expat

Inspired by Kangmi’s review of Pimsleur Comprehensive Korean, I thought I’d post here asking for more advice on learning the local language.

So far, my experience includes two months of weekly classes taught at the Korea Foundation Cultural Center, plus a month or so of self study with Declan Korean software.

At this point, I can reliably count to 100 in both number systems (the “pure Korean” used for telling time and counting, and the Sino-Korean system used for almost everything else), say “hi” to people in couple different levels of formality, say thanks, get directions to the bathroom, tell my taxi driver how to get home, and ask someone what country he or she originally hails from. All of which is nice, but not particularly useful when striking up your average conversation.
Oh, and, of course, I mastered the all-important survival sentence:

이것이 얼마입니까? (”How much is this?” Short version: 얼마에요?) my first week here.

Thanks to my coworkers, I can now also use the phrase 괜찮아요, which, depending on the context, can mean: “You’re welcome.” “No problem,” “No, thanks. I’m fine,” or, phrased as a question, “Is this OK?” That one word has actually expanded my vocabulary tremendously, but still has its its limits.

This represents the extent of my skills after four months here. And, I want to get better at telling what people are saying. The Declan software is really good (and David swears by it) but I seem to keep forgetting everything I learn when it comes time to actually talk to someone. I whizz through the memorization, writing and listening exercises, but nothing seems to stick with me. It could also be that I’m just not studying enough.

The Rosetta Stone program is supposed to mimic full immersion in that it doesn’t use English at all (from what I’ve read). I just signed up for a month of the online version. I’m going to try adding an hour of that a day, to an hour of Declan and see how that works.

Has anyone else tried any of these programs? Should I just break down and invest in classes at a language institute? Right now, I’ve just been reluctant to invest several hours a day and several hundred dollars in classes, but if that’s the best way, then that’s probably what I’ll end up doing. I’d like to know that it’s worth it.

I don’t want to write a novel in Korean, and I’m not planning on attempting graduate school classes and such in the language, but I would like to do more in social situations (particularly around the families of my husband’s coworkers) than just say “hi,” smile and gesture.

Seoul conducted a civil defense drill around 2 p.m. today. And, before anyone back home gets too alarmed, apparently it’s something they do quarterly and is not necessarily related to the events of the past week. Since we’re just entering our fourth month here, we were a little overdue for one.

It’s a good thing a coworker called me this morning about a work issue and happened to mention the drill in passing–it was scheduled to start around the time I come into the office–or the air raid sirens downtown might have freaked me out.

Of course, I hope I would have remained calm enough to notice that no one around me seemed the slightest bit concerned. I was the only one I saw who trotted off the street and into the underground shopping area around the subway station just to play along. (I have always followed instructions well.)

From what my coworker and others have told me, all traffic was supposed to be off the streets from 2 p.m. until 2:20 and all eletricity turned off. I think people are also supposed to be taking shelter during this time. But unless the civil defense instructions equate taking shelter with standing outside your office building and having a smoke, I don’t think this part of the drill was too successful.

I would feel really stupid about not knowing there was a drill coming up, if it weren’t for a lot of expats who’ve been here longer than we have and they didn’t know about it either. Although it was announced on Korean television and radio, notification didn’t seem to make it to the English-language media. I guess we’ll try not to read too much into that.

David, whose office is in the World Trade Tower, never heard about the drill either and says they didn’t hear sirens at all. Maybe the drill was just for the northern half of the city? I hope so, because leaving your financial center our of the civil defense plans doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.

Post edited and corrected at the request of its subject.

David got home around 11:30 last night after a long dinner (followed up by some drinking, of course) getting drunk with some customers in Anyang. (He got a professional driver to bring him and the car back home, in case you’re wondering. It’s a service they have here for just such business occasions.)

He then stayed up until just after one a.m. making some calls back to the home office in Chicago (it was just before noon there), then got up this morning to answer emails from Korean customers, correspond via instant message with a colleague in Australia, and log on to the company’s “Internet gear” in Mannheim, Germany to perform some maintenance on the system.

Just another day at the office now that the world is flat.