Back to the drawing board

I've decided to go back to the drawing board where Korean is concerned. I'll finish out my sessions with the teacher and stop taking classes to sound more natural since I'm beginning to get confused. Also I won't be studying for a test. I've become disembodied and feel like nothing is entering my brain. So I've decided to go back to studying my Korean books, specifically "I love Korean" books. They are made by Seoul National University. I have the whole series so I'm reviewing book 1 so that I can get the vocabulary (I've already worked through it before as well as half of book 2) then moving on until book 6 which is the last one in the series. 

From Goodreads:

"The I Love Korean Series is designed to expedite Korean language learning with a 60-hour program. Our practical activities will help learners to speak, listen, read, and write Korean faster. I Love Korean 1 is a textbook for learners who have no knowledge of Korean at all. There is a dedicated section covering how to read and write Hangul, the Korean alphabet. Each unit of this learning book provides useful vocabulary, grammar, and key expressions used in everyday life. This book is ideal 

Having studied our I Love Korean Series , you will be able to communicate with your Korean friends! *The audio files are available at the SNU Language Education Institute or SNU Press web page*"

When and if I register for the TOPIK I'll study with the plan I put together for this purpose. Right now I need to focus on getting more vocabulary and a better reading experience as well as add to my grammar studies. I find books with themes are better for this. TOPIK practice books are not conducive to the kind of study on my mind.

The alphabets

 A question that I get a lot from my friends who see me studying languages: Is it worth it to learn how to read and write or should I just focus on speech?  My answer always comes down to it depends on why you are studying the language. If you are just studying it to go visit the country and be able to ask how much something is then learning to speak is your best option.  If you are like me and want to read the literature and learn about the culture in the original language then learning to read and write is important. 

The second question that I get is which of the languages is easier to learn reading and writing wise. I've learned Korean, Japanese some chinese and currently learning Thai. By far the Korean alphabet was the easiest to learn. It took me 2 hours to learn the whole alphabet. The second easiest was Japanese, learning the Hiragana and Katakana took one afternoon. Next comes Chinese but the problem with Chinese is the shear amount of characters there is to learn. Finally, the Thai alphabet because a lot of its characters look the same.

Japanese alphabets.

Chinese doesn’t have an alphabet it has thousands of characters.

Next is Thai alphabet

The vowels are not included here.

Language Study Update (August 24, 2026)

 Korean

I have a teacher for Korean who is teaching me how to be more natural in my speech. However, I asked Chatgbt to help me get ready for TOPIK II test next year. It suggested I take a TOPIK I mock test to see if I am closer to TOPIK I Level 2 or TOPIK II Level 3. So during the weekend I took the TOPIK I mock test on Tammy Korean. I made sure to do it under the same conditions as a real TOPIK I test, i.e. in one sitting and timed. There are two sections to the test: Listening and Reading. For the listening section the time is 40 minutes, and for the reading section the time is 60 minutes. 

I have to say that I did much better in the listening section than the reading section. This is mainly because when I got to the reading section I was getting bored and finished it in 30 minutes instead of 60 minutes. I didn't take my time reading and figuring out what the passages where saying instead if I didn't understand something I just guessed. As a result I go 81/100 on my listening section and only 65/100 on my reading section. Together they make 146/200 which means I am at TOPIK I Level 2 rather than TOPIK II Level 3.

Next step is to start learning vocabulary and grammar for TOPIK I because my reading was not great. I found a vocabulary list on the same website as the TOPIK Test as well as a list for grammar. I'll be using them to study. I've already started to use Anki with the vocabulary words at 5 vocabulary words per day and I'm starting the grammar section today. I also decided to read a book in Korean (Secret Garden). 

Thai

For Thai I'll be using the book Complete Thai by David Smyth from the Teach Yourself series. So far I've only worked through the Introduction which familiarizes you with the sounds of the Thai language. 

Japanese

I had studied Japanese before with a teacher but I no longer have that option right now. So I decided to study on my own. I used Chatgbt to start relearning the Hiragana and Katakana until my book arrives. I'll be using Beginning Japanese Textbook: Revised Edition: An Integrated Approach to Language and Culture

As I said in my previous post I asked Chatgbt to make me a study plan for each of the languages above and to add that plan to my Google calendar. So now I just have to open my Google calendar each day to see what my study plan for the day is.

Reboot…

​I’m rebooting my language learning. This time though I’m going back to Korean, Japanese and Thai. I will be doing my studies via a combination of books, free resources and AI.

The first thing I did was look at the resources I have and ordered what I was missing as well as loon at online free resources. The second thing I did was ask Chatgbt to formulate a plan for each of the languages I wanted to study using the resources that I found.

Korean

The first thing that I thought about was what I wanted to do for the study of Korean as I was already taking a class online with a great teacher. I decided that next year I want to take the TOPIK II test. The first thing that Chatgbt suggested was that I take a mock TOPIK I test to see if I was at level 2 or closer to level 3. So this weekend I took the test and got 146/200 which means I am closer to level 2 than I am to level 3. Next Chatgbt suggested some sites to help me study for TOPIK I and TOPIK II. I printed out the grammar and vocabulary for both. Finally, Chatgbt made a study plan for me which included a daily study plan that incorporated vocabulary, grammar, reading and listening.

Thai

Next for Thai I am using Teach Yourself Complete Thai and Chatgbt. I asked Chatgbt to use the book as a resource and make me a daily study plan that well help me study Thai.

Japanese

Finally, for Japanese I asked Chatgbt to design a study plan for me using a book that I just ordered online called Beginning Japanese. However, until my books arrive I asked Chatgbt to teach me Hiragana and Katakana and quiz me on them. 

Chatgbt is amazing help so far. It has helped me put together my study calendar and tasks. It has given me a bird’s eye view of how long it might take me to get through to my goals. 

This is what my study calendar looks like.

And this is what one day of studying might look like:

A typical Japanese lesson in Chatgbt looks like this:

I’ve also asked Chatgbt to quiz me on chapters from books. It made me good test papers with answers which showed me where I was doing good and where I needed to study more.

I hope this helps others in getting an idea on how to use Chatgbt in studying languages.

Study HSK 1 With Me 1 by cuardai

How to start learning a language

           Learning a language (or 3) is very tough. When you first start out you are very motivated and feel like you can put in a thousand hours a day if you can. Soon however, you begin to get less and less motivated and it is at that time that people start to get dejected and give up. This is especially true when you are studying on your own and not in a class setting or if you don't have someone to practice with. So what can you do to stop yourself from getting to this point in your studies? I've done a bit of research and watched a lot of YouTube videos so you don't have too. 😁

*Set Goals:

1. Think about WHY you want to study this language. Write out your reasons and then summarize them onto one page and put it somewhere you can look at it when you need motivation or a reminder of why you are doing this. 
2. Have one overall goal that you want to work towards. This could be anything from taking a test like TOPIK or the HSK to writing a letter in your target language to someone you admire like an idol, actor, writer, political or even a friend.
3. Start breaking that main goal into smaller goals, and put down realistic time limits on these smaller goals. To achieve this you need to do a little research into your target language and take into account how much you can realistically spend working on your studies each day. For example, when I first started learning Korean I found out that you can learn their alphabet in two hours so I set myself the goal of learning it in one week. I could only spend half an hour per day studying uninterrupted so I paced myself: 4 days to learn the alphabet and 3 days for review/mastery. And if I for some reason couldn't study on one of the four days I had time to make it up. 

These are my goals for learning Korean.

*Be gentle with yourself: 

          It is important to realize that there will be times when life gets in the way or you'll be just not motivated enough to do anything. During those times be gentle with yourself. Realize that what was not finished this month can be finished next month and if motivation was your problem look back at your goals and why you wanted to do this in the first place. 

*Don't compare yourself to others: 

          One of the biggest mistakes we make is to compare our progress to others. Some people learn faster while others take their time neither one if better than the other. You could be better at grammar and vocabulary while they are better at speaking or vice versa. If you catch yourself comparing yourself with others just tell yourself to stop. It does no one any favors. 

I hope this helps you a little with your language learning journey.