Language Learning Pro Tip: Vocabulary Lists are Useless

In the 7 months that I’ve been in my Applied Linguistics Master’s Program, I’ve learned a crazy amount of information about second language acquisition theory and practical learning and teaching applications of that knowledge.  Some of this information was new to me, and some of it confirmed what I had already figured out via trial and error in my own language learning journey.

I finally feel ready to start compiling some of this information and presenting it here in the form of “pro tips”.

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Language Goals for 2018

It’s already a week into the new year, but I’m just now getting around to posting my language learning goals for 2018.  Even though I mentioned in my last post that my goals tend to change a lot throughout the year and that’s why I didn’t meet my original goals for 2017, I still enjoy the process of setting goals.  It’s fun to have something to work towards throughout the year, and I enjoy looking back through old posts and seeing what goals were important to me in times past.

That said, here are my goals for the remaining 51 weeks of the year:

Looking Back: 2017 Progress Report

At the beginning of the year (which seems like an eternity ago), I set several language learning goals that I hoped to accomplish this year (read them here).  In hindsight, this was a rather futile quest since my interests and focus have shifted several times throughout the year.  I thought it would still be fun to reflect

Not Part of the Family

A huge part of Korean culture consists of fake “family relationships” that people establish with their close friends and peers.  If you have a friend who is older than you,

My First italki Experience

In my post about my fall goals (here), I mentioned that my main goal was to find a language exchange partner this fall.  Even though I’ve made several pretty-close Korean friends, I never established any sort of “language exchange”-like relationship with them, we just hang out and study and eat food together.

Teaching Calculus in Korean

The odd mixture of my educational background and future goals often causes people to misunderstand what exactly I want to do with my life.

I have a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics Education and I’m currently working on a Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics/TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages).  When people ask me what I want to do after I graduate, I usually mention that I want to go work as a teacher in Korea.

Making Korean Friends – Update

In my last post (see here), I mentioned that I really wanted to make Korean friends in order to practice my Korean speaking skills, and that I had already been texting someone through HelloTalk that I had hoped to meet.

Well, it’s been almost a month since then, and a lot has happened!