kangmi: learning korean

Breaking through

Last night I needed to study Korean, but I just didn’t feel like it. I sat down at the computer, knowing it was going to be a hard slog. The ringing of the telephone five minutes in was all I needed to push away from the desktop and media multitask through two hours of Everybody Loves Raymond, Gilmore Girls, and Civ II.

There are two ways I get out of studying Korean: I plead lack of time, or I don’t because I don’t feel like it. When I started studying Korean again, lack of time wasn’t an issue; my life had already been stripped to its bare essentials. Although it’s not always easy, for the most part I’ve purposely kept it that way, as it’s the only way I can do the things I really want to do. There are weeks where it’s harder to fit in than others, but by and large it’s not a valid excuse.

Last night is an example of the second way I get out of studying: sometimes I just don’t feel like it. I was already a little tired, and I’d just come home from the gym, where I’d had a more intense workout than usual. The last thing I wanted to do was spend an hour or more studying.

I wrote once about the tools that I keep in my language learning tool kit. Not by accident did I include these:

- Adequate sleep
- Exercise
- Practicing safe stress

It may sound silly, but if I don’t sleep enough, exercise, and manage stress well, I have no desire to study Korean (and a couple of other things, too, but we’re only here about the Korean).

To be honest, out of the last week, I’ve had two good days of Korean study. Since Friday I haven’t done much besides watch Korean television. So I’m headed into my tutoring session tonight with plan B: lots of conversation coaching. It will be painful for both of us, but I’d rather endure the pain than cancel.

I have another reason to get moving: I’m participating in Lisa Haneberg’s 2 Weeks 2 a Breakthough pilot program. I still have a paralyzing fear of having to speak or write Korean (I have nothing by sympathy for Z). Much of what you see here over the next two weeks will be a result of the work I’ll be doing with her and Team Z (maybe it’s an omen that I got assigned to Team Z).

Posted by kangmi on June 8, 2005 at 7:12 PM3 comments