Summer 2026

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Learning a second language is a humbling experience. You invest hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours and may seem to make unremarkable improvements. I grew up speaking English as my first language but was exposed to some Korean from my parents. I could understand and speak some basic words and phrases, but it didn’t go beyond introductory-level fluency. I took an interest in improving my Korean language skills in my mid-twenties when I had the chance to visit Korea a couple of times and befriended some Koreans. It seemed natural to learn my mother tongue, find a way to connect with friends on a deeper level, and brush up my skills so I could navigate better when in Korea again.

At first, I picked up on vocabulary, simple phrases, and basic sentence structure quite quickly. It was fun to pepper in some fun phrases in the middle of a predominantly English conversation with my friends and family, and there seemed to be an endearing quality, tripping through the beginning stages of a new language. Eventually, after a few years, through some moderate self-study and exposure through acquaintances, I was able to consider myself a high beginner in my Korean.

However, the defining period and jump in fluency was when I had the chance to live in Korea from 2008 to 2011. My life was immersed, saturated in Korean. On a day-to-day basis, I was absorbing language constantly: on the subway, in restaurants, at church, with friends–everywhere. At first, it felt like I was living on a different planet. Before being in Korea, I had lived my entire life in Canada and was accustomed to being able to express myself and understand language as a natural reflex. But in Korea, I struggled: it seemed like I had to earn my right to communicate, and at first this was predictably difficult. But as the weeks turned to months, and the months turned to years, the language slowly seeped in, and I found myself understanding, speaking, and reading at a functional level. I would at times find myself spitting out phrases without thinking twice, while not even fully understanding what I was saying. This was not a sudden shift but a gradual climb due to the incessant exposure to the language over a period of three years.

I live in Canada now, and since I am not exposed to much Korean regularly, I need to make a focussed effort to boost my skills. When I got back from Korea in 2011, my language fluency was at an intermediate level. Since 2020, I have been listening to Korean audiobooks, reading grammar books, and more recently using Duolingo. But the funny thing is, despite the investment of time and effort, my improvement in fluency seems unimpressive. I am still estimating my skills at an intermediate level, and this is confirmed by my level in Duolingo. According to my audiobook app, I have clocked approximately 1300 hours of listening in the last five years! And this is not including the hundreds of hours of conversations and reading grammar books. I don’t know about you, but that seems like a poor return on investment.

I don’t think it’s fair to say that I have not made improvements: they just seem disproportional to the effort put in. Reflecting on this, it just confirmed what I have suspected for a while, and what you may already know—(for the average person) learning a second language is a grind. There’s no hack, no shortcut; you need to put in the time and grind it out. There are many things these days that provide instant gratification, but this is not one of them. Is it worth it? I say yes, go for it. (More on that later.)