Self-study is a lonely business. From time to time I’ll need to write about what I’m studying. Thank you for your patience, as well as your encouragement.
From the top…
let’s speak korean
I’m up to lesson 59 in Arirang’s Let’s Speak Korean. Today’s lesson, 제주도에 가 본 적이 있어?, reminded me of my trips up 한라산.
The first was in the spring of 1989 and I was younger. My youthful body, however, was no match for our group’s lack of planning. We brought no water or food with us, thinking it would be a quick trip up and down. Heh.
Korean mountains aren’t the Rockies or the Himalayas, but they’re nothing to sneeze at if you have only willpower to keep you going. I ate snow while every muscle in my body screamed back at me, all 1,950 meters up to the top.
It’s a testimony to the natural beauty of 한라산 that I still think of that climb as Tolkienesque (a word I use to describe the changing scenery of 한라산 as I climbed to the top. It also denotes the physical and mental difficulties of that climb in the company of friends). Sometimes the trail was swept, barren, and rocky; sometimes it was surrounded by thick stands of unfamiliar trees and other plants. Around each curve and over each rise, there was always more of that endless trail.
Only six of our thirteen group members made it to the top. Someone took pity on us and gave us some hard-boiled eggs. That helped, but it wasn’t protein we needed. It took every ounce of mental strength I possessed to put one foot in front of the other. While going up a mountain can be hard, going down is no picnic.
It was the little hut on the way down (now replaced by a large service area allowing the mountain-climbing hordes to picnic) that was our salvation. I’ve had better coffee since, and the crackers weren’t my first choice, but they did the trick. I could have climbed it all over again that day.
I watch one program 10-30 times in a day. If I’m ambitious, I do two. For handwriting and spelling practice, I copy the dialogues in each lesson three times by hand.
한국어로 말합시다
I like this program. I like the hosts. Listening to the students is entertaining. I watch the skits with keen interest. And I get the quiz answer right every day, even though I understand hardly anything anyone says.
That’s because all you have to do is pick the pattern introduced that day. It’s never the other answer.
It’s been a great stretch for me, because when I later study one of those patterns, it starts to make sense. For me, it’s the closest thing I have right now to hanging out with some Korean folks. And some days I actually learn something.
I watch one program two times in a day.
korean through english book 2
It took me a couple of days before I realized that there was no translation for the dialogues in book 2. And it took me a couple more days to discover that the dialogue translations were in the back of the book. I’m considering it too much trouble to look up the translations, because with a little study, they’re really not necessary.
My goal is to master one lesson a week. I copy the dialogue from each lesson once a day by hand.
korean studies at sogang novice korean I
What I am doing regularly is really all I can do right now. But I am setting myself the goal of mastering the ten lessons of the Novice Korean I level this year.
Posted by kangmi on April 7, 2004 at 6:12 PM8 comments
목표
Lemon Soju’s statement of March 28, 2004 caught my attention:
Understanding movies is the Holy Grail in learning Korean as far as I’m concerned, and when I can do that, I’ll really be happy with my Korean ability.
I got to thinking about my own holy grail of Korean language ability. I know it’s not movies, although watching them without subtitles would be satisfying. Successful telephone conversations are a possibility. Then the day faded away, and I went to sleep.
Only to be prompted this morning by Blinger’s excellent post on goal-setting in a language-learning environment. He’s got a goal and a date.
Well, I have a goal, and a date, too. I want to speak Korean fluently before I die.
Oh, wait. I sit in meetings at work and remind people that what doesn’t get measured doesn’t get done. I ask them to define how they know when an employee has successfully learned a new process. I have a passing knowledge of instructional design. So I clearly need a better goal.
Stay tuned.
Posted by kangmi on March 30, 2004 at 11:20 AM5 comments
For months now, I’ve been wanting to visit the local Korean church. However, my husband is a 목사, so it’s not that easy to skip my own church service in favor of another.
My opportunity came this weekend when a seminarian friend of mine needed to visit a local church of another culture for a class he’s taking. I promised to take him to the Korean church.
I was glad that I went, as the former assistant director I mentioned previously is returning to Korea on Monday, and I was glad to have the chance to talk to him. His wife and children will remain for at least the next year.
This church service included a 성만찬 예식, which may be normal for many of you churchgoers. However, our denomination typically observes it once per quarter. My theory is that’s because we also observe 세족 예식. If you don’t, the logistics involved include the seating, the heated water, the basins, the towels, and the time.
Usually I’m in an environment in which I know someone with whom I can do footwashing. However, the only woman I knew was in the kitchen preparing the meal. Fortunately, a classmate of my seminarian friend came to our rescue. He offered to partner with my friend and found a nice older woman to partner with me. She turned out to be the wife of a man who teaches Korean at a local high school. He also serves as the force behind any Korea-related events in our area.
During lunch, I talked with my two former directors, who were both anxious to know if I was interested in returning to Korea. I am, but I’m married now, and I have two stepsons. My husband is not thoroughly opposed to the idea, as long as a suitable position was available (read: not teaching English, for starters). They both assured me that there were a couple of positions for which he would be qualified and would also find interesting.
However, we’re not going anywhere until the children are in college, and that’s several years from now. “Why can’t they come with you?” they wanted to know. Well, their mother, who also lives in the area, wouldn’t agree to let them, and I’m certain that my husband wouldn’t even consider it. Both of their parents have always been involved in their upbringing and neither parent would move away until college.
All this talk of stepchildren, divorce, and remarriage led to an interesting (because I had never thought about it before) analysis of divorce and its aftermath in Korea. My former director, who is now a visiting professor, talked about the rise in the divorce rate in Korea. He said that here in the US, we have rules and a social support network that helps to make the fallout from divorce easier (not less painful, and not always less messy, but easier). In Korea, however, he says there are no rules, and the social support network is non-existent. That’s a challenge, he says, that Korean society will have to learn to meet.
Posted by kangmi on March 28, 2004 at 11:18 AM0 comments
By request, an image of my (non-registered) 도장.
My given name (allegedly, and I believe correctly) means “beautiful mountain.”
Posted by kangmi on March 24, 2004 at 11:52 AM4 comments
죽음.
Last night I learned that a previous owner of my new (to me) house died last month. I didn’t know him, but twice since I moved, someone in the local Korean community told me, “Oh, So-And-So used to live there.” I had heard of this Mr. So-And-So, but I did not know him. Still, I feel a little sad that he is dead. Before my time, he was the pastor of the local Korean church and later went on to be the head of his church organization in Korea. He was in his early sixties.
Posted by kangmi on March 23, 2004 at 11:34 AM0 comments
강미 is my Korean name, given to me by an old friend.
Posted by kangmi on March 19, 2004 at 12:20 PM9 comments
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강미 | learning korean