u/Solari_Magnus

I had issues with HelloTalk because I'm a girl and there's a lot of weird ppl in that app. But a guy suggested me to create an account as male (since no one really needs to know my gender lol) and that might be really helpful.

I could look for a local group, but I believe it would only have younger people.. This is something stupid to say, but I would be so unconfortable lol

I like the idea to translate something. Thank you!

I'm from Brazil. My native language is brazilian portuguese

Thank you!! I'll read this after work

Thank you!! I'll read this after work

Nunca pensei nisso, você tem toda razão

Eu desisti desses apps por ser mulher, é mt chato o tanto de assédio que sofri

how consistently do you study and/or expose yourself to the language?

I used to study every day, until it became too heavy for me because life happens. I stopped for 2 years, but kept in constant contact with the language. I made this post now so I can get back into it in a more objective way.

Instead of rote memorization with something like Anki, do you naturally pick up or actively try to learn new words and phrases from native content?

Yup, I feel like the only words I actually know are those that I engaged through music, videos or I actively searched. But it feel so slow relying on that.

What kind of native material do you usually consume? What kind of topics? What speech level? If you could link to some YouTube videos/news articles/Naver blogs/whatever that you can 100% follow and also to stuff that you can't or only partially, and point out what you have trouble with, that would be really insightful.

Honestly, aside from actual learning content, I mostly watch K-dramas, idol interviews, reaction videos (like 'Koreans react to...'), art videos and related since I'm an illustrator and cozy day-in-the-life/organization vlogs :D

As for my level, I’d say I'm around A2, struggling to push into B1.

The thing is... I don't think I've found any native content yet that I can follow 100%. Maybe that's what's so frustrating. Sometimes I can catch a whole sentence or figure out the context based on common words and expressions I already know. For instance, I occasionally watch dramas with my husband and actually catch translation mistakes in the subtitles, correcting them so he gets the real context. But still, nothing is ever 100%.

It's actually really hard to pinpoint what my exact difficulties are

How much writing and speaking practice have you had with a (native) speaker? What kind of writing/speaking?

Nowadays, zero contact. But I used to join a weekly study group on Hilokal back when it was free. We had a native Korean teacher guiding the room who helped us with conversation topics and getting started.

Oh, I actually already follow Go! Billy I love his channel, I'll definitely check out those specific videos again.

But my issue isn't really with sentence structure or connectors (I actually understand how the grammar works fine) my biggest wall right now is definitely vocabulary. When I use flashcards or apps to learn, the words feel completely disconnected from reality and I just forget them because they lack real meaning or context in my life. So I'm kind of stuck in a loop of knowing the grammar, but not having enough words to actually use them

Well, now that I think about it, maybe I haven't been putting in as much effort as I thought. Anyway...

I’ve been studying since around 2018 ish. Since I'm doing this purely as a hobby and don't have much money to invest, I've been consuming free and high-quality content online. I’ve followed various courses, downloaded apps, and worked through all the grammar. Honestly, my foundation at the beginner level feels pretty solid. I always try to put that knowledge into practice in my daily life, like narrating what I'm doing to reinforce the words I know.

However, I realized that while I know how to conjugate verbs and structure sentences, my biggest bottleneck isn't grammar.. it's simply knowing enough words and verbs.

So, I tried several methods to expand my vocabulary: Anki, games, and even Duolingo for a whole year straight. But every new word felt completely disconnected from reality, and I just couldn't retain them. It felt like empty memorization. Even if I spent a week seeing a word frequently and getting it right, I’d still forget it soon after because it had no real meaning or connection to my actual life. Idk if that makes sense!

And also, another thing is that, even if I understand how the grammar works, when I watch dramas or youtube content from korea, it seems like all that grammar does not apply? When it's super casual it's even worse.

It was not consistent tbh. It's been almost 8y of that endless "studying grammar, feeling of not going anywhere and giving up". But I never quitted watching and listening to music and trying actively to understand. I feel like I didn't actually "lost" any knowledge because I always practice what I already know.

Eu até lia, mas ai eu não conseguia parar de ler livros e isso atrapalhava minha vida e muito. Esse ano comecei a suspeitar de TDAH

Vc tem razão. Obrigada pelas dicas!

O peso da idade batendo... uff

Infelizmente eu já uso do meu dinheiro para pagar outros cursos que me beneficiam na minha carreira e no momento não tenho o suficiente pra um professor ou cursinho. Então aprender mais idiomas é mais pelo hobby, e eu ando seguindo aprendendo sozinha com conteúdo que encontro. É uma pena que esse hobby chegou numa barreira que está se tornando mais frustrante do que ~divertido.

Todas as vezes que encontrei pessoas nesses aplicativos, ou eram indianos esquisitos ou me ignoravam. Nunca deu certo.

This was my second attempt of doing it cause I lost the first save, but it didn't click for me when I was doing the first one.

I also haven't unlocked all patterns yet, so there's probably better patterns to recreate it

That's so cute!

Sad thing it's a little too late

https://preview.redd.it/3uq2c4mx7neh1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=e94aef571403bcf45984cf480a17fb94ee41a3c0

How so?