making comics along with attaching words to my native language helped me with the vocabulary, combining it gave me a new creative approach to my learning.

Not Using The Language Often

Living in a country where Korean is not spoken makes it difficult for it to be used in daily life. I didn't speak any Korean while studying I just memorised the vocabulary which I forgot gradually. It made me waste a lot of time and energy. Learning vocabulary was great but not being able to retain all the foreign words is a difficult task. To retain the words I started to learn Korean songs because songs have beautiful lyrics, catchy melody and singing the lyrics helped me get the pronunciation right. I would listen to one song multiple times a day along with reading portions of lyrics on Spotify every day on my phone out loud, it helped me get better at reading and getting the pronunciation right. I also started to use social media to connect with native speakers. Step by step I realized I was using the language on daily basis. Keeping an audio journal was a cherry on top. Every day 2 minutes of me saying random stuff in my target language made the change I had needed.

Taking It As A Task and Not As A Subject Of Passion

Learning consistently is great but there is a chance of getting bored or feeling burnout. The interest slowly got replaced by a mountainous task of learning grammar, honorifics, being able to read, speaking and understanding through listening, it all became extremely overwhelming. The daily study schedule got tougher as I started to include more and more books to study from I failed to form a system for books and reference uses. To solve these issues I started to tweak my study system. I divided the days where I use certain reference, the time where I would have an off day, etc. Having the passion drain is fine but it is also important to have a creative solution for the problems.

Not Building Enough Creative Ways of Learning

While learning Japanese I used a lot of doodles for Kanji practice, singing songs helped me with pronunciation and reading manga helped me improve reading and getting used to the Japanese writing system. With Korean, I made the mistake of not being creative enough in the learning process. I realised I wasn’t having fun because did not put my creative approach to the learning process. To change this, I started to draw mini-comics and write my comics using Hindi, English, and Korean. The comics writing changed my boring cramming method to more fun and attentive method.

Not Focusing on the Basic foundation of the language

My learning process almost always consists of learning to write as well as to speak the language. I began studying Hangul (The Korean Writing System) along with the basic greetings and expressions. However, I didn't put a lot of interest into learning the particles, which was why I couldn't build basic sentences. Learning particles is essential especially with Asian languages eg, Japanese, Korean use particles and topic markers in a regular manner. To build my basic grammar foundation, I used the book ‘Korean grammar in use for beginners’. It was a great help in building sentences and eventually being able to understand to use the particles in sentence formation. Understanding the basic foundation is necessary to make improvements in the journey.

Focusing Too Much On Grammar And Honorifics

Yes, I agree to study grammar and honorifics of a foreign language can seem to be the most important thing initially, but to be honest, it is not the most important thing. Grammar study is essential but not at the cramming level itself. Get plenty of introduction to the sentence building and use of particles, but going crazy about grammar might not be a good idea. Honorifics, as many of us know many Asian languages use honorifics it is important to learn these, I mean we don’t want to offend anyone as beginners, be aware of ‘Ssi’ it is beginner-friendly honorific that will be helpful in the long run. The rest can be learned while in the process. (Banmal) plain speech and polite speech (Jondanmal) can be extremely stressful for beginners.

Poor Time Management and Assessment

Learning anything takes time and dedication, constant assessment helps in the marking of progress made in the process. Having too many resources and commitment may drain your energy and result in a loss of interest. Managing time is one of my worst skills and assessing seems like studying all the topics all over again. But assessment is important it is more than just a mere revision. To manage the time I cut down my resources and made time for assessment on weekends. I started to use only the thing that was required for the time being.

I will be taking on this challenge again this month by tweaking things and with my career-oriented purpose along with a better plan. I wish to change a lot of things as I continue my journey of learning Korean, and I hope to give an update on it.

Let’s Learn together and keep learning every day. The Best way to learn a language is to speak it.