December Recap

Monthly update of my Korean language progress (weeks 25-29)

안녕하세요, 그리고 새해 복 많이 받으세요! Hello, and Happy New Year!

Wow, 2022 was an incredible year. I started the year in the California desert’s USAF Test Pilot School and ended up in DC studying Korean full-time as part of the Olmsted Scholar Program…two military goals I’ve had from the beginning checked off at once! I know that 2023 will prove to bring even more life-changing experiences as I move to Korea and dive deep into the language and culture as my primary focus… 🤯

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Completed in December:

December was a slower month for me, and I needed the break. At my language school, we got two weeks off for the winter holidays, and besides my flashcards, I didn’t really study at all for those two weeks. I was quite sick immediately after classes ended and recovered in time to go home to visit my family where I reviewed just enough to not forget newly learned vocabulary. The break was very relaxing, and I’m ready to really hit the ground running in the new year with even greater intensity! I pre-booked a bunch of evening italki blocks with Koreans in Seoul and drafted a TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean) study schedule to prep for the test later this year.

December study tracker

On the last day before the holiday break, the Korean language students and teachers got together to cook Korean food! I prepared ingredients for kimbap and gave a lesson, in Korean, about kimbap’s background and how to make it. I then proceeded to make a lot of kimbap, helped others make some, and of course ate all the other delicious food that we prepared. I truly love cooking, so this was a fun and rewarding way to practice Korean public speaking.

some notes for when I rehearsed at home

It was a hit!

Some of the spread 🤤

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Beyond the Korean cooking ‘class,’ there isn’t much to report this month. I did finish three excellent Korean dramas though that are worth mentioning! (all on Netflix US)

나의 아저씨 (My Mister) was a gloomy show, but it was well worth the watch. It’s not my normal k-drama genre, but I was on an IU kick and stumbled upon it. My Mister highlighted life’s sadness, disappointments, and other harsh realities of being an adult in a real, unpolished world. It was one of those shows where you need to almost recover after watching an episode and reflect on how it made you feel. All the melancholy and gloom made for incredibly impactful moments that I won’t soon forget.

갯마을 차차차 (Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha) was the opposite kind of show. Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha was charming, meandering slice-of-life romcom with many of the k-drama tropes that I love. There’s one episode near the end where you’ll be bawling your eyes out, but it’s in a “healing” sort of way where you feel lighter and warmer after. A random bonus is that I learned a bunch of dentistry vocabulary 😂 Highly recommend.

그 해 우리는 (Our Beloved Summer) was charming! I loved Kim Da-mi from her role in Itaewon Class, Choi Woo-shik from Parasite, and both of them in The Witch, so I figured I’d give it a try. It was an incredibly down-to-earth slide-of-life show that better captured the feelings of love and heartbreak than any other show (Korean or not) I’ve ever seen. While it is another romance drama, it felt more real and natural and relatable than most. The OST was also good enough that I’ve listened to it a few times separately.

I’m rewatching 별에서 온 그대 (My Love from the Star) with only Korean audio and subtitles now…wish me luck! If you have any must-watch K-dramas that I haven’t mentioned here before, let me know and I’ll check them out 🙂

2023년…화이팅!

-Sean