Learning New Languages

I have always loved the way different languages sound and have wanted to learn as many of them as possible.

I have struggled with the in school language courses and I honestly still don't fully understand why. I just never really had a connection to those languages (French and German). I wish I did but I personally didn't. However, I have found a connection with numerous languages in Asia.

My main focus of study is Korean as this is the language I have been studying the longest and have the most personal connection with. I have dear friends from Korea and have studied there as well, so I have always wanted to be able to comfortably be able to converse with them in their native tongue.

The more recent ones that I have begun to learn include Thai, Chinese and Japanese. I found interest in all of them in a similar way through friends and pop culture. I love different shows and music from these places and want to be able to at least have simple conversations with my friends in their own language.

I have numerous learning materials for all of the languages I am studying. For the newer languages I'm studying, I'm still trying to sort out which ways work the best for me.

I use a book system from a company called "Talk to Me in Korean" as well as other supplemental books. I also use two different apps "Drops" and "Lingodeer". I have been able to find books for Chinese and Japanese but not a complete system of books. So I am just using varying books I have been able to find on Amazon. However, for Thai it has been especially hard to find resources. I have found simple phrase books and a guide on how to read Thai script but nothing like I found for the other languages.

The current books I have for Chinese, Japanese and Thai are based on phrasal learning rather than character learning. I do plan on getting into the character systems of these languages but as my main goal is to be able to have simple conversations in them, so I am trying to at least learn simple phrases and vocabulary before going into the character system of each language.

However with Korean I started with Hangul (Their alphabet system) and then went on to study the grammar aspect of the language and now noticed I do not have a expansive knowledge of vocabulary my main knowledge is with the grammar system.

So, if you are reading this and interested in learning a language, you need to find a balance between grammar and vocabulary. If you are interested in learning a language with a different character system than the language you speak, then I do recommend learning the system at the beginning of your learning process or at least the basics if you're looking at Chinese or Japanese. I regret not focusing on that at the beginning or my learning process.

Korean

I want to focus on this language the most as I want to move to South Korea and become fluent in the language.

Chinese

I found interest in the language after most of my Quarantine watch list was Chinese dramas. I want to be able to talk to my friends from China but also want to not have to rely on subtitles as much.

Thai

I started learning Thai right at the beginning of quarantine, once again due to pop-culture I began to learn more about the culture. It's quite different from the other countries in Asia that I have learned a little bit about, which intrigued me. I feel as though to really learn about a culture you need to learn some of the language at least.

Japanese

With this one it was a comeback kid haha. I started to learn this one a few years ago in Japan but fell of the wagon after going to do a semester in Korea almost right after Japan. But during this time of COVID I want to go back and start from the beginning again.

Learning languages is an adventure, that everyone can partake in. You just have to find a language that you feel a connection to and do what you need to do to encourage your learning habits. For me having cute notebooks gives me a little spring in my step when learning! It's different for everyone. I will be posting about how to create a language study routine soon and if you want to hear more about the books I use there is a YouTube video going up soon!!