How Should I Study?

How should I study?

This is probably the most asked question. And I will be totally honest now and give you some advice on how you should and how you shouldn’t study.

The ideal way of self studying a language

doesn’t exist. Or at least I haven’t found it. But there is no method which will give you a 100% success. You know that everybody is different and everybody learns different. I have made my self study plan (here) for Korean. In my opinion, it works awesome for me, and I think that I’ve created this one with common sense. But in this post I don’t want to go deeper in “which plan should I follow”. I’d like to focus on the methods you might use to achieve your goals.

Let’s divide it into 4 (and optional 5) sections: Vocab, grammar, listening speaking (and eventually signs).

Vocab

Learning vocab is the foundation of your language. You can’t build a house only by a plan. You must also have the bricks. But I have some common “mistakes” people make. Here comes my list of what to avoid:

Long study sessions once a week

Reading the word 500x to think you might learn it this way

Letting the learnt words on the side

Not saying the words out loud

Never writing words out

Making vocab studying monotone

Learning the unuseful vocab you’ll probably never need

Those are so important points. In several books I’ve seen that the brain learns faster if it repeatedly does something. Also if you don’t use the things you’ve learnt after a certain time again, you might forget it again.

Try those things instead:

Study sessions over the whole week

Reading, writing and listening to the word

Make a record of the words you want to learn and listen to it

Once in a while repeat also your “good” words

Say words out loud which are complicated

Make studying fun (Use flashcards, post its, make it comfortable, make yourself a tea)

Learn vocab which is very frequent or which you will need specifically for your needs

Grammar

Grammar is a rather hard discipline. Also here common mistakes:

Learning the rules by heart and thinking “that’s it”

Only practicing the sentences in your book

Not making sentences on your own

Making grammar boring

Letting it be only because you’ve understood it once

Giving up on it just because it seems hard

Replace it by this:

Try to decode it before actually read the explanation.

Try to learn the sense behind the grammar.

Use what you’ve learnt and build your own sentences. You’ve got problems? Means that there are some points you should work on.

Grammar isn’t boring (okay sometimes) but you can make it fun if you use also like with vocab stuff you like. And also: If you always connect studying grammar with something what makes you happy, for example always make a smoothie if you study grammar, than it will also have an input on your studies. More about that in the next post)

Keep going and master the challenge

Sometimes it’s also good to take a break and try the next day. It might be that you’ve overworked yourself

Listening

And here again the top mistakes:

Not focusing on listening

Or listening to very fast music and complaining how stupid you are

Listening to “non real language”

Not listen at all

If I say that a language must be spoken, it also means that there are people which listen. And that means that you also have to study the other side of the language. So many people neglate this part. This was also my mistake in Japanese. But I have some good replacements:

Watch TV soaps or dramas (the most natural language)

Start from the very first day

Don’t get mad. It’s hard to understand things, but you will get better

Celebrate if you’re right

Take notes if you’ve heard something interesting

Listening will get your best friend. It doesn’t only improve your ear but also your writing. Because if you know how the pronounciation changes, you’ll also know how to write better.

Speaking

It’s hard to speak sometimes, but in this section you can also make mistakes by not even doing anything:

Being speechless

Not speaking from the beginning

Not learning the pronounciation properly

Not trying to get faster

It really depends on the person how fast the progress is in pronounciation, but if you don’t work from the very first day on it, it will get hard for you. Replace those methods by this:

Speak whenever you can

Talk to yourself

Try to find someone who might correct you

Learn the pronounciation properly

Try to get faster from time to time

Fluency comes where axienty goes (wow I should copyright that)

But don’t try to be perfect

Progress is made by many many little steps taken to get to a higher obstacle. Work smart and make those steps.

Optional: Signs

The probably hardest part for any Japanese/Chinese learner: the signs. I’ve seen and I’ve done even more mistakes. Use that and learn from me:

Writing a kanji over and over again

Thinking you might get along without signs

Buying course books which tell you how to learn “2000 kanjis in 2 months” or so

Not thinking when learning

Learning only one reading style

Learn a kanji and don’t repeat it

Okay guys. When I say that, please take me serious. You can’t learn 2000 kanjis in 10 days IF you don’t have a super brain. And I think it’s okay. Not everybody is talented, but there are other ways. And one way isn’t writing it 50 times per hour. Of course you have to write it, but not so many a day that you might get sick of them. And only because you’ve learnt one kanji, doesn’t mean that it will last for your whole life in your brain. Replace by:

Combine different methods 

Repeat signs

Buy if you are 100% sure you NEED that and if you’re not so sure about it, think while on work “Is it worth it that I am working for it now?”

Use what you’ve learnt. The feeling is so rewarding

Also here: Make it funny.

To self study a language it is best to develope his own style. But with some methods it will take you certainly much longer than with others. Try it out and see what works.

This is possibly the coolest video I’ve ever taken.

Word Counter - Not only does it count the number of words you’ve written, it tells you which words are used most often and how many times they appear.

Tip Of My Tongue - Have you ever had a word on the tip of your tongue, but you just can’t figure out what it is? This site searches words by letters, length, definition, and more to alleviate that.

Readability Score - This calculates a multitude of text statistics, including character, syllable, word, and sentence count, characters and syllables per word, words per sentence, and average grade level.

Writer’s Block (Desktop Application) - This free application for your computer will block out everything on your computer until you meet a certain word count or spend a certain amount of time writing.

Cliche Finder - It does what the name says.

Write Rhymes - It’ll find rhymes for words as you write.

Verbix - This site conjugates verbs, because English is a weird language.

Graviax - This grammar checker is much more comprehensive than Microsoft Word, again, because English is a weird language.

Sorry for how short this is! I wanted to only include things I genuinely find useful.

Important Summer Training Tips

Your runs don’t have to be fast to be helpful.

Stringing together a bunch of medium-paced average runs is more effective than going all out a few times a week (only to be too tired/sore to run that pace again), especially when you’re focusing on increasing your mileage.

If you’re able to choose between sleep and running, do your run later and get more sleep. It’s not hardcore to skip sleep, it’s unproductive. Your body needs it to absorb the training.

Don’t do AB workouts, do CORE workouts. Ab = abdominals only. Core = abdominals, obliques, glutes, pelvis, lower back. Purpose of working out just your abs = vanity. Purpose of working out your entire core = getting functionally strong to run faster. 

Do runs on grass and trails for the soft surfaces (and because in the winter you’ll miss the color green, believe me), but don’t worry about your pace. The terrain will naturally slow you down, but it will also force you to work different muscles which will strengthen your core WHILE YOU RUN (why core? see above).

Don’t just hydrate with water. Replace the electrolytes you lose when you sweat with gatorade or powerade, or if that’s too sweet for you, dilute it with water or invest in Nuun or Skratch or a similar product. 

Most most most importantly…ENJOY YOURSELF. Setting only outcome-based goals (”win state”; “break 19″; “take a minute off my PR”) drains the joy out of the sport that you love very quickly. Remember that. Set another, more important goal: to enjoy the process. To love the sport more in July than you did in June, and to love it still more in August. Actively cultivate your passion, and let the rest take care of itself.

THE ULTIMATE KOREAN LANGUAGE MASTERPOST

 [ warning! long post ] 

ok, so some of you remember my previous masterpost of Korean learning materials, but I’ve found even more learning materials so now I’m going to shower you all with knowledge and pdf files. (i thought i’d make a new post so it’s all in one place now)

[ textbooks & pdfs ] – all audio files are .rar files unless stated otherwise

My Korean – Book One [ audio files ] 

My Korean – Book Two [ audio files ] 

Dirty Korean

Using Korean

Basic Korean

Korean from Zero! – Book One

Korean Grammar for International Learners

Using Korean

Intermediate College Korean

Living Language Korean Course [ audio files ] 

Continuing Korean [ audio files ] 

Handbook of Korean Vocabulary 

Korean Grammar in Use

Korean for Dummies [ audio files ] [ cheat sheet ] 

Korean Made Simple (not a download)

Routledge Grammar – Basic Korean – A Grammar + Workbook  [ source two ] [ source three ] 

Routledge Grammar – Intermediate Korean – a Grammar + Workbook

Colloquial Korean – the Complete Course for Beginners [ audio files ] 

Essential Korean 

Pathfinder in Korean – Beginning Student Book [ workbook ] 

The Sounds of Korean – a Pronunciation Guide [ audio files ] 

Korean Word Book

My First Book of Korean Words

College Korean [ second source ] 

Elementary Korean

Hippocrene Beginner’s Korean [ second source ] [ audio files ] 

Korean Through English – Book One [ second source ] [ audio files ] 

Modern Conversational Korean

Korean: A Complete Course for Beginners

Step by Step Korean 

Beginner TOPIK Grammar & Vocabulary

Intermediate TOPIK Grammar

TOPIK Elementary Adjectives 

TOPIK Elementary Grammar

TOPIK Elementary Nouns 

TOPIK Intermediate Adjectives

TOPIK Intermediate Grammar 

TOPIK Intermediate Nouns

TOPIK Intermediate Verbs 

TOPIK listening files (mp3)

Making Out in Korean [ second source ]

Integrated Korean [ audio files ] 

Teach Yourself Korean [ audio files ] 

Korean Level 1 – Seoul National University

Korean Level 2 – Seoul National University

Korean Level 4 – Seoul National University

Korean Advanced Course Volume II  

Active Korean [ audio files ] 

Hanyang Korean 1 [ grammar and patterns ] [ writing practice ] 

Frequently Used Korean Dialogue 2000 Sentences 

Korean Language Structure, Use and Context 

Tense and Aspect in Korean 

Korean Honorifics and Politeness  

Easy to Learn Korean Language 

In Flight Korean [ audio files ] [ second source ] [ third source ] 

[ online resources ] 

how to study korean

Sogang Korean Program

learn korean

talk to me in korean

lets learn korean

free korean lessons

korean class 101

korean class 101 [ youtube ] 

talk to me in korean [ youtube ]  

sweetandtasty [ youtube ] 

seemile [ youtube ] 

common vocabulary

useful korean phrases

grammar + vocab reference

vocab games

quizlet

learn to read korean in 15 minutes

TOPIK guide

Easy Korean

flashcards

Dom & Hyo

grammar masterpost 

particles masterpost

Naver – english/korean dictionary

an ask that explains how to learn Korean

how to tell the time in Korean

alphabet practice

click Korean

quick korean

Apps: [ some may only be available for iphone or android and not both so bear with me ]

pop-popping korean (iOS + android)

tengugo hangul (iOS + android)

kdrama talk (iOS only)

Neme Korean (iOS + android)

KORLINK by Talk to Me in Korean (iOS + android)

Learn Korean by Bravo Language (iOS + android)

Korean Flashcards (free on android only, $4.99 oniOS)

Learn Korean 6000 words (android only)

TOPIK One (iOS + android)

Dongsa (iOS + android)

POPYA animals & fruits + vegetables (iOS + android)

HelloTalk (iOS + android)

misc. resources:

korean keyboard

culture notes

text slang

crash course on honorifics

children’s books

the chosun (news in korean)

korean class 101 podcast

talk to me in korean podcast

blogs: [ most of these seem pretty active as far as i can tell ]

unyounglearnskorean

study-korean

translating korean

letstteok-korean

onestopkorean

learnkoreanwithmusic

hangeulit

learninghangukeo

way-to-fluency

snubiwriteskorean

easykorean

cassarilla

teachmykorean

I WILL BE ADDING TO THIS IF I FIND MORE STUFF BUT UNTIL NOW HERE IS EVERYTHING I WAS ABLE TO FIND!!

when the speaker suddenly says something relevant to my research