The behavior I decided to commit to for the rest of the semester is practicing learning a new language via Duolingo/Youtube videos, etc. I’ve been learning Korean for the last few months because I was watching a lot of Korean television and film a few months ago and I wondered if I would be able to learn the language so that I wouldn’t have to watch the shows/movies with subtitles. Since starting learning the language (in May of this year), I believe that my ability to remember and recall information has improved. I also feel like taking a break from social media/everything around me and focusing only on the lessons I’m trying to complete helps me relax at the end of the day. I want to continue this behavior until the end of the semester (and hopefully afterwards, as well) so that I can see the documented progress of how much Korean I’ve managed to retain/if my memory continues to improve after the six/seven month mark of learning the language.

In the attached screenshot, you can see my individual information in the Duolingo app. This shows me my weekly and daily xp (experience points). Experience points allow me to see, roughly, how many lessons I’ve completed over the last week. In the statistics section, I can see my “streak” (how many days in a row I’ve completed a lesson), my total xp over-all (I have also practiced other languages like Japanese, French and Swedish so those factor into my xp but not by much), how many “crowns” I’ve obtained (I receive crowns after finishing every lesson in a section completely i.e there’s a section of lessons called “food” and in this section, there are roughly 25 lessons. After completing all of these, I earn a crown.), and which “league” I’m in. Each player is given the opportunity each week to “level up” to a new league. For now, the diamond league is the highest tier of leagues a player can reach. The last two sections of this informational panel show which languages I’m learning and the in-game/app achievements I’ve earned but I don’t feel that they’re particularly important in this exercise.

I think that taking the time to complete the lessons from the course every day and looking at the panel from the screenshot every now and again has helped me feel accomplished about something. I feel like I’m learning something helpful. Though I’m not sure when or where I’ll need to speak or understand Korean outside of watching movies and tv shows, I also just really enjoy learning a new language and because I’m learning the language, I’ve enjoyed learning more about Korean culture.

The advice I would give to anyone learning a new language is, if you really want to learn the language, immerse yourself into it. Listening to music in that language (even children’s songs and nursery rhymes), watching movies and shows and reading children’s books can be really helpful in remembering words, especially when those words aren’t in romanized spelling. Doing all of this also makes learning fun and interesting, whereas just doing lessons on Duolingo and watching videos about sentence structure and grammar can get a bit boring after a while. Consistency is also important when seriously trying to learn a new language.