The Space Between Words
How language is the doorway to community.
What are languages? What is the story behind the vowels and strokes that make up some of the most complex things in the world? Languages are doorways to the universe, languages are the expression of culture, languages are the history of the world. So why not explore them?
Impulsive learning is my greatest weakness so my boredom and curiosity manifested into the idea why don't I learn a new language? I did Portuguese on Duolingo for half a year. Chinese for four months. I quit French in the first week. But recently when my parents said I had to challenge myself and I thought, why not learn a new language? So then my journey began with the thought, what can I use in my everyday life, and in the future and have a connection to my friends so we could speak it. Out of all my shows, music, and friends what is the common denominator? And then it all seemed so obvious, Korean. I have a wide network of Korean friends at school, and I wanted to connect more with these girls and be a part of their conversations. Every language….seems hard, challenging, but rewarding….And suddenly my world changed with this one decision.
Originally, I did not realize how affected I was going to be in just my everyday life after starting to learn Korean. Even a long time before this I enjoyed watching K-dramas and had recently started listening to K-pop but I never really paid attention to the language I did not understand and instead just focused on the music or subtitles. However, since I started to open my brain to trying to recognize the language, I have taken both of those experiences to a whole new level. In addition I have found myself constantly translating from one language to another. For example, since I am bilingual, I find myself translating Korean into English or even Spanish or from Spanish and English into Korean, in order to remember new vocabulary or just randomly. For example, chair which is 으자, sounds a lot like silla in spanish, or 빵 which is bread, sounds a lot like pan in spanish. Moments where I can sense this happening in my brain especially are when I am watching K-dramas or listening to Kpop.
Ever since my friend introduced me to my first K-drama in 6th grade, I have enjoyed basically every K-drama I have watched. From romance type dramas like Business Proposal, to apocalyptic zombie shows like “All of Us are Dead,” I really enjoyed watching them but I have never put much though into the complexity of how the actors enunciate every word differently with the context that adds so much more to these dramas than just acting and stories. I started watching a K-drama with the intent of trying to recognize as many words as possible and see how they speak and how they act, so I could learn Korean outside of the textbook version while still enjoying the show. In those first episodes I forgot about my original thought but found myself contemplating the vowels, consonants, and words. I realized I was now able to recognize numbers, and even some basic words and phrases. So as each lesson and each episode passed I realized how I was even able to keep up with some conversations. Ironically, it's fascinating to me how I never realized how off the subtitles were in many situations, but also how I did not realize the similarities and differences in this language and how tone and emotion can change the meaning of the words so much.
One big part about my Korean learning journey is not just learning the vocabulary and grammar, but also how well I am able to speak. Of course, as any beginner is, my teacher and I couldn't really talk since I did not know much about either vocabulary or grammar. But as each lesson passes our conversations have gotten longer and longer and I have been able to even read and comprehend things more quickly. Every conversation at the beginning of my class has been able to increase my cognitive abilities, as I am able to catch up and understand when my teacher speaks fast, or even when I need to translate one form of grammar into another. So far I have been able to get up to 7 min and for someone who has been learning for less than a year, that was a huge accomplishment. Not only am I able to remember more words or phrases everyday, I am to a point in my lessons where I can quickly understand and respond to my teacher and even talk with my friends.
Thinking for the future, I hope I can continue learning Korean so that one day I will be able to talk to friends, understand shows without subtitles, and maybe even be basically fluent in a couple of years, maybe even once I am fluent I could start learning Italian or Japanese or something, but for now, I will just keep studying, take my classes, and enjoy every step of this journey to opening more doors.
