Sendai Lads: An Atypical Life in Sendai
Sep 23, 2026 · 8 min · 6 segments
ve started learning Korean. Very casually. And after more than six months, I still can't properly read Hangul. In this episode, I talk about learning Korean, forgetting vocabulary, keeping a…
I started around March this year.
Not because I'm particularly into K-pop, I'm not, and I don't really watch K-dramas either, which I imagine it's slightly unusual for someone who's decided to learn Korean.
For me, it was more about Korea itself.
The food, the cities, the culture, the people, and just wanting to feel a little bit closer to it somehow.
Japan and Korea are obviously quite close, and in some ways there are things that feel familiar, but there are also plenty of things that feel completely different, and I suppose I just became curious about that.
More than six months now.
I'm actually quite impressed that I've kept that streak going.
That might be my biggest achievement so far.
There is something slightly addictive about it.
You might not feel like studying.
You might be busy.
You might be about to go to bed.
But then you remember that you've done it every day for more than six months.
And suddenly doing one lesson feels important.
So I do it.
Usually for a few minutes, sometimes longer.
learn a few words, forget some of them almost immediately, and then do exactly the same thing the next day.
i know i can recognize some letters and if i look at something for long enough i can sometimes make a vague guess about how it might sound but i still don't really know how to pronounce everything properly And then, of course, you put letters together and sometimes they apparently don't sound the way you expected them to.
Which is inconvenient.
So I can look at a Korean word, feel reasonably confident for about three seconds, and then realise I have absolutely no idea how it should actually be pronounced.
I started around March this year.
Not because I'm particularly into K-pop, I'm not, and I don't really watch K-dramas either, which I imagine it's slightly unusual for someone who's decided to learn Korean.
For me, it was more about Korea itself.
The food, the cities, the culture, the people, and just wanting to feel a little bit closer to it somehow.
Japan and Korea are obviously quite close, and in some ways there are things that feel familiar, but there are also plenty of things that feel completely different, and I suppose I just became curious about that.
More than six months now.
I'm actually quite impressed that I've kept that streak going.
That might be my biggest achievement so far.
There is something slightly addictive about it.
You might not feel like studying.
You might be busy.
You might be about to go to bed.
But then you remember that you've done it every day for more than six months.
And suddenly doing one lesson feels important.
So I do it.
Usually for a few minutes, sometimes longer.
learn a few words, forget some of them almost immediately, and then do exactly the same thing the next day.
i know i can recognize some letters and if i look at something for long enough i can sometimes make a vague guess about how it might sound but i still don't really know how to pronounce everything properly And then, of course, you put letters together and sometimes they apparently don't sound the way you expected them to.
Which is inconvenient.
So I can look at a Korean word, feel reasonably confident for about three seconds, and then realise I have absolutely no idea how it should actually be pronounced.
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