Language Learning

Hello Everyone!

I wanted share how I learned different languages. My native tongue is Cantonese. I basically learned how to speak Mandarin by watching TV Dramas. At first, they were Taiwanese Dramas, back in the days (starting in 2008), Taiwanese Dramas were more of a hit. Fast-forward to 2024, they are now mainly focusing on China Dramas.. If you search Taiwanese Dramas, there aren't much anymore. So, watching TV Dramas was how I learned to speak Mandarin, also, back in the days, when my dad has his own business in a city with many Chinese customers, I was able to practice speaking it with them. Over these decades, my Mandarin speaking and listening is the best among my family members (parents and brother). I continue to watch Dramas, and sometimes when I'm thinking, my thoughts will be in Mandarin, rather than my Native tongue or in English.

Secondly, with Korean. I took 3 beginner courses at a local college through their Continuing Education program. So, there, I learned the alphabet, the 2 sets of numbering systems and simple grammar, with easy conversational phrases/questions. Aside from watching Dramas from China, I was a huge fan of Kdramas and Kpop. After learning the Language in the class, I don't need to wait for people to put up subtitles for the dramas and can still understand about 80% of the content by watching it without the subtitles. The only problem with Korean is, that I'm afraid to speak it. As there are so many rules in the grammar, with the formal or casual form of speech. I'm afraid to use the wrong one. Also, the sentence structure of Korean is different than the English Language. But, my writing is better (when I text my colleagues in Korean). I remember there was this one time where I went to a Hair Salon where the staff were Korean. I tried to listen in on what they are saying to each other and to other Korean customers, I could only understand words that I know of, so most of the time, guess what they are talking about. Since I've learned their alphabet, reading is not a problem. It's just that I might not know what I'm reading because my vocabulary bank is not big enough.

I'd like to use to Thread to share any dramas that anyone has liked and would like to recommend. 

For Dramas from China, I'm currently watching "Love Me, Love My Voice" - - > this one, the male lead is a famous voice dubber, but is also a heart surgeon. The female lead, is in her senior year of University and works with composing music and apparently also has a good singing voice. So, this is a music/romantic genre. Honestly, watching this drama, each episode makes me feel embarrassed and warms my heart. The male lead's voice is so soothing. "The Last Immortal" - - > A wuxia, romance, fantasy drama.. I'm basically watching it because I like the female lead. Supporting her in watching most of her dramas. A lot of the fantasy dramas are quite similar, similar type of characters, similar names of places/realms.. So, most of the ones I choose to watch, are in support of the leads. "My Boss" - - > This is a new one, just started this year. Male lead is one of the top lawyer and shareholder of a law firm, while the female lead is an aspiring lawyer who got an internship at the same Law Firm. The twist behind it, is they end up being roommates, because the owner of the house accidentally signed both of them as tenants. The male lead has insomnia, but can always end up getting a good night's sleep when the girl hums a lullaby. But he doesn't realize this until later in the drama, and slowly falls for her.

I'm only watching one Korean Drama at the moment, "My Demon" - - > I saw clips of it on ***, as I follow the female lead.. and looked very interesting. It reminds me of The Goblin. I even recommended my parents to watch it, and it's nice to hear their laughter as they watch it.

Anyone else have other recommendations of dramas? Please feel free to share!~