About.me
Out of the box!
Just a regular girl, fell in love with a Korean drama in 2007 was too damn lazy to study then (I was like 12? ~) few years past and being older I started to study Korean in late 2010 ~ early 2011 I have taken a step-back every now and then but one thing that never changes is the passion I have to fully understand the culture and language of Korea.
The journey!
More about the Korean language learning journey! I have been self studying since (as said above) late 2010/ early 2011 till now, 2014. Trying to learn a language on my own wasn’t new to me but it was the first time I guess I really went farther with it and learnt more than a couple of phrases, Korean I went the long haul, signing up for free accounts anywhere I could find, hunting online for learning material and resources found and few that were good, but sadly sometimes most of them left me totally disappointed by the material that was supposedly FREE (don’t always take the word literally)
When I finally grew a brain I found koreanclass101 and started mass downloading and learning like a crazy addict >.< from there I discovered and learnt many other things online like the fact that using Rosetta Stone for almost 6months was a total waste of my time (you can imagine I was pissed right?)
Opened this blog in 2012 (June 29th) on wordpress.com to document and share my journey with everyone, if I can help with something I make sure I share it! All my trials and tribulations will be in this little space I like to call (and you too can call it …) the Koreannotebook blog (:
Ha.
The timeline!
I wanna do a timeline because its good to keep track of stuff, helps with motivation but sadly I have forgotten a lot of what I did so its will be a vague one and in future happenings will be more precise.
- Watched a Korean drama in 2007 (one that is a favourite for me)
- Began self study journey in late 2010/ early 2011
- Learnt Hangul in April 2011
- Opened the blog in 2012 (June 29th)
- Bought first textbook (2012)
- Bought first full-length Korean book (세상에 너를 소리쳐) also 2012
- TOP 100 Language Lovers 2013 (got into the top 100 and it was my first year of blogging)
- Opened a Korean blog (for just Korean writings) on Naver HERE
As more stuff related to Korea/Korean happen for/to me I will update it so ^^ up till then I’m sorry but you have this pathetic list of events ㅋㅋ
About Kirsten (koreannotebook)
I mean this in a sense of who really am I? The real me, because as I am writing this blog I want people to know me and who I really am so we can get to know each other more, after all we will most likely have at least one thing in common right? Korean, Korea! if you are here means we have a common ground 🙂
Hope you enjoyed this introduction, I didn’t know what to write so I just decided to be ME isn’t that the best way to describe myself? Being myself. Now go ahead and put your email in the “Subscribe” box in the sidebar to receive updates every time I post (don’t worry its not often I won’t spam you) just a couple of times a week! 🙂
Also don’t hesitate to send me an email here : seoulinkay@gmail.com and don’t forget to say “Hi” or ask a question in the comments.
Let’s get the ball rolling, and again welcome to my Korean space hope to see you more often on the blog.
Top 100 Language Lovers 2013
Nice to meet another Korean learner! 🙂
Same here ^^ always nice to meet Korean learners and learn from then hehe
nice meeting you SunMin! 😀
Nice meeting you too :))
When should one stop using subtitles to understand k-drama? I was told straight at the beginning.
Personally I think when you know enough words to be able to piece it all together or if you just start trying to watch with no subtitles from the beginning you will get frustrated and in the end fail and learn nothing! So first learn enough to piece it together with out subs then watch it with no subs then again with to see how you did 🙂
Good luck with your quest 🙂 you’re right that focus should be on the process, not only some arbitrary goal. Enjoy 🙂
Thanks 🙂 and yeah of you don’t have that focus most times its just frustrating isn’t it? And thanks for the comment 🙂
waaaa i did heard ur practies in korean and japanese was amazing i wanna be like u T_T i feel boring if i study every day so i study jusit 1day in 2weeks
Thanks ^_^ haha sometimes I also get bored of studying 🙂 so it’s alright! Just study a little bit everyday ^_^
Neat blog. I have been studying Korean for 10 years and still learn things everyday. Keep it up!
Wow! 10 years that’s awesome 🙂 thanks for the comment and kind words I will definitely keep it up ^_^
안녕 하세요 Kirsten! 만나서 반가워요. 🙂
안녕하세요 Andy, 저도 반가워요 🙂
코멘트를 주셔서 감사합니다 🙂
천만에요. :>
한국사람 아닌지어디에서 왔어요?
한국사람 아닌지? 그럼 어디에서 왔어요? 한국말 잘하시네요~~^^
ㅋㅋㅋ 네!!! 저는 한국 사람 아니에요! 저는 짐바브웨 왔어요!!!! 🙂
Thanks!!! I will answer you questions 😀
So cool to see someone else learning both Chinese and Korean! 2011년 5월 한국말 공부하는 걸 시작했어요. 대학교에서 8월부터 4월까지 한국말 수업하고 중국말 수업을 들었어요. 이 여름에 한국말, 중국말하고 스웨덴말을 공부해요. 我喜欢学外语， 很好玩。(~ 내가 외국어를 공부하는 걸 좋아하고 아주 재미있어요.) Best of luck with both languages! If you need any new Chinese resources, I can probably point you in the direction of some^^
Yes. You too? 저도 20011년 5얼 한국어 공부 시작했습니다.
Hello! It’s a pleasure to meet a person learning Korean. I’m a Korean and I enjoy learning languages as well! If there’s anything I can be of help, let me know! 😀
Hi ^^ its a pleasure to meet you too. I appreciate the offer and thanks for visiting my blog 🙂
Wow. You can read novels now? I started last week, so I trying to find relavent blogs to keep me motivated. Keep up the great work!
Hello. I read them but naturally I have to look words up but the fun of it all keeps me going. I wish you the best with your journey and I will keep an eye out for your blog in the future XD
Thank you 🙂
Hi, I’m also trying to learn Korean! 🙂 I started about 3 years ago.. and I’m 16 haha I sort of stopped progressing last year since I was really really busy from my school work… but I think what kept me going this year was my korean friends in school. I want to talk to them without my other classmates understanding 😀
and maybe as I browse your blog, you’ll be one of my motivation to study too heheh :)))
What a great blog you’ve got here!
Best wishes for your studies.. 🙂
Wow. Thanks for the comment and the encouragement I love the info you have on your blog too. XD its a great help.
Thanks again! 🙂
It’s nice to meet you, I’m NyNy! Just wanted to stop by and say I like your posts.
I hope when you have the time, you can check out some of mine and comment plus I’m still writing my travel entries when I went to Korea last year. I’d appreciate if you took a look 🙂
http://nynyonline.co.uk
Hi NyNy its nice to meet you too! ^^ and thanks so much for visiting and leaving a comment 🙂
Yes, absolutely I’ll definitely check out your blog, always love reading about Korea more ♥♥♥
Thanks again.
Hi Kirsten,
I’ve read (quite) a few posts from your blog and I’ve liked them a lot.
Let me introduce myself. I’m a Spaniard who travelled to Shanghai last June.
Since then, I started watching movies and listening to music from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea.
I’ve recently started to listen to Alex Chu (from Clazziquai) and Sweet Sorrow.
Maybe you can recommend some more music from Korea 🙂
Take care and keep up the good work!
Ana
Hi Ana,
Thank you so much for reading my blog in the first place! ^^ and its nice to meet you.
I only listen to a few groups for Korean music, you should try listening to 소셔시대 (SNSD), 2NE1, SISTAR <<< girl groups>>> and for boy groups I recommend trying CNBLUE, EXO, SS501, JYJ, and a solo singer Kim Jaejoong
this song!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVHmIpUpBxI
Kirsten… I know you don’t know me, but I read your ‘now deleted’ post! I just wanted to say ~something… actually I don’t have answers for you or even anything to say to make you feel better. It sounds like you are having a really hard time. .. and I hope your mum gets better. I don’t remember how old you are.. but seems people around you still think you are a kid and not the mature minded young person, that you actually are. Like i said i don’t know what to say to make you feel better and you already said you don’t want to hear “just ignore it”.. all i know is that i am sure your mum cares about you and lots of people do… even people like me, on the Internet who really love your blog. stay strong, I wish you all the best and hope you feel better soon!
Hello. I just want to say thank you for the kind words. I appreciate them a lot, I was going through a tough time but now I feel like my old self again (–not sure for how long though xD) yeah I do feel like that sometimes …the way I look most times people don’t see my age and keep behaving around me like I’m some toddler (which I am not…and I’m 20yrs old) yeah I know she does but when everything gets out of control, you need someone to blame, and hate to say it, but my mum seemed like a pretty good option, instead of putting it all on my dislike of these people I decided it would be easier if I said to myself it was my mum -___- thankfully my mum is ok, she probably needs surgery though — which will make me have another breakdown but we’ll see….preventable if I see it coming.
Thank you again, for the kind words they were very uplifting 🙂 have a good day. And happy K-studying hehehe <3 <3 <3
우와 정말 열심히 공부하셨네요 ^^ 멋져요~! 앞으로도 화이팅!
안녕하세요. 네, ㅋㅋㅋ 열심히 공부 하고싶어요!!! ^^ 코맨트 남겨 주셔서 감사합니다.
안녕하세요 Kristen! Nice to meet someone who’s learning Korean and Japanese too.. I had studied some korean last year before I came to here in Korea but you know daily korean conversation is hard and we were only taught 존댓말, dayam..xd, But my heart goes to japanese and trying to do self study from free online resources, but unfortunately as u said somewhere, useless sites covers the frontpage of google (though I’ve found some good sites like guidetojapanese.org, freejapaneselessons.com, jlptstudy.net, yosida.com, japaneseclass.jp) but after mastering kana i dont hav any idea how and where to dig now, all of those sites have diff guides (it wont happen with other lang like korean)ㅠㅠ kind of frustrated.. cud you rcmd me some Japanese learning books (I hav one but it has lots of phrases indeed) arigatougozaimasta! and all the best for your further studies
I think I’ll stay longer here. I want to learn Korean because I want to send Fancafe messages but everyone’s writing in Korean. Thanks for this blog!
ARE YOU STILL learning koreaN???
In my spare time yes, I just keep to myself lately (: