My Korean Life #22: Again, hard to believe!

I am quickly approaching what will be my last term in language school. It's hard to believe about a year ago I had just stepped foot in Korea to start my life as an ex-pat. Also hard to believe I have completed 4 terms of language school with no break (besides the short vacations we get between semesters). Although I do know classmates that have done level 1-5 with no breaks.

I must say, the burned out feeling can come up and it has come up for me at times. No matter how hard I studied or reviewed vocabulary there were things that just didn't sink in. I think that is ok now. In my view, doing a language course like this does not mean you will become anywhere close to a native speaker over 18 months. Rather, it is an intense exposure to many facets of the language and culture...hopefully stimulating you to pursue further study or simply interaction with native speakers. 

Honestly, I still have trouble understanding some of my Korean friends. I still have trouble watching news broadcasts and Korean TV shows...but I'm ok with that. I know a lot of my friends are obsessed with watching Korean TV. I, myself, really like Korean music but it doesn't mean I'll become a highly proficient speaker just by listening to a lot of music. Nor should you have the expectation that watching Korean TV directly relates to becoming great Korean speaker.

I'll be entering what is considered "level 6" at Sogang during the summer. After completing this tier you are considered 'done' and you receive a certificate with the number of class hours completed. It's considered a big achievement and some people even wear hanboks to the graduation ceremony. I've struggled since level 3 and was on the brink of having to redo levels at least 2 times. The hardest part for me has been the vocabulary. And in the higher levels, a lot of the words are based on Chinese characters (Hanja) which leaves the Chinese speakers in class with a huge advantage...and the Japanese...anyway

My advice - how you do on the tests in class shouldn't determine how you feel about your skill level. Don't let a number or letter grade define how you feel about the language. In addition to class material, study things you are interested in. I actually really liked watching the food network in the USA so I've taken to watching Korean food shows. I've also watched a few movies that were only in Korean with no subtitles of any type. Study hard, but have some fun.

Feel free to ask me anything about the program.

~

My Korean Life #20: 4급 and such

[4급]
I've now been in 4급 for two weeks. This is when the format of class changes from the format that is presented in levels 1-3.

Writing class is basically a mini-review session of the previous days listening/speaking/reading material with a writing task added in. Many times we write about the material we studied or write about some related topic. For example we learned about Korean money in reading class and for writing we wrote about our home country's money. What used to be just speaking is now listening+speaking for 2 hours. Normally the first day of a new chapter we listen to a dialogue or audio track and also study the new grammar that was introduced. The second day of a chapter we have another listening exercise plus some dialogue or vocab/grammar practice.

The reading class is basically the same levels 1-3 but really since they expect you to preview all the material before class the value added is hard to measure. I often don't get to preview a lot since we also receive a ton of homework so I'm reading the passage for the first time in class and also getting exposed to the vocabulary for the first or second time. Our teacher also speaks at what is probably considered 'normal' pace which for my brain is blazing fast. Class always seems to be rushed to complete all the listed tasks for the day. This is in contrast to my listening/speaking block of time where the teacher seems to take more time to explain things even if we don't plow through the chapters assigned tasks as quickly.

My writing teacher was one of the original teachers who helped compile material for the 1st publication of the level 4 book which is currently being revised. The book we actually use for class is one that is self-produced and currently not fully published. It's all in black and white and lacks the color and photos that the level 1-3 books had.

My thoughts on level 4 now is that even if I had done level 3 all over again (which I almost had to do) I'm not sure that would have better prepared me for level 4. The format for level 4 is different, the grammar and vocabulary is basically all new (many similar grammar patterns to what we've already studied as well to further crowd and congest the mind), and I thought I had a lot of homework in level 3 but compared to now it doesn't seem like it was that bad.

[...and such]
The weather now is consistently cold, snowing every now and then. Regardless of how cold it has been, there are still plenty of folks out on the weekends at all the hotspots around town. I want to try to go skiing here in Korea although I'm not sure of the best way to go about doing so. I believe there are a number of buses or packages one can buy to get to a ski resort but I just haven't done the research yet.

I'm also planning a number of trips for next spring since I know I'll still be residing in Asia. I hope to make some more blog posts/videos about all of that come next year. I haven't really traveled all that much since moving to Korea which is in stark contrast to what my life was right before I moved here where I was traveling pretty much every month and sometimes multiple times a month.

We also have a class field trip this coming Friday so if I get any good pictures or blog worthy information I'll be sure to upload!

Until next time...

~

잘 했어요! (Good job!)

I requested that my transcript from my summer Korean class be sent to my parents' house as I was kind of in the middle of a move when I left the USA. I finally had the opportunity to get my transcript from my parents this past weekend!

As promised a sealed copy and a regular copy were delivered! I'm sure you are all dying to know how well I did...

Elementary Korean: A+
Korean Language & Culture - Beginner: A0

..."A0" what is that? I affectionately call it "A-naught". They probably put a digit after the "A" so crafty students can't add "+" signs or anything else to their transcript.

So with that being said, it looks like I passed my summer courses with flying colors!

Now you may be saying, "Wow, you must be so good at Korean now."

DENG!

Haha, I am not all that good. I did, however, do well in the class. I heard via one of the advisors that the summer course I did was abbreviated compared to what they do in the normal quarter schedule of their Korean program. I am ok with that though. I am much more comfortable with my elementary understanding of Korean than I ever was. I also got to practice a ton with classmates, teachers, and other Koreans daily. It's completely different than any western language so while many Koreans speak or understand some English...I highly advise knowing at least some Korean if you travel over there.

For instance, you may be able to get away with saying "toilet? bathroom? I GOTTA GO!!!" but it's just easier to know the Korean. And then if they have to give you directions (because many times the toilets are not always inside the restaurant/bar/etc...you are out of luck...again...there will be a lot of gesturing.

Anyway, I'm headed back to the motherland soon so I hope to do more blogging during or after.

As always, safe travels.

~

My Korean Summer 2013: Day 26 - National Palace Museum of Korea (PHOTO POST)

Hi everyone! We had a guided tour of about 25% of the National Palace Museum of Korea. We only had about an hour or so of class time during this day. I snapped a couple of pictures within the museum. The story is that most of the relics, treasures, and documents from all the palaces in Korea are preserved and kept in this facility. This is why most of the palaces you see in Korea are mostly empty save for some key furniture and decorations. Anyway, enjoy the photos:

My Korean Summer 2013: Day 13, Overview of Language Class, Sogang Korean Immersion Program

[안녕하세요!]
Class! Four hours every weekday of nothing but Korean.

After getting placed into a level (1-5), Tuesday, July 9 was our first day in class. We were allowed to buy our books after class that day, just in case we were in the wrong level to begin with. The class sizes are actually quite small. I believe there are currently 13 people in my level. I was placed into an advanced 1A class which basically means we do some content of both 1A and 1B. 

Even though the level I was placed in is a beginner course, they expect you to know a fair amount of Korean. There is actually a course below my level for those that cannot read/pronounce Korean at all. That level eventually dips into true level 1A materials. Anyway, more about my class...

The teachers (Korean: 선생님) only talk in Korean to the students. The only real exception is if we are completely clueless about what they are saying but this is very rare. Most of the time the whole class can comprehend the directions and instructions the teachers give. 

My class has 3 different 선생님. They are all very kind and helpful and make class engaging. In fact, the university I am attending has a focus on speaking and verbal communication. Every class includes speaking with each other and the teacher. Many activities include getting up out of our seats to talk with everyone in the room about the day's topic (the 선생님 will also participate sometimes).

[Daily Schedule]

Most days start with the 1st 선생님 doing an introduction to the day's grammar concept. For example, present tense or past tense. We usually do a couple of verbal exercises with the teacher and a few written exercises. The 2nd 선생님 focuses on dialogue and speaking practice. She knows exactly what we went over with our 1st 선생님 and she continues the lesson with added vocabulary and role play situations. Our 3rd 선생님 focuses on listening comprehension as well as reading comprehension from time to time. Out of the three, the 3rd speaks the fastest and uses the most varied vocabulary for instruction. This may be by design but it could also just be the way she decides to interact with us.  

The hours from 9AM-1PM are broken up roughly as follows: 2 hours writing/speaking, 1 hour speaking, 1 hour listening/reading/speaking. We have a 10 minute break every hour however sometimes these are cut short depending on the schedule of the day.

Each day we have been covering one unit which makes the pace quite brisk. We can get anywhere from 30-40 "new" words. Some aren't so new to some of my classmates. This past unit was particularly challenging because of all the vocabulary and new grammar concepts.

[On Difficulty]

Honestly, if you come to class, participate, and do the workbook exercises you should have no problem keeping up. The only thing I have to do regularly is review vocabulary. There is way to much to simply look at it once and remember everything. I'm going to have to do a decent amount of studying some time this weekend in order not to forget everything for next week's quiz.

This kind of goes without saying but you have to be willing to speak and practice talking in Korean. The grammar is completely different from English and I have a hard time just assembling sentences in my head. The listening comprehension for me isn't too bad but I'm still challenged when it comes to speaking.

[Extra Information]

We get a lot of worksheets each class, I could probably start my own forest with all the paper I've gotten (just kidding ^^). This helps set the pace for the day and also gives up ample opportunity to practice in class and to review outside of class. They do not let us keep our quizzes however. We are able to check our score but we have to hand back the quizzes to the 선생님. 

The view from my classroom is above. We look out to the Gonzaga Plaza area which holds the campus bookstore and various restaurants/cafes.

The view down the hallway...

More to come later!

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