I wear a few hats here in Busan, South Korea. As long as I am here, I will always have the big ol' hat that says "foreigner" (in flashing yellow neon lights), because there is no chance of me ever being mistaken as a Korean while Im here (no matter how many times I straighten my hair).
I am slowly but surely getting comfortable in the "teacher" hat, and am learning more and more each day that I stand in front of these "angels". I will always have the big ol Texas "cowboy" hat on, no matter how much the word 'yall' confuses my student's young minds. And now, after giving it a rest for about 2 years, I am wearing the 'student' hat again.
A few weeks ago, Bryan and I eagerly enrolled in a free 10 week Korean language class that we had heard about in our Busan orientation. It takes place every Monday and Wednesday morning, and is somewhat close to our house. It was a no-brainer signing up for it, and now 4 classes in, I am remembering very clearly why I have always had very bad grades in my many (many) years of language classes in my past.
Bryan has a great quality of self motivation, and actually taught himself the Korean alphabet almost immediately after we landed here. Me...not so much. I need structure: teacher, repetition, class mates, the pressure of having to read out loud in class, partner work, homework, etc. Bryan has been to a couple of the classes, but is not sure if he is going to continue taking them, because luckily for him, he can put in the effort to learning on his own at home. Lucky dog..
So day 1: Wake up early, pack a lunch, get a crisp new notebooks, smiles on faces, mind ready to soak up some Korean, lets do this! We arrive at the school only to realize that our teacher does not speak any, ANY, English. One word: KARMA. Bryan and I spend 5 hours every day teaching children a language that they don't understand, and we know ZERO Korean to try and bridge the confusion. I have surprised myself by getting easily frustrated with my students, and ask myself alll the time- why don't they get this?? Its SO easy!! Yeah. Right. Learning anything from a person that doesn't speak your language is HARD. I immediately understood the blank stares and confused little frowns that my students look at me with every. single. day.
We spent the first 2 classes learning the Korean alphabet, which was somewhat easy to pick up. It has about 30 letters, at least half of which are actually vowels. It feels weird admitting this 11 years after the fact, but it really made me think A LOT about my years in Hebrew school (ages 9-13). Learning symbols that represents sounds, that somewhat parallel the American alphabet, but include new sounds, and exclude others brought me back to my 10 year old self...that sucked at learning languages.
Struggles aside, one great thing about the class is the diversity of the students. There are probably 2o students in the class, ranging in ages from 16-60, coming from: America, Canada, India, Germany, Ukraine, Japan, China, Singapore, and England. There are a handful of English teachers in the class, but also many women that came here with their husbands for work, musicians, engineers, and architects. It has been really great meeting new people, and connecting with people on a "new kid in town" kind of level.
I was riding the subway to class #4 this morning and accidently got a little overly-cocky about my newly learned Korean letters... Subway signs in Korean? no biggie. Ads on the wall in the Korean? I can tooootally sound that out. Title of the book that the woman sitting next to me is reading? Kid stuff, please. So then, I get to class and my newly found confidence is promptly stomped on, wadded up, and hurled out the window. We jumped RIGHT into greetings, introductions, phrases, grammar, sentence structure, younameit.
Lets just say that the 16-year-old -Chinese- piano-playing-prodigy-hipster-dude sitting next to me was NOT impressed, and I think I even saw a displeased frown behind the super long black bangs covering his eyes. UGH.
I have made a goal to at least go to every class for the next 8 weeks, even if it kills me! I can not give up people! Seriously! If I post in a few weeks saying that I have had it with this new language BS then I order you to get on Skype right away and tell me no! You must stick with this Amy! Even if it kills you!
Alright, with that being said, I am going to go now, and get back to making my flashcards :)
We have many more exciting (non-school related) things to share with you, I promise! Stay tuned!
love yall!
Amy
go amy! you can do it!!
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