Tips for maintaining fluency in Korean

Here are our four top tips for maintaining your Korean fluency and avoiding the decline of your language skills.

You’ve put in the work, now how do you make sure you don’t have to start all over again? Image: @craftedbygc on Unsplash.

Exposure

Perhaps the most obvious and all-encompassing tip is to expose yourself as much as you can to the Korean language. Exposing yourself to your target language is the best way to ensure that your language skills stay at the front of your brain. The easiest way to do this if you’re studying independently is through media consumption. And, fortunately, with the vast popularity of Korean media, there are many forms of exposure you can try, and lots of ways to fit Korean practice into your schedule! 

Exposure through media can involve two of your language skills (reading and listening) and is also a great way to stay on top of relevant trends and slang.

Watching an episode of your favourite K-drama a day, with or without English or Korean subtitles, is an easy way to ensure that your brain has received even a small amount of Korean language engagement each day. If you’re looking for something new to watch, here’s a list of different K-drama tropes to spice things up. If K-dramas aren’t your thing, try discovering new K-pop songs or Korean webtoons. Searching up any new terms that you don’t recognise is a great way to expand your vocabulary too. The Naver Webtoon app is a great place to access free and paid webtoons in their original form. 

It’s also possible to continue a classroom-like learning style in your free time as Youtube is home to many Korean teachers who share their lessons online. A personal favourite is ‘Easy Korean Grammar 박현선TV’ as she teaches 100% in Korean and runs through grammar comparisons.

Find a friend or be your own 

If you’re more concerned about maintaining your spoken fluency, the best way to ensure that you keep your current level is to find a native speaker who is willing to practice with you. Of course, even speaking to a friend in Korean who is also learning works as well, but just be sure to avoid the temptation of slipping back into your native language. If you don’t know any Korean speakers, you can find some through language exchange apps like HelloTalk. 

If the thought of speaking to a native intimidates you, or your schedule doesn’t allow it, a great way to remedy this is to just (as silly as it sounds) talk to yourself. When you’re going through your morning routine, describe what you’re doing as you’re doing it. The most important thing about maintaining fluency when speaking is putting yourself on the spot and asking yourself to recall vocabulary and grammar when you need it.

Without constant exposure, it is easy to lose your grip on your target language. Image: @kimibmoon on Unsplash.

Keeping a diary

Writing a diary in Korean is easier said than done. Many people will often quit after two or three attempts. This is because writing in your target language challenges the foundations of your language skills. You need a firm grasp on common grammar, and a big enough vocabulary to describe everyday items and experiences. 

If you’re struggling to keep a Korean language diary, don’t worry. Through one entry, you can identify which grammar points you are unsure of how to use, and which words you need to look up in the dictionary. The goal isn’t to write a perfect entry without any grammar mistakes or mis-spellings, the goal is to avoid neglecting the fundamentals of your language skills!

Teaching 

Maybe now you’ve felt like you’ve absorbed as much Korean as you can, you want to put it to the ultimate test. Teaching what you’ve learnt and practiced to someone else is the most effective way to consolidate your own knowledge – it’s actually a psychological phenomenon called ‘the protégé effect’. According to psychologists, the protégé effect helps enhance information processing which leads to better performance and, importantly, it can help improve your confidence in your own knowledge of the language.

The special thing about language learning is that the learning is never truly over, and the most important stage of attaining fluency is sometimes knowing how to not lose it. We hope that, through these tips, you learnt something new or even just gained some motivation to get back into brain training with your target language!

Edited by Chelsea Cheetham.