Cloudy with a Chance of Failure

Sorry if this is a bit short. I've been studying all day with a short language exchange break. This week, we have midterms. I'm not really nervous about them. I am pretty confident in the classroom. It's just when I go outside of the class that I have a lot of problems. In the classroom, we're all using easy vocabulary and speaking really slowly. When I try to speak with other Koreans, I'm lucky if there's a sentence that I know every word on. I go through stages of demoralization and whatever the opposite of that is. (I'm losing my English every so swiftly.) So, although I'm not concerned about midterms, I'm still really motivated to study in order to be able to function outside of the classroom. The most beautiful and horrible thing about languages is how much vocab exists! For example, take the word "take" You can say take, steal, grab, snatch, pick up, carry etc... And that's not even getting into the slang. 

I did, however, get a scholarship to my school. Because my grades were high, they were deceived into thinking that I might turn into something someday, so they gave me half of my tuition back. Don't get me wrong, it's a huge blessing! I was really stoked, but I'm just glad they can't see me outside of class. This semester, I'm gonna have a bit more competition for it. Another American joined the course who is really good. Nothing motivates me like some good competition!

I think the most difficult thing for me right now is speaking. At this point, I "know" about 1500 words (give or take a few hundred). However, they rarely come to mind when I'm speaking. I can listen to them and understand them, but when I open my mouth to speak, I'm constantly stumped. Oddly enough though, if I'm writing, I can do that at a fair speed. It's just something about speaking... I plan on practicing that quite a bit in the near future.

Other than that, I can't really think of too many things that are different in my life right now. But then again, my head is swimming in random Korean right now... well, more like drowning anyway. 

I think right now I'm a mix of both of these pictures. I just wanna sleep now... zzzz

 Hope you all enjoyed the random pics. The cherry blossoms are just about done blooming here now, but I did get a few pictures before they go away. I especially love the first pic about people turning into vegetables. Cracked me up, but then again, I've seen my teacher grading my homework and doing the same thing, so I guess I shouldn't judge too much. Such is the way of learning languages. It's a contest to see how effectively and efficiently you can humiliate yourself. The person who does it the most gets... laughed at the most I guess.

New Beginnings

After a full week of "rest," classes have resumed again. Needless to say, level 2 is a bit harder than level one. My teacher speaks at about the speed our galaxy is spinning through the vast reaches of space. (For those of you less astronomically inclined, do some research. It will do you some good.) Whereas this is much more difficult, it definitely helps my listening a whole lot. No longer do I listen for every single word, but for the whole idea. If I stop for even a second to think, "What was that word again?" I'm 20 sentences behind. Figuring out words by context... I don't remember learning English when I was a kid, but if it's anything similar to this, it must have sucked a lot. I only remember being frustrated when my parents would spell things out. "Hey should we go get some I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M?" Curse you disadvantaged intelligence!

I tried something very new this week. One of my Swedish classmates invited me to go with him to a Star Craft tournament (once again, educate yourselves) that took place on Thursday. All I knew about Star Craft was that it was a certain type of video game, and nothing more. I had more fun there than I've had in a while. Until you've seen a bunch of Koreans jumping up and cheering quite adamantly about 2 people playing a video game, you haven't experienced true joy. Turns out, the CEO of Blizzard (self-education) was there. He bought pizza for everyone in the room. I am now a fan.

At the event, they had signs that you could write on. In between games, the camera man would go around, and if he liked your sign, he would film you and put you on international TV. I was on TV twice! My friend and I both wrote "I'm with stupid" with an arrow pointing at the other in both English and Korean. When we were on TV, the commentators were trying to figure out what the English one meant, and when they got to mine, they started laughing. I'm famous! Unfortunately, no one has just recognized that fact yet. I'll give it a few days, or weeks, or months, or years... or never. 

I got a complement from my teacher this week in the form of an accusation. (Compliment??? I'll leave self education for another day.) Either way, I guess it works. I finished a problem early and was waiting for everyone else to finish, when my teacher began speaking to me. "Joe, why are you in the class with all the Westerners?" (The why in the previous sentence should be read very accusatorily.) She continued, "You need to switch to the harder course with the Japanese and Chinese students - [who do nothing but study all day every day. And then when they get tired of that, they decide to review what they've studied.] [sic]. You should do it!" At that moment, I decided to break out my fluent Korean, "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Which roughly translates to, "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." in English followed by a very version of saying, "But I don't speak Korean so good." I probably will eventually switch to the faster track, but I'm happy taking it at a "slower" pace for right now. (Slow for Koreans, but fast for those of us of the Western persuasion.) I think it's important to get a firm grasp on the basic grammar before hurdling myself into something a bit more scary.

Enjoy this video short video of what the Star Craft tournament was like.