it is so fun having two angles right now i have two cameras going
anyway are my windows too bright? it's a little bright isn't it? give me a second. oh, this is my outfit
now we're ready to roll. hello my friends it's nina and we are back with a studying video
as you saw by the title of this video i am going to be studying some korean and that is because
i'm going to korea again! oh my god i'm so excited so i actually have mentioned this in a past video
in my notion setup video i showed my notion and my schedule and on my calendar in june it did say
that i'm going to korea now i'm properly saying it in a video. i am going to korea
in two weeks i have not begun packing, i should probably get on that. but it's been three years
since i've gone last. i went in october of 2019 but i'm going again i'm going to seoul
i'm probably going to busan and maybe some other cities. so as you may or may not know i am a korean american
i'm ethnically korean, my entire family is from korea but i was born in the u.s and i
lived in america my entire life. and i also happen to be one of those korean americans
who can't speak korean fluently. there are korean americans who can speak fluently or
well, i just wasn't like that. but for the last five years i have been studying korean on and off
lately not as much because i just don't have as much time but since i am going to
korea soon i thought that i should take some proper time to study. right now i would say i'm...
am i conversational? kind of conversational, like a beginner conversational. if i had a conversation
with a korean child i would maybe struggle but i can have very simple conversations at this point
and then if i have enough time to think maybe i can properly speak or write i would say i'm
like beginner intermediate. i have not taken the proper time to study so that's what we're going
to do today, so let's just get started. i think the last time that i sat down and studied was a year ago
and it was my last study video. um anyway we're back and i am going to study. so the game plan for
today is i am going to literally just study common phrases. at this point i have studied
enough grammar that i should focus on how to speak in everyday situations. i tend to avoid studying
vocabulary just because it's a lot of memorization but at the same time i'm still very limited with
my vocabulary. i have a very basic vocabulary for korean. i speak konglish a lot which means korean
and english and that's because i won't know the korean word for a certain noun, a certain verb and
so i'm still speaking basically half korean half english and that's not very great. so i want to
properly study some common phrases so i can get around, maybe some vocabulary words. i especially
want to study transportation vocabulary because i am traveling. i want to know how to get around,
things like that. we'll see what else i want to study but for this episode of not really studying with nina
i want to focus on vocab and common phrases. sometimes we just gotta go simple
so a great tip if you're learning any language and you don't know where to start, start with phrases you
want to say to other people such as ordering at a restaurant, asking for directions, or just asking
any simple question. and think of vocabulary that you want to know. these are all very simple things
but simple things that i avoid because it requires a lot of memorization and memorizing is hard sometimes
so i kind of want to focus on ordering at restaurants i feel like that is one of my
biggest challenges. i'm literally writing ordering in korean. i can order very simple things, i even have.
when i was in vegas and i went to a korean sort of food court area i ordered soondubu and
i ordered in korean. i had literally a conversation in korean with the person who worked there and i
felt great. but most of the time i tend to back out or chicken out. i tend to just order in english or
even i'll make my friend order for me just because i will let my nerves get to me, so i want to be
a little more confident with ordering. and then something that i really need to do before i go to
korea is practice korean. i have to get my muscle memory going again. i do still speak korean with my
parents sometimes but i haven't been practicing as much. so i need to practice. i think for now i'm
going to look up some vocab. i am also going to practice my korean handwriting because it's been
a while. i've been very digital these days so i haven't been writing physically in a while
ah there it is okay today i learned [transportation card]
which is transportation card. so i think i'm going to do vocab first. transportation okay
wow i have not written in korean in a very long time
there's some sentences, okay. so basically i just searched up transportation vocabulary in korean
and then i went on a website, this is learnkorean24.com and i am copying down the
vocabulary. i'm also going to write down some sentences so i can memorize it. let's do this
it's not like i'm even going to ask anyone that but okay
oh my god something that i've noticed, or at least with me when i pronounce english
or korean, i kind of have to change where in my body i'm speaking. so for english i
kind of speak like here here... here-ish... like down here
i can feel my voice up here but then with english i'm down here like, you know?
how do i get to... how do i get to gangnam station
also before you translate it try to translate it yourself and then see if you get it right just to
make yourself practice. how do i go to gangnam station? please can i get it remotely right?
i'll go with that. time to hydrate. water break
i think i took too much in my mouth
that's what she said
stay hydrated. i always have the dilemma the inner dilemma
of deciding whether i'm going to speak to someone in english or korean but it's like... i could just
say the thing in english but i also want to try to practice saying it in korean but then
sometimes i might screw it up and then we end up speaking in english anyway so i'm trying to get better.
the reason why i can't speak fluently or couldn't speak fluently, not that i can still, but
at least now i can speak a little bit, but back then i couldn't speak any korean whatsoever
i understood a bit but i always answered in english. it's because when i grew up
my dad was speaking mostly in english but korean sometimes to my mom and then my mom was speaking
in mostly korean and sometimes english and me growing up in california and going to
an english-speaking school, i just learned english and would answer my family in english. even though
i heard korean i wouldn't speak it back and so i didn't really make myself practice. i also didn't
go to korean school or really participate much in korean communities. well i kind of did but then
i kind of stopped, but basically i didn't give myself enough time to practice or learn.
i had korean tutors back then but it was still difficult. especially as i was getting older, it was harder to
learn it, so i did kind of miss out on that. but since 2017 i've been trying to study it better
so i can speak it and even though i still have a long way to go i can speak a little bit more to
a point where i can have like basic conversations with someone, so that's good enough. you could only
get better from here. not blaming my parents for me not being able to speak it but... and the funny thing
is my dad is fluent in korean now, but 20 something years ago he wasn't the most fluent or the most
confident and so i would always speak english with him and then even today i still speak in
english with him. sometimes i throw in some korean but it's just more comfortable just speaking english
luckily my mom she speaks mostly korean so it's easy to speak with her, and my grandma
also naturally speaks korean so i try to speak korean with her as well. so that's kind of how
i grew up, i've told this story many times but just in case there are new people, that's my case
i didn't really speak korean at home basically, and so i developed a little slower with korean
also another thing with me is i want to pronounce things well, and so sometimes i'll chicken out of
just speaking because i don't want to sound like i can't speak it. it's just like an insecurity and
so sometimes i'll be like "i might as well just not speak at all" and i'll just not speak it but
by doing that i kind of prevent myself from practicing, so something that my mom told me
is to just speak as you can. even if it means your accent's not going to be perfect, you know
some people might find that cute. so even if you don't sound perfect, it's better than holding
yourself back and being too shy to speak it. so i'm trying to basically have more confidence in
speaking. even if i don't sound perfect, even if i'm saying not the right thing, it's good to practice
i still sometimes have a tendency to mispronounce some things
one thing that i always mispronounce is gochu- i still can't pronounce it correctly
because i'll be speaking english and then suddenly transitioning into a korean word sometimes i
don't pronounce gochujang correctly and i'll say gochujang and ggochu is not an appropriate word so
gg/kk is very similar to an english g so that's why naturally i'll say ggochujang
so really try to practice sounds, especially for languages that are very much about sound
and intonation, things like that. it'll be very important to pronounce things
a certain way or else it could be misheard as something else. so definitely practice, get your
muscle memory going. the translating website that i use is papago by the way
gochujang
i learned this just now!! no i didn't. yeah i did not learn that.
oh my god. i'm guessing that's a traffic light. okay now i learned a new word
my mouth does not move like this naturally
where did i go wrong??
imagine being fluent. must be nice. wow my handwriting has gotten a little messy
intersection1 oh i don't even know how to say intersection.
well i'm learning so many new words today
when i went to korea three years ago i found myself speaking a lot with taxi drivers since
i took the taxi a lot, so i remember that i struggled a bit with asking for directions
or communicating with them. although sometimes i did have full-on conversations with them but
i did remember that i struggled with that, so directly just think of situations that
you want to be able to speak in and just think of all the scenarios and
what you can say, how you should say it and that should guide you as you study
i didn't even know how to say driver... that's another thing i struggle with
i don't know how to say the cashier, waiter, driver, etc. those are some words that i need to know
i didn't even know how to say airport... i know airplane
okay i'm guessing that's just... oH that's stop. four stops
i hope no one asks me for directions
i already know that. i'm so tempted to say shopping mall
crosswalk??
there are so many words
so i reached the end of this website, and today i focus mostly on travel and asking questions
in korean but i think that is going to be it for this video! i actually do have to go out and do
some shopping to prepare to pack and get ready for korea, which is why i'm all dressed up anyway but
that is going to be it for today's study session! thank you for joining me, but yes i am excited to
go back. it's been almost three years since the last time i went to korea which was also the
first time, this is my second time. i'm very excited i'm definitely going to make a lot of content when
i get there, it'll just be a fun time! i know a lot of my friends are also going to korea at the same
time so hopefully i get to see them as well. if you're going to korea, let me know, let's hang out
let's hang out! a lot more content related to my korea trip will be coming up and i
hope you're ready! i have to get ready now. but that is going to be it for this video
thank you so much for hanging out with me and i will see you in the next one!
let's bring it in for a hug! you guys are kind of far away, i'm gonna actually bring you closer
okay let's bring it in for a hug thank you for watching and i'll see you next time bye :D