1 month ago
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Today, we’re doing beingness with Felicia Ajibade, a Nigerian who taught herself however to talk Korean and has go 1 of the salient voices for Korean civilization successful Nigeria today. She shares however she taught herself, documenting her experiences online and what to bash if anyone wishes to larn the Korean language.
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Hello Felicia. How bash you accidental “How are you feeling today?” successful Korean?
Hello. In Korean, you tin say: 오늘 기분이 어때요? (o-neul gi-bun-i eo-ttae-yo?). It straight translates to “How are you feeling today?” To reply that myself, I’d accidental I’m doing precise well, convey you.
Awesome. Tell america however you began to larn and thatch Korean arsenic a Nigerian?
People presume I started learning Korean due to the fact that of movies oregon K-pop. But for me, it was deeper than that. I began learning astatine a clip erstwhile beingness felt precise heavy, and I needed thing to flight into. My imagination backmost past was to triumph a assistance to survey abroad, and Korea conscionable happened to beryllium the state that caught my attention. I honestly can’t adjacent explicate wherefore I chose Korea specifically erstwhile I could person chosen different country, but thing astir it drew maine in.
I didn’t get the scholarship, but portion preparing for it, I discovered the language. Korean became my comfort, thing that gave maine operation and a crushed to aftermath up and look guardant to the day.
Teaching myself was thing but easy. Korean is wholly antithetic from English and Yoruba, the languages I grew up speaking. The condemnation operation is astir the other of English, and pronunciation was different situation due to the fact that determination are sounds we don’t usage successful Nigerian languages. Initially, I relied connected escaped resources, including YouTube, and practised connected my own. It often felt lonely and overwhelming, but I stayed consistent. Slowly, things started making sense. Looking backmost now, I’m grateful I didn’t quit, due to the fact that what started arsenic a hopeless effort to flight became a genuine passion.
That’s truly good. Could you archer america wherefore you decided to leap connected calls with Koreans, and the platforms you usage to articulation these calls?
At immoderate point, I realised that studying unsocial wasn’t enough. I could memorise grammar rules and vocabulary each day, but erstwhile it came to existent conversations, I froze. That’s erstwhile I decided to commencement speaking straight with Koreans. I wanted to acquisition the earthy travel of the language, larn however radical really speech extracurricular of textbooks, and besides bid myself to respond rapidly without having clip to overthink.
I mostly usage a connection speech app called HelloTalk. At first, it was nerve-wracking due to the fact that you’re abruptly thrown into a speech with a alien who speaks the connection fluently. But the much I did it, the much assured I became. It truly pushed maine retired of my comfortableness zone. Later on, I decided to stock immoderate of these interactions online, not expecting thing astatine all, and to my surprise, I received truthful overmuch emotion and support. That’s however a tiny signifier regular turned into gathering a full community.
English (US) ·