Hi, longtime lurker here. I figured after I just posted my very first text on Journaly that I should have maybe started with some kind of introduction. Well, I guess here it is!

My name is Julia and I'm a language/culture/books/tea/food/... enthusiast from Germany.

I officially studied three languages in school but technically speak only one and a half of them - seeing as Latin isn't really a thing to use in conversation nowadays. However, because of my Latin studies, I am able to understand quite a bit of Spanish and Italian, so that's pretty cool! The other two languages I learned are English (think "Obviously" in Snape) and French. In addition to acquiring all kinds of linguistic knowledge I enjoy various creative hobbies as well as taking hour-long walks and going on culinary adventures that are not always successful.

I learned English mainly in school, although I did do a gap year abroad which is why at this point I am quite comfortable with the language. Other than that I'd say I'm about as close to a "native speaker level" as I, personally, can get since I'm not actively studying to acquire certain vocabulary or other knowledge these days. Please note that in no way do I assume that I am anywhere close to the language level of a native speaker. I'm not (;

After English I continued on with Latin and a little later with French. I've studied French for a total of four years but didn't really touch it for another 4ish years, apart from the occasional youtube video or web article. It's not so much that I didn't like the language anymore but more that around that time life just happened, a lot was going on and my mind was elsewhere. Also, I've always had a soft spot for French cinema, the sense of humour always gets me! While I forgot a lot of what I originally learned, I got back into it more or less recently and my main focus these days is listening to intermediate French podcasts (they're quite entertaining, I must say).

This brings me to my last language (for now) which is Korean. I started learning Korean last year before Covid hit, so I had a good amount of "dabble time" (I don't even know if there is such a thing, tbh) before actually committing. The big difference for me this time: self-study supported by my iTalki teacher because uni life is hectic! So far I've learned the following:

• Setting up a curriculum is hard. Like, even when you use a university textbook or a certain website (we all know which one I'm talking about, shoutout to 현우 선생님 and the rest of the crew) you still might want to find supplementary material that has to be coordinated into your study plan. Messy!

• Do not miss out on vocabulary. Seriously. I've rediscovered my passionate hatred for beating words into my brain but at the end of the day I'll need a solid base to function in any language...

• I love language books, I'm not even kidding. Might as well start a review series, this is how many Korean (text)books I own.

• And lastly, I'm immensely enjoying the process of making Korean my own!

Hopefully you could get a good chuckle or two out of this introduction, I'm looking forward to discovering more of this platform! ^^