August-September 2016 Book Haul

Hi! I have been out for a long while! All I can say is that working at a school is specially exhausting during summer. I still can’t believe I taught 3 (week-long) English camps. Also, my free time has been spent studying Korean and traveling a bit hahaha.

Over the past 2 months I have bought a couple of books. This time around I bought some more books to help me to study for TOPIK II.

I. TOPIK related books:

I have talked before about how my writing skills suck in Korean so I ended up getting 유학생을 위한 A+ 글쓰기. The  book is divided in two sections. The first one is to learn sentence patterns according to what you are trying to do. Then on section two, you read examples and practice it. So far I haven’t used section two. I like it because in HOT TOPIK II 쓰기, they assume you know it so they give you little practice. Below there’s some more pictures.

I also bought TOPIK 어휘•문법 다자기. I like their vocabulary as they give you a list, then you practice that vocabulary briefly, then they give you their synonyms and antonyms.  More practice, then some proverbs or idiomatic expressions. After that the grammar section starts. They give you a set of grammar points with similar functions (like reason, cause, etc.). Now, their grammar explanation sucks for the most part but it has a good grammar practice section and a lot of examples. Some more pictures below:

 

I also bought New 스타일 한국어 관용 표현. I like it, it’s cute and sort of understandable.

II. Korean books:

I’m an avid reader and an impulsive buyer so I also ended getting new reading material LOL.

I bought volume 3 of 우리 사이 느은 and I don’t feel any guilt over it hahaha. I’m a big Potterhead so I also bought 해리포터 마법사의 둘 1. I decided to buy 너에게 하고 싶은 말 when I read an excerpt and I just find myself reading it a lot.

III. Chinese Language Books:

I started learning Chinese at the end of summer or so. I went to China during Chuseok so I got some more books to learn. The series it’s called New Practical Chinese Reader 3rd. Edition. I got the textbook and the Reader’s Companion book (I couldn’t find the workbook though). Then when I came back to Korea, I bought the 하루 5분 중국어 쓰기노트 초급. I really hate that it doesn’t give me stroke order so I just go by the general stroke order rule LOL.

That’s pretty much it. I believe my next post will be about TOPIK II writing, but don’t wait for it hahaha. Until next time~

How I’m Studying Korean, Japanese and Chinese

I always try to be as organized as possible when I’m studying foreign languages. I started learning Korean a bit over three years ago- I think-; I picked up Japanese again last year and started learning Chinese about a month ago. I still remember when I first started Korean I was all over the place and it took me almost a year to get some semblance of progress and order. I think all my trials and errors during that time helped me figure out how to plan efficiently for the additional two languages. I usually try to tailor most of studies to a specific goal, but still maintain some sort of balance between skills.

My first step is to establish a definite short term goal (something you can actually measure and test). Right now these are my goals for each language:

Korean: Pass at least TOPIK II Level 3 in October/ November 2016.

Japanese: Be able to write a simple 5-sentence-long paragraph.

Chinese: Master the Chinese tones and be able to distinguish between them when I hear them.

My second step consists of figuring out where I was failing. First by asking myself what are my weaknesses and then how to remedy that using my strengths (and change strategies if one doesn’t work).

Korean:

Problem: I can’t do the writing section of TOPIK because I lack vocabulary.

Solution: Read, read, read and read. Then, write, write, write and write.

Chinese:

Problem: I can hear the difference but I can’t produce it.

Solution: Listen and practice the tones as much as possible while a friend corrects me.

Japanese:

Problem: Lack of pretty much everything, but especially vocabulary.

Solution: Write the vocabulary down and make up simple sentences using the vocabulary.

My third step is to figure out how much free time I have and how much I can dedicate to each language. In this case, Korean is my main language so I tend to devote a lot of time daily to it and alternate between dates among the other two. For example, I dedicate 3 hours daily to Korean and study the rest for an hour on alternate days.

My last step consists of figuring out the material I will be using and then spreading them out. At the end I get something like this:

Korean (each block 1 hour):

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Textbook	Textbook	Textbook	Textbook	Textbook	Textbook	Textbook
Grammar	V: list/quiz	R: Yonsei	Grammar	V: list/quiz	R: News	W: TOPIK
R: Novel	R: News	Writing	L: Drama	R: Novel	W: TOPIK	L: Drama

Chinese/ Japanese (each block 30 mins): 

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Japanese	Chinese	Japanese	Chinese	Japanese	J/Ch	J/Ch
V: review	Tones	Writing	Tones	Grammar	Textbook	Textbook
Listening	Vocab.	Writing	Writing	Listening	Tones/ W	T/W/Gr

My study blocks change once I have accomplished my goal and set another one. That’s pretty much how I manage to study all three. Then find out how much time I have during a period of time.

That’s it! Until next time!~