Welcome back to our blog. You may have read our blog post about how we met and now you know that we are big Korean language and culture lovers. But how did this happen? Why do we love Korea so much and why on earth would somebody learn such a hard language? You will find the answers to these questions in this blog post so keep on reading.

Well, like all great discoveries it happened by chance one day when Seolhwa was in the bookstore looking for a new book to immerse in. A book with a bright red cover caught her attention. It was no other book than the famous “The Vegetarian” by the Korean writer Han Kang. Seolhwa read the book and she liked it so much that she said: Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to read this book in its original language? That’s when the desire to learn Korean sparked in her heart. However, Teri’s story is a bit different. When Seolhwa told her about the new book she read and how she wants to learn Korean, Teri didn’t know a thing about Korea. Seolhwa suggested Teri to listen to some k-pop, watch some k-dramas and even recommended books by Korean authors. One day while Teri was in the car, she decided to give the song “Fake love” by BTS a try and she loved it. After listening to multiple songs from them, she decided to try learning Korean with Seolhwa.

Korean culture has many aspects that can captivate you and not just Hallyu; Korea is a country rich in history. From their beautiful hanboks (traditional clothes) used in ancient dynasties, to the delicious dishes like tteokbokki, kimbap, jajangmyeon, budaejjigae, and bulgogi, as well as Korean folk tales, and of course, K-pop and K-dramas, Korea is incredibly rich in all these things. We can’t deny it—it blew our minds.

Speaking more specifically about the Korean language, one of the things that captivated us right away is that Korean is perfectly structured. It’s hard, we won’t lie, but it makes sense once you start learning it. They have really funny and interesting slangs and expressions that we can’t seem to find in Spanish or Romanian (and don’t get us wrong, we do have some great slangs and expressions too).

And so our journey of learning Korean began. At the beginning, the thought that we had each other to rely on the journey really motivated us. We found some online resources, mainly in English because there were very few resources in Spanish for Teri so we could study the same lessons from the same resources, revise together and even ask each other questions when we didn’t understand something.

When we started learning Korean, Teri wasn’t very ambitious about how far she wanted to go with the language. Her initial first goal was simply to be able to read. Then it evolved into understanding what she was reading, and it kept growing. She really wanted to understand the dialogues in K-dramas and the lyrics of the songs. Seolhwa felt the same way. At the beginning, we didn’t set out to become fluent overnight; instead, we enjoyed the learning process from the beginning all the way to an intermediate-advanced level. As we developed our Korean language skills, of course, our goals changed.

We were both certain that one day we would visit Korea. Since we lived in different contexts, we found different paths to make that happen. For Seolhwa, it was getting a scholarship to study there for a whole year. For Teri, it was working. We always thought we would visit together, but let us spoil it for you: that didn’t happen. However, we ended up in the same area, literally in the same location but a year apart! Haha. Anyway, we achieved that goal and are planning to go back to Korea. But we’ll talk about that in another post.

About the materials we used, we used a variety of apps, textbooks and websites such as Talk to me in Korean which had some really good grammar lessons which were free back then. We first learned the alphabet, Hangul and then moved on to textbooks like Basic Korean and other online courses and Youtube videos. As we got more confident with our Korean abilities, we also took some online lesson with teachers and Seolhwa eventually started studying Korean at University.

There were also some challenging moments like feeling burned out, not understanding some difficult grammar, having issues with how to pronounce certain words, learning vocabulary that was so different from any words that exist in the languages we speak. However, we didn’t give up and even if we had to take longer breaks from learning, we kept on learning and overcoming challenges.

To reach these goals, we put all our effort into it. I would say that something that helped a lot was becoming language partners. We often talked about our study sessions, doubts, and questions about grammar. We started texting each other mainly in Korean, which was really helpful. We were both so grateful to have each other on this journey from the beginning. Sharing your language learning with someone is magical and motivates both parties to keep going, even when it gets tough.

There is a moment in every language learner’s journey when you feel like you’ve succeeded, and for us it happened when we realized we can communicate with Korean natives, Teri at work with her Korean colleagues and Seolhwa took a Korean class for the first time where the teacher was very surprised at her skills and the fact that she studied Korean on her own.

We can confidently say that learning Korean opened doors and brought multiple opportunities in our lives. From Teri getting a translator job from Korean to Spanish, to Seolhwa receiving a scholarship to study in Korea, being able to speak the language helped us a lot. Moreover, we got to connect with Korean people easily because of our language skills, Teri met her Korean boyfriend online and she was able to communicate with him and his mother in Korean and Seolhwa making amazing friends during her studies in Korea which she wouldn’t have been able to connect with if they didn’t speak the same language. Being able to speak Korean also saved Seolhwa the burden of using a translator when making important documents, making payments on Korean websites or reading requirements to join University clubs in Korea.

Taking the TOPIK test was really important for us -not just to have the certificate but also to measure our progress in the language. Taking it was one of our first goals once we reached the intermediate level. Having conversations and expressing ourselves on a variety of topics—not only daily life but also academic and more complex subjects—was the final goal, and I feel that we are very close to achieving it.

Learning a language is definitely a continuous process and even if we look back at how far we have come, we know we still have a lot to learn. Therefore, our commitment to keep improving in the language is as strong as in the beginning. Our final goal in the language is to be able to speak Korean as fluently as we speak English, without any help in daily and also in more academic and other complex situations. Studying at a Korean University (for Seolhwa would be the second time) in the future is also a big goal of ours and a good Korean level would make understanding classes easier. The Korean language really changed our life and we can’t wait to see where it will take us next.