Sorry it's been so long since I've written an update. I've been quite busy lately and haven't had much time to write one of these. I'm currently doing school and work both full time, and it's beginning to kill me. As a result, I have basically stopped really studying Korean at the moment. I am now just taking chances to speak to people when I can and watch a Korean TV show every now and then when winding down before bed. At this point, I'm good enough in my Korean to be able to just "chill out" with people. What I say may be awkward/rusty, but I'm understood, and I understand at least the content of what's being discussed enough to participate in the conversation.
I was really proud of myself today. I watched a movie called "Nonstop" with some friends from church: a Korean and two other people. If you've seen the movie, you'll know that a lot of the plot progresses through text messages. Unfortunately for my non-Korean church friends, Korea decided to delete the English text and insert Korean text in its place. Luckily though, I was able to translate for the person I sat next to, and the Korean did the same for the person she was sitting next to. Even though there were a few words I didn't understand, I was able to translate the message relatively quickly because of the context of the movie/how movies like that normally progress.
As far as my job is going, I am really enjoying it! I think that I have been really blessed in this area. My job is really awesome! The environment is one that I haven't seen anywhere else in Korea. All of my coworkers are awesome, and I'm feeling myself really get better at teaching. My students are pretty amazing so far, and I really just enjoy my time spent in the classroom. Before I go there, I'm usually sleep deprived and feeling like I'm under the torrent of a fire hose, but once I take my little nap on the bus ride there, get out and into the classroom, I feel amazing! God has really given me the energy to endure these few weeks. Without His help, these last few weeks would have been unbearable/impossible. I'm averaging an average of 5~6 hours of sleep a night and working mentally all day. I try and get my physical exercise in when I teach by pacing the classroom/using as much energy as I can. If you think about it, please pray for me. I have another 2 weeks of this schedule before school ends.
As far as school goes, I'm keeping my head above the water. I've kind of given up on studying religiously like I've been doing up until this semester. There's a lot of vocabulary and grammar that I'm falling behind on, but because I studied so hard up to this point, I'm still coasting by with that knowledge. I may not be able to discuss the difficult topics using all of the complicated vocab, but I can sure talk about it with a 5th grader's vocab! It's OK though, I'll be able to study all of it afterwards because I've been taking copious notes during class time. After this term, I'm planning on just self studying combined with hanging out with Korean friends and practicing that way. I'm pretty behind as far as my "street smart" Korean goes. I'm learning the classroom Korean "Hello, how are you?" whereas I'm struggling with how everyone talks, "Hey, what's up?"
There's actually a chance that I could get a special visa this year. If I take a Korean standardized test and prove my Korean to a certain level, I'll be able to change my visa to a residency visa which basically allows me to do anything I want in this country besides vote. This is now my new goal for the year along with learning guitar. I'm gonna have to be careful how many things I decide to try and do though. So far, my mornings are going to be booked playing guitar while reading a Korean book while watching Korean TV while prepping for my classes of the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment