Good evening, and welcome to my In-Depth 2021 learning centre. My name is Brian and this year, I decided to take steps towards learning the Korean language. During the summer of 2020, I started to enjoy listening to Kpop music and watching Korean dramas. These two interests became my main reasons for learning Korean. I also wanted to be able to converse with my Korean-speaking friends, and the language itself fascinated me quite a bit. Thus, I decided to embark on the long and difficult (change) journey of learning a new language. Going into this project, I had almost no experience with the Korean language other than a few random words I learned from my Korean-speaking friends. Obviously, there was no way I would become fluent in Korean over the course of five months. However, I wanted to develop a strong foundation to work off of, in the case that I decided to continue learning Korean in the future. With that in mind, my goals for In-Depth 2021 were to learn how to count in both numerical systems of Korean (Sino-Korean and pure Korean), accumulating a pool of basic vocabulary that I could use comfortably, being able to write and read Korean characters at a basic level, having improved pronunciation, and being able to hold a basic conversation with another person.
Over the course of five months I was able to fully accomplish a majority of the goals I had set out to complete for In-Depth. However, I fell just shy of being able to hold a basic conversation. There were many questions and phrases I learned which better prepared me for basic conversations in Korean, but I personally feel that my current pool of vocabulary is still too limited. Given a bit more time, I definitely could’ve accomplished all of my goals, but I’m still extremely proud of the progress I was able to make. I went from not being able to read and write Korean characters at all to being able to read sentences and words from Korean Webtoons shown to me by my classmate, Amin. I’m now able to count (albeit not as comfortably as I would hope) and I have greatly expanded my Korean vocabulary. My pronunciation is still far from perfect and there may be mistakes within my final presentation or previous blogposts. Even so, I’m content with the amount of improvement I’ve undergone.
My mentor this year was Gleneagle’s very own Ms. Kim. She was an incredibly encouraging mentor, and always remained dedicated to aiding me with my journey through the process of learning Korean. I can’t express how thankful I am for the help and resources she’s provided me with for the past five months.
So without further ado, this is my final In-Depth 2021 presentation. My final presentation of my learning is an infographic of basic Korean vocabulary which compiles the vocabulary I learned this year.
Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog, and I hope you have a wonderful evening looking through the learning centres of my peers!
– Brian C.
Informative; however, a lot to take in. I would have loved to see a video of you writing and speaking the language. What was the most challenging part of this project for you? Why?
The most challenging part of this project for me was the constant need to relearn concepts and vocabulary. I think for any language, refreshing your knowledge is very important, especially when you’re just starting to learn it. From personal experience, losing your knowledge of a language is very easy when you’re not constantly using and implementing it in your daily/weekly routine. I personally found regular revisitations to vocabulary and complex vowels the most challenging aspect of this project.
holy, this is soo informative! i just remembered us learning Korean from Grace L and MJ in English; i never knew that this was ur in-depth. Great job!
Thanks so much! Yeah, learning Korean from Grace L. and MJ blended so naturally into my routine.
Learning another language is extremely difficult so major respect for learning so much in such a short time! What is your favourite thing to write/say in Korean, and what are you best at pronouncing?
Thanks! My favourite thing to say and write would be the Korean word for milk (우유 “u-yu”). The characters are both very similar and simple to write, and the pronunciation rolls right off the tongue. I’m probably not the best judge to say which word I pronounce the best, but if I had to identify one word I would say the formal version of yellow (안녕하세요 “annyeonghaseyo”).
Brian this is PHENOMENAL!! I loved how you so nicely summarized your learning in your infographic! Thanks for teaching me some Korean in Spanish class, I definitely remember all of it mhhmm yes definitely haha 🙂 But seriously, AMAZING!
Thanks Emma! I’m glad you enjoyed our spontaneous Korean classes during breaks in Spanish class this year!
The Korean classes were the best part of the quarter for sure 🙂
This is a super informative In-Depth Night Presentation! I really like the format of the infographic.
Thanks a lot Evan! I’m glad you enjoyed my infographic, and I hope you’ve learned a little more about the Korean language.
Ooooh! this is really impressive Brian! learning a new language is incredibly hard, and you’ve learned so much already! I also love your info-graphic, it’s very colourful 🙂
Thanks for the compliment Mel! Learning a new language was really difficult, but I enjoyed the process a lot! I’m glad you appreciated my infographic.
It’s really cool that you chose to pursue a language as your In-Depth! I’ll definitely refer to your infographic if I ever want to learn some Korean.
Thanks so much Simran! I’m glad that you think my infographic could aid you somehow if you ever decide to learn Korean in the future!
Brian, this was such an informative blog post! It must have been difficult explaining the uses (formal, vowel/consonant endings, etc) in the infographic, but you did it really well! And thank you for including phonetic pronunciations! I can’t imagine how much time and effort it took to learn a new language in such a short period of time. Do you think learning the language helped you better understand Korean culture, K-pop, and K-dramas?
Thank you so much Grace! I’m really happy you found the pronunciations helpful. I think learning Korean has helped me understand how important formalities are in Korean culture. In the Korean language, there are many honourifics and endings that need to be changed depending on the person you’re speaking to. I learned that using the wrong level of formality while speaking with another person could be considered quite offensive. Although I’m not able to understand K-pop songs and K-dramas due to my current, limited vocabulary, being able to pick out words I know from a song or drama is always a gratifying experience.
The infographic is amazing! I loved it! Oh and by the way, Emma really loved learning Korean in Spanish class haha!😂
Thanks so much Jorja! I heard that from Emma as well. I’m glad she enjoyed learning snippets of Korean in Spanish class!
Your in-depth topic is so cool Brian! You’re awesome for being able to learn so much in such a short period of time, and your infographic is so neat and aesthetic!
I’m glad you found my In-Depth topic cool! I really enjoyed learning Korean this year! I hope to continue learning in the years to come. Thank you so much for thinking my infographic was neat and aesthetic.
Well done! It’s always amazing to explore a new language! Will you continue to expand on your knowledge thus far? How did learning this language expand your understanding of the Korean culture?
I agree, learning a new language is always a super interesting experience! I’m definitely thinking of expanding my current knowledge in the future. I really enjoyed pursuing Korean this year, and hope to continue adding on to my vocabulary and learn more about Korean grammar. Learning the Korean language has led me to understand just how significant formalities are in Korean culture. While working on this project, I learned that there are several different levels of formalities used depending on who you’re speaking to. Learning about the differences between formal and informal language was an extremely eye-opening experience for me. One that allowed me to begin to understand the respect displayed in Korean culture.
Nice Brian! Looks like you developed some info graphic design chops as well. I’m glad this was a useful project for you!
Thanks so much Mr. Salisbury! I’m glad you enjoyed the graphic design of my infographic. Learning Korean was a very insightful and interesting project for me, and it’s one that I hope to continue pursuing in the future!
This is great Brian! I know your learning multiple languages at the same time, that must be super difficult. I still say French words I learned in middle school when trying to speak Spanish… Where/how do you plan to put your new skill into use?
Thanks Ben! Juggling both Spanish and Korean was pretty difficult. I think the difficulty was decreased because of how different Spanish and Korean are as languages, which was something that my mentor, Ms. Kim had pointed out at the beginning of my project. In the future, I hope to expand my vocabulary and learn more about sentence structure/grammar. I hope that my skills will help me communicate with Korean-speaking peers and generally with a wider range of people. While a bit silly, I also hope that the foundational skills I built during this project will help me get to a point where I might not need subtitles to understand K-pop songs and K-dramas. Great question!
Learning a language is a lot of work! It’s pretty impressive how you managed to learn so much in such a short amount of time! Good job!
Brian! What an ambitious enterprise! I am intrigued by Korean language and culture too! I appreciate the infographic but would have loved to have seen some footage of you speaking! What are you going to do with your new Korean skills?