I remember the first time I learned to speak a few words of Korean. I was back in Sioux Falls, spending a few weeks at my sister's house. I used her iPad to download Talk to Me in Korean lessons and learned how to make simple sentences such as "My name is Ashley" and "Where is the bathroom" before I left. Gosh, I was so lost when I first arrived at the airport. After experiencing the frustration of attempting to learn Japanese without a proper class, I enrolled in a Korean night class at Seoul National University also before I left, which was a little risky considering I didn't have any idea of where in Seoul I would be living and I also didn't even know where the university was in relation to other parts of the city.
So there I was fall of 2011 fresh off the boat in my Korean class, still adjusting to the fact that I am in a foreign country, responsible for teaching 500+ students a week, and trying to learn Korean. It was tiring, it was exhausting, and I really sacrificed my free time that I could have used to get to know some people who were here, but hands down it was a really good choice. Why? Because the class started from the basics - how to read and pronounce Hangul (the Korean alphabet) properly, I learned about all those small little verb irregularity rules that I rely on every day even as I am learning more advanced grammar. I've had more than a handful of individuals tell me I have almost native-like pronunciation and handwriting, which I attribute to the fact that I took a real class with homework, quizzes, and role plays almost immediately after arriving.
So I took one class at Seoul National University, but decided I wouldn't enroll for the next semester because that was during winter vacation at the school where I worked and I wanted to travel. I self-studied the Level 2 books at home and watched a lot of Korean dramas on my laptop and when the next semester started I tested into level 3. I struggled a bit in the beginning with consolidating all of the information I had learned before on my own and actually producing sentences with the proper grammar was awkward and I often wasn't right on the first try. I also grew increasingly frustrated sitting in a class with a bunch of foreigners speaking bad, or at least not good, Korean. Our teacher had a degree in Korean education but then was using all these generic, standardized lesson plans. It got boring real fast. When the final exam came around, I struggled with remembering reported speech in my speaking interview: he said, she asked, she asked me to do this for somebody, she asked me to do this for her (all are different in Korean). Most students I talked to in this class decided that we were not going to continue with this program - good choice.
So I finished in May and knew that since SNU's evening program ended at Level 4 and that I needed a break away from these university language school classes, I quit with no real direction about what I was going to do with my Korean studies. I knew at this point I would stay in Korea for another year but my last class at SNU was so dull that my focus on learning Korean was starting to wane. For about one month, I studied vocabulary on the subway every morning to school and that was that. I started to get sad and felt like I'd let myself go a bit (Type A personality is a curse). I really wanted to speak Korean well but was turned off for a bit by the thought of falling asleep with my eyes open in another class.
Flash forward to one day when out of sheer boredom I was scouring Craigslist and I found a listing for a Korean tutor advertising her services. She mentioned that she has 35 students including businessmen, teachers, and students and that she gives her pupils homework and gave a link to her FB page. I messaged her on FB, she gave me a free lesson. The trial lesson was really intense and I was sold. $35 an hour and I had a private Korean tutor.
I worked with her from July of last year until this past March. We worked over those stubborn reported speech structures for over a month. I learned about 20 new vocabulary words a week but the ultimate value in those lessons was the focused speaking. It wasn't just free talk, because I'm not at an advanced level where that would be worthwhile. Instead, she would give me a context and hints about what grammar structure to use and have me make a sentence. If I made a mistake, she would give me hints and try one more time to pull the right sentence out of me. Then she wrote it down in my notebook and I had to memorize it for the next lesson. Over time, this solidified so much of what I had learned and my speaking ability came much closer than it was before to matching my reading and writing abilities.
I started to feel like I needed another classroom experience, a chance to be forced to learn tons of vocabulary and grammar even though I won't remember 100% of everything long-term. So that's where I am now, enrolled in Level 5 of Yonsei University's evening program. Still struggled with reported speech on this interview too! My first week at Yonsei we again went over it again and then learned reported speech contractions! It's like this little grammar evil that keeps creeping up on me. My class still has people that can't pronounce Korean properly - drives me crazy! Don't get me wrong. I love Japanese people to death! But since Korean grammar and Japanese grammar are quite similar, Japanese people just superimpose Korean words in their Japanese sentences while maintaining Japanese intonation and speed and it just sounds so not right. I'm pretty sure this is one of God's forms of punishment, having the loveliest Japanese girl ever in class who sounds 100% Japanese and 0% Korean. All in all, 10 hours a week of Korean class can hardly be described as really fun but I'm learning tons and my brain hurts a lot.
After I finish my semester at Yonsei in early June, I will go back to my tutor to further consolidate what I know and give me Korean some much needed one-on-one time.
So that's been my journey learning this language for basically the past 2 years. Woo, what a ride. It's been expensive and time-consuming but I'm not embarrassed at all about the fact that I speak Korean!
What do you think? Keep learning Korean or start Chinese? (1,000% joking on the last one. The next language I attempt to learn is going to be an easy European language, for real.)
So there I was fall of 2011 fresh off the boat in my Korean class, still adjusting to the fact that I am in a foreign country, responsible for teaching 500+ students a week, and trying to learn Korean. It was tiring, it was exhausting, and I really sacrificed my free time that I could have used to get to know some people who were here, but hands down it was a really good choice. Why? Because the class started from the basics - how to read and pronounce Hangul (the Korean alphabet) properly, I learned about all those small little verb irregularity rules that I rely on every day even as I am learning more advanced grammar. I've had more than a handful of individuals tell me I have almost native-like pronunciation and handwriting, which I attribute to the fact that I took a real class with homework, quizzes, and role plays almost immediately after arriving.
So I took one class at Seoul National University, but decided I wouldn't enroll for the next semester because that was during winter vacation at the school where I worked and I wanted to travel. I self-studied the Level 2 books at home and watched a lot of Korean dramas on my laptop and when the next semester started I tested into level 3. I struggled a bit in the beginning with consolidating all of the information I had learned before on my own and actually producing sentences with the proper grammar was awkward and I often wasn't right on the first try. I also grew increasingly frustrated sitting in a class with a bunch of foreigners speaking bad, or at least not good, Korean. Our teacher had a degree in Korean education but then was using all these generic, standardized lesson plans. It got boring real fast. When the final exam came around, I struggled with remembering reported speech in my speaking interview: he said, she asked, she asked me to do this for somebody, she asked me to do this for her (all are different in Korean). Most students I talked to in this class decided that we were not going to continue with this program - good choice.
Level 3 at Seoul National University
Met my tutor one a week at Starbucks.
I worked with her from July of last year until this past March. We worked over those stubborn reported speech structures for over a month. I learned about 20 new vocabulary words a week but the ultimate value in those lessons was the focused speaking. It wasn't just free talk, because I'm not at an advanced level where that would be worthwhile. Instead, she would give me a context and hints about what grammar structure to use and have me make a sentence. If I made a mistake, she would give me hints and try one more time to pull the right sentence out of me. Then she wrote it down in my notebook and I had to memorize it for the next lesson. Over time, this solidified so much of what I had learned and my speaking ability came much closer than it was before to matching my reading and writing abilities.
Sample sentences I had to memorize. Note: I don't have cancer,just an example. ;)
I started to feel like I needed another classroom experience, a chance to be forced to learn tons of vocabulary and grammar even though I won't remember 100% of everything long-term. So that's where I am now, enrolled in Level 5 of Yonsei University's evening program. Still struggled with reported speech on this interview too! My first week at Yonsei we again went over it again and then learned reported speech contractions! It's like this little grammar evil that keeps creeping up on me. My class still has people that can't pronounce Korean properly - drives me crazy! Don't get me wrong. I love Japanese people to death! But since Korean grammar and Japanese grammar are quite similar, Japanese people just superimpose Korean words in their Japanese sentences while maintaining Japanese intonation and speed and it just sounds so not right. I'm pretty sure this is one of God's forms of punishment, having the loveliest Japanese girl ever in class who sounds 100% Japanese and 0% Korean. All in all, 10 hours a week of Korean class can hardly be described as really fun but I'm learning tons and my brain hurts a lot.
Learning some serious vocabulary at Yonsei
After I finish my semester at Yonsei in early June, I will go back to my tutor to further consolidate what I know and give me Korean some much needed one-on-one time.
So that's been my journey learning this language for basically the past 2 years. Woo, what a ride. It's been expensive and time-consuming but I'm not embarrassed at all about the fact that I speak Korean!
What do you think? Keep learning Korean or start Chinese? (1,000% joking on the last one. The next language I attempt to learn is going to be an easy European language, for real.)
This is so true for language learning, don't you think?^^
