서울드림 환영합니다!

Curious about the blogger behind seouldream? I’m an avid writer, reader, and translator always looking for my next adventure. In mid-2012, I began teaching myself Korean; I created this website several months later to chronicle my language studies. It turned into a project close to my heart, one where I share resources and tips in the hopes of helping others teach themselves a language.

It’s no shock that I turned into a language lover, as I’ve always loved words. In fact, I have known I was a writer since age five, when I penned a gripping murder mystery featuring fairy detectives. My range of writing styles and subjects has varied immensely since then, but I have never stopped loving the written word in its myriad forms, fonts, and languages.

I currently work as a freelance writer, translator, and editor (you can also find me on Upwork), and I tutor native Korean speakers in English. I also blog in Korean at lovetomorrow.tistory.com. In my free time, I love writing YA sci-fi and fantasy novels, researching Korean history and myths (설민석 is the man), and finding excuses to bury my nose in a book.

I welcome questions about language learning techniques and resources, so please comment below – or even just say hi!

 

Korean Journey Timeline

(idea credit to Seoul Crystal/TTMIK‘s Hyunwoo Sun)

2011

• November – began studying Japanese with Pimsleur audio files and LiveMocha (discont. site)

2012

• March – taught myself how to read hangeul
• July – began studying Korean
• November – began a WordPress blog about language study

2013

• January – transferred all posts to new domain, myseouldream.com
• August – began taking Korean courses at university; ceased self-study of Japanese

2014

• August – spent four months as an exchange student at Yonsei University; took intensive Korean language course at KLI

2015

• June – attended Yonsei’s International Summer School; took intensive Korean language course at KLI; began writing poetry and short stories in Korean
• August – stopped self-studying Korean due to personal reasons
• December – resumed Korean self-study!

2016

• January – became a translator for Humans of Seoul
• June – attended Sungkyunkwan University’s two-month summer program via a research fellowship

2017

• January-March – completed Korean independent writing project (a nine-episode fan fiction of a Korean webtoon) for course credits
• March – became co-recipient of the 2017 Sang-Yong Nam Award
• April – graduated with a B.A. from the University of Michigan, where I double-majored in East Asian Studies and International Studies with concentrations in Korean Studies as well as Comparative Culture and Identity; received High Honors in East Asian Studies for my thesis entitled “Literature, Loss, and the Surrogate Griever: The Figure of the Factory Girl in South Korea’s Economic Miracle”
• September – became English Edition Editor for Humans of Seoul
• December – received over 100,000 total views on seouldream for 2017

2018

• March – created Korean-language blog, lovetomorrow.tistory.com
• April – took TOPIK II for fun
• July – created English-teaching Korean webtoon, Real Talk
• August – became English teacher for native Korean speakers on italki
• September – 1 year anniversary of becoming the English Edition Editor for Humans of Seoul

 

 

Updated 10 October 2018.