qeadz wrote:월초 beginning of the month
월말 end of the month
학기 (semester) + 말 (end of some period) --> 기말 end of the semester
학기 (semester) + 초 (beginning of some period) --> not what one might expect because 기초 actually means foundation or basis
qeadz wrote:Recently I've tried to improve my ability to retain vocab. It was suggested on Reddit by some experienced learners that I should learn the roots. However consensus was that I would not have to learn the actual chinese characters - just the sounds and Hangeul form. So I have made this a focus as of late.
I think you may benefit more if you actually learned to recognize the chinese characters. You don't have to be able to write them, but I do think that being able to recognize them can be of great help because a korean syllable may be associated with more than one hanja and thus, with more than one meaning. For example:
As you said, 기초 actually means "foundation, basis". These are the hanjas for 기초: 基礎
基 --> foundation, base
礎 --> foundation stone, plinth
But there's another word: 초기. These are the hanjas for 초기: 初期
初 --> beginning, initial, primary
期 --> period of time; date; time limit
What's the meaning of 초기?
the early days, initial period
For studying hanja and word families "Hanja Explorer" can be of great use.