Korean Study Tools: What’s in your Arsenal?

Does your textbook keep you up at night?

Do feel chronic back pain while reading?

You might be suffering from what’s known as DTS. Also known as Dreadful Textbook Syndrom.

You might even start to notice a few things whilst staring down those menacing pages of rules and regurgitations; Your head starts to ache. A wall of fog forms between you and the book. You feel like throwing the doorstop book out the window faster than you can say Tom Riddle’s diary.

Well, I have a cure. It’s two simple words: STOP IT!

Trust your gut on this. Close the book. Don’t turn another page. If you force yourself to study too hard, your mind will be enraged.

Don’t read another:

• “Where is the house?”
• “What did you eat for breakfast?”
• “What color is her hair?”
• “I don’t really care!”

The text book is closed. Do you stop learning?

Nope. But you need something. You need to build an arsenal of language learning tools.  I like to call it my arsenal of awesome acquisition. We aren’t just acquiring language. We are acquiring awesomeness!

A lot of you good looking  people out there might already have a small arsenal. Here’s some ideas for improving that arsenal besides the obvious Dramas and K-pop:

1: Comfy Headphones

Buy them if you don’t have them. Earbuds are annoying. Even the comfy ones.

Keep these on your head whenever you can. You want to be listening whenever you can.

This doesn’t have to be K-pop. There’s lot’s of different music in Korea. There is some good Rock and HipHop. You can also record TV shows or movies and throw them onto your portable media player.

2: Portable Media Player

You really want to get something nice like an Ipod or Galaxy Player. Or if you want get a smart phone. Don’t bother buying an electronic dictionary unless you have a lot of money to flush down the toilet.

This little baby is great! It is the Swiss Army Knife in my arsenal of awesome acquisition.

• I can take pictures of signs here in Korea.
• I can use my dictionary.
• I can send Korean friends messages.
• I can read emails.
• I can watch movies.
• I can listen to songs.
• I can look up chinese characters by drawing them.
• I can record video and audio.
• I can also look up things in my Korean encyclopedia!
• I can make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs!

3: Timer

Timer for time-boxing.

What I like to do is a little thing called time-boxing.

This is where you take a timer and let it run for 5 minutes. You want to concentrate as much as you can on learning Korean. Whatever you are doing for learning. It doesn’t matter what technique, focus on it. When the timer is up, start it again and do something else. Repeat until whenever.

It’s like you are putting your time into little tiny boxes. It helps your concentration and helps you get things done faster.

4: Book Stand

It’s good for posture, and saves you time from flipping back and forth from the book to your notebook to your computer. Enough said.

Buy it!

5: Anime + Manga = World Domination

If you can find an anime with the corresponding manga, you’ve got a small gold mine in front of you. Make sure you at least enjoy the manga or anime. They do a lot of dubbing and print a lot of manga here in Korea. Jackpot!

It doesn’t really matter if it’s whacky or geeky or extremely オタク. It’s just for fun. And just for your awesomeness.