I really want to be fluent in speaking so that people say I am almost native-like in my ability and I want to be good at reading Korean so I can read things on the net without any difficulty. I also want to be good at writing so I can chat with people on the Internet in ban mal and also write a reasonable formal email without too many grammatical and spelling mistakes and also at the same time sounding natural.
I want people to say I am a good speaker and feel comfortable conversing with me in Korean.
I want to understand what they say 100% on TV. I want to watch dramas and understand what they say 100%. This includes historical dramas (the language is a bit more difficult to understand because they use old-fashioned Korean).
I want to feel I have no trouble switching between Korean and English.
I don't think you need to be a genius to do this. You just need to be exposed to the right environment like the Turkish guy was, and also do a lot of self-study - for the reading comprehension and writing.
I feel like there is a LONG way to go ...........
I have made progress - I understand basic grammar. And I know very basic vocabulary. I can speak using a mixture of English and Korean to make myself understood. I can read very easy to understand children's books. I think I would be in grade one stage to be honest. So I have about six more grades to go. (I say six and not twelve because when I reached sixth grade in school, I learned about 99.99% of the English I needed to learn to perform well scholastically, that is, be able to write essays well and so on. I learned about 99% of the vocabulary I used in essay writing by that stage. After sixth grade, I really did not study English by myself as avidly as I had before that point. My vocabulary did not really increase by much). I did not find attending school useful at all. If I had not attended school and just studied by myself I would have progressed far more quickly than I did. I found school really boring to be honest. Schooling was in fact harmful because it held me back and prevented me from going at my own pace and made me stressed out because of the boredom. And I did not socialize well in school which made me very stressed out even more. (I got picked on by other kids and sometimes even ostracized. It's awful to have hardly any friends and to feel no connection to the friends you have. You are better off at home or just having a tutor or being homeschooled.) So I got nothing out of going to school except experiencing lots of stress and feeling bad about myself. It made me a really insecure person and very shy around people. I lacked a lot of confidence because of the bad experiences in school. You can say I was scarred by the experience (and I carry the scars to this day although time and maturity have healed a lot of the scars). I was really lonely even when I was among friends. I felt I didn't belong and felt like an alien most of the time.
Anyway I digress a lot but wanted to point out that self-study is more valuable at least in my personal case.
I might attend language school for the social interaction with others and to increase my network of friends but I don't know whether the time spent attending classes and paying the tuition fee is worth that.
I will probably be bored in class. I don't like listening. I am better at reading and trying to understand than listening to a teacher explain something to me. Some of the stuff I would probably know anyway and so it would be boring. I don't like going at a pace that doesn't suit me. I don't like this one-size-fits-all approach as a matter of fact.
I think I will use immersion side by side with self-learning to try and see whether my learning speeds up or not. I can really do immersion at any time but I want to try it now. If it helps me speed up my reading comprehension and my understanding of grammar then it will be useful to do at this (early) stage.
So I have to get the immersion done. I wonder what kind of response I will get when I put the ad up in the apartment complex. I hope I don't get a lot of curious people who aren't really committed. I need someone who really wants the money. Then they will be committed and driven to give me what they want and not just what will make them feel comfortable. It's essentially a job, not a hobby or a chance to interact with a foreigner.
Koreans are strange like that. They want to interact with foreigners but once they do that and find that foreigners are just human with problems like everyone else, Koreans just drop them fast and lose all interest.
Foreigners are not like movie stars on television. They are not a fount of endless entertainment. Foreigners are not entertainers. They are not going to talk 100% of the time amusing Koreans. Koreans need to give and take. If Koreans are not willing to share of themselves in conversation, lose their reserve, and make an effort to be entertaining, why do they think foreigners will? Let's face it, Koreans are boring people to have conversations with. They live very restricted boring lives. I know this because I taught in an English cafe for a year and got to meet many average Koreans. They are boring, boring, boring. And not's the lack of English ability even. In fact, I find blue-collar people MUCH more interesting. I really got bored talking to Koreans. I know that many people say if you are bored you must be a boring person yourself, but I felt kind of restricted to what I could say. I didn't want to shock these people. I didn't want to say what I really thought. Because these people aren't used to this kind of talk. They want the conventional. Teachers get really bored and usually leave after a certain length of time. Few teachers teach at the one place for an extended length of time.
So if Koreans expect foreigners to provide all the entertainment while they sit back passively and just take it all in then they are really expecting a lot. And Koreans are very passive in communication in general.
If they do open up, they generally whinge about their jobs, how they are not appreciated and expected to work long hours and so on. And how they are not given the remuneration they think they deserve. I really do not like this complaint about the low salary. The companies they work for have to make a profit and if they paid the salary that everyone thinks they deserve to get they would go broke. If the person knew ahead of time before they signed up to work there that they were going to be 'underpaid' why did they agree to go to work there? Obviously, they are so talented that many companies are lining up to offer these stars work [sarcasm]. How generous of these people to agree to work at the companies they do.
And often when I find out what these people are paid, I am surprised at how much they earn. But still they complain. They earn enough to live well, afford an apartment if they save and have a good retirement but it's not enough for them. Their wives don't have to work but still they don't get enough money. Notice these people never start their own businesses and put their own money on the line. If they did, I bet they would try and pay their employees the least amount of money that they could ....
What do they expect? They are average joes and janes and there are millions of people like them. They did not attend SKY and so knew that that's all they can expect. They are lucky they have a job at a company. Yes, it's horrible to be a slave and I would not like to work 12 hours a day but I wouldn't complain about the SALARY, I would complain about the long hours at work. In fact, I would give UP salary to cut down on the number of hours at work ........
In fact if these people did not work at a company they would have no social lives. They only have friends and people to eat lunch with because they work at a company. You can be the most boring person on earth but because you work at a company and Koreans are group-oriented people you will be included in social activities at work and you will automatically belong. These company workers go on holidays together, socialize as a group after work and often marry one another. So these companies are good for many people.
So there are disadvantages and advantages about spending so much time at work.
I shouldn't bitch about these people because I know I would HATE it if I had to spend so much time at a company. I am more of a loner and I hate committing myself to the one company. I like to work for myself and would RESENT the time that I was robbed of by working for a company like a slave even though there would be more opportunities to socialize there than if I was working alone.
So there are good and bad and it depends on one's personality.
I should really be grateful that there are so many opportunities for me. I will try and take advantage of this time I have and try and be MORE productive than I have been. To be honest, I have been very UNPRODUCTIVE. I know the reason why. I will try and get a flatmate even if it's a homestay kid because I realize I lose track of time when I live alone and neglect my responsibilities to myself and others when I live alone. I don't have many friends in Korea so living alone is even MORE harmful in that case.
Korea is not a friendly society where people are always dropping by or inviting you for dinner at your home so I think that I will have to find more friendly and outgoing people or just try to socialize more.
