韓語TOPIK的修煉之路~ My adventurous pathway to TOPIK exam!

【學習韓語的緣由】
我是一名19歲的香港女生，現在英國留學。很久以前大概小學四年級，我因為偶然聽到GD的Crayon一曲而久不能忘。雖然當時不會韓語，甚至連韓國這個國家也沒什麼印象，但是Crayon一曲的旋律卻深深烙印在我腦海中。一直有哼出來問身邊的人，可是當時在學校幾乎沒人知道我在找什麼歌。知道一年多後剛好問到一位有追Bigbang和其他Kpop的姐姐，才找到這首歌的名字。自此以後，我便聽了很多GD和Bigbang的歌。從有緣喜歡上Crayon到終於找到這首歌，再到慢慢了解Bigbang五子，甚至去看他們0.To.10的演唱會，真的是很好的回憶。

話說回來，我以前都在背空耳學習不同韓語歌，直到開始看韓劇才會一兩句撒浪嘿唷等等。期間有想過學習韓語但都沒有真的學過。可是我初三的的時候父母決定把我送到英國讀高中，那時候我就知道如果當時都不學的話，到了英國更加沒有機會。於是我就在香港一家韓語學堂報讀了課程…

[I AM ANGEL!]
I am a 19-years old girl from Hong Kong currently studying abroad in the UK. Long long ago when I was still in primary school, i heard the song Crayon by GD playing in the TV randomly. Although I don’t even know any Korean words and even do not know about the country Korea very well, I really like the song Crayon and it had been stuck in my mind for a long while. I had been trying to hum the melody of the song to my friends and ask them about the song cause I don’t know the name of it. However, I had been asking many people this unluckily nobody could recognise the song. After around a year, I asked a friend who pay attention to Kpop about the melody and finally found this song. Since then, I’ve been listening to GD and BigBang a lot. From the fate of knowing the song Crayon, to loving BigBang, and even went to their last concert with five of them all present, it has been a long way and honestly it is really a precious memory to me.

[HOW DID I STARTED KOREAN?]
Back to how I started learning Korean. Before I started learning Korean, I was listening to Kpop with romanise phonics. Or maybe only know a few short greeting Korean sentences from k-drama. Had thought of learning Korean many times but didn’t really carry out the plan until my family made the decision to sent my abroad for study. I know it will be easier to access to resources for learning Korean in Hong Kong comparing to the UK. Therefore I enrolled a Korean language course in a Korean language school in Mong Kok.

【韓語基礎與自修】
離開香港前，我一開始讀的是興趣班，每星期只有一節課。後來覺得進度不是太快便轉了讀每星期有三晚的密集課。那幾個月雖然時間不算多，可是的確為學習韓語打了個基礎。後來我到了英國之後，透過韓劇，Kpop還有買材料書自學。雖然的確對學習韓語有幫助，不過自修很多地方都比較迷惘。不幸的是，在英國的高中都沒有怎麼遇見韓國的朋友，所以口語方面也比較吃虧。這種聽韓語歌、看韓劇、自修的狀況持續了好幾年，一直也不太知道自己的水平大概在哪裡。直到一天碰見了Amazing Talker這個平台，抱著試一試的心態，在認真細選了很多老師之後，決定跟 청아老師 上一節試課…

[FOUNDATION AND SELF-LEARNING]
I started with a lesson every week first in the language school. However, I want the schedule to be more packed and progress faster as I would leave Hong Kong soon at that time. Therefore, I changed the course into a more often one which has three night lessons every week. Although it wasn’t a long period of time, but those courses did have me a foundation of learning the language. After I went to the UK, I have been learning Korean myself through things like I like such as Kpop, K-drama and text books. Although it helped but I was mostly in a confusing state as there isn’t a teacher to guide me. On the other hand, I was expecting to meet some Korean students in my new school but there wasn’t too many of them actually. So my speaking skills lack of practice as well. This self learning process with relaxing tempo had been going on for a few years while I was in the UK. Until one day, I saw this online learning platform by chance and I enrolled a trial lesson. I chose Ms CheongA as my teacher after different aspects of consideration.

【初見청아老師】
上課前 청아老師 有私訊問我想要達到的目標 還有我當時的韓語水平。청아老師 特意選了一節ppt作為試課的教材。（我後來才發現原來所有教材資料都是 청아老師 自己整理搜集好的！）

剛開始我們都以為大家是台灣人，所以用國語對話了好一陣子哈哈哈，後來發現大家都是香港人。不得不說，청아老師 國語跟廣東話一樣流利呢。第一節課感覺非常順利，先是我讀一次詞語和課文，然後老師示範標準的發音，再解釋我不懂的地方。之後還會有練習鍛煉文法和口語。只是短短半小時已經覺得청아老師教得很不錯～ 於是便正式購買課程開始學習了…

[TRIAL LESSON!]
Before the trial lesson, Ms CheongA sent me messages to ask about my leaning goals and level at the that time. She then chose a part of the slides as the teaching resource. Later on while learning with her, I knew that she made all the slides with text passages, new grammars and writing/ speaking practises. I was quite amazed that all those helpful materials were made and organised by herself. Ms CheongA went through the text passages and explain the new vocals in details. Also did some exercises for o practice grammar and other skills as well. The trial lesson went well, I felt gaining knowledges and fun at the same time. Therefore, I decided to start learning on this platform with Ms CheongA officially.

【朝目標TOPIK前進！】
在試課之後，突然有股衝動想要給自己定一個目標，於是便立下了今年之內考TOPIK！因為之前已經接觸過韓語，所以TOPIK I的難度相對沒那麼大，我便決心努力準備TOPIK II了。청아老師 也知道我的目標，於是我們便為開始為目標奮鬥了。

每一節課청아老師 都會準備了一個主題和主文章，閱讀文章和聽標準發音對我的發音有很大改善。我比較多的問題是搞混重音，例如ㄱ和ㄲ。文章後面學兩個文法，連著有填充練習，令我懂得運用新學的文法。每一節ppt的最後都會有一個寫作的小作業，寫好作業後會在下一節課的開始批改，一齊看錯處。有時間的話，更可以問청아老師 拿閱讀練習做。在청아老師 的幫助下，這樣有規律的學習對我的韓語能力真的有了很明顯的改善！我發現看韓劇的時候，很多時候都不用盯著字幕，而明白了對話的意思。在寫作方面，小作業也可以看到進步。將一路以來的寫作拼在一起便可以明顯地看到。

我目前跟청아老師 上了快40節的課堂，相信繼續持之以恆，韓語能力一定可以更上一層。我的目標是今年10月16日在倫敦的TOPIK II考試！

[TOPIK! IM COMING!]
After the trial, I have an urge to set myself a goal on Korean language study. And after considering, I decided to prepare for the goal of TOPIK exam. As I have a foundation from the language school and self -learning, TOPIK I is less challenging to me. As a result, I decided to join the TOPIK II exam. Ms CheongA knows my goal and we started preparing towards this goal.

[PREP PROGRESS~]
We have been focusing on grammars and writing skills as these are my weaknesses. There are slides for each topic theme for new grammars and example text with a reading task and a writing task at the end of the slides. After regular lessons for a while, I can see obvious improvement on the language. I used to mix up sounds like ㄱ ㄲ ㅋ but now I can distinguish them clearly. I also feel much more fluent when I speak and write what I want instead of checking dictionary for many times. It is much more smoother because I gained new vocabs and variety of grammar usage. There is a big difference in comparison to my writing work in the beginning of learning with Ms CheongA and the recent works.
Now I have learnt almost 40 lessons with Ms CheongA on this platform, I believe there will be even more improvement on my Korean with this hard work. I will be attending TOPIK II exam in London on 16th October this year!

【學習心得】
我知道在這個平台上有很多像我一樣，努力向目標前進的努力者。我感受最大的事就是「有興趣就不辛苦」，不管什麼語言或學習項目，只要保持對那樣東西的熱情和興趣，「辛苦」就會變成「動力」。對韓國文化的喜愛真的作為動力支撐著我，無論是韓食、韓語、韓流音樂、韓劇或潮流時裝。所以一起在努力的大家，找回學習的初心，一定會學得更輕鬆和快樂的～

（ADDITION）
I believe there are many hard working learners chasing for their dream on the his platform. The one thing I wanna share with us all is that, passion and interests creates motivation. No matter what language or skills you are trying to learn, remember not to loose that origin that makes you started learning. For me personally, I’m really interested in Korean culture including music, fashion, drama and food etc. The passion has been supporting me and get me through hard time of learning and the interests creates motivation for me to continue. So all the learners here, don’t forget the origin of learning and your passion! I believe it will be much more happier with it!


⭐️在這裏我特別想感謝我的韓語老師 청아 샘！ 很幸運遇見了你這麼好的教師～ ⭐️
⭐️Specially wanna thank my teacher Ms CheongA here! I am lucky to meet such a fab teacher like you! Let’s keep fighting and learning~⭐️


【以下私心推薦首Kpop歌】
Haruharu- Bigbang

청아老師 也有教Kpop 歌詞分解, 於是我也嘗試了一節課，選了Bigbang的Haruharu。這首和另一首Lies的風格很相似，也是另Bigbang開始大熱的幾首歌。從以前聽不懂任何內容到現在拆解到句子的意思和了解得到使用的文法，真的好感動。另外不得不說 這首歌歌詞太虐心了… 各位可以賞釋下歌詞～