Apologies in advance for the long post with no pictures. It's a blog, not a novel, so I should insert pictures to break up the text...but I don't have any. Whoops.
I finally started Korean classes today! I've been putting it off because I didn't know where to look for classes that fit my schedule - definitely one of the downsides of being an afternoon teacher. This place was recommended to me by one of the newer NETs (Native English Teachers). She wanted to take classes there, but couldn't quite commit herself to taking classes for various reasons. I went to check out the school a couple of weeks ago, and since it seemed nice I went ahead and signed up that day. They have a pronunciation class that would LOVE to take, but it's during my work hours so I'm out of luck for now. Maybe eventually I'll switch to a public school and get an average schedule, but for right now my only option is weekend classes. Fortunately for me, this academy offers classes on Saturday mornings.
Signing up was an adventure in and of itself. The map led me to a building...that was gutted and under construction. The school sign was still on the side of the building, so it looked like I was SOL. I was about to give up, but I really wanted to take classes...so I braved my fear/hatred of using my phone for its true purpose and called the number on the sign. It turned out that they had just relocated to somewhere very close by. The woman on the phone was incredibly patient with me. I had trouble finding things and getting to where she was trying to have me go, and it didn't help that there were a few words I didn't understand. Normally I can get past unknown words, but these were kind of key to the sentence...there was a lot of difficulty and embarrassment involved. BUT. But but but. I eventually found it and the woman in the office seemed very happy to see the lost foreigner from the phone actually arriving in the office.
I knew from the website and brochures that my coworker had shared with me that the academy used Sogang's textbooks for most of the levels, which was good news. I had gotten through level 3A when I studied at Sogang, so I bought the 3B books to study from back in winter. The website mentioned a level test, so I was nervous about that. I didn't know if they only offered it on certain days, how long I would have to wait to take it, if I would totally flunk it and get in a really low level, if I would somehow manage to accidentally do really well and get put in a level I wasn't ready for...so many worries. It turned out that I didn't need to be concerned. I mentioned that I had studied at Sogang previously and that we finished the 3A book, and the woman at the desk just basically went "well, cool, you can go to 3B." Easy peasy.
I got into class today a little bit early, still feeling very nervous. Whenever I do anything that involves people knowing I speak Korean (or, even worse, that I studied it at university), I feel like I have to perform to a very high standard or I'm letting all of my professors down. Even though I hear Korean every day and speak it multiple times a week, it's been over a year since I last took a Korean class. I had nothing to back up my suspicions, but I figured that while my speech fluidity may have gone up, I was probably going to have trouble with things like conjugating and applying certain grammatical rules. You know, the school stuff that you don't really practice when you're out and about.
As always happens, I was nervous for no reason. I didn't quite catch why, but our class had missed one class day in May so we were still on the last bit of 3A. I didn't have the books but it was a nice bit of review for me. There were a few words I didn't fully remember, including two that I always mix up - to turn off and to turn on. The class was entirely in Korean, which is what I was expecting (and, honestly, what I'm used to). My instructor is really nice, and she encouraged us to talk even if the subject wasn't entirely related to the material we were supposed to be learning.
My teacher says my classmates are all Japanese men, but only one was there today. I haven't interacted at length with any native Japanese speakers, so there were a couple times when I couldn't quite understand his accent. Give it a few classes, though, and it'll be much easier for me to understand him. The linguist in me kinda geeked a bit (internally, of course) when I could hear certain patterns in his Korean pronunciation that I could tell came from this or that rule of Japanese pronunciation...though I'm struggling to remember how I came to know anything at all about Japanese phonology. I don't remember it being one of the languages we worked with in my phono class...did I randomly look it up? Did someone explain it to me? I had to work with hiragana once in my crypto class, but that wouldn't quite do the trick...
Anywhos.
I feel like being a teacher has definitely made me a better student. Up until now, I was always on the quiet side in classes and I hated being called on because I felt like it put so much pressure on me to perform well. It felt like a quiz or mini-exam every time. I paid attention, took good notes, and did my homework (well, usually), but participation was scary. Now, I think about what I'm always wishing my students did or didn't do and try to follow those guidelines. I'm super-conscious about making sure I don't speak up significantly more or less than other students, asking questions even if it's a minor thing that I'm trying to clarify, getting creative during dialogue practice and not just repeating the example with minor changes, talking around the words that I can't remember or don't know, and other things like that.
I'm really happy that I'm finally taking classes and doing something to improve my Korean. I've been self-studying vocabulary, but it doesn't feel like enough. I don't practice my Korean on a daily basis...or even a weekly one, for that matter. The most I usually speak in a week is a couple short interactions with whatever cashier happens to be at the convenience store or mart I go to. I hear Korean at work a lot when the Korean teachers talk to each other or when my students chatter during break, but I almost never contribute to conversations. Hopefully these classes will help me give my Korean the boost it needs.
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Saturday, May 23, 2015
DE 4
I've decided to call the events that my school's director finds and coaxes her foreign teachers into - mostly volunteering and special guided tours - "director's excursions" (DE for short).
The first DE was a trip out to Namhansanseong, which I wrote about in a previous post. After that was a trip to a palace garden, which also got a post. A few weeks ago, we went out to a mountain and were part of a campaign to prevent forest fires. (산불을 예방합시다! <-- I swear I said this, like, a couple hundred times. Never going to forget the words for "forest fire" and "to prevent," that's for damn sure.)This past excursion, we went to North Jeolla Province/Jeollabuk-do (전라북도), which is in the southern area of the peninsula.
We had to be downtown at 8:30, which meant an early morning and a crowded subway ride. Luckily, we already knew basically where we were going, so we didn't have to plan too much extra time into our commute.
When we arrived at the meetup point, we encountered a Vietnamese couple whom we had met on the first DE. It was definitely nice to see some familiar faces, but they were on the other bus so we didn't see them nearly as much this trip as on the other one.
Unfortunately, it was the weekend before Children's Day, so the traffic was insane. We were supposed to arrive around noon and eat lunch right away, but we didn't get there until nearly one and had to eat very quickly. The food was really good, but there was a lot of seafood so I didn't eat very much. There was an awesome mushroom soup that I really wish I knew how to make, though. Maybe someday I'll find a recipe somewhere.
Right after lunch, we went to see a 농악 (nong-ak) performance.
I was behind a few people, so I couldn't get many pictures (or see very well, actually). Luckily, I had seen something similar before, so I didn't miss too terribly much while I tried to see past the heads in front of me.
After that, we listened to a lecture on Ganggangsullae (강강술래), which is another traditional dance. We had an interpreter whom we could listen to via headphones, but I did without for most of the lecture just so I could test my Korean ability. I definitely missed out on some things, but I feel like I understood a fair bit about the history of the dance.
Before we went to the hotel, we walked to the local mulberry festival for some special events. We didn't get to spend much time there, but it was still neat to see a local festival in a smaller town instead of just in a part of Seoul.
The hotel was about an hour away (I think...I fell asleep on the bus, to tell the truth), and it was by the ocean.
Yay surprise beach trip!
We only had a little time in the room to clean up before dinner, which was very enjoyable barbecue. There were 6 people to a table, so we sat with our two Vietnamese friends and two of their friends (another Vietnamese couple). After dinner it was completely dark, and the beach wasn't the long type you can walk along for ages. The plan was to get up early and explore the rocky area under the balcony, but the tide was in when we woke up so there was no way to get there but to swim. Rather than attempt that, we went back to sleep. Still, being by the beach was still awesome, even if there weren't many opportunities to enjoy it.
After breakfast, we took a trip to learn about the Saemangeum Seawall. It was cloudy, so we couldn't really see much from the center where we learned about the project's construction and the future work that would be done in the area. We got a tour that explained all about the project (the interpretation was sequential rather than simultaneous this time, so I listened carefully to the original Korean and the translation this time) and learned about the plans to develop the area. The seawall is a really cool accomplishment, but I'm not sure how I feel about the project as a whole. They plan to build a city there that's supposed to be a center for trade or something...but how do you just plan a whole new city and say it's going to be super important? Important cities aren't built up all at once; they just kind of...grow. And then there's all the argument about the environmental impact, which they entirely skimmed over with a couple sentences. I would have liked to hear more about that. Still, it was a really interesting tour.
Traffic back to Seoul was crazy once again. We had to make multiple stops at rest stations (which are 1000 times better than the ones I've stopped at in the States), and we ended up taking around 6 hours to get home.
Overall, definitely a really awesome event. Each person paid ₩10,000 (~$10 US) for this trip, and that included food, hotel, bus, and all the events. Preeeeetty ridiculously awesome. There were also some fun people that I hope I see again if I get to go on other trips this group puts on.
The first DE was a trip out to Namhansanseong, which I wrote about in a previous post. After that was a trip to a palace garden, which also got a post. A few weeks ago, we went out to a mountain and were part of a campaign to prevent forest fires. (산불을 예방합시다! <-- I swear I said this, like, a couple hundred times. Never going to forget the words for "forest fire" and "to prevent," that's for damn sure.)This past excursion, we went to North Jeolla Province/Jeollabuk-do (전라북도), which is in the southern area of the peninsula.
We had to be downtown at 8:30, which meant an early morning and a crowded subway ride. Luckily, we already knew basically where we were going, so we didn't have to plan too much extra time into our commute.
When we arrived at the meetup point, we encountered a Vietnamese couple whom we had met on the first DE. It was definitely nice to see some familiar faces, but they were on the other bus so we didn't see them nearly as much this trip as on the other one.
Unfortunately, it was the weekend before Children's Day, so the traffic was insane. We were supposed to arrive around noon and eat lunch right away, but we didn't get there until nearly one and had to eat very quickly. The food was really good, but there was a lot of seafood so I didn't eat very much. There was an awesome mushroom soup that I really wish I knew how to make, though. Maybe someday I'll find a recipe somewhere.
Right after lunch, we went to see a 농악 (nong-ak) performance.
I was behind a few people, so I couldn't get many pictures (or see very well, actually). Luckily, I had seen something similar before, so I didn't miss too terribly much while I tried to see past the heads in front of me.
After that, we listened to a lecture on Ganggangsullae (강강술래), which is another traditional dance. We had an interpreter whom we could listen to via headphones, but I did without for most of the lecture just so I could test my Korean ability. I definitely missed out on some things, but I feel like I understood a fair bit about the history of the dance.
Before we went to the hotel, we walked to the local mulberry festival for some special events. We didn't get to spend much time there, but it was still neat to see a local festival in a smaller town instead of just in a part of Seoul.
The hotel was about an hour away (I think...I fell asleep on the bus, to tell the truth), and it was by the ocean.
Yay surprise beach trip!
We only had a little time in the room to clean up before dinner, which was very enjoyable barbecue. There were 6 people to a table, so we sat with our two Vietnamese friends and two of their friends (another Vietnamese couple). After dinner it was completely dark, and the beach wasn't the long type you can walk along for ages. The plan was to get up early and explore the rocky area under the balcony, but the tide was in when we woke up so there was no way to get there but to swim. Rather than attempt that, we went back to sleep. Still, being by the beach was still awesome, even if there weren't many opportunities to enjoy it.
After breakfast, we took a trip to learn about the Saemangeum Seawall. It was cloudy, so we couldn't really see much from the center where we learned about the project's construction and the future work that would be done in the area. We got a tour that explained all about the project (the interpretation was sequential rather than simultaneous this time, so I listened carefully to the original Korean and the translation this time) and learned about the plans to develop the area. The seawall is a really cool accomplishment, but I'm not sure how I feel about the project as a whole. They plan to build a city there that's supposed to be a center for trade or something...but how do you just plan a whole new city and say it's going to be super important? Important cities aren't built up all at once; they just kind of...grow. And then there's all the argument about the environmental impact, which they entirely skimmed over with a couple sentences. I would have liked to hear more about that. Still, it was a really interesting tour.
Traffic back to Seoul was crazy once again. We had to make multiple stops at rest stations (which are 1000 times better than the ones I've stopped at in the States), and we ended up taking around 6 hours to get home.
Overall, definitely a really awesome event. Each person paid ₩10,000 (~$10 US) for this trip, and that included food, hotel, bus, and all the events. Preeeeetty ridiculously awesome. There were also some fun people that I hope I see again if I get to go on other trips this group puts on.
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