The Risk of Skipping the Basics in a new Language
This is the story of how I improved greatly at Korean when I first started and then ended up stagnating due to this misstep in the learning process.
In 2008, I had my first contact with Korea and its language. During a volunteering Workcamp in the south of France, I met two Korean girls who were there and they taught me a few words. Following this, I received message in Korean by one of them. To be able to understand it, I learned the Script (Hangul) but soon enough, I stopped learning the language.
One summer later, during another Workcamp in Italy this time, I met a Korean guy who taught me more about Korea and the language as well.
I then heard about a cheap evening course given by the Korean Culture Center in Paris. Thus, I decided to apply to it and spent the remaining of my summer studying Korean diligently. The goal was to be able to have the level needed for the “false-beginner” class. While I did reach the level required, unfortunately, when it was time to register, by the time my turn came, no spot was left in this class. Due to this, I was forced to chose between the complete beginner class, starting from learning the script, the sentence construction, etc., or the intermediate level.
Taking into account the level I had reached during the month and a half spent studying…
