Learning Korean and Japanese #6 (I'm running out of creative titles)

Hello everyone,

My life has continued a hectic and frankly exhausting route the last month or so since my last update. And yet my learning has continued! I am really grateful that language learning has become this safe space, where I can relax and have fun and where there are little expectations I am setting for myself (unlike the rest of my studies).

Since it has been a while since I last updated the blog, I am probably going to miss out on mentioning a few things I immersed in or what exactly I did, but I'll try to list everything as usual.

General

Learning has felt like it has felt for a while now, I am almost not noticing the progress and yet I am still progressing. There are just not noticeable jumps in my comprehension, unlike when I first started out and everything was new and unknown. I can tell I am progressing because I am immersing in increasingly different content and I am more and more aware of just HOW MUCH I still have to learn. Which I was aware of previously too, but I didn't feel it really.

In any case, the amazing progress is that there is now some media in both languages that I can comfortably immerse in, without a huge strain. Which is such a win!

Korean

I did much more Korean than last time, mainly that I followed up on my intent and read a book! A whole, regular book! I can hardly believe it. Granted I had to do a lot of lookups, I could not have done it without Migaku, but how cool is that. My reading speed and comfort is now much better than before. I tried following up with a second book but wasn't as much gripped by the plot, probably not helped by the fact that it was significantly harder. I will come back to it, but I don't want to push it. Other than that, it's the usual bunch:

• 세계를 건너 너에게 갈게 - aforementioned book
• 어느 날 내가 죽었습니다 - the started but not finished book (ca a third in)
• 내곁엔 없을까 - cute really comprehensible SOL webtoon
• 마스크걸 - drama, also really comprehensible, was able to freeflow the whole thing
• 태웅쌤's new horror game YouTube videos, they are a bit higher in level
• 수탉 - YouTuber who does the same sort of horror games (not that I am a huge fan of them, but I take what I can get!)
• 경이로운 소문/ uncanny counter season 2 although I am stuck a few episodes in, it is rewarding to watch a show in Korean that I saw the first season of when I was not even learning and didn't understand a word.
  

 I've also seen a bit of drama with English subtitles, I just needed a break from constantly immersing and as I have mentioned previously, I don't think it completely useless in any case. It is especially satisfying to notice that I sometimes still know what was being said, even when not looking at the screen (I'm bad at multitasking and I do it anyway).

Japanese

This time, Japanese has taken the back burner (noticing a pattern here...). I have not had quite as much interest in it, partially probably because I just didn't have the right media to immerse in. I am also more active in the Korean Refold Discord server, which helps keep Korean afloat, a help Japanese does not have. In any case, It's not like I stopped!
 

• finished 古見さんは、コミュ症です/Komi can't communicate, enjoyed it!
• ゾン100～ゾンビになるまでにしたい100のこと/Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (the movie) was really easy, but I think it would have been in any language, I almost felt like I could have seen it in mandarin and I would still have known what it was about.
• ペンディングトレイン―8時23分、明日 君と /Pending Train - a series, also doable! I sometimes checked stretches with English subtitles, and there were some long winded monologues or voice overs that I needed help with. But I still got the major plot points, I'd say
• わたしの幸せな結婚/My happy Marriage - as a show- I switched to English subtitles, as the old-timey speech parts and the specific fantasy related vocab is still unknown to me. I am not a huge fan, so I might drop it, but I am also somewhat unwillingly invested.
  

I think that is all for Japanese, except for maybe the odd YouTube Video, or Anime episode that I was trying to get into. I am hoping to maybe start another book/Light Novel soon. Alternatively find an Anime that fits my level.

Final Thoughts

I think I had these Grand Plans of becoming an Anki person, but they failed. I did do some sentence mining when reading. And I mined from a video for the first time, but low key hated it. Intensive immersing video content in that way, is just a bit too disruptive to my flow, the stop and pause etc. Besides, I do not do my Anki reviews anyways, so why bother haha! I am going to continue as I have, even though I know that some deliberate vocab study would increase my level by a mountain of new potential content.

Which brings me to my next point, I remember last update, musing about the 2C Refold stage for Japanese. This time I am musing about the 2C stage for Korean. I am not convinced I am there yet in either language, mainly because of the lack of vocabulary. I am sure I could find some show in either language that I could watch and pass the stage requirement with, but it doesn't really matter either way. The next stage is going to be so long, I am actually preserving my sanity if I chill out in 2B a little longer. But it is nice to see it as an attainable goal on the horizon.
 

My way of acquiring vocabulary in this very slow, osmosis kind of way, actually helps my comprehension. It is rare that I encounter a sentence where I know all the words and grammar, yet cannot piece the meaning together. There are a lot of things I do not understand at all though. Maybe this way is slower, but it's frustration free...Is what I am telling myself to justify being lazy with vocab study...

As always, see you in a Month or two and thank you so. so. SO. much for reading <3

Zora