i forgot how bitter that is oh my god
hello my frens
it's nina and we are back
with a not really studying with nina video
(excitedly claps)
as you can tell by the title of this video
this is not any ordinary not really studying with nina
this video actually has a purpose
for this video i'm gonna show you how
i personally teach myself korean
oh pardon me my hands are very dry
this is just a casual video on
how i teach myself korean
i'm teaching myself korean
to make things clear i am korean
i'm a korean american
i just happen to be one of those korean americans that
can't speak korean
now for people who don't understand how that happens
it's a common thing actually
to make a long story short
even though both of my parents are korean
and they're from korea
they both came to america at different times in their life
and those different times in their lives
affected the way they grew up and affected
what language they speak naturally
and so my dad speaks english naturally
and my mom speaks korean naturally
because of different
different upbringings
and so because of that, i grew up in a bilingual house
even though my mom spoke primarily korean
she understood english
and because i was communicating with my dad in english
and my dad was communicating to me in english
and because i went to only american schools
i only picked up english
blah blah blah
i can go on and on about that in another video
but basically
i didn't learn korean properly
or i never was "required" to speak korean
so that's.. that's
why i am the way that i am
anyway that's not really the point
the point is i am learning korean
now, i've been learning korean for about a year.
and right now i'm at the point where
i can write paragraphs
in korean, like i can think a lot
in korean
i can write out what i want to write
i can write out my thoughts in korean
if you just give me some time to
think and process things
but if i'm in a spontaneous conversation
then i would struggle bc
we could be talking about anything and then i won't be prepared
and it takes a second for me to think of what to say
and sometimes i might not know the right word
for what i want to say
i'm getting there, i'm getting there
i'm speaking korean with my parents
and with friends and
i'm even speaking to people in
my community who are korean
i prioritize learning grammar before
memorizing vocabulary
which is bad because you should be memorizing vocabulary but
i know basic words to help me survive
but i just don't know a whole
lot of adjectives and adverbs
that kind of stuff
but this was also the same problem for me in spanish bc
in college i took spanish (literally last semester it wasn't that long ago lol)
and i was
and i was good at writing and taking tests
but when it came to orally speaking
it's like everything i learned disappeared
so it's all in there somewhere but
it doesn't come out
so that's why i'm going to teach you
my ways of how to properly
and fully be immersed
in the korean language
or any language
but mostly korean bc
the things i'm going to say mostly have to do with the korean language
and so
it's been a year
and
i just thought of
sorry
don't mind me
conversation-wise i'm at the level of like
a korean preschooler
or a kindergartener
kindergartener is kind of like showing off
but i just know that when i hear korean kids speak
it makes me cry
i'm like
wow.
so i think the first thing that i should talk about is
how i'm actually studying korean
and that is just through a website
i'm learning korean from two websites
at first it was just one website
but now it's two bc
i found the second website and i really like it
so the websites are
"how to study korean" and "talk to me in korean"
i like both but
i do have to say i think
talk to me in korean would be better
for beginners
and non-koreans
if you use talk to me in korean there's a comment section
and you can just leave a comment if you're confused about something
if you want to ask a question
and other people who are learning
they can answer your question and all that
you're basically not really learning alone
so you have people who can help you
as in other users
with ttmik also it has romanization
i found that how to study korean
it doesn't have romanization at all
so if you can't read hangul which is
korean alphabet
ttmik it has romanization it can help
but also i do recommend
that before anything else
you learn hangul bc
that is the basis of korean
it's important to recognize that korean is its own language
and that
romanization is not korean
obviously romanization is a start
especially if you just
never have read or
had any experience with hangul in the first place
but if you're going to be learning korean
you gotta learn to read and pronounce and write hangul
also with any korean resource
i think that's the first thing they teach you anyway
so it's just the first thing you will learn anyway
just make sure you get it down before you learn anything else
bc if u don't get it down
lessons in the future are just going to get confusing
even though there is romanization it's just not
it's not the full experience
it's important to remember that
koreans don't write
in romanization, they write
in hangul bc
it's korean
so as you're starting out learning these lessons obviously
you're going to take notes
so i highly recommend
writing out your notes
you can obviously type out your notes
if that's more comfortable for you
you can just set up a korean keyboard
and get these little stickers
for your keyboard
but i just recommend
writing out your notes because in general
writing your notes out physically it just helps
keep information in your head
and you're just engaging more with what you're learning
but as you're writing out your notes you're naturally
practicing
writing hangul and it's going to stick in your brain a little bit better
i have many notebooks for korean but this is just the one i've been keeping for now
and i'm just always writing in korean
and my handwriting has definitely improved a lot
like the spacing and the sizing and all that
but it's also important that you know how to type in korean as well
so typing out your notes would be helpful but
if you're writing out your notes
you can also make flashcards online
i make flashcards on quizlet because i just don't
have enough index cards for
everything i want to learn and i don't want to use that much paper
and i literally just have flashcard sets for
anything.
i have
cards on
herbs and spices
cooking utensils
general cooking verbs
baking
sports
birds
body parts
weather
feelings
vegetables
general food and
long alphabetical list of common verbs
one day i'm gonna study all these
but they're there!!
but with any language it's important to
learn vocabulary so you have words to fill your sentences
now with reading korean
it's very important
and so if you don't have access to
korean books like i do, i have
korean children's books
lying around
bc i had them since i was a child
i didn't read them but i had them
i also have a baby brother so that's why we keep the books
so i have korean children's books to read
they're a lot of fun and they're very educational bc
they're very repetitive so the words just stick to your brain
but if you don't have access to that
there's social media, guys
i feel like if you're studying korean
you're probably interested somehow in korean entertainment
just like when i was taking spanish
we watched a lot of spanish music videos
watched spanish movies
that kind of stuff
so if you have like
favorite korean music artists
or korean actors or actresses that kind of stuff
just follow them on social media and then just
read all their captions like their instagram posts
don't press translate
you can press it later but read it first
read their tweets, just read everything
it doesn't really matter if you don't understand what is being said
just
read
as you're learning korean you'll recognize words anyway
so just keep reading and then you'll probably see a word that you recognize and be like
i remember that! and i read it so quickly!
so now that you've been studying korean
now it's time to use what you learned
and put them into real life
now obviously i would suggest that you
speak to a person who also speaks korean
so that you can communicate
but not everyone has a person they can speak korean with
like for me i have family i have friends
in my world there are just korean people
and korean speakers
but not everyone has that so i would suggest
learning to talk to yourself
as a person who is on youtube i talk to myself a lot
i'm not weird about it anymore
i recognize that i do it
and i'm fine with it
and i'm comfortable with it
so as you're learning just be comfortable
saying words out loud because
it's different thinking of the word
but once it comes out of your mouth
it's different
if you don't have someone to speak to or
you don't want to speak to someone
which i understand, maybe you don't wanna feel embarrassed
or you don't want them judging you, that kind of stuff
i understand
that's what kept me from speaking korean for a long time too
if any of that applies just speak to yourself
just say things out loud
i also recommend recording yourself when you speak
so that you can hear yourself speak
and you can work on your pronunciation and you can be your own critic
try to make up conversations and have conversations with yourself out loud
ask yourself questions out loud
say answers out loud
that kind of thing
but hopefully you can also find someone to speak korean with
bc that is definitely helpful
bc then you'll be put in a situation where
you have to think spontaneously
but otherwise for now just
speak to yourself
now a very important topic is
korean entertainment and culture
this applies for any language that you study
in high school you would watch
tv shows and movies and listen to songs
in whatever language you were studying
to help you engage with the language more
same thing for korean
it's not weird to like korean entertainment okay
you're not a koreaboo
if you watch a korean variety show
or a korean drama or listen to kpop
it's okay
as long as you don't cross the line of
totally
romanticizing korea
and thinking korea's the best
and you just want to be korean, that kind of stuff
if you just don't cross that line
you're fine
korean entertainment is made to be enjoyed
it's okay to like things as long as you're not crossing an extreme line
for me i listen to korean music
i watch korean variety shows
i watch korean dramas
all of that
with variety shows for example
you hear people speaking in korean
spontaneously and casually
and it's kind of different from dramas bc obviously
dramas sometimes can be
realistic
but obviously they can also be very dramatic
and you wouldn't say what they're saying in real life
bc that would be kind of like extra
also a great thing with korean variety shows
is the editing
there's a lot of words that pop up everywhere
so you can pause whatever you're watching
write out what that word is
put it on google translate or something
then translate it then be like
oH so that's what it means!!!
and then you can write that down for your reference
that's what i do
so on a post-it i will just write
whatever words i read or
hear
and then i'll just write it down
and then i'll put it on this post-it
and then put it in my notebook
as you can see right here
but when i'm watching videos on youtube
i pause a lot
bc there are just a lot of words
that i catch
i just appreciate the editing of korean shows and videos and all that
it's just very helpful
but also with korean music
you can look at the lyrics and understand the lyrics
another thing is that when you're actually learning korean
you start to recognize a lot of what is being said
like if you're learning a certain lesson or a topic
you'll actually hear what you learned
in a song
or during a drama
or during a variety show
you'll hear
what you learned
in a different context
and you'll understand when you can use
whatever you learned in what context
so it's just very helpful to be engaged with korean entertainment as well
so definitely another thing is just having
a reason to learn korean
or just with anything, just having
the desire to learn it
because that will keep you motivated to keep learning
just remember that learning another language is
fun and it just makes you a more worldly person
also remember that it's completely okay to make mistakes
that's part of the learning process
don't be ashamed
don't drop everything just because you think it's hard
or you're not pronouncing things right
when i was younger i was definitely more insecure and ashamed
that i couldn't speak korean well
so i would get embarrassed
shy and all that
and i would just refuse to learn korean and speak it but
over time i just kind of
gOT OVER IT
and just realized
i need to make mistakes if i want to be better
so just keep going and realize that within a year
you'll be at a different place than where you started
just keep going and believe in yourself
maybe get some apps here and there
that's another thing that i forgot to mention
get some apps
i have memrise
i have duolingo
i have the app version of ttmik
so it's with me everywhere i go
just make studying fun, you know, get some colored pens
make your writing look pretty
listen to some kpop while you're learning korean
when you're learning anything you just need the dedication
and you just need to realize that
it's going to be difficult
but eventually
you'll be a different person
so overall if you're studying alone
just know it's possible
know that you can learn something
just find an online source that can guide you
how to study korean or talk to me in korean
they're both very good websites just
find what is best for you
check them both out
see what you're more comfortable with
read, write, and speak korean as much as possible
engage with korean entertainment
make flashcards
use apps
have fun!!!!!
and that is all i have to say about that
but i hope you found this video helpful this is just how i've
been learning korean
i may not be able to speak perfectly
but
i definitely know a lot more than i did last year
but i'm gonna go now
and i would study but
it's also a saturday so
maybe i might just watch some kpop videos on youtube
so this is where we say goodbye i wish you the best of luck
on your journey to learning korean
and i will see you next time come in for a hug
gOODBYE!! :)