How it all started.

An adventure in learning the language of The Republic of Korea aka. South Korea.

I began this adventure in 2014 after watching the movie the Shadowless Sword starring Lee Seo Jin 이소진.  I watched the K-Drama Jumong starring Song Il Kook 상일국 shortly after the Shadowless Sword.

To me the language sounded enchantingly musical and I felt a burning desire to learn to speak Korean. After watching Jumong 주몽 Prince of the Legend I was drawn to watch more K-Dramas. Currently I have watched 154 dramas and 15 movies. Most have had excellent acting, direction and story lines. Watching the dramas has created a desire in me to visit South Korea and experience the beautiful scenery, wonderful food and warm people found there.  The programs enticed me to search out Korean restaurants in Kansas and surrounding states. Through this action I have made some friends who will be in my heart for as long as I live.

I have been studying the Korean language for about 18 months now. I am really beginning to wrap my mind around the language. I have only found myself thinking how difficult it is learning this language in Kansas two or 3 times in the last 18 months. It is very exciting now when I watch something that Korean is spoken and I understand nearly everything being said. There is a wonderul sense of accomplishment in this.

I am certainly still only a beginner though. If it is spoken too fast I have a difficult time following the conversation. Also it is difficult reading the written language. The alphabet is all one case so there is no noticable indications of names or places.

My main source of learning Korean is the TTMIK - Talk To Me In Korean website. While the lessons are free, they do take donations and sell study material. I have downloaded the audio lessons to flash drives and burned cd's. I listen to the lessons while commuting to and from work. I also drive for work and listen to the lessons then.

There are several android apps I have used to help expand my vocabulary. I think learning all the words has been the most difficult as this in effect is actually doubling my vocabulary. Every word I know in English I am learning in Korean. Although some words in English can not be translated to Korean and visa versa the gist of the idea must be comprehended.

Currently I have won a scholarship to 4 weeks of lessons at 90 Day Korean. This is exciting because it is a slightly different method of learning. I am learning new material and also learing some new methods for retaining what I have learned so far.

I have lists of words I have learned and review them periodically since I don't use all of the words all of the time. Colors and numbers require review frequently to retain the words and associations.

The Korean alphabet, Hangul, is realatively easy to learn. It also helps in understanding the language and proununciation of words by learing the alphabet. There are many websites on the internet that have Hangul learning guides. I practice writing Hangul every day and also learned to type in Hangul using my microsoft keyboard. There is a typing tutor online, TajaMaster.com to help learn the locations of the Hangul letters.