Introduction and Recap

As of November the 21st, 2024, I have been actively learning Korean for basically 3 years. Here is a refresher from my 2 year post.

In my 2nd year I reached a few milestones:

• 13,000 words in Migaku
• Refold Stage 3B (Level 6 comprehension but could not shadow for 60 seconds)
• Read around 20 more Korean books - my comprehension of the majority texts (both fiction and non fiction but excluding history (which was around 75%-85% depending on the book)) being above 95%

At the end of 2023 I reached Stage 3C and because of my choice to continue to put off output until I had the expendable time and energy required, I have still yet to reach Stage 4.

Small Breakdown of the Year

• I spent a lot of time with Korean for the rest of 2023 and the first week of 2024 before taking a small break during January.
• I took the entirety of March off save for a few videos I couldn't stop myself from watching
• I got injured in March (which is still affecting me) & due to a larger load during school my time spent with Korean has decreased however my efficiency has increased.
• I stopped consistently doing Anki because I was sacrificing sleep (and immersion) to do so.
• I didn't output for the majority of my 3rd year. I made a couple attempts at the start of the year however stopped because it felt too mentally taxing for the results I was receiving
• Started with more of a focus on reading because it was enjoyable but as the year went on I switched focus towards listening.

Vocabulary

Below is my vocabulary count in Kimchi Reader as of the 21st of November, 2024:

This comes out to a 12,000 word increase in my vocabulary size since my 2nd year. We can break this down:

• At least 1,000 of those words are foreign
• A decent chunk of my vocabulary growth was Sino-Korean words - which are easier to acquire with some basic hanja knowledge
• In year 3 I mined 3.3k cards (this includes 0t audio cards and occasional 2ts) which equates to an around 3k vocabulary increase from flashcards
  • Because of the nature of a skill like vocabulary, these 3k words would've compounded into more easy vocabulary growth, especially if they were Sino-Korean words
• Lots of 'free' words (I explain this later)

During this last year my vocabulary growth has been fairly consistent. However, a decent portion of this vocabulary was learnt from November 2023 into February 2024. Despite my break in March I didn't feel an impact on my vocabulary (both new and old), if anything I felt as though I had improved entering April.

The majority of the vocabulary I've learnt in the past 12 months was solidified fairly easily with input and the occasional Anki usage. That isn't to say that I haven't forgotten vocabulary, however, the amount of vocabulary I have acquired heavily outweighs that of what I've forgotten. Furthermore, it has become increasingly easier to 'reactivate' forgotten vocabulary once I've re-encountered them in input. When reactivating vocabulary I am able to remember previous encounters I've had with the word, semi-solidifying it in my memory again.

I believe this ease of which I am 'reactivating' vocabulary is tied to the relationship between proficiency and the number of encounters needed to learn a word (to varying degrees). There is second language acquisition literature covering extensive reading (95%+ word comprehension, enjoyable materials, no lookups) which addresses this. I personally believe this general idea can be applied to other forms of vocabulary acquisition through highly comprehensible input. (Don't take my word for this, I encourage you to look into it yourself.)

I have personally experienced this in the last 12-18 months of my Korean learning. It takes way less to learn vocabulary than it once did. Other areas definitely did have an impact on this as well. This includes my confidence and comfort growing and my knowledge of Chinese characters in relation to learning Sino-Korean vocabulary. However I also believe that those areas could also be influenced by this relationship and the environment where it occurs; the exposure to the language and the development of intuition and pattern recognition, etc.

Due to the nature of needing less repetitions to learn a word, I have been able to maintain this consistent growth throughout the year despite spending less time with the language. (I discuss this more later when I talk about comprehension.) The vocabulary I am learning at this stage still appears relatively frequently in my input. This allows me to learn it just via input or minimal lookups. Thus despite spending less time with Korean and the frequency of this new vocabulary decreasing I don't face any issues with growing it.

I won't go into depth here about how Sino-Korean words and hanja has impacted my vocabulary and allowed for easier vocabulary growth (although if someone wants that, I can write my thoughts on it in another post) but I do believe it has significantly impacted my vocabulary growth this year and makes up a majority of what I have learned.

As I learn new words with hanja I don't know, I then learn the hanja within them, and thus 'unlock' new words that utilise hanja that I didn't know. Sino-Korean words are much easier for me to learn in comparison to Native Korean words because I can use hanja to understand them - even if I don't know the hanja it's composed of yet. This is amplified when the Sino-Korean words are composed of hanja I do know. They take less encounters to learn, sometimes being picked up easily on the first encounter just based on the context and past knowledge, while others I may look up and then they are fairly easy to understand in following encounters.

For 'free' words, there are a couple kinds:

• Those that compose of Chinese characters that are instantly obvious and take no effort to understand and learn
• Word families - related groups of lemmas (for instance, if you learn noun-하다 you also learn noun and noun-되다, etc, without trying to)

For word family-related 'free' words, you are guaranteed to see an increase in vocabulary number assuming you have not run into every word within each word family of the vocabulary you already know. I don't think a decent chunk of my vocabulary growth this year has come from this as they are either super low frequency or I ran into it when I switched to Kimchi last year.

Weaknesses & Future Vocabulary Growth

I still feel like my vocabulary is one of the bigger weaknesses in terms of comprehension of Korean. Not only in terms of domain-specific vocabulary but there are still large amounts of useful vocabulary that all Koreans know that I don’t. This is evident in the majority of content I consume, especially Syuka World (which I discuss later).

This leaves a lot of room for growth.

At my current position learning new, useful words still isn’t challenging. It doesn’t take that much time to find unknown words in general and if I try to find them its even easier. Further, there isn’t really any issues with actually learning and remembering new vocabulary. Not only can I remember the new words I learn but they have become much much easier to actively recall and use. I don’t really know if this happens to those who don’t delay output - the ability to just easily recall words you’ve seen once or twice - but it’s quite interesting witnessing as someone who has still continued to delay output.

Anki & Mindset

I think Anki is worth touching upon when discussing my personal vocabulary growth.

It seems as though everyone has both a different opinion on Anki (and its usage at each stage) and relationship with the application if they've tried it (even unsuccessfully). There are people who feel as though Anki is best used at the beginning, to quickly build up the basic vocabulary necessary to jump start comprehension while others view Anki as most useful at a more advanced level as you learn vocabulary that you encounter relatively unfrequently (maybe a few times a year) that are still worth doing a few reps of so that you know it when you see it next.

I don't really have any strong opinions either way; it has its use for any level just like you can reach any level without Anki. Sure, I wish I did more Anki (not necessarily more time, but more words, and better words) (and more effective Anki, with better cards, etc) in the first 18 months of my learning - although I try not to hold any regrets for anything, including trivial things like Anki - but in the grand scheme of things, Anki was not what got me to where I was. It enabled it to a certain degree but I don't need Anki, and I no longer feel that way.

The other day I rewatched Matt VS Japan's video he filmed when he quit Anki. I remember watching it when I first started learning Korean, and a part of me being excited for being at that point where I can just quit Anki because I felt so dependent on it at the time - as though I literally was incapable to learn without it, even though I knew that was irrational. But as I watched it it felt foreign - like I had never seen the video before. I don't have the feelings of deep dependency on Anki that he expresses on the video, or the stress and worries that come with using the app at a large, overbearing relative quantity of cards. For me, it just is. It doesn't matter. I can do it, or I can't. I can sit through a 1000 unique reviews and be fine and I can chose to not do my Anki for as long as I want and not think or worry about it

Almost like I am free.

And I think that is why I continue to use it, even now. There is no burden for me anymore. If I forget to do it, then whatever. If I am too tired, then who cares. I just like mining stuff, so I may as well review them. Plus, it's great having a huge database of all these cool sentences and words I found that I can peek at when I want to output something new or grab some audio to chorus.

As I have grown as a learner and a person my relationship with the application has changed quite a lot. This is pretty evident from my lack of consistent (or any, really) Anki usage throughout the majority of my 3rd year. If I am being realistic with myself, I won't ever have the habit of doing Anki every day during my commute, or even doing it consistently on a mobile device unless I morph into a different person. Other small moments of my day where I would've fit Anki in, in the past are now spent reading a couple pages or just allowing myself a moment. Regardless, the majority of my flashcard reviews in the last couple years have happened right before I slept, which I stopped doing last year as well because I would rather get better sleep (especially when I have to wake up in 7-8 hours) than do flashcards I don't need to rep.

Even though I hadn't been doing it consistently this year, I do see myself continuing to use it because I like making cards - clearly evidenced by making over 3000 of them this year. It's fun and relaxing. I don't want to spend that much time on Anki and waste my life on something frivolous but when I do want to do it, why not? Some words are worth spending a few minutes of my life on.

Note: One thing that I shared with Matt in that Anki video was having a 1 year suspend (or well, for him it was the card being deleted) interval - if a card's interval is >1 year I no longer see it - because at that point if I forget, I forget. If it was useful I would've seen it before I forgot anyway. And I can always just look it up or ask.

Overall Comprehension

Over the last year I genuinely feel as though my overall comprehension has increased in all areas. By overall comprehension I mean taking into account comprehension of vocabulary, grammar, ability (speed, effort, etc) to process what is literally being said and the underlying meaning, etc.

Outside of unfamiliar historial, political and scientific content the majority of my consumption falls between 97% and 100% comprehension.

During my 2nd year I reached 100% comprehension in 3 different pieces of listening content (over 10min and excluding music and extremely short videos). At this point there are dozens, if not hundreds of hours of content that I have 100% word comprehension in. Obviously this is slightly biased as I can now see all this content with Kimchi Reader, which I couldn't before, but even without Kimchi Reader I will regularly open videos, parse it, and have no new words.

However, this is word comprehension, not overall comprehension where my ability to process and understand both the connotations and the overarching message at an effortless, fast speed is taken into account. I do occasionally reach really high overall comprehension but it is not as often.

One of the highlights for me this year was reaching 100% word comprehension in a drama for the first time (albeit it was using WhisperX subtitles - which are really accurate), which are easily one of the harder mediums for me to understand (vocabulary wise).

My listening comprehension still feels reliant on external factors outside of the content and my knowledge base. This includes anxiety, stress, insecurity etc, regarding my Korean ability. I’ve noticed that when I am not thinking about it, or don’t care, it is way easier to understand and the language takes less effort to do so.

For instance, in the few days leading up to my anniversary, as I started writing I felt my anxiety increase and my comprehension fall. After the date passed my comprehension once again increased and it felt ’normal’ - like I was watching something in English and hadn’t just struggled with understanding things without subtitles the previous day.

Audio & Video Comprehension

This section dives into specifics of my comprehension in different audio based media. Thought I should provide some examples to illustrate what it looks and feels like.

Specialised Speech

I haven't put a huge focus on more specialised speech in the past year and I don't necessarily have plans to do so in the future. Because I have not put time into specialised speech within the last year vocabulary still poses a large issue with consuming it. Not only do I not know the words required to comfortably consume and understand specialised content but I also lack in terms of hearing and processing these words to the same level as the rest of my vocabulary.

Non-Specialised Speech

A decent portion of the vocabulary I have learnt in the last year is still useful for normal conversations.

At first this may seem surprising to some, but when you consider the large variety of vocabulary we all possess in our native languages and use to varying degrees of frequency, it makes sense. Despite us all having a small core vocabulary we all have a huge range of words we use less frequently, which together add up to make a good portion of the overall words we say over an extended period of time. This is exacerbated as you get into more ‘domain specific’ content that is still addressing the general public (that does not assume background knowledge, maybe just a middle or high school level of education). The sheer size of vocabulary used in speech is extremely evident.

Casual, Slice of Life Content

Slice of life is "the realistic description or representation of events and situations in everyday life in literature, film, journalism".

My comprehension in more casual areas of speech has also increased significantly thanks to the growth in my vocabulary and further exposure to the language. However, I still feel like I am not as comfortable as I should and can be.

While a lot of casual content is at 99%+ comprehension according to Kimchi Reader - most more casual (vlog-style channels, k-pop, comedy, etc) channels my average is at or very close to 99% - content at 99% comprehension still lends to an unknown word every minute of speech. Considering that the average is 99%, there is a smaller portion of content where I can go longer without seeing unknown words (on average), but that also means that there is an equal amount of content where I am seeing more than 1 unknown a minute (on average).

This can feel really frustrating at my level as there is so much content that I cannot last a minute watching without running into something I don't understand that is usually important to following what is being said.

The upside however is that a larger amount of vocabulary at this point is decipherable with context (and as mentioned earlier, are easier to learn) and basic hanja knowledge. They do not impede my comprehension too much, however they do take away some of the enjoyment when consuming certain types of content.

For a few speakers who stick to casual topics I can comfortably go upwards of 10+ minutes, sometimes even 20-30+ minutes, or thousands of words, without hearing a word from them I don't know. This is thanks to spending so much time with these speakers and thus acquiring the large majority of their active vocabulary. Further, as my vocabulary grows, it takes much less time and exposure to a speaker to reach this point - although the time is still fairly significant at this stage as I need exposure to their speech in various situations.

Syuka World

I honestly think it’s worth sharing as is because I think it illustrates where I am currently with Korean fairly well and what it is actually like at this vocabulary - that there is still a large gap despite the big glamorous number and easy misconceptions about how many words we know and use.

Over the last few months the majority of my immersion has been SyukaWorld videos.

If you don’t know what SyukaWorld is, it is a Korean YouTube channel consisting mainly of VODs of his live streams where he discusses various world issues; ranging from trends across the globe to politics and economics. Despite the topics discussed in his content SyukaWorld is fairly accessible to the general public through the way he explains concepts, relates the issues to things his audience would know and strays away from ‘academic’ or ‘specialised’ language when necessary.

He also prepares slideshow-esque images that display statistics and concisely summarised sentences along with images for each part of a topic he discusses. Syuka does this all very well which explains why he is one of the biggest YouTube channels in Korea.

Because of how friendly his content is, Syuka becomes a great entryway to consuming other media (like news sources or harder podcasts and channels) on certain topics. This in turn allows me to learn from this media in a way that I wouldn’t have without Syuka bridging the gap.

For example, if I learn the main vocabulary for a topic (such as names for terms and common verbs and nouns used to when discussing the topic) through a SyukaWorld video, other vocabulary commonly used for this topic (that Syuka didn't use) can be learnt through harder media discussing the topic like news. Syukaworld allows you to understand the core pieces of information regarding a topic thus allowing one to go further in depth into a topic in an accessible way as the majority of unknowns exist in 1t sentences.

The majority of his main channel videos also have soft subtitles/closed captions so he has become one of my main sources for mining and vocabulary gains using Kimchi Reader. I can easily create high quality cards from his videos with Kimchi Reader thanks to how he speaks and the images he shows.

When I first watched his content in 2023 my comprehension, both in terms of percentage of known words, but also percentage of sentences with no unknowns (% of 0t sentences), was fairly high. Since then all areas of my comprehension have increased significantly. My percentage of known words and my percentage of 0ts have gone up. My ability to understand the topics presented and actually internalise what he is saying at his speaking pace without subtitles compared to 2023 is night and day. Furthermore, the effort required for me to understand him has diminished greatly to the point where I genuinely feel comfortable consuming his content in a more relaxed manner, something I couldn’t have done with the vast majority, if any, Korean content last year.

My average on Syuka's channel is slightly over 97% right now. This seems deceivingly high. However when taking into account his average speaking pace being 140 words per minute that is still 4 unknowns every minute. Even if at 98% comprehension I still get nearly 3 unknowns a minute. This means for an average 30 minute video I am getting over 60 unique unknown words. For content that is meant to be accessible to all and the optimistic lens (50% of content is worse than this) the gaping hole in my vocabulary is super obvious.

Imagine consuming content in your native language, targeted at the average person, who doesn’t need a base understanding of the topic (aside from maybe what he has addressed in earlier videos on the subject) and you are not understanding information every 15 to 30 seconds. Information that may be crucial to you actually following along. When you are watching a 30 minute video, that’s 60-120 pauses. 60-120 times where you don’t understand something you should understand.

This is not to diminish how much I do understand, how easily I can learn from his content, my ability to do understand him without subtitles and the ease I have in it compared to what I had a year ago (even compared to content like vlogs, SyukaWorld feels easier to understand without subtitles than vlogs did in late 2023). I am learning vocabulary from it - easier than I did ages ago as well. I genuinely enjoy it and I am at the point with a decent chunk of his content where I can just consume it for entertainment. However, two things can exist at once and I think it’s important to acknowledge both the ease of my consumption of this type of content (at this point) and how far I still have to go with Korean to be anywhere close to a non-educated native just vocabulary wise.

The gap is huge, but I shall conquer it.

Reading

Reading has been one of those areas I have seen large improvement in despite my minimal hours as my 3rd year drew to a close. The main areas I saw improvement were:

1. Vocabulary - Easier to learn, less translating or recalling definitions, etc.
2. Information Retention for longer periods of time
3. Less Effort to understand difficult sentences & clauses
4. Deeper understanding of the story/ideas & underlying message being conveyed - closer to the feeling of English

1 - Vocabulary

New vocabulary has become way easier to learn, as I've said multiple times, and this extends to reading. What I've specifically noticed is my ability to just 'understand' a word I recently learnt without needing my head producing the English (or Korean) definition. The word now just exists in mentalese way easier - without friction.

I still predominantly use English definitions on my card when given the opportunity to (sometimes I will search for one) so it is not that I now understand these words in Korean, I just understand these words in the same manner one understands vocabulary in their native language; where no literal definitions are tied to it (not that I couldn't produce one if necessary but I don't actively recall them anymore when seeing the word).

This did occur in the first two years but to a much lesser extent and with a higher threshold of exposure to that word.

I mainly noticed this when reading text with no audio as I am allowed to go at my own pace. This enables one to recall vocabulary at any pace as well, thus making it more evident that I can just see and understand words and then have the time to process the fact that I just understood this random word, reflect on doing so and how I feel and watch over that experience from another level as a neutral observer.

2 - Information Retention

One area I have been most embarrassed about in regards to my Korean is my poor information retention skills for things I've read. When I read I focus on learning: learning the new words, mining good sentences, understanding each sentence to the best of my ability and piecing it together. However, for the longest time, no matter how much I read, or how much easier the text felt, I had issues retaining information in books. This would mean that on occasion the larger plot didn't exist because my focus was on the details. My brain couldn't store the overarching story because it could only hold the current information being pieced together. I would finish a book, start a new one and the previous one would just leave my brain as if I hadn't read more than 2 random pages.

Over the last 18 months this has improved, although it's still a prevailing issue. While I can still remember parts of books I read nearly a year ago (which at that time I wouldn't have remembered books I read months before) part of why I actually retained that information from those books was because I used English in some manner or because I spent a significant portion of 'non-input-time' thinking about the text. Thankfully, over the last 12 months, and especially in the last 6 months (despite my lack of reading since June/July) the threshold for me to remember information I read in books in Korean has decreased significantly. For instance I read some of The Vegetarian in October and I can still remember all of what I read (despite not really thinking about the book) as I write this section in Jan 2025.

3 - Difficult Sentences and Clauses

This struggle has definitely been impacted by my vocabulary growth.

I personally find that it is really really hard to understand a sentence in a fluid manner when I don't know all the vocabulary. For me, this means reading it, understanding it in its entirety without issues including having to think or pause or lookup a word again. (This doesn't include understanding the nuance, cultural context and influences, etc, however). With only one unknown, I find it fairly manageable. Longer sentences with multiple unknown words are harder. I have to follow along to what's being expressed while remembering what I am reading and the meanings of the unknowns. Thus the natural solution to making it easier, aside from practice, is to have less unknowns.

I struggle with this area of written language way less often than I once did, to a genuinely significant degree. The majority of the sentences in the more complex texts I have been reading I would have never read fluidly 12-18 months ago. Even in the last 6 months, despite reading less it has still become easier - I believe part of why it has was also further high comprehension exposure to more 'complex' speech.

4 - Understanding

I believe understanding is one of the things you don't realise you are not doing until you actually do it. Thus, I would assume in a year or two I will realise that in 2024 I was understanding at an almost surface level compared to at that present moment, and continue to feel and reflect in that manner far into the future. Even now, on occasion I will watch something and be totally aware that I am understanding it on a superficial level that I shouldn't be and thus become further aware of how far I have to go.

Part of this feeling is that I understand with less effort and part of it is that I can actually train that information, however I believe there is more to it.

I remember watching a Matt VS Japan video a few years ago where he discusses understanding comedy in Japanese. He described how certain Japanese comedy is only understandable and funny, if you're super good. Else it just goes completely over your head. How when he watches Dogen's videos he is aware that there are all these jokes Dogen makes that the majority of his audience would not understand because their Japanese is not advanced enough. I believe this concept - of deeper levels of understanding being locked behind your level - applies to other aspects as well.

While I definitely am not at the level that Matt discusses in that video, I do feel as though over time when I read or hear something it affects me in ways that it wouldn't have earlier. The connotations are larger and the words hold more meaning to me because I understand them better and with less effort. The barrier that was once so large and overbearing slowly disappears and as it does what is on the other side is clearer and cuts deeper.

I believe the best way I can explain it would be glasses. Where your native language is like 20/20, perfect vision and Korean is like having no glasses on when your vision isn't 20/20. The degree of blindness is dependent on how good you are. The better you are, not just in terms of pure language knowledge but extrapolating that into cultural contexts, and understanding connotations, the clearer your 'vision' is. 

But if you're a kid and you don't realise you can't see, it is just normal. It doesn't feel hazy if you don't remember or haven't experienced clarity. When you don't realise that you aren't understanding - whether at all or past a surface level - you are that kid. 

Further, I think you can continue to 'realise' you were not (or are not) understanding. You make progress, you think you are understanding, and then there is a moment (or a few) that makes you realise that you aren't (or you progress far enough to realise that when you thought you weren't understanding all those months/years ago, you weren't). You are perpetually transitioning between being the unknowingly blind kid to the adult-needing-glasses.

For instance, when you first get new glasses they are perfect. As time passes you stop seeing details you used to see. But you don't realise you can't see certain details until you become aware that you can no longer see something that you obviously used to be able to (i.e you can no longer clearly and easily read off of the whiteboard in class). The last time I got an updated prescription If freaked out because I forgot that you could make out every leaf on a tree as your drive past it. I was genuinely able to look at trees because they were suddenly so overstimulating. I had this faux idea of what was "clear”, and it was only broken when my vision actually improved.

When you accept your current understanding (or vision) as good you forget how hazy it actually is. You get used to it and it feels less hazy than the reality, even if you're aware it isn't clear.

Both high language ability (lots and lots of words, lots and lots of time spent with the language in various contexts hearing things said countless times, etc) and high cultural understanding is required to see clearly. One cannot exist without the other.

I am missing both. It would be delusional to pretend I had any depth in cultural understanding (in comparison to a native Korean) because I don't. It would also be a lie to pretend that the gap in my language ability didn't impair me to a large degree, especially in 'gaining' correct cultural understanding.

Furthermore, I think that people can gain a false perception of the world. Like when you can't see so your brain fills in the gaps and predicts. Or like an optical illusion. It is really really easy to misunderstand - especially culturally, even more so when you lack the language ability to critically engage and understand in a way that may not cause misunderstandings if it was your native language. It's easy to think you understand something, especially a culture, and then continue to build a false idea of that culture off of that. 

If it is already so easy to learn the meaning of a word incorrectly, why wouldn't that apply to things that require higher attention, engagement, comprehension, critical thinking ability, etc. There are multiple times where I have completely misunderstood a word, learnt it incorrectly and then fully misunderstood situations because of that. This then influences my perception of all the things in this situation. And I don't realise for months that I just didn't understand that initial word, or sentence and thus all of this knowledge I've based off of that (not just that used the word but how I see certain situations, or people, etc) are false.

I believe this can easily build up very quickly, especially if you think you 'know' something and mistakenly believe your vision is clearer than it actually is. It may actually make the rest of your vision hazier without knowing.

The main reason I wouldn't consider myself fluent (input-wise) is because it is still so hazy. I don't expect it to ever be like English, that perfect 20/20 vision, but I at least don't want it to be hazy enough that I couldn't legally drive without glasses.

I believe I am missing more vital knowledge than one would assume. This is evident purely based on the significance of the progress I've made in the past half year. This doesn't just include knowledge related to the language. To a degree, this will never be fixed. I will never percieve things in the way a Korean person does but that doesn't negate the huge room for growth that still exists. Regardless, I feel that I can now connect with what I am consuming, especially written language, way more than I could even 6 months ago.

공간이 만든 공간 - An Example

In March I read the book 공간이 만든 공간 by the architect Yoo Hyeon Joon (윤현준) after I was recommended it. Even though there were a lot of unknown vocabulary (let alone concepts) going into the book, I really enjoyed it. The most taxing part of the text was the longer sentences with multiple unknowns. I was also having a slightly difficult time following each section and then the overall journey the book takes. However, as I read more and eventually read the second book and moved onto another one of his books (도시는 무엇으로 사는가) the vocabulary became way less of an issue, I could follow each section fairly easily, I wasn't needing to spend that long on difficult sentences and the effort required was so much less than before. My focus turned not to understand - at a basic level - how he was expressing the concepts covered, but rather understanding what he was expressing and thus primary learning the information, rather than primarily the language.

Book Stats

Below is my comprehension (according to Kimchi Reader) of nearly book I've read in the past year as of now (not when I read it):

Title	Type	Genre	Total Words	Total Unknowns	Word Comprehension
이상한 그림	Fiction	Mystery	28118	772	97.18%
아주 작은 습관의 힘	Non-Fiction	Self-Help	44589	439	98.95%
레몬	Fiction	Mystery	18545	268	98.25%
미친 집중력	Non-Fiction	Self-Help	8746	50	99.36%
은둔형 외톨이의 마법	Fiction	YA	43494	177	99.56%
영어 잘하는 사람들의 작은 습관	Non-Fiction	Self-Help	19627	118	99.32%
죽고 싶지만 떡볶이는 먹고 싶어	Fiction		20486	128	99.31%
살인자의 쇼핑몰	Fiction	Action Thriller	19729	433	97.43%
공간이 만든 공간	Non-Fiction	Architecture	41143	469	98.51%
물고기 여인 1권	Fiction	YA	31109	151	99.43%
천일야화	Fiction	Fairy Tale	22155	239	98.63%
모든 순간이 너였다	Essay		14608	63	99.53%
나태주 연필화 시집	Fiction	Poetry	5488	125	97.58%
물고기 여인 2권	Fiction	YA	30939	149	99.47%
끝없는 밤	Fiction	Mystery	39726	383	98.89%
당연하게도 나는 너를	Fiction	YA	23082	75	99.68%
무생물 이야기	Fiction		24262	164	99.29%
미친 암기력	Non-Fiction	Self-Help	13636	100	99.22%
가면산장 살인사건	Fiction		35701	215	99.33%
공간의 미래	Non-Fiction	Architecture	40883	303	99.01%
또다시 같은 꿈을 꾸었어	Fiction	YA	38778	158	99.47%
죽이고 싶은 아이	Fiction	YA	20099	78	99.56%
아무튼, 피트니스	Fiction		15530	207	98.33%
이상한 나라의 앨리스	Fiction	Childrens	39246	589	98.44%
질문하는 한국사 2 고려	Non-Fiction	Korean History	20035	433	97.33%
나는 나로 살기로 했다	Non Fiction	Self-Help	17718	377	97.85%

Below is my comprehension for the books I'm currently reading as of the 21st of Nov:

Title	Type	Genre	Progress	Total Words	Total Unknowns	Word Comp
도시는 무엇으로 사는가	Non Fiction	Architecture	56.87%	45584	575	98.60%
채식주의자	Fiction	Literature	13.94%	29894	794	97.26%
고시원 기담	Fiction	Thriller	18.94%	45192	686	98.36%

Extra Notes:

I think giving examples of what this actually looks like is important; you can see a couple here. My highest comprehension I have achieved on any book I've read this year is 99.68% for 당연하게도 나는 너를. If an average book has 250 words per page then this would look like roughly 1 unknown word per page. I feel like this is both great, and also highlights how far I have to go considering the demographic for this book (and thus its relative difficulty for a native). Further:

• 99% comprehension = 2.5 unknown words a page
• 98% comprehension = 5 unknown words a page
• 97% comprehension = 7.5 unknown words a page
• 96% comprehension = 10 unknown words a page
• 95% comprehension = 12.5 unknown words a page,

and so on. It may not seem like a lot but over the span of hundreds of pages it can get pretty tiring if you don't want to deal with unknowns and just want to read extremely comfortably.

Because I listened to 서재의 시체 as an audiobook I do not have Kimchi Reader stats for it.

For a few books I remember my comprehension before reading them:

• 살인자의 쇼핑몰 = 93%~
• 공간이 만든 공간 = 96%~
• A lot of the YA books were 98%+ before reading:
  • 당연하게도 나는 너를
  • 죽이고 싶은 아이
  • 또다시 같은 꿈을 꾸었어
• 죽고 싶지만 떡볶이는 먹고 싶어 = 97%~

I also read a few manga volumes over the course of a few days in June:

• 히카루가 죽은 여름 1
• 헌터헌터 1
• 데스노트 4

Output

My goal for my 3rd year was putting some focus into output; getting an [[iTalki]] tutor, doing a local language exchange, thinking in Korean regularly and consistently shadowing and chorusing. I did none of this. I estimate (based on my HelloTalk screen time and literal lack of any output) that this year I spent less than 20 hours on any type of output. I have still yet to orally output to another person.

The majority of the time I spent outputting this year took place at the start using HelloTalk. Despite attempting to use the app fairly consistently for close to a month, when taking into account all the time I spent waiting for responses (with the app open typically), having English conversations, finding people to message, I would estimate that less than 30% of the time on HelloTalk was actual Korean conversations. The majority of these conversations consisted of super basic, repetitive output that didn't push my abilities. There were a couple occasions where I had genuine conversations with people that lead to me expanding my output limits.

Stopping Output

Why didn't I continue to output? Frankly, I just didn't want to.

My input is still nowhere near the level I want it to be at. The time and energy it takes me to have extremely limited, simple, boring conversations that rarely lead anywhere was not worth it for me during 2024 considering how I felt about my input abilities and how my life was going.

Trying to output is really tiring. Actually outputting wasn't, but finding people to do it with sucked enough to never feel worth it. So I didn't do it. It's as simple as that.

I don't hold any regrets towards it, even if I could've already achieved basic fluency already if I had committed 30-45 minutes each day to conversing in Korean, but I have my entire life to speak the language, why do it now, when I don't want to and am already under immense stress?

Further, part of why I just stopped trying was because I stopped caring. The few times I've talked about output in certain communities (or my output has somehow come up) people were fairly dismissive and a little rude. While it isn't hidden that I have big anxiety issues, I grew pretty sick of people acting as if they understood my lack of output, let alone my actual anxiety and how it impacts me. These conversations constantly left me frustrated due to having people telling me how I felt and what I should do, trying to 'solve' issues that I didn't ask for help with and not actually listening nor respecting me. I think throughout my time learning Korean I've felt pressured to output because of the spaces I was in, and this just grew as time passed until I eventually felt none. I didn't know how I felt about output; did I actually want to do it, or was it that I felt pressured to do so? That's still something I question, and I am leaning towards the latter. Either way, as I grew sick of being pushed to output, and dealing with those conversations and the lack of respect, I just chose to censor my thoughts and avoid any conversation that I felt would lead down that path. My point is that I felt as though no matter how much I explained why I didn't want to or how I felt, certain people refused to listen nor respect me, continued to push it, and eventually my will to output was completely killed off by it.

My anxiety is not the reason that I don't output at this point. I don't actually think it affects me that much in terms of actually doing it. I could've done loads of different types of output if I wanted to output and what was holding me back was my anxiety. But I didn't, because it wasn't. Of course I have a small fear of speaking Korean, my accent being completely unintelligible and thus not being understood, but aside from that, I don't really care. I suck, that's just the reality. Whatever, we move on.

Output post Exams

I finished exams on the 14th of November and have been waiting for the holidays to start so that I could actually place some energy towards output. Right now (as of mid December when I'm writing this) my output has been pretty inconsistent (tongue kind of destroyed the streak) but it has been genuinely enjoyable and completely stress free. I started having basic text conversations and doing chorusing and shadowing again on the 19th of November. In those 3 days I was able to actively recall 2.5k lemmas. I've decided to track my active vocabulary using Kimchi Reader by putting my output (still no oral conversations) and any words I actively recall into a Kimchi Reader document because I think this data is pretty cool to have.

Written late December 2024