It's best not to do language exchange when you are a beginner

There are many disadvantages to doing language exchange as a beginner.

1) Often the people who are doing language exchange with you can speak English better than you can speak their native language. If this is the case, the situation devolves into one where you are speaking English for the majority of the time. In that case, you are giving free English lessons. 

2) You are not in control of the schedule. You have to make compromises and fit that person in as it suits them. 

3) You do not have a reliable language partner. They may not show up or be available suddenly. Or they could suddenly stop coming. 

Even if you DO find someone who speaks very little English, you are not in control of the situation and being in control of the situation is the best thing from your point of view. You have set your goal to do immersion for x number of hours a day and have set the time aside to do this. When people don't show up or insist you do it on their time, it becomes a problem. If you set it up as a job and you stipulate clearly the hours and the times and the work conditions and the payment, they won't apply and waste your time if they are not in agreement with this.

Also, if you set it up as a job situation, you can interview people and eliminate the unsuitable ones early on. With language exchange, you feel awkward about rejecting anyone. 

With language exchange you are wasting a lot of time arranging things to suit them and they may not show up which means you waited for nothing. And also there is a problem that they might want to use you for friendship and so on. If you have a professional relationship with these people, there are no chances of abuses like this.  It's best to be friendly but keep a professional distance. I have to remember this. Keep a professional distance.

So it's best not to do language exchange as a beginner. Only do it when you have achieved a certain level of fluency. 

What do I like to do? Finding teachers who are compatible with you.

I think at this stage I am getting a better idea of what teachers are going to be helpful to me. I have to always be in control of the situation and let the teachers know how I want them to teach me. If they don't need the money that much and want to control the situation, it's best to let them go. Also, I've realized it's important to have teachers you RELATE to well. I am single and find married ajummas a bit boring. The ones with grown up kids are OK but I don't have much in common with those with school age kids. Also, I don't have that much in common with young single women. I get on with men of all ages and with older women with grown up kids. I have a good relationship with those ajummas who are working too. The housewives I don't have much in common with.

It's also important that your personalities are a good fit. I like people who are open-minded, not too conventional, and have a wide range of interests. I like people who are sociable and who are not too conformist. I get on better with people with alternative views.

I don't really get on with ajummas who are too religious, uneducated and who are housewives. 

I don't get on with judgmental people. 

I will be more enthused about the lesson if the teacher is interesting to talk to and has amusing anecdotes. If we can relate our similiar experiences, it's good. 

But I also need to respect the teachers and understand their point of view. They are trying to help me. They also want to pick up English by interacting with an English speaking foreigner. They are curious about what life in a western nation is like. They are under pressure because they know what I require from the ad. They are trying to please me and are trying to treat it like a job. 

Then who shall I stick with? I like Seokcheol (he is interesting to talk to, is intelligent and shares similar experiences to mine, is mature), Mrs Lim (I feel comfortable with her, she makes me laugh, she is accepting of me and not judgmental), the Saturday morning lady (I feel relaxed with her as she is single, but she isn't very outgoing), the young man in his twenties (he is very interesting to talk to but I don't like his teaching methods -- I will have to be assertive and rein him in). 

I don't feel that comfortable with the science teacher -- her world is very different to mine and I think we will run out of topics to talk about. I don't think she will be open to using alternative methods such as playing games, reading manwha, watching TV or videos and so on. But I understood a lot of what she said. 

The math teacher. She didn't perform well in the interview. Perhaps I shouldn't have hired her in the first place. She might sit there and not talk very much. I will let her go very quickly if the first class doesn't work out. Then I can give a second class to Seokcheol or the young man or the Saturday lady. 

The scouting lady. I don't feel I am in control of this relationship because she won't accept money. For instance I feel obligated to go to her home instead of the other way around. She can't speak much English at all which is good and bad. I am not sure I am going to be interested in what she has to talk about. So far she has talked about her scouting activities, her family and some foreigner friends she has in Australia/NZ. This is very boring for me. It will kill me to listen and smile politely pretending to be interested in all of this when it's so banal to me. I think she IS trying to pick up English from me by volunteering to help me. Language exchange might be more useful in this case .... I think it will devolve into this .... it might not be too bad but I just find her too conventional and I might be bored by the topics or fishing around a lot for some topic that I can find interesting to talk about with her. 

I don't have much in common with her so it might not work out from the point of view of language exchange. I think I will drop her. I will find some excuse to weasel out of this. I shouldn't have put ajummas in the ad. The ajummas are really boring ....... I don't really look forward to speaking with them .......

I should not be so harsh. I am quite a boring person when it comes down to it. I am not married and have no kids so ...... What can I offer these people? I don't have amusing stories to tell these people like Seokcheol ..... I guess I can search around for amusing anecdotes to tell but I am a better listener than I am a teller of interesting stories about my life .... I haven't had a happy life so that's a large part of why I don't want to speak about my life a lot with people I don't know that well. 

 

"How to Learn a Foreign Language" - my experience so far

Here are my guidelines, from what I have gathered in the couple of months of attempting to learn Korean, for learning a foreign language.

1) Study a comprehensive grammar book. If the grammar book doesn't cover all the most common areas (Korean Grammar in Use is the main grammar book I use but it doesn't cover banmal), then find a grammar book that does cover those areas and supplement study of the main book with study of this book.

2) Have some easy reading material. Have some readers that have English translations. 

3) Find vocabulary drill books. The children's ones are the best. They cover the most commonly used basic words you need and have fun exercises so you can practise writing the new vocabulary and recalling their meaning. 

4) Find teachers who will talk to you in Korean for a solid hour. Pay them. This is important! Do not rely on LANGUAGE EXCHANGE. When you pay the teacher, you are in control of the situation. They will not use English if you instruct them not to. This is important for language immersion. 

5) Find online games if you can that involve using the target language. Ask your teacher to assist you in finding these games and helping you to play them. 

6) Have a program of fun activities to do: charades (involving drawing pictures on a white board), cooking lessons, skills teaching lessons, card games and any other sort of FUN activity.

7) Watch videos in the target language and watch WITH and WITHOUT subtitles. 

8) Volunteer or join a social group, club or learn some activity outside your home (yoga, dancing, inline skating .....) 

9) Do not stress out! Do not be anxious about finding an immersion environment. If you cannot find a natural immersion environment, PAY someone to talk to you for an hour once or twice a week. If you hire a few people, you may have conversation lessons for seven hours a week. Aim for 5 - 7 hours a week. It will be cheap to find someone if you live in the nation whose language you are trying to learn. There will be many native speakers who want to teach you the target language. Give them 15 minutes of free English speaking at the end of the 45 minutes or the one hour. That way they will be happy to speak to you in the target language for a solid block of time. 

10) Remember all the skills are important. But learning grammar the easy and natural way is by listening to native speakers and picking up the grammar that way. 

11) Make it fun and convenient for you. It is worth paying a little extra money for tuition. Do not stint on hiring people. You save money because they come to YOU at your own convenience. You do not need to spend lots of money and time moving to a remote area where no one speaks English. And by not paying tuition in language institutes, you can actually save money this way. Hiring one on one tutors can actually be cheaper and more cost-effective than paying for a course. One one on one lesson is the equivalent of six hours at a language institution. 

12) Be hopeful and confident. Watch a lot of TV in the target language. Watch many videos and dvds in the target language. Do not despair. And do not compare yourself to other people. Do not let others discourage you. Do not let others' opinions of your language ability make you feel down. You learned your native language so you can learn another language. 

13) As an adult you have resources that can make language acquisition faster. It takes a child five years to become fluent talkers in their native language. You can accelerate this process because you are learning consciously. Instead of five years, you can learn in one year. 

14) Remember that learning a language mainly by reading grammar books is about learning ABOUT the language and not actually learning to communicate in that language.

15) Communication is the key. So long as you understand what people are saying and others understand what you are trying to say, you are making progress. 

16) Review grammar books regularly. 

17) Try and concentrate on vocabulary and grammar separately when reading material. Read for the vocabulary first and then read for the grammar.  Read the material several times if necessary.

18) Read material that is at your level or just a little higher than your level. 

19) Once you have the basics of a language down - speaking, writing, reading and listening, then concentrate on developing proficiency in all of those areas especially writing. But you should try and get the basics down first. 

20) Practise with any people around you that you can. For example, practise with shopkeepers and taxi-drivers. 

21) The best language teachers are the ones who will attempt to speak to you 100% in the target language. Ask teachers to speak slowly, not get you to talk in Korean at first, talk in easy to understand sentences. Ask them not to "teach" you Korean when talking to you, but talk in Korean about topics you are mutually interested in. The best language teachers are the ones who will not only talk in the target language as much as they can but will also do anything they can to communicate with you - that means playing games with you, acting out scenes, drawing pictures, moving their bodies, making gestures and so on. 

22) Initially use the method that suits your personality the best but be careful not to just stick to that method. Move onto using other methods when you feel more confident about your language ability. 

23) Remember that true fluency includes fluency in speaking, reading and writing. 

I am just a beginner so I need to learn very basic elementary stuff
I will ask the younger teachers who are usually more computer savvy to find online games for me that are in Korean then we can play together. I downloaded the game Risk and will try it out with my more adventurous teachers.

Online games for learning Korean
I found some great online games (free) on the Mac for learning vocab but they are for English! I wish I could find similar games but in Korean. There was one game called GardenScapes and it involved finding certain objects in a picture. The words unfortunately were in English so they weren't good for someone who wants to learn Korean. Now if these words were in Korean, that would be a different ballgame altogether. I will ask these Korean teachers to find me games in Korean. And I can even play by myself! This would be a great way to learn Korean -- so fun.

Can I do it? Is my monitor too strong?

It's not really intelligence which determines whether you will be good at picking up languages by ear; it is your personality.

Those who are outgoing and extrovert will find it easy to pick up languages by ear. Those who are introvert and shy will find it hard. 

I don't know where I fall in the spectrum. I used to be shy when I was young but the circumstances have changed since then. Now, people tell me I am outgoing. I still feel shy but I can fake it. I think I do have a strong language monitor. I don't like making mistakes. I don't like to plunge in. 

I guess it's bad to have a weak monitor. You don't pick up nuances. And later on, it does affect you. You might become fluent very quickly but you will make mistakes that you never fix as it becomes habitual to make them. 

With those with a strong monitor, it might take a while for them to become fluent. But once they are fluent, they don't make many mistakes in talking. 

For example, many Koreans never learn to add "s" when it comes to third person singular verbs or to plural nouns. They might be fluent when it comes to speaking English but their monitor is such that they never pick up this mistake and keep dropping the "s". 

I am not extreme when it comes to monitor use. I think that would be terribly handicapping to have too strong a monitor. On the other hand, I do tend to employ my monitor a lot when speaking. I feel inhibited about making mistakes. 

I also have a bad memory when it comes to listening to language. Someone can say one word and its meaning and a few minutes later I will have completely forgotten it. 

I think I have to see the word written down before I can "learn" it. This slows down my learning. I don't trust my ear when it comes to sounds. It's a weakness and will hamper me I know but I can't help it. 

I have trouble memorizing long words - say words of three syllables or more. I don't like memorizing new words that I have been taught by a speaker. I like memorizing words from a book that teaches vocabulary though. 

Today, I don't think I picked up a lot. I am still hearing a lot of English from the Korean language teachers. I had better remind them to go full-on immersion and not speak any English. I will have to find EASY material. I don't think a teacher translating Korean text into English for me is that helpful. I really don't. I am starting to think the 3D workers all have EXCELLENT memories. That can't be the case. 

Swear words are easy to remember. Why? Because the context within which the swear words are used makes a deep impression on your mind. You feel a strong emotion when you hear swear words. Similarly, when the 3D workers come across words that relate to their work, these words make a deep impression on them. These words are very important. Not only that, these words are repeated many times as they are used a lot in their work. 

I think once these 3D workers have built up enough vocab consisting of words relevant to their work, they will find it easy to acquire grammar. They use these words in sentences. Then once they start using sentences they are using grammar in speech. Then from there on, they can pick up more and more words easily (from the context). They recognize the grammar of the speech because they have come across the grammar before. Then they can concentrate on understanding the new vocab. They can work out what the vocab is from the context. 

So once you reach a certain point on the learning curve, the learning happens more or less naturally and almost effortlessly. And the learning speed accelerates. You can function quite well on your own even though your Korean is not perfect. And because you are able to cope on your own, you can mingle and communicate with Korean people. Doing so will improve your knowledge of the language. 

I think you have to be also outgoing. Willing to make small chat with strangers and have a word with people you encounter in your daily life. For example, if you have had a meal at a cafeteria and you are returning the tray to the counter,  you can tell the cook, "That was delicious."

If you see an old woman (halmoni) in the elevator and she seems to be unwell, you can ask her how she is. She might tell you about her aches and pains, and you can interact with her. 

So, it helps to have an outgoing personality. To be someone who likes to interact with people. 

I think that this is the way to go. I personally do not have that personality. I am not a people person. In social occasions and in work environments, I can put on a friendly air. But I don't really like to do this kind of thing in normal life. I am not interested in other people, and find their lives kind of boring. I don't want to know about an old woman's ache and pains. I do not like to say the meal was delicious out of politeness when it was ordinary and so on ..... 

I guess I can make myself like this but it's not the normal me. I am not highly reserved and with friends I can talk a lot, but with strangers I do not like to break the ice. 

I seem a bit aloof and businesslike I suppose. I can talk with taxidrivers - but I don't initiate the conversation most of the time. 

I think I will just have to try and be a bit more outgoing and try and find opportunities to use the little Korean I know. 

I like talking in English of course and I can talk someone's ear off in English but in Korean, I am not like that. And with some English speakers I am a little shy. I am not shy talking in English with Koreans, even Koreans I don't know that well. But with some English-speakers especially strangers I can be a bit shy especially if it's in a group situation. One on one I am OK and am not very shy at all speaking to native English speakers. 

I haven't really tried this 'immersion' long enough. I think with some teachers I am getting a solid block of immersion - the science teacher and the Saturday morning teacher, but with the others so far ... I don't think I am. The English teacher this morning did not talk solidly in Korean. I think because he was translating a news article for me. I don't think that's a good idea. The article was too high level. I will ask him to translate manwha for me in the future. That is more the kind of Korean I need to learn. 

I really think my monitor is stronger than those 3D workers. I noticed that the Turkish kebab shop owner was kind of confident in the way he talked. He didn't bother about the grammar. He concentrated on the sound he heard. 

I don't know why I am finding it hard to pick up Korean. I do not want to be like those bookworm people who have trouble communicating to people. I am not really like that. I AM a bookworm but I don't have trouble communicating with people; it's just that I want to minimize my involvement with people because most of them bore me to death. 

I probably do not know who the interesting people are because I can't communicate with them. It's a catch 22 situation. For example, I think a lot of the variety shows are boring and humorless. But actually some are interesting. (I found this out when I watched a variety show with subtitles.) But because I can't understand Korean I can't see the humor in them and I end up not watching them and passing them off as silly and immature and lacking in humor. 

I think I have to try and put my monitor aside. However, Krashen says don't make yourself talk if you aren't ready. I am not really ready to string together words in Korean yet. But some teachers are pushing me to speak in Korean. I don't know what to say to them. They are trying to help me, I know, but I HONESTLY don't feel ready to speak to them in Korean. I feel hesitant and slow and am constantly translating in my head. 

I guess I need to THINK in Korean. When I've learned to do that, I think I will be fluent in Korean. 

So it's a matter of hearing Korean over and over again. Comprehensible Korean. Hearing the same Korean sentences repeatedly - each one maybe fifty times. By that point, I would have learned the sentence I would think. And the sentence is in context and there are many contextual clues then I will learn the sentence that much faster. 

So it's a matter of learning some vocabulary - a wide range of vocabulary and hearing it spoken out aloud. I think I am at the stage of recognizing familiar vocabulary. My ear is trying to pick out vocab I know from people's speech. So my ear isn't really tuned into grammar. If I understand the meaning of the vocab I hear, I am satisfied. I feel like I've made progress. Speaking whole sentences will come later. I just have to be patient and continue as I have been doing for two months. At the end of the two months I will evaluate how I have done. I think at the end of the two months, I will be able to tell whether I have improved or not. I should be more comfortable with listening and will be able to recognize a whole lot of vocabulary words in speech. I might not be comfortable yet in speaking by that point, but I will be able to communicate with people at a low level, making small chat on common topics. 

I think the people who are helpful are those who use the same phrases over and over again in their speech. I recognize the meaning eventually.  As I have said, repetition is so important. I think the reason why those homestay people pick up the language very quickly is because they have input all the time. And they have context so they can work out the meaning easily. I don't have that kind of input so much so I will have to try and get people to do activities with me where there is context. Such as teaching me a skill. Such as doing an activity together. I don't mean learning Korean .... If they speak to me 100% in Korean while teaching me something, it will be very helpful. Even if they just act or draw. It should be like mimes! 

I think I might suggest this to people. We can play mimes! We can have a board or something and we can draw and get each other to guess what they are trying to say. They are not allowed to use English. They have to keep drawing  and speaking in Korean until I say the right meaning in English.

I will have to set up a board or something. I think this will be a fun game! I think I will get a white board or something like that. I am a beginner and I really need to be taught BASICS. While trying to explain the meaning, they will have to use Korean words and so forth. They can use any Korean they like, they just cannot say the actual Korean sentence that is the target sentence. I can say the sentence in English and if I hit the right sentence, I get a point. 

I think this will be a great learning tool! 

Charades and a combination of white board drawing and writing. But it might not work because I might be able to work out the sentence purely from the drawing. But still, my ear is taking in the words spoken in Korean. 

It will be mainly a vocabulary exercise too. I still think it can work. I will get a whiteboard, a small one, from Alpha supplies and play the game. I have whiteboard markers. I can explain the rules of the game. 

The other thing I can do is ask the people to give me a cooking lesson. I will ask them to make something out of a recipe book. I will buy all the ingredients beforehand. Then we can have fun making the thing and end up eating it at the end. I think this might be fun if the person is willing to relax a little and do something different. 

I will find something in one of the recipe books that I want to make and I will buy all the ingredients for it and we will make it. 

The person has to enjoy cooking. Some people hate cooking I know. I think the ajummas might like this method of teaching. I can suggest it to them. 

I will bust out the cards, manwha, white board, cooking materials and ingredients and we will have some fun. 

I think the key is to have fun. If I can't have the relevant context, for example, by working in an environment where I have to communicate with Korean people, then having a fun environment is the next best thing. 

The reason why this is so is because your emotional guard is down. When you are having fun, you are relaxed and somewhat disinhibited. So this is helpful. Also you associate learning Korean with enjoyment. Also, you are creating your OWN context. The aim of the game is to guess the meaning of the sentence so you have an incentive (a fun one) to concentrate. 

So I will gather the materials for the next lessons and see whether this kind of thing works or not. Having a serious discussion is kind of boring. I am not an amusing talker like some of my friends are (Biryong) but I am a good listener. Even though I can't tell funny anecdotes I can make people laugh with my comments. I am good at pointing out absurdities of a situation and making people laugh that way. I can for example, predict what a person is going to say in a movie or what is going to happen and this makes people laugh. So I can make funny comments and I am a good listener. So I will use my talents in this way. Watching a movie ... reading manwha together, having a cooking session, teaching one another a card game, teaching one another a board game or a computer game, playing a game together, playing charades on a white board,  teaching one another a new skill (inline skating, how to make a fire, how to knit, how to crochet, how to do a sewing stitch), talking about one's experiences overseas -- all these things are very fun and enjoyable. 

I think I will try and have fun the next few weeks. I won't focus so much on learning Korean as on having fun. Then I think I will pick up Korean as a by-process. And because I am having so much fun, it will be fun learning and interacting with native Korean speakers. I think this is the way to go. So far I haven't done a lot of fun stuff yet. I went clothes shopping with a teacher but we weren't really having a lesson and she was learning more English from me than I was learning Korean from her. She can speak more Korean than she is doing during the lesson but I think she forgets as she is so intent on learning English from me. I think the next lesson I will remind her to speak 100% Korean though I speak English sometimes. 

They can't really have a proper conversation with me because I don't know enough Korean.  So I don't think they should try and get me to talk by asking me questions in Korean. So I think they should kind of do a monologue occasionally checking for understanding. That's why these activities are good. The teachers are giving a sort of monologue while they are engaging in these activities. But because they are engaged in something purposefully, they don't have to think too much about what they will say in the monologue. They just have to do the activity and do the speaking that is relevant to and related to that activity. 

I think this will free up the teachers from constantly having to think about what they are going to talk about. We have exhausted certain topics I think such as their lives including their jobs, families, hobbies and so on. We need to do some more purposeful activity. Like baking cookies and making some simple dish following a recipe. 

I think I would like this kind of activity. 

I think I will get a whiteboard from a stationery shop. I hope the teachers can draw well. It would be disappointing if they had no drawing talent. I will get out the playing cards. I will get out the chess set. I will also get the game of Risk from the computer. I will get other games if I can get them. I think Pictionary is a good game. What about the game of Battleship. 

I have heard of someone learning Korean through his love of the game Starcraft. He is an American man. 

So I think doing some fun activity is the key. Not just sitting down and having a boring conversation. I am not at an advanced level yet. I am a mere beginner and so need these kinds of things to get me going and forgetting that I am learning Korean. It will make the hour go by real fast I think. The teacher will have a lot of fun too. 

So I have to think of games! 

 

 

Reviewing grammar

I think learning grammar is important not from the point of view of creating output from scratch but from the point of view of making acquisition easier.

From my experience, I have found it useful to review grammar after a period of time, preferably studying the language in other ways. When I reviewed the grammar, I approached it with a fresh more targeted approach. I zeroed on the areas of confusion that remained in my mind and which I was only vaguely aware of previously and cleared those areas up. This was satisfying and also time-sparing. Instead of reviewing the grammar as I had done many times before - starting from the beginning of the book and going to the end of the book, I just selected certain sections for close review. As a consequence, my understanding of Korean grammar improved a lot. 

I think reviewing grammar after being away from it for a while is a good approach. You forget a lot of grammar besides so reviewing grammar is necessary. And since you have done a lot of reading in the meantime, reviewing the grammar is more relevant as you have seen many examples of the grammar in use in your reading. 

So I think I will have to review the Korean Grammar in Use frequently, not going through it intensively as before but just selecting certain parts for review or going through it quickly, doing a broad review. 

And reading is so important. The key is to find easily comprehensible material.

I might just approach a reading passage by learning the vocab first and then tackling the reading. That way I can concentrate on understanding the sentence's construction. The grammar of the sentence are the bones. The vocab are the flesh.

Reminding myself it's all about COMMUNICATION. 

"It requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concentrated not in the form of their utterances, but in the communicative act." From an essay summary of Stephen Krashen's theories. 

Am I picking up grammar through immersion?

This is a crucial question. This is the main reason for doing immersion for me. It is to pick up grammar naturally. I can't tell whether this is happening or not. I have only done this for a few days I suppose. It might be too early to judge whether I am acquiring grammar through this method. I think my listening comprehension is improving but I don't think my speaking is getting better. I want to speak naturally and not struggle constantly to find words. I am also worried that because I don't really have to use Korean much in my daily living that the Korean I acquire will become rusty.

This is my concern. I think the youngish English teacher who runs his own study room will be a good teacher. I think he knows what I need. I will ask him questions. He doesn't talk that much but what he says is clear and I can understand what he says. 

I will just have to continue with this and treat it professionally. I have to try and extract as much benefit from it as I can. 

I also have to be patient and not expect miracles to be wrought overnight. Slowly and steadily does it. I think it's good I am being exposed to Korean speaking a little every day. I think I should have a study plan to implement straight afterward. 

I think I should try and learn more vocabulary continuously. I should be on the hunt for vocabulary books but ones aimed more for high school students and adults. The problem is that the vocabulary books that are available are aimed at learning English. Sometimes learning from these books isn't as helpful as learning from books that teach Korean using English. 

I find learning synonyms confusing. I don't like the revision exercises in certain books. I think I will skip the revision exercises and just do the main exercises. This way it speeds up the learning. I don't have lots of time to learn vocabulary and I know I will forget a lot of the vocab I have spent time learning. So I need to supplement the learning of grammar with a lot of reading. Hopefully, I come across the vocabulary I have learned from the vocabulary books and the vocabulary sticks in my mind better. So it's a matter of studying and then reinforcing what I have learned by reading and doing the immersion a lot. 

I am still not 100% confident about Stephen Krashen's theory. I think he is right but I don't understand the process of acquisition through immersion exactly. I have seen some immigrants become fluent almost by a miracle. They are just amazing to listen to. I am sure they learned to speak Korean through Stephen Krashen's method although not consciously. I am just surprised that ordinary people, those without outstanding academic skills, can achieve these things. I am very very surprised. I must have done something similar when I migrated to Australia but I don't remember doing this. I think I became fluent in English in  a short time.

I think living with a Korean person will be beneficial. It really is intensive immersion. 

I don't know whether these chat sessions are useful. We are sitting down and we don't have many visual cues or physical cues. I am just picking up a word here and there and trying to make sense of what the person is trying to say from that. I think I was surprised at how much I understood. I think lots of visual cues is good. I don't know how to do that. I think watching TV and talking about what's happening in that TV program is good. I think reading manwha together is good too (one without any English translations) is good. I will try that this morning with Mrs Lim. I think doing activities is good. Learning some skill or making something together is good. I think I can get a lot out of doing something like that. 

I might ask someone to teach me how to make something out of the Korean recipe book. 

We can make something delicious and fun. 

I think I will try that. 

I think that's better than just sitting down without any plan and chatting. I think in the beginning after the introductions are out of the way, we have to have a program. I think I will get the women to help me make something. I will get the men to teach me some skill like how to play a game or something - even just a card game. 

Or we can talk about history and so forth though this might be difficult to do considering that this kind of discussion requires high level language. 

My reading is too slow. I really want to improve my reading. The fairy tale books are a little too difficult for me, and the stories are a bit long. Some of the sentences are constructed in a complex way. I must say Korean grammar is kind of hard. They use adnominal phrases and it takes a while sometimes to decipher the meaning of a sentence. Koreans don't use much punctuation which makes things harder. I am also having difficulty understanding vocabulary and grammar together. If I know the vocabulary already, working out the meaning of a sentence is easier. 

But it is bewildering when I encounter unfamiliar grammar and vocabulary within the same sentence. I think I will have to read the fairytales over and over again. Probably, my reading speed improves the more I read. 

There is a lot to study in my case. I am trying to learn everything at once. I don't want to write a diary either as one of the interviewees suggested. My writing isn't good enough for this and I think it will be a boring exercise. I would rather concentrate on speaking when communicating. 

I think I am 10% towards my goal. So there is a long way to go. I have to pick up lots more vocabulary. I probably know about 2000 words at a guess. I have to learn perhaps 8000 more .... it is a lot. I have to learn all the vocabulary that I need to read the newspaper. I think I have to learn lots more grammar. I have to learn "Using Korean" after I have become more fluent. I think at that stage, reading that book will clarify and reinforce what I have already learned. 

I really want to learn a language through listening people speak that language. Then I think all the "academic stuff" (writing, spelling, reading) will be acquired more easily. However, I have done it the other way around. I have learned the grammar first and have learned by reading and doing a little writing (exercises in the grammar books). Now I am trying to learn by listening and doing a little speaking. 

I just have to keep reminding myself that 3D workers are able to do it so I can too. 

Perhaps academically oriented people have a hard time learning to be fluent in a foreign language. Our language monitors are too strong. I have observed that some highly educated people are poor at learning to speak a foreign language. For example the PhD candidate did not know much English when it came to speaking but I think he can read English well. 

Perhaps I am like that ...... I can't say. I DID learn Korean when I was a child and I DID learn English when I was a still a child. So I don't know. I should relax and not worry about the method of learning so much. Just be sociable and outgoing and encourage people to speak Korean to me. Think of fun activities to do every day. I will just ask them to speak slowly. I think the main thing is to have people interested in talking. If they enjoy talking in my presence, I will get a lot out of them. For some I might have to introduce some structure. Because it IS hard finding material or content to talk about for one hour/45 minutes. 

I don't think I should fall into the trap of language exchange -- perhaps only with people whose English is very very poor. Then and only then it might work. 

How do I measure progress?

How do I measure progress in my understanding Korean? I find Korean language not that difficult to understand these days. Before it used to be impossible to understand any of it. Now, I am not struggling as much.

I really want to be comfortable speaking in Korean. I want to speak it naturally. I don't want to search in my head for words or translate constantly. There is no natural immersion possible for me in Korea. I have to create an artificial immersion environment for myself. Watching dramas, watching TV, doing these conversation lessons, and reading easy to understand reading material and doing vocabulary study and refreshing the grammar knowledge now and then is the way to go. Also going through the mp3 files once in a while. 

I think I have improved but don't have any concrete way of assessing this. I am much more comfortable reading Korean than I used to be. But I still am pausing at "k" and "j" because the letters look so much alike. 

I should not worry and just persist. I won't see these people again in the future so I shouldn't be embarrassed about learning from them and just soak up the Korean as much as possible. 

I have made progress with speaking and listening

I really love watching sageuks but I don't think they help me with Korean. However, I have made progress in speaking and listening. I understand a lot of what the Korean people say. I can't repeat verbatim what they say but I understand the gist. I didn't understand the Korean language teacher with whom I had the lesson today at 10am, but I think she's not used to teaching Korean conversation. She's used to teaching grammar and writing - that kind of thing - what they teach in language hagwons. What I am trying to do myself. I don't need a teacher for that and having a teacher actually impedes me. And she can't speak English well so she can't teach me that stuff. And she speaks so fast and doesn't speak in simple sentences. Not only that she wasn't a good conversationalist. She was asking me questions and didn't talk about herself much. I need someone who is very talkative. I need someone who will speak a lot of Korean to me. Easy to understand Korean. Simple words and sentences. Commands are good. Maybe I need someone to teach me something. Activities are good. They are better than sitting down and doing nothing. I felt she was patronizing and I didn't think she was an interesting person at all. On the phone I felt she was a bit arrogant. 

She wasn't prepared and didn't bring any material. At least Mrs Lim brought some material the last time. I found the newspaper article quite helpful. Not because I could understand it but because it was interesting to talk about. I can use my laptop too for stimulating discussion ... look at interesting topics. I find them interesting but Koreans don't. That's because many don't have good imaginations and they lead very boring lives. I don't like the ones who are in thrall with everything western ... They bore me to death. 

The ones who speak English well usually aren't very loyal .... 

I am sure the math teacher will try and soak up English from me. If she tries to do that on Thursday I will drop her and replace her with someone else. I will replace her with the Sat morning lady or the guy ...... 

I don't like those who take but don't give .....

But I am surprised at what kind of progress I've made so far with what I've done .... 

I've gone back to studying the grammar in Korean Grammar in Use. I had forgotten a lot and some of the grammar I came across in books confused me. I straightened out a lot of that in my head by doing a quick grammar review. I also listened to the mp3s from that book. I listened to about 120. I finished all the listening.  I think I will have to review the grammar in that book every now and then. As well as listen to the mp3 files. Every time I listen to the mp3 files, the listening becomes easier. I can follow what they say better. I will do the review quickly - I won't pore over the spelling anomalies and the exceptions to the rule. I have to do these occasional reviews of the grammar in the book because there are many grammar rules. Also, it's confusing because some word endings mean different things. For example, "nunde" means two different things. "ul kkayo" means three different things, "ul koyeyo" means two different things, "a so" means two different things and so on. That was why I was getting confused. I didn't straighten these things in my head prior to now. The more times I go through the KGU book, the more the grammar sticks in my head. If I see certain word endings, I am faster at understanding the grammar of the sentence. So this book is crucial. It is really the foundation of my Korean learning. I cannot learn to speak from studying the grammar alone but this book has audio so it's very complete. The audios helped me a lot with pronunciation and intonation. My speaking of course is still poor. I am still getting people ringing me. A young man rang me just now. He spent four years in DC. I don't think this is going to work out because his English is very good and he's a bit young but I granted him an interview. I have enough ajummas on my roster at the moment. I don't want any more. I actually have very little in common with them. I have Mrs Lim who obviously wants to learn English from me. I have a science teacher who is sweet but I think after a few sessions we are going to run out of steam. But she really tries hard and knows what I want. I don't think she's picking up much English from me. And there is the Saturday lady who lives in 504 Dong. She's kind and she's single like me so we have a lot in common. I think I will keep her. I understand what she says and we talked a fair bit. She's understanding so she's good. 

And then I have the youngish man who's a bit gruff. But he's a really good teacher. I learned a lot from him in the short time we had in the interview together. We have to find a common topic that interests us. I might download something off the internet. A newsy article or something. I might bring my computer to the meeting .... I don't know. The problem is where we can meet - where we can talk but not too noisy a place like McDonalds. 

Anyway, this is what I wanted. It's not the same as immersion on the job which is better because you pick up relevant language quickly and because you are learning language within context. 

Anyway, I should just grin and bear it. If those 3D workers can learn Korean in a short time frame, I can too. They get exposure naturally. I have to get the exposure artificially. 

If the young man I meet is good, then I might put him on Sat at 10am. If the scouting lady starts to bore me or the math teacher proves impossible, then I will put him in on on Wed, Tue or Friday in the morning. To be honest, I like to talk to people who have had experience living overseas and aren't housewives. These people and I have more in common with. I really don't get on with housewives who have never been overseas and live very conventional lives. Tomorrow, I have Mrs Lim again and then I have the youngish man after her. I think having two people in the one day is a bit much. I like Mrs Lim as she's amusing and I am relaxed with her but I don't know if I am getting much Korean from her. Anyway, slowly does it. I am probably picking up a lot without realizing it. I can't expect to be fluent overnight. I am poor at picking up vocabulary though from speaking. They tell me a phrase and what it means and I forget it straightaway. I have to use mnemonics. Remember, everyone is the same when they learn a new language. They feel that they can never master it; it's all so confusing and so hard. 

I have to stick with the people I feel comfortable with; who are doing their job and speaking Korean most of the time (for 45 minutes), and who are interesting people. I should be able to understand what they say in Korean about 50% of the time - not too easy and not too hard. I need to talk about a wide variety of topics to try and pick up as wide a vocabulary as possible. I need to find something I am interested in talking about and that holds my interest for an hour.

I really don't understand what these people get out of it. I don't speak much English really. My Korean is pretty bad. Maybe later, if we are friends and I speak Korean well, I can return the favor and teach them English conversation. But I think language exchange is a bad idea right now. The people aren't committed. I am not in control of the relationship. I am not in control of the time, frequency and so on. I do not get the lessons on my terms. At least this way, I am in control. I don't mind paying for that. I don't want to chase after people and make too many compromises. And they don't keep to their side of the bargain -- they don't speak in Korean to me. This way, they know they will be fired if they don't speak in Korean to me. 

I am not interested in giving free English lessons.  That was what was happening. I got zero benefit out of language exchange.

Maybe it shouldn't be too unstructured. I like it structured with some people and unstructured with others. With Mrs Lim, I think unstructured is best. Today was a bit messy I have to say as the last fifteen minutes was in talking about ordering the Saint Marie book. Actually, I don't think she's a good teacher. She doesn't really encourage me to talk in Korean. 

I think with Seokcheol, I will tell him it's OK to correct me. I will leave it at that. He was trying hard to help me and I kind of was abrupt with him. I come across as kind of rough and tough and a bit rude and a little demanding.

But I can only tell if this is working after a month. If I have picked up a lot of vocab and can understand more than before then I have really improved. But it's hard to tell because improvement is really gradual. I don't know. What is the yardstick? I think learning vocab on my own and then trying it out in conversation is good. I think learning in my apartment is good. Once I get the Apple Cinema display, it will be better. We can watch dramas on the big screen and we can also look at websites on the big screen and so on... 

I also would like to make friends out of the language sessions but I don't think it's a good idea to become too friendly. I am the employer and they are the employee. It's not only the money, it's the time. I don't want to waste my time with someone who doesn't teach me well or who is boring. I really do not want to meet so many people as I am not that outgoing and I find many people boring ...... I have to try and keep a professional distance. That is why I am paying them. 

It would be good if I could find a good language exchange partner who was also a friend and interested in the same activities as I was ...was interested in the same TV shows then we would have a lot to talk about.

I guess I should just try and listen and understand as much as I can. I think I can watch the news at 9am with some of the teachers and we can talk about what's going on in Korean news. I think that will be interesting and I can keep up with what's happening in Korea. I am interested in current affairs furthermore, especially Korean news. We can watch things on KBS World as well. So I think I will use my computer a lot more. I will also open up online Korean news sites and we can talk about them in Korean.

I need to make sure to keep up with my vocabulary as well. I want to be like those 3D foreigners who are fluent after a relatively short time in Korea so I have to keep my goal in mind. I have to soak up the Korean that people speak to me as much as possible and speak to the people a little in Korean. That way, they know I am listening and can also assess my level and adjust their speaking to my level. So long as I understand the gist of what they are trying to say, I won't interrupt them. I hope to be as fluent in speaking as the 3D workers and even more. I want to read and write Korean well.

The key is that they talk a lot and not too fast and not too difficult Korean. Short easy sentences. 

So far except for one teacher, they have been speaking in Korean to me most of the time. I can't ask for more than that. I have to find some interesting material that will get their talking juices flowing.