Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bee Positive]

I've got the intermediate blues.

It's coming up on five years since I first came to Korea. My language study, meanwhile, has been on and off. I've frankly been lazy. Not as lazy as some, but still slothful and at times even apathetic about learning Korean.

Here's how it stands:

I recently checked in with the Sogang online course, and found that there isn't much there that I haven't already learned.

Beginning-level books are a bore. Intermediate-level books still offer me something.

Increasingly, I find that I'm poised on the brink of being able to undertake some really serious, upper-level Korean language study. I read what I want to read, more often than not, successfully. When there's a word I don't know, I whip out my nifty new little Sharp machine and get a translation in an instant.

And yet . . . it seems that I'm still ages away from speaking Korean well. My English, let's just say, is orders of magnitude ahead of my Korean. Five years from now, at the rate I'm going, if I remain in Korea, I'll probably manage a halfway decent conversation. Twenty years from now, I may be speaking the language very, very well indeed. Thirty years from now, who knows, I might be writing the great Korean novel. On my deathbed, I may be jabbering away in Korean as though it was my first language.

That's the trajectory. Surely but steadily, I'm being Koreanized. It is slow, though.

And in the meantime, I've got the intermediate blues. There's so much that I understand, passively, but can't command, actively. Teachers' meetings at my school, for instance, are conducted entirely in Korean. I read the handout, understand everything except the occasional word, which I look up right away on the Sharp, but somehow fail to understand most of what's being SAID. Why is reading so much easier than listening?

Getting hooked up with a local female would, undoubtedly, help.

But surely there are less drastic measures available?

I know: study, study, study. No shortcuts available.

Just wanted to compare notes. No ego here: I'm neither boasting (wow! I know more than just the alphabet!) nor attempting to lower myself in anyone's eyes. On an objective consideration, my Korean language abilities after 5 years are probably just about average, maybe somewhat above, certainly nothing to boast of.



BEE+

[SuperHero]

There's a difference between studying and using a language. You've studied it and can read it well but probably can't speak well - that's kind of like where I'm at - though you are better than me as I can't read novels yet.. The key to getting beyond that is to force yourself to use the language as much as possible. watch TV/DVDs speak with a friend.

If you can I would highly recommend taking classes at Sogang or Ewha. I'm currently taking classes at Sogang and my speaking/listening is going through the roof relative to where it was.

[Mashimaro]

[Hater Depot]

That's true. You will learn far more from mistakes than from anything you do right. It's also pretty cool to just pick up from conversation some important grammar point that your books hadn't covered.

[billybrobby]

I think it would be cool if the 3 people with the pretentious korean proverb signatures all posted in a row.

[eamo]

[Mashimaro]

[mithridates]

[simone]