그럼에도 불구하고, language을 勉強 하는 过程真的楽しいですよう！

oh, that was a mouthful.

but what is a better way to showcase my learning, if not for this crazy, borderline-nonsensical title? as you can see, these are the big 4 languages of my life (currently).

yesterday evening, i started on a new kdrama, “can this love be translated?”, after logging off from ENHYPEN’s comeback showcase. this kdrama revolves around an actress and a translator, who navigate the difficult language called love. and in the opening scenes of the drama, the female lead is captured in conversation with her male lead on a travel show, and the conversation was being simultaneously interpreted by the translator over radio. the scripted male lead for the travelling show happened to be japanese.

boy, was i pleasantly surprised to realise that i could understand simple sentences, and pick out certain phrases that i’ve come across during my two months of studying. while i can’t say with full confidence that two short months of studying made me into a japanese master, this little realisation got me to remember why i enjoy studying languages.

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the first language i learnt all by myself, at my own will (sorry chinese), is korean. if people asked how long i’ve been studying korean, i would most likely say 3 solid years and counting, but that’s a lie. my history with the korean language started way before december 2022 — it started exactly 10 years ago.

in 2016, my interest in korean was piqued by the one and only … KPOP!!! i was obsessed with how the music kpop offered sounded so vastly different from the pop that i was used to growing up (taylor swift, katy perry, ariana grande, one direction I LOVE YOU). not to mention, i didn’t understand a single thing the singers were saying, apart from the random inclusions of english that did not make sense tense-wise (i still have an issue with that now).

my mother borrowed korean guidebooks from the library, and that was my first attempt at learning korean. i still clearly remember what the guidebook cover looks like, and i managed to nail down some basics, like the components of korean words. it didn’t last long though — i was satisfied belting out the lyrics the way i heard them, without knowing what they meant. i mean, subtitles exist for a reason, right? and so i carried on scrawling the names of bts members (mostly incorrectly) on my school exercise books.

what happened between graduating from primary school and secondary 4 is murky in my memory, but i remember consistently attempting a korean exercise book on my ipad during morning assembly instead of reading books. my love for kpop continued to grow, and i noticed that i was able to understand some basic exchanges during livestreams. at that point, my foundation was more or less there, but i wasn’t all so confident in understanding spoken language. i remember my mom telling my aunt that i was able to understand what the korean actors on tv were saying, and my aunt laughed in response.

and so i started my korean journey, seriously. i bought guidebooks from online using the money i’ve never touched in my bank. after i finished a series of textbooks, i moved on and ventured out of my comfort zone — textbooks that were purely written in korean. no english, no translated text. pure korean.

the start was rocky, and i felt frustrated with myself for having to whip out papago for a translation of this word and that word almost half the time i was studying. at one point, i just pretended to understand what the sentence was saying when, in actual fact, i only could infer from the words i recognised in the sentences. i wanted to be able to read a whole chunk of text without the need to search up any words, but i felt so stuck and helpless.

i didn’t give up. i searched up terms to my heart’s content, purchased my first ever korean book, and continued listening to kpop. and then, the jump came. i was suddenly capable of understanding korean lyrics, long texts and forming grammatically correct sentences.

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when i first started learning korean, i wished for one day where i would be able to understand every single word that exists in the korean dictionary. although i’m 10 years into k-content and 3 into korean self-study, i still come across words that i’ve never heard of. trends come and go, and it’s basically impossible to be ‘up-to-date’ with everything, because language is a form of culture. and culture always progresses.

one key highlight of my journey learning korean so far has to be translating. i applied for a translator role for a kpop fandom in early 2023, and i passed their tests. though i do not officially translate for the kpop group itself, the amount of joy i’ve experienced doing my tasks renders the pain i’ve experienced to get to this extent of fluency absolutely worthy. never in my wildest dreams did i expect to be able to translate korean sentences into english. sentences became paragraphs, and paragraphs became full-fledged articles. although i still do come across foreign phrases now and then, i practically breeze through these tasks now.

i’m also so grateful to be able to converse with koreans and share our love for our favourite kpop idols in their native language. i’ve made a few really good friends that i still talk to from time to time, and it amazes me just how many doors had opened just because i was interested in the korean language.

i’m still very not used to compliments on my fluency, because deep down i believe that im far from my definition of ‘fluent’. i’ve also gotten comments saying they thought i was a native korean, which was quite heartwarming.

korean isn’t the same without my dear word list i bought on my trip to korea :D (i should’ve bought another 5)

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with a new challenge in my hands, i hope to treat japanese with the same amount of passion and perseverance as i did with korean. although i don’t have the motivation of idols supporting my dream of being fluent in japanese, i’ll never stop reminding myself of the reason i choose to invest my time in the study of languages.

language is the key to many doors — the doors i want to access in life.

whenever i experience setbacks learning basic grammar rules, i can’t help but wish that i could jump to a fluency similar to that of my korean. but then again, where’s the fun in that? and if i could, what would that make of my efforts to learn korean?

so i’ll take it the slow and steady way, encounter obstacle after obstacle, feel dejection, a lack of motivation, despair, and then, after all of that, a satisfaction that i can call my own.

nothing in life can ever come close to replacing the spark i feel whenever i used words correctly, understood a sentence, or receive a new stash of workbooks to work on.

i can still clearly remember the night i was first able to form a sentence mentally. i imagined someone approaching me, speaking in japanese. i then imagined myself responding.

“私は　日本語　ちょっと　します。” (i can speak a little japanese)

i fell asleep happy and wonderstruck that night.

my current language cabinet — dangerously close to exploding 😀

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i hold so much anticipation for what’s to come in my language journey. after i master japanese, i’ll go on to tackle other languages.

after all, what’s life without a little 흥미? :p

ps. my parcel containing my latest haul of workbooks arrived when i was drafting this. is this fate?