안녕하세요~! 토미입니다!
Today, I will give you a good tip to improve your Korean.
That is writing a Korean journal!
However, there are many people who haven’t tried, or who have tried but couldn’t keep up with it.
For those people, I will tell you 2 advantages and 3 ways to continue a good habit.
Advantages #1 is that you can expand your vocabulary and grammar.
Advantages #2 is that you can improve not only your writing skills but also your speaking skills.
Once you understand these benefits, you want to continue it as a good habit.
I will tell you 3 ways to continue.
1. prepare many diary topics.
2. try to do it after your habit you already have.
3. try to verify your writing with your Korean friends.
Now, l will explain these one by one.
그럼 시작할게요!
Enhance your vocabulary and grammar
Writing in your diary in Korean every single day will definitely improve your Korean skill.
You do not have to write a long story.
So, keep it short like two or three sentences in the beginning.
This is thinking practice like “what is this sentence going to be if I want to say it in Korean?”, and try to make sentences by yourself.
For example,
Today I went to watch a movie, and it was really fun.
저는 오늘 영화를 보러 갔는데, 정말 재미있었어요.
However, in the beginning, you might only know how to say “영화를 보다 (watch a movie)” or “재미있다 (interesting)” and might not know how to write a whole sentence.
Try to look up new vocabulary and make a sentence as much as you can.
And the next day, you would reflect on your day and write about a new event that you experienced.
Gradually, you would be curious about “how can I say this in Korean” Or “ how can I conjugate this word?”
By trying this every single day, you will end up expanding your vocabulary and understanding more grammar structure.
Improve your speaking skills
The second benefit is that it will also improve your speaking skills.
What you write in your diary is about your work, events with your family and friends, hobbies and interests.
These words and grammar you used in a diary are describing your own life.
So, there are high possibilities that these expressions will come up in the conversation.
For example, if I really like a dog, I will write in a diary,
우리 강아지가 너무 귀여워요.
My dog is so pretty.
I am almost sure I am going to use this phrase to my close friends.
In other words, if you get used to expressing your thoughts and ideas in your diary in Korean, your thoughts are already organized in your head, and you will be able to communicate with others by speaking.
Therefore, I strongly recommend that anyone who wants to be able to speak Korean should start a Korean diary.
Now, you got the idea of advantages.
3 points to continue a good habit
Next, I will tell you the three points to continue a good habit.
1. Prepare many topics for diary
First, in order to continue, you can expand your thoughts from your daily routine. When you live a normal life, you just go through the usual routine.
So you tend to have similar days more often than not.
Like getting up in the morning, drinking coffee, going to school and studying Korean and so on.
Then, there are days when you can’t think of anything to write about except the exact same thing as yesterday.
In such a case, don’t limit yourself to just writing in your daily life, but try writing about your goals for next month or this year, your impressions of books you’ve read or Korean dramas, or anything else that interests you.
Then you are going to have more topics to write, and it is going to be more fun to keep up.
2. Establish the habit
Second, once you start a diary, you have to stick with it until it becomes your new habit.
The main reason why people stop writing in their diary is because they haven’t made it a habit.
But you brush your teeth and wash your face every day.
That’s because they are part of your daily routine.
So I strongly recommend that you start your Korean diary after a habit you are doing everyday.
For example, you decide you write a journal after brushing your teeth.
Since you brush your teeth everyday, you can easily continue with the diary.
You can also attach a post-it to the mirror, which reminds you to write a journal after brushing your teeth.
Right now, I just used brushing your teeth as an example, but you can try with any habit.
In my case, when I want to make a new habit, I do it in the morning so that I would not forget.
It may be hard at first, but if you can keep it up for a month, it will definitely stick to you as your good habit.
3. Verifying your Korean with native speakers
Third point is you can try to verify your Korean with native speakers.
Even if you try hard and write a journal by yourself, you would not be able to know whether your sentences are correct or not if nobody checks them.
Thanks to technology, there are lots of resources that you can use to connect with people all over the world, including native Korean speakers.
By using useful resources such as Twitter, language study app or other website, and interacting with native speakers, you would be able to realize your mistakes and errors, and learn more natural ways to say things in Korean.
This enables you to improve your Korean much better.
Summary
To summarize, by writing a journal everyday, you would be able to make a habit of thinking your thoughts and ideas in Korean, which helps improve your Korean much better.
And this practice will be good for not only writing, but also speaking because the writing process clarifies your thoughts.
Also, in order to continue writing a diary, you don’t have to limit yourself for writing only your daily routine. You can write your goals, your interests, and your thinking. Whatever you want.
In addition, it is good to practice it after the habit you do every single day such as brushing your teeth so that you wouldn’t forget to write it.
To enhance your skills, checking your Korean with native speakers helps you to correct your mistakes and talk more naturally.
Do you wanna start a diary now?
I hope you do! have fun writing in your diary in Korean!
그럼 오늘도 행복 가득, 웃음 가득한 하루 되세요！ 한국어 화이팅, 화이팅, 화이팅！！
