My Korean Life #16: Welcome to Autumn - reflections on learning Korean thus far

*DISCLAIMER*

The below are my personal opinions/views and have no intention of communicating qualities, good or bad, about the program I am currently enrolled in

*END DISCLAIMER*

Finally we have entered autumn. It is probably my most favorite season here in Korea. The weather is comfortable and not humid, the leaves begin to change, etc. Anyway, I thought I would take this moment to reflect on my experience learning Korean so far. It's almost been 4.5 months since I moved here and about 4 months since I've been learning Korean.

• The expectations are high. This is somewhat expected as the program is marketed as intensive/immersive however, if you are struggling, it can be a challenge to find people able to explain concepts in your native language especially if you do not speak English, Japanese, or Chinese (Mandarin/Cantonese/other widely spoken dialects).
• There is little focus on explaining things like passive versus active voice, what a perfect tense is, and so on - I think this is because it really doesn't make sense to do in an immersive environment where, among the students, there could be 5+ native languages. Instead, there is a focus on what I will call sentence constructs. Simply, how to make certain sentences using, for example, because or expressing hopes/wishes.
• You are given a moderate amount of time to practice concepts in class but it seems like the pace is faster than level 2. I'm guessing they expect you to practice a lot outside of class but some sentence constructs require you to disagree with someone or quote someone's speech. I'll say I'm not that creative and repeatedly use similar sentences with new grammar. 
• I'm also getting quite bored talking about the same things (school, home, my home country, self-introduction). Luckily in level 3 we start talking about more real world applications (finding a place to live, describing personality and appearance more in depth, meeting co-workers/students/etc, interactions in the workplace).
• More focus is being put on our pronunciation and intonation. During our review days our teacher has us memorize dialogues and gives us pointers on our pronunciation and intonation. The memorization is not the hard part but sounding like a native Korean is...

That's all I've got for now. Stay tuned for more. Until next time.

~