journey

notes on things I'm learning. currently: Korean

Lesson 115 (Pre-Advance 1 Lesson 13)

This should be the last for Pre-Advance 1, since this was the test. I won’t go into a lot of detail, but generally, it was easy. It was easy, and doable, from me who has not been studying and reviewing Anki much. Listening was easy and I could catch most things. Oral was easy too in that nothing was conversation or question and answer. Yes, I still made mistakes that I know I did. I forgot words that I should not have forgotten if I had properly revised. And I found myself forgetting conjugatio...
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Lesson 114 (Pre-Advance 1 Lesson 12)

Today was a marathon of posts (6 in total) and this is the last. With this I will be caught up but who knows for how long before I fall behind again and I still have homework. Part of my purpose for grinding this out first is also for the sake of revision before I attempt the revision worksheet that is the homework. (This was possible only because of the rain and I did not go out.) When the teacher mentioned a revision lesson the previous week, I thought it would be like before, going through t...
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Lesson 113 (Pre-Advance 1 Lesson 11)

This was the lesson that at the end of the class, the teacher informed us that the test would be in two weeks. The best part is that she would not be around and it would be another teacher administering the test (yes, that includes oral, and it will be recorded so she can view it). Great. We finished the last 2 grammar points in the handout. We also went through the video script. This time, the video script wasn’t separate, but was stapled together with the handout, making the notes extra thic...
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Lesson 112 (Pre-Advance 1 Lesson 10)

We started by going through the vocabulary on the first page of the Chapter 2 handout. My scrap notes for this lesson were also unsure and forgot what we had covered in the previous lesson. (The only way I can actually write these posts is actually because I have some notes, though they may be missing information.) We also went to look at the textbook (vocabulary section, p. 46 only) to talk about bad habits. This was an activity of sorts too in the handout. Then, we covered the first two gramm...
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Lesson 111 (Pre-Advance 1 Lesson 9)

We finished up Chapter 1 in the textbook. There was also a video script for Chapter 1 in the new set of notes that I received (along with the revision sheet, and notes for Chapters 2 and 3). We started with the video script, with the usual practising after. One of the items was a song (we didn’t have to practise that). After that, we moved to the textbook, picking up at the Listening and Speaking portion and finishing Chapter 1. We started on the vocabulary for Chapter 2 but I believe we did no...
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Lesson 110 (Pre-Advance 1 Lesson 8)

We covered the rest of the grammar points in the handout, and then started on the book. Not everything was gone through in detail, we skipped the first part which was vocab, and went to grammar review. We covered the two speaking dialogues. The main thing would probably be the grammar points. Grammar 3A Chapter 1 2. V-아야겠다/어야겠다 This is used to show the speaker’s strong determination of doing something which they think should be done. It is a combination of the 아야/어야/해야 (should do something...
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Lesson 109 (Pre-Advance 1 Lesson 7)

I started this note the day after the original lesson but never finished it. And I have 6 lessons after this to cover until today. The next lesson is the pre-advanced test. I have decided to include the date for my own sanity. However, I am uncertain about keeping this format in future. I think using Obsidian may be better, but I have been neglecting that too. Once I settle these and make sense of things, I will decide how things will go. Actually, this post should have been also pretty short (...
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Lesson 108 (Pre-Advance 1 Lesson 6)

We started the lesson with the guessing game. We were supposed to write 5 sentences using the 서술체 form that we learnt in the last lesson that I did not do. We finished up the 2B book. There is not really much to talk about. The culture note was a poem. Then we had to write a poem as homework, which was the task on that page. The teacher sent us 2 other sample poems. I tried my best with this one. There was no new pronunciation topic. Instead, there was a passage with certain words underlin...
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Lesson 107 (Pre-Advance 1 Lesson 5)

This post is a short one, because there’s no new grammar points (all were covered the previous lesson). What we did was mostly a review of those points by doing the activities in the textbook. We started with Quizlet, 2 rounds. I had checked after that lesson but there was no new deck. However, it was added by some point. (There was a 3 week break between Lesson 106 and Lesson 107, just that I procrastinated on that post until Lesson 107, and then a week after that.) We finished up the handout...
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Lesson 106 (Pre-Advance 1 Lesson 4)

Super long overdue post from last year. I decided I better get this in before my next lesson (108). Fortunately, the next lesson does not have much new content but was a lot of revision out of the textbook. Which was necessary given the 3 weeks break between lessons 106 and 107. Started with the Self Check for Chapter 17 before starting on Chapter 18. Covered all 3 grammar points for the chapter. The third is the most important, in fact, the main grammatical concept that we will see again in th...
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Lesson 105 (Pre-Advance 1 Lesson 3)

This lesson does not have a lot to write for the post. It feels strange to have so much speaking activities again and slowing down the pace to what was normal in the past. My wifi was acting up at the start of this lesson. Fortunately, it was just the wifi and not the internet, and plugging in a LAN cable worked. If not, I kept having things freeze on me every minute at the start of the lesson. In the textbook, we started with p. 232 which was an activity to describe the picture, serving as a ...
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Lesson 104 (Pre-Advance 1 Lesson 2)

This lesson, we covered the last two grammar points in Chapter 17. We started with Quizlet, then covered the textbook, skipping p. 184 (the first grammar point) and going to the second on p. 185.1) Then we did Speaking 1, before going to the handout to cover the grammar points. Grammar 3. ‘ㅎ’ 불규칙 Some adjectives that end in the final consonant ‘ㅎ’ have an irregular conjugation. Mostly, these are adjectives for colours. This applies to some adjectives that end in the final consonant ‘ㅎ’. Som...
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Lesson 103 (Pre-Advance 1 Lesson 1)

This is two weeks overdue. This was the first lesson at the new timing and the class size effectively. It started with self-intro (as I expected). Seems like even on the other side, most people did not prepare anything. I had a few sentences that I wrote but I ended up not using most of it, but instead kept it simple. We went through the first two grammar points in Chapter 17, then did textbook for the vocab. It is such a leisurely pace, I am shocked, but even then, I think it is exactly what ...
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Lesson 102 (Intermediate 4 Lesson 8): Intermediate 4 Test

Test week. Wow, is this only Lesson 8? This is insane, it is twice the usual speed. Normally each level has 2 terms of 8 lessons each. Next week, we have lesson at the new timing, joining another class. Not sure if the meeting ID will change. Also, I hope I receive the materials this week because I don’t have any materials for the upcoming chapters. I realised that the teacher did not mark or return the homework I sent the previous week just before class. She did mark the one I did this past we...
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Lesson 101 (Intermediate 4 Lesson 7)

This will be a short post. Nothing new to cover today as it was a pure revision lesson. We even ended early, and the teacher said we will be given a discount on the next invoice (which will be sometime next year, since we—or at least I—just paid for a new term this past week, which lasts until the end of January). We covered the Self-Check section in the textbook. Next, we covered the first page of the revision sheet (which is vocab), and did Quizlet Live on the word sets. For Chapters 13 and...
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Lesson 100 (Intermediate 4 Lesson 6)

Test is in two weeks. We finished Chapter 16 this lesson, and next lesson will be revision. After the test, the lesson time will change, which means we are merging with the other class. I hope the class does not end up becoming too big… We started this lesson with Quizlet Live. This was really fortunate for me (because that means I can guess as it is MCQ) rather than having to answer individually. Of course this was the word deck (this is never done with the sentence deck). The winner was not s...
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Lesson 99 (Intermediate 4 Lesson 5)

We started with the Quizlet sentence deck for Chapter 15, each one taking turns to answer. We went to the textbook after that to do Speaking 1, then Speaking 2, as well as Listening. We skipped Culture Note, but did go through Pronunciation, but that was not really anything new. The vocab is all for the new chapter, Chapter 16. I am concerned that a test is coming soon, because the revision sheet is for Chapter 13–16… I don’t think we would skip 2 tests in a row… right? Pronunciation This i...
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Lesson 98 (Intermediate 4 Lesson 4)

I was around 2 minutes late trying to scan my homework for the previous week, and when I joined, they were going through the chapter 14 sentence Quizlet deck. We jumped right into chapter 15 after that, so nothing on the Culture Note or Pronunciation topic for chapter 14. We completed the handout, and also part of the textbook (just the vocab portions). As a side note, I have been experimenting with Obsidian once again since I bought publish. I think the way to link things up is very useful fo...
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Lesson 97 (Intermediate 4 Lesson 3)

We started with Quizlet review. It was a real review, where each of us took turns to translate into Korean the words from the chapter 14 Quizlet word set. I had revised that morning, but it was still hard. I am very far behind on Anki, so I have not seen the new cards outside of the Quizlet review that I did. Then, we finished off the rest of the handout, which had the last three grammar points for the chapter. For the textbook, we got as far as the Listening section. Reading and Writing is fo...
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Lesson 96 (Intermediate 4 Lesson 2)

While digging out the chapter 14 notes before the start of the lesson, I realised for this set from chapter 13 to 16 notes, with the revision from 13 to 16... there are no video scripts. This lesson we finished up with chapter 13, did a Quizlet review of chapter 13 vocab (good thing I revised), and then started on chapter 14. We finished the first grammar point in chapter 14. Culture Note The culture note was about traditional Korean houses. I felt it was not too long ago that we talked about...
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Lesson 95 (Intermediate 4 Lesson 1)

This is the start of a new term. There is also a new student who joined. She’s French, from France… I initially thought she was a student as she did look pretty young, but she said she was working here if I heard her correctly. The teacher said she had learned Korean back in France before. So I would guess she came over recently? Or only recently decided to pick up Korean again. Went through the entire handout for chapter 13 and covered all the grammar points. Even had time for the textbook an...
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Lesson 94 (Intermediate 3 Lesson 9)

There is no test for Intermediate 3. We found out somewhere in the middle of the lesson, after we had completed Chapter 12 and were moving into the revision paper. This means that this is the last lesson for Intermediate 3. It also explains why I received the cert for this level together with the next set of notes in this past week. It turns out that… we have indeed been speeding through the chapters (averaging 2 lessons per chapter instead of 2.5). I certainly noticed it somewhat (quite hard ...
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Lesson 93 (Intermediate 3 Lesson 8)

We started on Chapter 12, and went through the entire handout. This covered all the grammar points. We also reviewed the Quizlet sentence deck. Originally, there should be a test after Chapter 12, so I figured the test would be in about 2 weeks from today (i.e. 3 lessons after this one, since I am writing this a week late), but… well, I will talk about that in Lesson 94’s post. Grammar 1. A-아/어 보이다 This is used to express one’s guess or judgment about something based on its appearance. Lite...
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Lesson 92 (Intermediate 3 Lesson 7)

So it turns out that someone else in the class asked about the video script. There isn’t one for Chapter 11 (I searched for it after I wrote the post for the last lesson but before class began). In the end, we covered the video script for Chapter 10. Then, we finished up with the textbook, including Culture Note and Pronunciation, which I will cover. Next week, we will start on Chapter 12, which is also the last chapter before the next test. 😱 If that takes 2 weeks and another week for revisio...
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Lesson 91 (Intermediate 3 Lesson 6)

Oops, this is overdue, but… I am still writing it before the next lesson. We went through entire handout for Chapter 11, then we went through the Quizlet sentence deck for this chapter together (with Korean and English on one side, then the second round was to translate from English to Korean). Finally, we covered the first 2 pages of Chapter 11 in the textbook. For Chapter 10, I think we really missed the video script? I wonder if the next lesson we will begin with the video script for Chapt...
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Lesson 90 (Intermediate 3 Lesson 5)

This will be a short post since we spent almost the entire lesson in the textbook. There was one last page in the handout but it appears to be a speaking activity; we finished all the grammar last week. I wonder if the teacher forgot about the video script sheet since usually that comes after the handout. But today, we started with Quizlet sentence set (the usual, which is each one of us takes turns to translate one sentence). Then, we started with the textbook from the beginning all the way t...
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Lesson 89 (Intermediate 3 Lesson 4)

We started the lesson doing Quizlet Live. At the start of the lesson, there were only 3 of us in the class. After the first round, the girl who went to Korea not too long ago joined the class, but did not join the second (and last) round. The first round was to pick the Korean word from the English definition, and the second was the opposite. I had difficulty in the first round since I did not revise Quizlet separately before the lesson (I was rushing 3 weeks’ worth of homework… don’t ask). I m...
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Lesson 88 (Intermediate 3 Lesson 3)

We finished up Chapter 9 (and the 2A book), and started on Chapter 10. Culture Note This was about the special phone numbers in Korea. 120 is the one you call in Seoul when you want to know what are the other numbers to call 119 is for the fire department/ambulance 112 is for the police 114 is to find out the phone number of a particular business/shop 131 is for the weather 1330 is a travel hotline, and is what the short write-up covers Pronunciation We went through this very quickly, pro...
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Lesson 87 (Intermediate 3 Lesson 2)

We went through the Quizlet word set for Chapter 9 as a group. Then, we finished up the last grammar point in the handout, did the video script, and then went to the textbook (p. 204–209) The video script for this chapter had 2 songs apart from just having regular dialogues. Not a long post, because most of the time was spent doing the speaking exercises in the textbook. Grammar 4. N밖에 This is used to express the only thing or option available, with no possibility of anything else. It mean...
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Lesson 86 (Intermediate 3 Lesson 1)

Started the lesson going through the common mistakes for the test. This time, it was going through only the oral components. I checked my score after the lesson (even though the teacher had sent the report earlier in the day), and it turned out that I scored full marks for listening, which was surprising. I had guessed at least 1–2 of them. We started on Chapter 9, which is the last chapter of the SNU 2A textbook. We covered the vocabulary and first 3 grammar points in the handout. Then, we we...
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