a complete breakthrough in understanding!!!!!!!

[holdfast]

i just couldn't wait to talk about this until my next blog, so i decided to post it here! (mostly because i'm still spazzing about it and i won't be able to sleep until i get it out of my system by telling someone about it, and everyone i know is asleep right now, so this is my next best option. besides, i like you guys - i just wanted to say that. can you tell i'm still spazzing? you would if you could see how fast i am typing ^^)

i talk about this a lot but i have been attending a korean church since august. we only meet every other week, and it is good practice for speaking, but i have a really hard time understanding people when they speak. while talking in a small group i can figure out enough to participate a little, but when it comes to the actual church service and the message, i am usually completely lost (but i go anyway)!

BUT TONIGHT.... 갑자기 이해 잘 할 수 있었어요! suddenly.. without warning.. for no apparent reason.. i could understand. almost everything. even when people were speaking really fast, i knew what they were saying. IT'S SO WEIRD! i was just listening and... i heard the korean words.. and they made sense. and even the words i didn't know, i heard, and i recognized many of them. there was not a single minute where i didn't know what was being talked about (even if i didn't understand every word). it was a DRASTIC change from anything i've experienced - it went from understanding maybe 25% to like 90%. i can't explain to you in words how excited i am about it.

the only thing i can think of that might explain it is that i stopped trying to think in english. i just listened, and tried to comprehend it in korean instead of translating it into english. i can't explain how that is different (because comprehending goes beyond a single language, i think) but it is, and i think it helps.

has anyone else had an experience like this before?

do you think i am going crazy ?!? ^^

[matthew254]

do you think i am going crazy ?!? ^^

no more than usual

I can say with a soft sigh that I am still in that 25% situation. While away for college, I am only partially surrounded by Koreans and I still feel a little intimidated because I can usually pick out the subject but not the verb...

When its a subject I know well (food basically) then I feel like you did tonight...almost like a sense of accomplishment.

I for sure felt how you felt tonight when learning Spanish. I worked in a kitchen and just one day it kind of clicked - not as drastic as 25% to 90% but still pretty steady. Eventually, I got to the point where (like you said) I quit thinking in English.

anyways, congratulations!

[James]

i'd freak too if i recognized words I didn't even know
normally, recognizing requires prior knowledge

[Bouks]

Gosh, and I was all proud of myself just for learning how to play 쥐를잡자 in Korean.


I know that kind of experience in another language, though...I knew I had "broken through" in French when I started dreaming in French sometimes. And when I could watch the news without complaining about how gosh-darned fast they talk.

[holdfast]

wow, you guys were up late... or early..... ^^

bouks you should be proud of figuring out how to play 쥐를 잡자!

i'm still kind of freaked out by what happened last night. seriously, the amount of studying i've done and the amount of conversation practice i've had recently could still not explain the drastic change in understanding ability. like matthew - usually by the time i've caught the subject, i miss the verb, or i catch the sentence ending, or just phrases that stick out. but last night my friends were talking a mile a minute and i caught each word. so weird! and it was almost like understanding words i didn't know before..

hearing that you guys have had similar situations in other languages makes me feel better - at least i am not going crazy!

[Bouks]

I was up late, wasn't I...I was kind of overexcited after being in a flamenco dance performance yesterday, and couldn't wind down!

I think that you have done so much listening and speaking with real live Korean people that your breakthrough in understanding was to be expected. I envy you! I'm not going to break through that fast, I simply don't have the same resources.

I have studied several languages, and noticed a pattern with my learning: for about the first six months, I can barely make a logical sentence without struggling and overthinking it. Then suddenly, I start to speak somewhat comfortably and understand more - even if only to say "What does ___ mean?" referring to something that was said. Prior to that, it's all just a big blur and I'm lucky to pick out one word.


So maybe others have a similar pattern, give or take a few months, and it happens to a greater degree depending on live exposure to native speakers. Certainly I haven't experienced such a quick breakthrough like that, but my actual exposure to large numbers of native French speakers happened years after I first picked up a French textbook.

[Keith]

Emily!!! Wow that sounds really amazing, and I'm so proud of you!!! Usually that kind of thing is pretty gradual... but having something click for you sounds like it was an amazing experience. Were you able to repeat that again? Have you met with them again, or spoken Korean again since then?

[holdfast]

Were you able to repeat that again? Have you met with them again, or spoken Korean again since then?

i listen to 슈퍼주니어의 키스더 라디어 quite often in order to practice listening, and usually i understand a bit, but not a lot. i was so excited yesterday morning to see if i could still understand the same way, so i turned the radio show on, and sure enough, i could understand what they were saying. of course, there are words i don't know, but before where i was just picking out a few words here and there and missing the context, now i am picking up the whole sentence (perhaps minus a few words here and there) and understanding the context, even when it's really fast!

i guess something just... clicked. it still seems wierd to me. i like it though, i'll take it. ^^

[tormsen]

I think something similar happened to me in recent times. Particularly this last weekend. Me and my Korean buddy went out on the town on both nights, and we've been hanging around 건대 and 신전 due to a mutual decision that 홍대 and 신존 were too expensive and had too many westerners (no offense to fellow westerners, I just like being special ㅋㅋㅋㅋ). And like, talking to people, and drinking, and just talking and talking and being drunk and excitable while talking, and suddenly it seemed to be getting rapidly easier and easier. Then even today at school it was like, the act of comprehending was so much easier. And plus, before I might know a phrase or sentence in my head, but would stumble over the pronounciation, get halfway through and hit a sudden inexplicable roadblock. Now that doesn't happen as much.

So yeah, I'm thinking I might be getting on a bit of a roll here so 계속계속열심히공부하면 나중에 잘 할 것같아요.

[John]

wow congratulations to you, that must have really freaked you out. I can see how that would happen. The brain tends to do som pretty weird things, but I am like Boucks, I don't have the resources here where I live, although I do see a couple Koreans per week at my work, and when I say anything to them in Korean they always either ignore me or totally freak out that someone in this little midwest town can mumble a few phrases.

My brain tends to lock up and I forget all my studying, then of course after they are gone I have sentences going through my head that I could have said. It's sad really.