What do I have to show for four
months of living in a country that speaks a different language?
NOTHING.
In a few days time, I will pass the four-month
mark of my arrival in Korea. Before arriving here, I had really high
hopes of learning Korean, I was going to download Rosetta Stone and learn
Korean better than I knew Georgian. But after four whole months here all
I can do is say hello, goodbye and count 1 to 10. I
never figured out how to download Rosetta Stone (though I did try
numerous times) and I am not happy with my nonexistent Korean language skills.
My first post in this blog was a
comparison and I can't help but continue to compare. After four months in
Georgia, I could have a small conversation about where I was from, whether I
liked Zugdidi (my “city”) and I could easily direct a cab driver or order food.
A year later, I could have small talk conversations and if I was talking
to someone who also knew a little English I could have real conversations.
I think this gave me high expectations for learning Korean.
It's not difficult to see that cultural immersion is the main reason for this disparity in language acquisition between Georgia and Korea. In Georgia, I was
exposed to the language day in and day out.
I lived in a house with Georgians who couldn't even say hello but who constantly spoke to me in Georgian. Blessing and I were invited to
sit and eat and drink with Georgians all the time and although we could
hardly understand, they would talk our ears off; we were bound to pick
something up, and we did. I had to buy
my groceries from vendors in the bizarre which made it necessary to learn how
to ask for prices, to understand numbers well and to know the names of
everything I wanted to buy. It was essential for me to learn to speak Georgian.
Korean is much less essential.
I don’t need to communicate with anyone to buy anything; I go to grocery
stores, put things in my shopping cart and check out without uttering a single
word of Korean. I don’t need to communicate
with anyone at home; it’s just Blessing and me. Finally, I haven’t been
invited to many Korean social gatherings so I have not had much chance to
passively listen to and acquire the language.
I have been talking to other
foreigners about this issue and I have learned that some people who have been
here for a year or more still cannot carry even a small conversation with
Koreans. It sucks. If I want to learn Korean I will have to put in
some real effort. I will have to study and or take lessons. There
will not be the same passive language acquisition that I had in Georgia. It’s
not really 'me' to do a ton of self-study so I don't know if I will learn
Korean.....right now, I'm thinking not.
This is a great post Elaine. It sums exactly how I feel. the fact that you have picked up such little korean makes you realise how little interaction you are having with korean culture. i feel as though i am not part of the society. in Georgia I began to feel a little less like an outsider in some ways because i was part of their social events and was constantly included in the conversations. here I feel as though the I am the outsider that needs to hustle hard to force himself into the circle. and then the realization that i probably wont learn as much Korean as i thought i would sets in. bummer. great post Edawg
ReplyDeleteYou haven't picked up Korean yet, Elaine? I'm pretty much fluent now. It's such an easy language to learn and there are so many opportunities here to learn it! Ha, not. I'm in the same boat; all hopes and goals of learning Korean were soon forgotten.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.talktomeinkorean.com/category/lessons/level-1/?sort=date_asc
ReplyDeleteI can barely speak Korean - aside from money, food, getting a cab and answering where I'm from and what I do. I'm studying a bit of Korean using the above site and it's very helpful - the lessons are short. I still struggle with reading and tones, but New Zealand's accent is fairly monotone at the best of times.
Where we used to live in Korea, it was more like Georgia I think. Jecheon is fairly metropolitan, and I've noticed that my students have a higher proficiency in English, as do the locals. This unfortunately means that learning Korean is less of a necessity.
I totally understand.. most foreigners are in exactly the same position as you. If you can speak Korean, it opens up tons of doors for you, but the opportunities to speak, especially as a beginner are few and far between. I don't know how far Seoul is for you, or if there is a Korean language hagwon near you, but I would highly recommend going to a korean hagwon. I studied in a free class for my first 8 months in seoul... learned a lot of vocab and grammar but couldn't actually say more than one or two sentences. Went to a hagwon and in a few months I was talking pretty well. I recommend Metro Korean Academy (a little pricy, but small classes) or YBM (the same hagwon where I work... it seems to have a decent Korean program and it's much cheaper... class sizes vary from tiny to huge (like 10 people) depending on what time the class is). There are other hagwons, too.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you have time on Saturdays come to our free class at Sookmyung Women's Univeristy: http://kongbubang.wordpress.com/. It's not enough to become fluent but you can pick up some useful phrases and practice a little. :-)
Jo-Anna