So in my post yesterday about studying for the TOPIK with a habit calendar, I briefly mentioned the new way I’m trying out for studying vocabulary, which is writing short “essays” using at least 5 new words.
I’ve only been doing this method for a couple days so I’m not sure how effective it’ll be for remembering words but I really just need to find a non-boring way to study vocabulary.
I came to dread studying my flashcards/Anki so I searched online for solutions and found a reddit thread which I can’t find anymore but basically someone said they wanted a different way to study vocab besides flashcards and someone suggested writing essays using new words everyday and then reading the essays at the end of the week, checking for comprehension.
I decided to try it because a couple months ago I tried writing an essay based on a TOPIK question. It was all about 의사소통 (communication). When I first read that question I had no idea what that word meant, but after writing that essay, I don’t think I can ever forget that word haha, even though I haven’t re-read that essay or even heard anyone say that word since.
So far, I’ve written 5 of these little essay things, so I’d like to show one as an example of what I mean. Also keep in mind that my goal here isn’t really 100% perfect grammar or sentence construction or even flow. My only goal is to use the words in such a way that the meaning can maybe be determined from the context.
Here’s one I wrote on Oct 30th before I got sick (the essays I’ve been writing in the throes of my cold are more like mad babble lol):
사람이변신하고 싶다면 별다른 것을 할 게 필요없다. 변동하면 안 된다. 오늘 되고 싶은 사람처럼 행동하다가 내일은 아무 변명때문에 그전에 같이 행동하면 그 변명이 아무리 커도 변신이 불가능하다. 별도없다. 되고 싶은 사람처럼 꾸준히 행동하면 된다. 그렇다면 언젠가 그 사람이 진짜 될 것이다.
If you want to transform yourself, you don’t have to do anything special. You must not fluctuate. If you act like the person you want to be today, but then tomorrow because of some excuse you go back to acting how you did before, no matter how big that excuse is transformation is impossible. There’s no other way. You just have to consistently act like the person you want to be. If you do, someday you will actually become that person.
I don’t actually write the English translation in my document, but I included it here. But I do underline or bold the new words like that in my essays.
So far, I can’t say it’s been enjoyable per se, but it’s at least been more interesting than Anki, which is all I need. The downside is you can’t study as many words at once because otherwise the writing would take forever. Plus, I’m not sure how exactly I’ll go about reviewing in the future but oh well. We’ll see how it works later…
I made color-coded lyrics for the song “Heart Attack” by 츄 (Chuu) from 이달의 소냐/ Loona!
The Korean lyrics translated into English have matching colors so you can easily study the vocabulary as well as sentence structure and grammar!
Thanks for the request @horrics and make sure to follow my Korean language Instagram @catierosekorean to request your own songs in the future, or to ask me any other questions!
Listen to the song below before you start studying~^^
These days I’ve finally taken the plunge and have started learning 한자 (Chinese characters used in Korean). It’s definitely not necessary for a Korean language learner since Korean doesn’t use Chinese characters as their writing system anymore, but there are some advantages to learning them once you reach an intermediate or higher level of Korean.
So why am I learning them?
Reason #1: Expand Your Korean Vocabulary
A lot of Korean words come from Chinese, so even if you’ve never heard a word before, if you recognize the components within it, you can decipher the meaning.
Similar to how in English, a lot of our more complex words come from Latin, in Korean, the complex and advanced words usually come from Chinese.
So knowing Chinese characters will help you if you want to read/listen to the news in Korean or take the TOPIK and get a high score. In the news, they frequently use certain Chinese characters as shorthand too, and you can even see them in variety shows sometimes.
Reason #2: Other Asian Countries Use Them Too
If I know 한자 and I go to China or Japan, I’ll at least be able to read a lot of things. I won’t necessarily know how to pronounce these words (because I’ll only know the Korean pronunciation), but it should help me navigate the countries, read menus, signs, etc.
How I’m Studying 한자
So now onto how. I use 3 different resources (plus a notebook).
천 자문 따라 쓰기:
Found in any Korean bookstore.
Book aimed at Koreans wanting to learn 한자 so it’s all in Korean.
Teaches you stroke order, Korean meaning and pronunciation and other words that use that character.
Downside: doesn’t teach in order of most frequently used characters so you start out learning some complex characters that aren’t as common as others.
Aimed at Chinese learners but teaches you the simple components of Chinese characters, which other complex characters are based on, so it’s super useful as a foundation.
Teaches you stroke order and meaning.
I enjoy listening to the Chinese pronunciation though because it tends to be close to the Korean ones. Also, even though I’m not learning Chinese, I’ve got a sense of how the tones are pronounced thanks to this website haha so it’s useful for those actually learning Chinese!
Best resource because it teaches you the simple, most frequent characters that serve as a foundation for other characters.
Downsides: It’s not the fault of the website, but it lacks Korean pronunciation so I need to use this in conjunction with a Hanja dictionary to apply this to learning Korean. Also, I feel like you don’t practice writing the characters enough (plus you only practice writing it online, not by hand), so I also need to use a separate notebook for writing practice.
Used in conjunction with ABCs of Chinese to get the Korean pronunciation.
Tells you the Korean meaning and pronunciation of the character.
Since the Hanja dictionary is all in Korean, I use the Kor-Eng dictionary if there’s a word I don’t know.
원거지 노트: Lastly, I use this grid notebook paper to take notes and practice writing the characters. I also bought this in a Korean bookstore but you can make your own by printing it on paper.
크다 means to be big or large. So, as you can imagine. It often appears in words that have to do with a large size or scale.
I included the hanja for these three words because they are actually really common. You see them all the time in markets, stores, fliers, and on the news.
Here are some examples of the words.
소형 (small size) small / 중소기업 (medium-small company) small or medium-sized business / 소심하다 (small heart 하다) timid / 소설 (small snow) light snowfall
중형 (medium size) medium / 중간고사 (middle time thought inquiry) midterm exam / 중고품 (middle old item) used item, secondhand item / 중세 (middle time) the middle ages, medieval times
대형 (big size) large / 확대 (scale big) expansion / 대학교 (large learn school) college or university / 대부분 (big part) mostly
*notes* 소심하다 is often translated to timid. In Korean, it’s defined as someone who is very careful or has a lot of fear ( 대담하지 못하고 조심성이 지나치게 많다). But, it also has another meaning. It could mean someone who isn’t very forgiving or is really sensitive. So, they might bring up a mistake you made five years ago even though it was tiny. Or they become upset easily in the sense of “삐지다.” Koreans might also say that kind of person has a small heart. It’s not a compliment either.
소설 when used to mean “a little snow” is often seen in the news.
확대하다 also means to magnify “make the scale bigger.” So, it also means zoom. Zoom on your computer is called 확대.
Here are some example sentences.
이번에 소형 차를 살 거예요. This time, I’m going to buy a small car.
힝…내일 중간고사 봐야 돼 ㅠㅠㅠ 어떡해 ㅠㅠ 공부 못했어. *whine*…tomorrow, I have to take midterms…what do I do??…I couldn’t study.
사진 잘 안 보여요. 확대 좀 해주시겠어요? I can’t see the photo very well. Could you make it bigger please?/Could you blow it up please?
Comparing Chinese character readings in Japanese & Korean pt 1
Fact : Japanese and Korean have a lot of words from Chinese. Because of this there is a lot of words that sound the same or similar. Also this plus the grammar being the same is the reason why Korean is the easiest to learn for Japanese people and vice versa.
