My Korean Life #31: Done with Language School!

*UPDATE 2*
I no longer have any language books for sale (Level 1 books have been claimed). Thanks!
*UPDATE*
I recently sold my Level 2 books so I have the Level 1 Compact Series Student Book as well as the Level 1 Workbooks (1A and 1B) left.

I am proud to say I have graduated from Level 6 of Sogang University's Korean Language Program!

It has been a long and challenging year and 3 months and it's hard to believe my life as a language student has finally come to an end. While I won't be formally enrolled in any program anymore, I will continue to study and practice my Korean. I hope to take the TOPIK test in November of this year. Until I start studying for that, I plan on taking the rest of August and perhaps part of September just to rest and relax and catch up with friends.

While my time at language school seemed to crawl by during the terms, as I look back, the time flew by a lot quicker than expected. Just one year and 3 months ago I could barely speak and understand Korean...and now I'm slightly above that...just kidding ^.^ I'd say if I compare myself to a year ago I have improved a lot but there is still so much to learn. I will continue to meet with my Korean friends for our weekly study group and I may start going to the bigger language exchange meetings again.

I plan on continuing to search for a job while here in Korea. One of my friends recently recommended I go through some headhunters/recruiting companies. I might try that if the Internet/my network of people I know here aren't able to yield any results.

My Korean Life #24: Summer Weather

I recently completed some more vlogging sessions with the same Korean language learner which you can view below.  

In other news, the weather has gotten quite hot in Korea as is customary for the summer. The humidity has not hit yet but don't worry, it is just around the corner. Normally in July and August the humidity skyrockets and wallpaper begins peeling off the walls because of all the moisture in the air. The other thing Korean summers are known for are mosquitos. 

Last summer I didn't have that much of a problem with mosquitos but where I live now there are a lot of them. There is also a family of cats that live on the premises as well. I've seen the mother cat (I assume it's the mother, but you never know, they may have a stay-at-home Dad) and the kittens frolicking about at night. The parent cat loves to hiss at me when I walk up the steps in front of where I live. 

Also, the neighbor's dog, who used to bark at me every time I passed by, has finally chilled out. Today he just stared at me with no barks at all.

In regards to language school, I have almost no written homework which is good in one way but makes it hard in another. Now I have to really force myself to study a lot and preview the next day's material...with no worksheets or exercises to really guide me through the process. Considering I've become quite busy with a few other endeavors lately, I don't mind having anything to hand in every class.

Class in general is still structured but also more driven simply by student participation. There is a lot of chatting both by the students in class and by the teacher especially during the main block of time (reading+speaking). Writing class is quite casual as it was in level 5. Actually I rarely use that complex of grammar when writing. A lot of times the prompts just don't call for it either. There is quite a lot of vocabulary though so, I've been trying to at least integrate that.

Anyway, enjoy the videos below!

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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.

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My Korean Life #21: Can't Believe It!

For the past couple of weeks, I had been quite stressed with school. But the end result of all the studying and stress turned out to be a good one. I did much better on my speaking interview test than I thought and I scraped by my reading test somehow. The amount of vocabulary this term was huge and a lot of the vocabulary from reading I just didn't absorb near then end.

I also shifted my studying style/focus near the end of 4B. This was due to me wanting to improve my comfort level with speaking and also my listening ability. I've started going to language exchange meetings and study groups to practice speaking and hopefully use vocabulary I learned in class.

In terms of how level 4 went, it really helps if you are able to tell a good story and be creative...in a foreign language. Levels 1-3 were heavily focused around dialogues and the related vocabulary and grammar but now the focus has shifted to two long listening comprehension passages per chapter. Granted the two hour block of class is now called listening and speaking. It's really up to you how much you want to participate and converse with classmates. You do practice some dialogue but usually at the start of class it was a large discussion with the teacher and other classmates so you do have to work to get in your practice during that time.

The reading comprehension is often quickly-hunt-for-the-answer but the challenge comes with knowing the proper vocabulary and grammar in order to pick out the right answers. Or sometimes we had to choose the correct conjunctions or correct words...etc.

Another thing that became really pervasive in level 3 was being able to explain Korean vocabulary words in Korean. I'm personally horrible at this. Considering some of the words don't translate all that well to English I sometimes barely understand where to use the word in the first place, let alone explain to someone else that is learning the language.

Right now is the Lunar New Year holiday and I don't have too much planned but I do want to relax and catch up on sleep and...clean up my apartment for a visitor coming this weekend.

We actually have a decent holiday after winter term so besides my friend coming to visit I'll be traveling during the first week of March. I'll have some pictures (food/sightseeing) and video (hotel room tour of course) to post then so, look for that soon!


Until next time.
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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...

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