21 Questions Tag – The Korean Learner Version

I recently joined this amazing group on Facebook that is all about Indian’s who are learning Korean. One of the admins had posted this and I decided to do it. So here are the questions and my answers…

1. Why Korean?
Initially it was just so I could understand Korean dramas and kpop better. But lately its become a passion. Not just because I love learning languages, but there is something about the Korean language that is very fascinating. The more I learn, the more keen I become to reach fluency.

2 . Daum or Naver (dictionary I mean)?
Naver. Just cause I haven’t tried out Daum. But I plan to. I just use whatever resources come in handy.

3. First website that you visit everyday?
WordPress. I like to check the state of my blog everyday morning. From the stats, to what fellow bloggers have posted. Commenting and liking others posts. Replying to comments and so on.

4. Best thing that happened to you? (related to learning Korean)
Meeting people who share the same passion as me. Its been great connecting with all these fabulous individuals from different parts of the world. Nothing like learning a language with buddies to help  you out 😀 

5. Ever regretted learning Korean?
Never did and never will.

6. Most common feedback/question you get when you say you are learning Korean?
“Why Korean of all languages?”
“What good will Korean (language) do?” – that one annoys me the most!
“Say something”.
“How did you learn?”

7. First Korean food that comes to your mind?
김치 – that’s the first Korean food item I learnt. Upon youtube-ing it I found out more about it. I like the way this word sounds for no particular reason 😛

8. Most overrated Korean drama?
Secret Garden. Okay! Before you start chucking tomatoes and crumpled paper at me, hear me out. I know many of you love that drama but I couldn’t get through the whole series. And I tried, like, really really tried. On this one site, it has an average rating of 9.72 stars out of 10. So I figured there must be something good about it. But, no, I don’t see it.

9. Most underrated Korean drama?
Big, Dream High, My Girlfriend is a Gumiho. I love all three 😀 and all the people in it! But they don’t have as many votes as they should be receiving.

10.Latest milestone in learning Korean?
I can introduce myself in Korean and say a few basic phrases. I have started learning grammar points. So am taking it slow from here in order to better retain the knowledge.

11. Favorite Korean word / phrase?
That’s a difficult one. So I’m going to mention a few. 왜? , 안돼 , 그래 , 잘 못했어. I use these more often, even at home (although nobody understands) 😛 And they’d all look at me dumbfounded. Best part! 😀

12. Name 3 people (fictional / real) who motivate / influence your Korean learning journey
1. The entire cast at TTMIK. I know this doesn’t account for “3 people” but I consider them one unit of amazing people.  Without them, I would still be stuck at learning the Hangul script. Their expertise and support have helped me learn a LOT. Their lessons are so easy to understand and it doesn’t complicate things (especially for beginners).

2. My mom. She is very very supportive. And despite the fact that she doesn’t understand when I speak random phrases in Korean, she has always encouraged me to  learn more so I can fluently speak Korean.

3.  Pororo. I first heard the Pororo song in the drama, Big. When I heard Gong Yoo and Min Jung singing the Pororo song I loved it! Then I found out that there were episodes based on this Pororo character. But obviously I couldn’t understand anything. So I swore to myself that one day I’d come back and watch all the Pororo episodes without subtitles.

13. Secret ambition / goal (relating to Korean)
Not exactly a “goal”, its more of wishful thinking 😀 To be able to go to Seoul and talk to random strangers in Korean. And watch them stare at me bewildered. Hopefully if that happens, nobody will ring up the nearest asylum and report me as a lunatic.
There’s also another one, where I get casted in a drama with all my favourite actors and actresses. Yea.. wishful thinking 😛

14. I want to sound like _____ when I speak Korean
Myself. I don’t want to ape anyone’s way of speaking or anything.

15. Best compliment received (for Korean)
My mom just exclaims “wow” with a proud and awe-struck expression. 😀 Other than that,  none. Mostly cause I don’t speak much in Korean. And there isn’t anyone I can “converse” with.

16. When is the last time you sat down and studied Korean?
This afternoon.

17. Favorite textbook?
No one textbook in particular. I use Integrated Korean, Korean for Dummies, College Korean and some others. I find them all equally helpful. Not to mention the notes from TTMIK and KoreanClass101.

18. Special people you met (online or otherwise) through Korean?
I haven’t had the chance to meet many people. From among the few there is, Prashanth who is the admin of that page I was talking about (Indian Korean Learners) ; Kay , a fellow blogger  who is learning Korean and she has been really helpful. Then a couple of friends from school (ofcourse I knew them before I started learning Korean but…)

19. How has learning Korean changed you / your life?
It has made me more aware of their culture and customs and being an Indian, I find a few similarities in our ways of life. I’m on my way to becoming a multi-linguistic person 😀

20. Ever dreamt in Korean?
Nope.

21. Single best thing about learning Korean?
There’s no single best thing to learning Korean. The entire process is very beneficial in many ways. The fact that I would soon be able to converse in a different language is exciting. It is a step towards being an all-rounder in life. Not just academic studies. Learning Korean has been one of the best decisions I made this year. 

Okay that is a very very long post! 미안해 😀
읽어 주셔서 감사합니다  🙂

Mia