Share your experience reading in your target languages below! Caveat - This video is from the perspective of an advanced learner (TOPIK 6), so while my reading abilities are admittedly on the higher side of the scale, they are still leaps and bounds away from your average native Korean speaker (or even your average Korean middle schooler 😅), which is a frustrating gap that I wish I could close. I'm just comparing myself to where I feel like I should be after 14 years of study, not comparing myself to any objective scale or anybody other than myself and my expectations. 😊
@julieb3240
2 ай бұрын
Girl, I feel you. I'm learning Japanese myself, but NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING drains you like a reading session in a language you're not used to. I'm less exhausted after a two hour work out than one hour of intensive reading. It does get easier though, but I can't say when your reading comfort level becomes similar to that of your native language, because I'm still not there, and I've been reading every day for 5 years. Yep, next week is my 5th year anniversary since starting, but it has been so worth it. Definitely takes less mental energy these days, but once I'm done, I'm done. Also, it makes you super hungry like nothing else!!! Get in the reading while you can, cause it takes longer to recover the older you get! Some days I go so hard that I'm like a slug the next day or three. Anyways, good luck with your journey! Rooting for you!
@paulwalther5237
4 ай бұрын
You could try reading ebooks as a stepping stone. Being able to quickly look up words quickly helps a lot. I really like reading in foreign languages but of course it’s really hard just like you said. But the feeling of being transported and escaping to another world is also a lot more powerful and this makes it a lot more rewarding so I can tolerate the frustration of not knowing what the heck is going on. And knowing that the act of reading is improving my language skills in the target language helps too. In English I’m a total binge reader and I can be that way in foreign languages too but since I go slowly especially as a beginner it’s not the same. It took me a year to read my first book in Korean for example. And it took like 8 months maybe to read my 2nd book? I don’t recall. It was faster but still painfully slow. I did it on LingQ looking up or even translating whole sentences a lot. I’m finally reaching a point with Korean where I might be able to read some books without looking up words (as long as I don’t mind understanding less). But I think looking up words, even if it’s fast on an ebook, breaks the immersive effect and so I’m going to challenge myself not to do it. Well, I want to increase my vocabulary so I’m going to look up a few words but really try to limit it.
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
It's always a struggle to balance how many words to look up. If you look everything up, it becomes a slog, but if you don't, you could be missing out on helpful vocab. Where do you read e-books in Korean? I've checked on Kindle and they don't seem to really have Korean books there, but I haven't looked too far into it, since right now I prefer to have a physical book. (Something about physically seeing the books on the shelf that I've finished is very satisfying, as is seeing the bookmark slowly make it's way through the thickness of the pages)
@Tanyachen14
2 ай бұрын
@@SomedayKorean Hi! just found out your channel, your videos are very interesting! :) for Korean ebooks there's a ton of them on Google play books, thesedays that's where I buy them. Then hop! to my Ereader! 😀
@expmin1
4 ай бұрын
The youtube algorithm got me here. I am curious, have you tried webnovels? I found them a really nice stepping stone. A little bit more over my korean reading journey: although I alway focus my effort on listening at the beginning, my goal is always to get to reading (novels) as soon as possible in any language, because it's simply one of the fastest and most efficient way to dramatically increase vocabulary size. So I actually bought my first korean books one year into my korean learning journey, a novel and a collection of short stories, as a "goal" to look forward to. I just came back to the books regularly to check my level of understanding. 2 years in, I started making way through the short stories. And around the 3 year mark, I finally got back to and finished the novel, reading the remaining 2/3 of the books faster than I had read the first chapter 2 years earlier. What got me there : lots of input through dramas, native youtube videos and podcasts + books 2-4 of "reading korean with culture" and reading a few webnovels! I found them overall much easier. The chapters are short, making it a nice manageable daily objective (although I found myself binge reading after a while). And you can read a LOT for free. Reading is still very challenging, so I am currently trying to divert drama watching time to reading more.
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
It's actually crossed my mind a few times, since I've noticed a few of the webtoons that I'm reading are based on web novels apparently. Is it similar to webtoons in that you can read all the chapters of web novels that are ongoing, and then later they're put behind a paywall?
@expmin1
3 ай бұрын
@SomedayKorean I have been reading on kakaopage, and no, I've read already completed web novels. They're 기다무: 기다리면 무료. So you just have to wait a couple of hours to read the next chapter. The last ten published chapters cannot be read for free, but there are all sorts of events to get tokens for free
@delthea1399
4 ай бұрын
Great video 🙌🏼✨ I feel like webtoons are a great gateway to reading more in Korean!! I've studied japanese for about two years.. and I feel like in Japanese novels/light novels/manga, I can easily read through pretty much anything I set my mind on 🙌🏼 But in Korean, I'm still in the easy webtoons phase ✨
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
For sure!! The one negative thing for learners is that they tend to have a lot of slang in them compared to traditional books, which isn't super beginner/intermediate friendly, but other than that it's much easier to read through. Any webtoons that you recommend?
@delthea1399
4 ай бұрын
@@SomedayKorean That's true.. I've only been reading 홍시는 날 좋아해! This was recommended for beginners in some KZitem video I once saw a long time ago. It's challenging and I'm a slow reader but I'm making some progress?? Reading in Korean for me isn't yet fun for me, it is so much work, but I trust it will change if I just keep reading 😊
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
@@delthea1399 Best of luck! Hopefully both of us can keep improving our Korean reading 😄
@xojaci
4 ай бұрын
i looooove reading in spanish (esp webtoons hehe), but i've been really slow to do with korean for every reason you explained. i'm def starting with webtoons and every once in a while, i'll open up a webtoon in korean and attempt it, but it's so beyond me right now :') i hope it continues to get better and better for you!
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
When I first tried reading Korean webtoons years ago, it was a struggle for sure. Especially because of all the slang! But once you hit a certain point, they're great reading material!
@joreneelanguages
4 ай бұрын
Hopefully you can break through into the fun reading a bit more! I am “dreading” this aspect a bit in learning a non European language, it is truly a cheat code when learning a related language 😆 webtoons are such a life hack tho
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
I'm slowly but surely getting there!
@yuenatv
4 ай бұрын
woah 14 years!! would love any advice you’d give to beginners learning Korean & any mistakes you made in your language journey that you’d advise beginners against!
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
That's a huge question that I definitely can't answer fully in one comment here, but my biggest advice is to have fun studying the language, whatever that looks like for you. Find activities that you personally find engaging or fun -- repeated exposure over time is the key to learning a language, so no matter what method or resource you use, the key is that you keep coming back to the language. Mistakes.. hmm. I spent a LOT of time studying a "1000 most common words" course on Memrise way back in the day, and I really don't think it was worth all the time and effort I put into it. Although, going back to my first paragraph, I was extremely motivated to sort of "finish the challenge" of learning all the words, so it did push me to engage with Korean to some degree every single day. One mistake I often see people make is getting really hung up on not understanding one certain sentence ending or grammar structure. If you feel stuck on something, don't bury yourself there. You can try to find other resources online or videos on KZitem to explain it a different way (sometimes a different explanation can resonate a lot better and make things click), but if you still don't get it, just move on to other concepts and revisit it again in the future. Most likely it will eventually click if you let it percolate in your brain long enough and encounter it a few times in dramas or whatever. No use staying in one place banging your head against the same old wall -- there are so many other things you can learn in the meantime! Hope that helps 😊
@yuenatv
4 ай бұрын
@@SomedayKorean Thank you so much! I will take up your advice!! Looking forward to your next upload :)
@kara8429
4 ай бұрын
Maybe you have already talked about this in a different video, but how did you learn Korean originally? Did you take classes or was it completely self study?
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
I'm not sure I have a video where I spell it out completely, but yes, basically I was self-taught. The first several years were a VERY slow, meandering path of learning a few things on and off when I felt inspired to throughout high school, and then once I got to college I really started to study more intensively. The backbone of learning the basics was through TTMIK's audio lessons + PDFs that they had for free on their website (I think it's still available somewhere on there but I'm not 100% sure). I'm not sure it's the best resource out there today, but it worked for me to build a solid understanding of the basics.
@fabian1019
4 ай бұрын
Is it OK just to look the meaning of the words that I don't know and keep reading or I have to make like flashcards or example sentences with those words?
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
There is no "right" or "wrong" -- They have different pros and cons for sure. I've never been much of a flashcard-maker personally, although occasionally I feel inspired to make them. Do whatever you find more enjoyable or helpful for you! ☺
@fabian1019
4 ай бұрын
@@SomedayKorean I don't know why but sometimes I think that if don't make the flashcards then I'm not learning but at the same time it gets kind of annoying cuz that time I spend creating the flashcards I could use it for reading or listening instead, so yeah, now I don't enjoy that much making flashcards. Ps: I like your videos 👏🏼👏🏼 grettings from Perú
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
@@fabian1019 Yeah I basically have that same feeling. They have their benefits, but generally I'd much rather prefer to keep reading/watching more content than stop and spend so much time making flashcards.
@ApricityLife
4 ай бұрын
It is very funny I am almost the exact opposite. 😅 I learned the languages I learned because I was aiming to read their literature over anything else. My reading skills are maxed out but I am slogging with listening. 😂 I don’t enjoy tv or movies very much, things just look so much cooler in my brain and I have a horrible attention span on screens. Can read for hours and hours but put me on a screen and I can barely last 10 min. I am thinking I might have to see if audiobooks help because I am getting desperate 😂
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
Haha that's funny! In English I'm a hopeless binger in both shows and books, but in Korean, reading has definitely fallen behind. I've been so happy to discover that I've gotten to the point where I can easily binge webtoons, because it feels like being able to binge-read regular books is just around the corner 😄
@janelle.loves.languages
4 ай бұрын
Right now I'm reading a lot of graded readers in Korean so I feel like I"m running through content. It feels great! In Japanese and Spanish I've read a lot of native picture books and half chapter books (I have a major KZitem addiction in those languages which I should probably break away from and just read more) Chinese I've read a decent amount of baby board books and graded readers. French I've also read a lot of baby board books and picture books. German is def. the weakest link for me with reading right now. Can't say I've read anything in German besides random subtitles and couple free graded readers....yikes. Overall though I need to step up my reading game!
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
I wish I had a KZitem addiction to my target language content rather than English legal content 🤣 Where are you getting your graded readers for Korean, and do you recommend them? I'm past the point of needing them, but sometimes people ask me for recs.
@hcm9999
4 ай бұрын
I believe it is possible to achieve a reasonable level of fluency in any language in less than 3 years. You need to find material that is appropriate to your level. Currently I am studying Swedish by translating song lyrics Song lyrics are usually very easy to understand and translate and also easy to find on the internet. I listen to the song while reading the lyrics. I learn pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, all at the same time. It is fun, easy, addictive and extremely efficient. I use Google Translate and online dictionaries. I haven't bought any books and don't attend schools. I only study one hour every day. I never study more than an hour because I have other things to do and Swedish for me is just a hobby. But I never get bored, one hour of study flies by in an instant, I always want to study more.
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
Yes, I know people who got very advanced in just a few years!
@janiceknepp4604
4 ай бұрын
I'm hoping to get my Korean up to the point of even reading a full novel
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
It took me 7 years from learning Hangeul to convince myself to read a children's book 🤣🤣 I hope you motivate yourself to read a book a lot sooner in your learning journey 😅
@nendoakuma7451
4 ай бұрын
When I read Chinese, I mostly just read short stories or news articles. I rarely have time read a whole book in a reasonable amount of time.
@SomedayKorean
4 ай бұрын
Regardless of length, reading both stories and the news seems like a great way to be exposed to a huge variety of vocabulary. Where do you read them?
@nendoakuma7451
4 ай бұрын
@@SomedayKorean i prefer e-editions so I can look up words kore quickly. Sometimes I read short stories in a kindle edition. Newspaper articles just mainly through news apps.
@nendoakuma7451
4 ай бұрын
I’ve kind of just started with Korean so I’m not at that point, but for Vietnamese and Chinese that’s what I do
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