2025 Year Review

This is my review of learning Korean this year.

Reflection on Progress

I started this year on a high note. I started doing 1-hour tutoring sessions for Korean, and things were going alright. The majority of my learning was done by going to my tutoring session, reviewing the notes from the session, and putting them into Anki. If I remember correctly, I was also watching a couple K-Dramas with dual subtitles and learning that way.

Things went pretty well until May, when I kind of fell off for a couple of months. I didn't do pretty much anything. Not even my tutoring sessions. I think the trigger was when I got back from EDC. I just didn't end up setting the time for the next session and neglected to do it for the next month or two. From then until July was fine. But in July I started picking up significanly, especially the end of July and through the rest of the year.

I kept doing my tutoring sessions every week. I started doing Anki reviews much more often, started watching K-Dramas more often, watching Korean YouTube videos more often, and just in general, adding way more Korean to my daily life.

Earlier this week, the actual last tutoring session of the year, my Korean tutor mentioned that I was doing very well and had improved a lot over the past couple of weeks. I was kind of suprised, but I noticed it too during that session. I was able to speak Korean and form sentences. I could understand anywhere from 70% to 100% of what she said during that time. I really think I've come a long ways since I started.

One thing I noticed is that learning Korean, or any language, is different than it may seem. It's been told several times that the process of learning is not a linear process. It is more of a step-wise function where you make significant improvements in a small period of time, and the rest of the time you wonder why you are doing this. It is a different beast to experience this in real life for something that you are learning. Especially as an adult.

Challenges

My main challenge this year was consistency. Especially during the May-July period, I wasn't consistent. But I came back and I was able to pick up the pace.

Another challenge I have still, is that I sometimes get frustrated when I feel like I'm not learning enough or learning fast enough. It's hard to know when you are learning, and when you aren't.

Favorite Resources

My favorite resources for this year were: Italki/Tutoring, K-Dramas, Anki, and YouTube.

Quantitative Measurements

Days studied: Approximately 300 days I count studying as a day when I do at least something related to Korean. Whether it's listeing to a Korean podcast/video for 5 minutes, or doing a handful of Anki cards.

Italki sessions completed: 47 (1 hour sessions)

Estimated hours studied: 200 hours This is a very rough estimate. I honestly don't know how long I studied this year. Some days, I'd study for a few hours, other days I'd study for 5 minutes. I just kept up the habit as much as I could.

Reflection on Last Year's Goals

Goal: Do something every day related to learning Korean.

• I was able to achieve my goal of doing somthing related to Korean every day. I was able to do it consistently, other than the May-July period.

Goal: Do 1 hour sessions of Korean tutoring.

• I increased my tutoring sessions from 45 to 1 hour sessions. I felt more confident doing them, and I honestly don't know what I was so scared of.
• Additionally, I moved off of Italki in order to directly pay my Korean tutor. It's the same price, but I wanted to pay my tutor directly.

Goal: Continue to use Lingq.

• I sometimes use Lingq to help me with learning Korean, but I don't use it as much as I used to. It's good for YouTube videos, but it can be a little frustrating for other things. I do still use it, but I think it is just a tool that I can use, I don't think I need to focus on it too much.

Goal: Build a specific Korean learning time and space.

• I didn't make a specific time and space for my Korean learning. I instead just did my Korean learning wherever I could. I think in general, this is a better approach. I can listen to Korean while doing work, I can watch K-Dramas while on the treadmill, and I can join my tutoring sessions on a consistent basis.

Goals for the Next Year

My main goal for next year is to continue to learn Korean. I want to copy my previous goal to do something every day related to learning Korean. I honestly think this is probably the best goal that any learner can have. As long as the consistency is there, the learning will come.

I want to track my progress and time spent learning Korean better this year. I want to be able to see how much I've learned and how much I've studied over time, and give an accurate number at the end of the year. As a part of this, I also want to write about my learning experience more often. About once a month.

I want to go to Korea next year. Luckily, I already booked the flights and am going in a few weeks. I am so excited to finally go to Korea and experience the culture for myself.

A stretch goal for the next year is to be able to watch an entire season of a K-Drama in full Korean, and understand 80% of it.