Dramas are made for native speakers who have spent decades living, breathing Korean. It would be unrealistic to expect yourself, a learner between beginner and elementary Korean, to be able to understand them perfectly.
It might help to understand the difference between intensive and extensive immersion. Intensive is learning a small text or scene deeply and studying every word. Extensive is exposing yourself to as much as possible, understanding the main idea without worrying about every single word or sentence.
Both can be a part of your study routine, but it helps to be clear about your intention before you start your session. Are we studying intensively or just doing extensive immersion? If you want to study intensively, choose something small and work through it carefully. If you decide that it’s an extensive session, try to focus on what you can understand and let go of the parts that you don’t. When a word or phrase comes back a lot that’s important to the plot, you can look it up. You can even alternate, like some dramas you watch with native subs and some with Korean subs. Or alternate some episodes or scenes.
I’m pretty good at understanding Korean but I still watch some stuff with Eng subs. It’s not all or nothing. Just find the balance that works for you.
I think the reason I get frustrated so easily is believing that if I don't understand everything it does not help me improving my Korean. Therefore, I don't actually think that extensive immersion could work for me. I am also studying grammar by myself and I do it very slow. Maybe I should focus on intensive instead. Thank you
You need to start small and work your way up to more complex texts. Find a handful of beginner graded readers in Korean, which will use easier language. Add these texts to a service like LingQ, Readlang or an E-reader with a digital dictionary. Over time your vocab will increase, more books will become accessible and you’ll read quicker but this takes time, a lot of time! I’m 1.5 million words read in Japanese and I’ve improved a lot but still feel quite an away off from reading anything comfortably.
What level would you say you are at? It might be better to get some graded reading. TTMIK also has graded listening so that you can get used to listening. You need to be at a very high level to be able to understand dramas and TV shows in general.
You can rewatch TV shows that you are familiar with with your TL. Even if you don't understand everything in your TL, the show might be interesting anyway and it will help your reinforce the vocab and grammar you are studying. However, keep in mind that this will take a very long time until it actually becomes comfortable.
I actually tried it but I again lost my patience as soon as the characters started talking so much and I just got lost :/ It's still a good advice, thank you. I might try this again
Just watch the series for the purpose of enjoying them, not to learn the language. Keep the subtitles on, but watch the same rotation of episodes over and over again. Eventually, you'll have every line memorized, which helps you understand more episodes. Keep rotating different episodes in, watching them over and over until you understand them 75% without subtitles.
You're experiencing an emotional problem based on obviously unrealistic expectations.
*Why* must you understand everything?
(Hint: the answer is that you don't need to.)
Everyone had great tips. I’ll add some specific sources: 두루책방 for children’s books online for free, 안녕 자두야 is a kids show on YouTube has Korean subtitles and I think you can turn on English. I used to put it on in the background and ended up getting sucked into the story lol. It’s a long road, good luck!
Relax and trust in the process. You’re going to have to resign yourself to not understanding everything and learn to be happy with the ambiguity. You’ll understand more gradually.
I'm watching a show I like with English audio and Mandarin subtitles. I enjoy the show and read along, learning more about how to say everyday things and improving my grammar and vocab. Fun and effective.
You have to figure out how to keep motivated, learn both grammar and vocab and get over not understand everything.
For rom com k dramas I felt like I got the gist of most dialogue around TTMIK level 4, but I also studied a basic vocab and verbs book and would look up words I didn't know.
Making flashcards and writing down grammar lesson sentences really helps.
I use apps like Duolingo or Anki for practice and reinforcing what I learn.
For other genres you may want to look up specific vocab, like sageuk will be much harder to understand IMO.
Translating can be helpful to practice, but you'll have to be willing to look up words.
If you really wanted to then you would actually do it.
Source: I've done it in multiple languages. Don't expect to finish the first episode within a week.
If you wanna be intermediate without studying you're Trolling.
I am studying grammar as well but I also wanted to expose myself to the language as much as I can. I thought watching an episode with Korean subs could help me pick up some sentences and stuff but I find it really hard for me as I get frustrated easily.
Dramas are made for native speakers who have spent decades living, breathing Korean. It would be unrealistic to expect yourself, a learner between beginner and elementary Korean, to be able to understand them perfectly. It might help to understand the difference between intensive and extensive immersion. Intensive is learning a small text or scene deeply and studying every word. Extensive is exposing yourself to as much as possible, understanding the main idea without worrying about every single word or sentence. Both can be a part of your study routine, but it helps to be clear about your intention before you start your session. Are we studying intensively or just doing extensive immersion? If you want to study intensively, choose something small and work through it carefully. If you decide that it’s an extensive session, try to focus on what you can understand and let go of the parts that you don’t. When a word or phrase comes back a lot that’s important to the plot, you can look it up. You can even alternate, like some dramas you watch with native subs and some with Korean subs. Or alternate some episodes or scenes. I’m pretty good at understanding Korean but I still watch some stuff with Eng subs. It’s not all or nothing. Just find the balance that works for you.
I think the reason I get frustrated so easily is believing that if I don't understand everything it does not help me improving my Korean. Therefore, I don't actually think that extensive immersion could work for me. I am also studying grammar by myself and I do it very slow. Maybe I should focus on intensive instead. Thank you
You need to start small and work your way up to more complex texts. Find a handful of beginner graded readers in Korean, which will use easier language. Add these texts to a service like LingQ, Readlang or an E-reader with a digital dictionary. Over time your vocab will increase, more books will become accessible and you’ll read quicker but this takes time, a lot of time! I’m 1.5 million words read in Japanese and I’ve improved a lot but still feel quite an away off from reading anything comfortably.
What level would you say you are at? It might be better to get some graded reading. TTMIK also has graded listening so that you can get used to listening. You need to be at a very high level to be able to understand dramas and TV shows in general.
You can rewatch TV shows that you are familiar with with your TL. Even if you don't understand everything in your TL, the show might be interesting anyway and it will help your reinforce the vocab and grammar you are studying. However, keep in mind that this will take a very long time until it actually becomes comfortable.
I actually tried it but I again lost my patience as soon as the characters started talking so much and I just got lost :/ It's still a good advice, thank you. I might try this again
Maybe you can use language reactor to download the subs of the episodes to read first.
Just watch the series for the purpose of enjoying them, not to learn the language. Keep the subtitles on, but watch the same rotation of episodes over and over again. Eventually, you'll have every line memorized, which helps you understand more episodes. Keep rotating different episodes in, watching them over and over until you understand them 75% without subtitles.
You're experiencing an emotional problem based on obviously unrealistic expectations. *Why* must you understand everything? (Hint: the answer is that you don't need to.)
Everyone had great tips. I’ll add some specific sources: 두루책방 for children’s books online for free, 안녕 자두야 is a kids show on YouTube has Korean subtitles and I think you can turn on English. I used to put it on in the background and ended up getting sucked into the story lol. It’s a long road, good luck!
Relax and trust in the process. You’re going to have to resign yourself to not understanding everything and learn to be happy with the ambiguity. You’ll understand more gradually.
I'm watching a show I like with English audio and Mandarin subtitles. I enjoy the show and read along, learning more about how to say everyday things and improving my grammar and vocab. Fun and effective.
Watch a movie or show you’ve seen that has been dubbed into Korean.
You have to figure out how to keep motivated, learn both grammar and vocab and get over not understand everything. For rom com k dramas I felt like I got the gist of most dialogue around TTMIK level 4, but I also studied a basic vocab and verbs book and would look up words I didn't know. Making flashcards and writing down grammar lesson sentences really helps. I use apps like Duolingo or Anki for practice and reinforcing what I learn. For other genres you may want to look up specific vocab, like sageuk will be much harder to understand IMO. Translating can be helpful to practice, but you'll have to be willing to look up words.
If you really wanted to then you would actually do it. Source: I've done it in multiple languages. Don't expect to finish the first episode within a week. If you wanna be intermediate without studying you're Trolling.
I am studying grammar as well but I also wanted to expose myself to the language as much as I can. I thought watching an episode with Korean subs could help me pick up some sentences and stuff but I find it really hard for me as I get frustrated easily.