How LingoDeer user Chlöe learned Korean

For this year’s Mother’s Day we asked our Instagram followers to post a video or photo of themselves speaking/writing about their mothers in their target language. Here’s the video of our winner, Chlöe. Her speech about her drama-addicting mother will make you smile. 

LD: Tell us about yourself and how you got into Korean? 

Things were pretty hard at the time and K-Dramas filled me and Mum’s world with light! We watched it, then we watched it again! And again! When Dad commented we were watching too much TV Mum said “it’s only Tv. It’s not like I’m having an affair!” and soon he was just as obsessed too!

I was entranced! The language called to me. I immediately started reading about Korean culture and fell in love. I knew I had to learn it. I researched for the best ways to learn Korean which is how I found LingoDeer.

LD: Name 3 things you want to do with the Korean language

C: I think the dream of all language learners is to go to the country where it’s spoken. So I want to go to Korea, see all the amazing places, talk in Korean visit JeJu Island and probably come back with a tonne of merch (and maybe my favourite actor Lee Jong Suk, if he agrees. 😆

So many interviews with our Korean idols don’t have subtitles and I always see comments begging for an English translation. So I would love one day to be fluent enough to translate the videos on YouTube. I want to do it for all the fellow Korean lovers who don’t know the language.

And 3.  I’ve always felt like I learnt Korean for a reason. Like it’s a path I’ve always been meant to follow. Haha, destiny! So I’m really excited to find out what is on that path.

LD: How did you complete the challenge? How did you feel after you completed it?

C: I desperately wanted to win. I was also excited to see if I knew enough words to talk for two minutes. I felt so nervous like I was going to perform on stage.

All night I kept dreaming that the LingoDeer teacher was saying how bad my pronunciation was.” Haha as you can see it really meant a lot to me. I’d wake up thinking “ahh I said half past Saturday! Idiot Chlöe!” So I just kept my fingers crossed. When I won I smiled all day and just walked around in a daze not knowing what to do I was so happy.😄

LD: How do you stay motivated? What do you do when you feel stuck or frustrated by learning?

C: My sheer love for the language motivates me and I love creating K-Drama drawings for my Instagram. Creating my account was the best thing I’ve done. I’ve met such lovely people who inspire me on a daily basis with their motivation and love of languages.

If I’m stuck and feel I’ll never ever be fluent I’ll watch a K drama and feel the love of language rushing back. I’ll watch my favourite idols or listen to music.

Children songs are great to learn from (mainly because they get stuck in your head) Baby shark…

If that doesn’t work I’ll just do something that isn’t related to language. But K-Dramas are usually the answer.❤

Now Korean fills my every day and I’ve happily let it take over. I feel so lucky to have found something that I love so much (even though I accidentally bowed to a non Korean and replied in Korean too. I’m excited to see where the language takes me.

LD: What’s your Korean learning routine these days? How do you use LingoDeer?

C: I study for half an hour at the kitchen table when I wake up with a big cup of tea and I make sure I write everything down. It’s so important to have a routine with learning a language, like brushing your teeth, so I also study Lingodeer when I’m brushing my teeth! My teeth get super clean.

I love LingoDeer because it pushes you in the deep end with the grammar but in a way that you think you’re in the shallow end. Before you know it you’re talking in sentences from the off and I always want to unlock the achievements and keep my study streak up.  Each lesson is the perfect length, not too short or long so I can do a quick lesson wherever I am. I try and do all the lessons for each unit everyday, but it’s so addictive, sometimes I do more. Spelling is my weakness so the spelling test at the end helps so much. When I get it wrong and LingoDeer cries, my heart breaks too.

We hope you enjoyed the story as much as we did!!