Pls Ask Me Things In My Inbox Im Bored Lol

pls ask me things in my inbox im bored lol

just found out @salvadorbonaparte ‘s mega folder got taken down i have never been more devastated in my life

HIII im back fr this time lol here are updates on life and my studies

- did not get enough funding for my planned study abroad in taiwan sadly, BUTTTT i last second was able to get into a summer program at korea university in seoul!! (will post summer + fall schedule after this)

- ended up failing a class this semester because the listed grading system on the syllabus was apparently not what was used but its fine ill live, just need to do reallly good in the fall to bring my gpa back up (it went from 3.425 -> 3.0)

- im either switching my minor to east asian languages or dropping it all together and focusing on anthropology/archaeology in school and languages in my own time :) i already dropped the chinese minor as i dont want to continue taking courses with the single professor at my uni but still want my credits for the mandarin and japanese courses ive taken to count towards my degree if possible

- currently trying to rest during my short summer break before i go to korea so im not burnt out there or in the fall but also starting to read ahead on the classes im taking there when i have the energy

i want to make videos while im in taiwan studying abroad, is there anything people would want me to cover about studying abroad or studying in taipei specifically?

finally comfirmed all my summer courses so heres the schedule!

for context: im studying at Korea University in Seoul for a 6 week semester abroad.

Period 1 - North Korea: History, Society, Politics

Period 2 - Media & Popular Culture in South Korea

Period 5 - Beginning Korean 1

im very interested to see how the class on North Korea will be, i have started some of the recommended reading as well as doing my own research & finding friends in the class and looking forward to it. definitely not a course i could ever find/take at a university here at home.

media & pop culture also super excited for bc i want to dive deeper into studying pop culture, performance art, fandom spaces and more within the realm soso bad

korean 1! i do have some korean learning and time in the country under my belt already but ive never taken an actual class (my speaking is very casual/informal bc of who/where i learned from lol) i feel like i definitely have missed or not fully understood a lot of grammar in the past also so i wanna kind restart the learning process w more structure :)

if anyone has questions abt the classes/program/study abroad/ etc lmk and ill do my best to answer !! excited to be back and motivated and study the things i love after a pretty difficult spring semester

suggestions and advice on how to remember and memorize characters? it's the part I'm finding the most difficult

i struggle w this too rn bc of the pace my professor has been going at. if you dont have a practice workbook i def recommend those bc they show the stroke order and just give space for you to write repetitively. otherwise just try and write sentences using the characters/words you know or generally practice writing/reading as much as possible.

i like skritter a lot for practicing characters or learning new vocabulary related to things im actually interested in and would talk about in real life rather than a lot of the stuff ill learn in class.

because of the lack of alphabet a lot of people (me included) tend to rely heavily on pinyin but since ive started learning zhuyin i’ve definitely felt it helps. not having romanization means i have to actually try and cant just fall back and give up like i would if something was shown only in characters + pinyin.

i specifically like using my ipad or an external monitor when im studying characters so i can blow up the characters and look at them like an image rather than a letter (im learning traditional these little things have so many strokes i like to make sure i can see/recognize all of them) then also i feel like it stays better as a visual in my brain.

im still taking elementary level mandarin so realistically i dont know all that much, only what ive been trying and what works for me if anyone else has tips pls feel free to reply