Reboot…

​I’m rebooting my language learning. This time though I’m going back to Korean, and Japanese. 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 look 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.

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.

CHINESE: Free resource online

HSK 1 Resource

YouTube: Free

A Course from Peking University

    One of the best ways for me to supplement my Chinese studies while mainly using my HSK books is to look online for resources that help me explain the concepts in the book and add some interesting facts to it. This is how I ended up finding this channel on YouTube. They have HSK 1-6 level courses. I am currently going through the HSK 1 videos.

    In the HSK 1 playlist there are 6 weeks worth of lessons and each week has 5 lessons. I just finished going through the first week of lessons. Each lesson is a mix of vocabulary words, dialogue, grammar and exercises to cement what you have learned in the lessons. 

    I don't take detailed notes, however I do note down things that I feel are important or that catch my interest. Here is an example these are my notes from all five lessons of week 1:

HSK 1: Week 1 all lessons.

    Two facts that I didn't know before I took these lessons and are not mentioned in the HSK books at least as far as I've gone so far are as follows: 

(1) When you say a phone number you don't use (yī) but instead you use (yāo). The reason is that (yī and qī) can sound the same when spoken and to keep things from getting confusing they use (yāo). For those who don't know (yī and yāo) are the number 1 and (qī) is the number 7. 

(2) When you are making plurals using (men), you can only use this method with people, never objects or animals. Examples are 我们 (We)， 他们 (They for mix of men and women or just men)， 她们 (They for women), 同学们 (Students) and so on. 

 This is my tip for a great resource today.

再见！