Learning a Language as an Adult

   I have next to no background in any language other than English. I have a pretty solid command of kitchen Spanish from my time as a line cook a lifetime ago, but nothing conversational or even pretending to approach fluency. 

  I also have a major life event going on currently that will take the next four years to resolve. That's really all the detail you need, as it isn't anyone on the internet's business, but I plan on celebrating the end of this particular phase in life with my first really legitimate trip out of the country. Much like a pitbull, I'm extremely food motivated and my favorite food is Korean, so I've decided South Korea is a solid goal. I also discussed my love for esports and South Korea is a global powerhouse when it comes to that particular arena. 

  I'm not a historian, but what I do know is that in the 90s the South Korean government started a long-term strategy for becoming a center of Information and Communication Technology, then there was a financial crisis and they closed the community centers they were using to promote broadband access. A lot of out of work folks started PC Bangs (cafes), as the country continued heavily improving the broadband technology. It was a resounding success and lead to a boom in esports as competitive and online gaming was in its infant stages. Stephen C. Rea wrote about it in detail, if you're interested. 

  With that goal in mind, I've picked up a new little hobby of sorts: Learning Korean. As of the beginning of this entry on July 20, 2026, I've picked back up in learning Hangul with Unit 0 from How to Study Korean. A few years back, in 2023 or so, I started learning Korean via Duolingo. I didn't know it wasn't the greatest resource and wouldn't ultimately do anything but teach me some words, but I remember the Hangul lessons being pretty solid. This year I took to it with the spirit of this blog and searched for people who had learned Korean, the goal was to find what path they took and what they'd recommend. 

  The path I've decided on, for now at least, is to start learning Hangul from a handful of sources, like the link above, then move into Courses from Talk to Me in Korean, supplemented with the Korean Grammar In Use books for levels I-IV. If I decide to go beyond functional understanding to full fluency I could always aim for TOPIK Certification but that isn't really necessary for what I'm trying to do. 

  I want to be able to navigate the country and have a functional understanding of what's going on around me. I'd like to be able to order my food and have a decent conversation with people I meet. I know that kids supposedly have an easier time with languages and developing a natural accent, but I can apply similar principles to this that I do to other goals and learn faster. 

  Much like my journey with League of Legends I can follow a pretty simple process to improve. 
    1. Set an achievable goal
    2. Stay in a growth mindset, each step of failure is a step toward improvement.
    3. Practice the repetitions, initially Hangul, the vocabulary, then grammar. 
    4. Review with a coach, whether a hired teacher or native speaker. 

  I've already started doing the work to learn Hangul, as well as the phonetic pronunciations of all of the characters. I keep repeating sounds over and over and drilling it the best I can, especially if I can use some dictation training to try and write what I hear. I think the natural progression for me will be to do that, listen and write, then go back and get a transcript of what was said and confirm. It feels like this is doable, it will just require me to roll up my sleeves and do the work.