STUDY KOREAN: study korean with me bc i'm going to korea again!

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