Although my social media posts commonly depict traveling and hiking, I have come to recognize these posts can also be extremely deceiving. Of course, exploring different parts of Korea and Korean culture in my spare time has been one of my favorite parts (and in a lot of ways, an unavoidable part) of living in South Korea. But, these posts don’t accurately show what truly goes on in my day-to-day life here.
In reality, my schedule feels like it is practically non-stop. Monday through Friday, I take 4 hours of Korean class and spend 5 hours working (including commute). Saturday and Sunday are also considered workdays, full of miscellaneous work at different organizations, building relationships and helping where I can. So, I am actually pretty typically on the move. If you know me well, you probably know that I am totally on board with this. I enjoy being involved and “busy.”
I will post about work later, for now I want to give a little overview of the Korean classes that I am taking here at Hannam University.
Everyday, I go to about four hours of class (and here I was thinking I had graduated and was done with college courses for good). Like in the U.S., the same college courses aren’t taught everyday. Each class is held 3 or 4 times a week for two hours, so my class schedule changes depending on what day it is. I am taking three courses: Korean speaking/pronunciation, Korean vocabulary, and Korean grammar.
My class is made up of 11 international students; 2 are Vietnamese, 3 are American, and 6 are Chinese. The courses are taught completely in Korean, but sometimes they slip in an English word to help with grammar concepts (mostly when they see the distressed look on my face).
The Korean language has an alphabet, just like English does. Each “character,” as English speakers might refer to it, is actually more like a collection of letters that make up a syllable. One thing that I have found enjoyable about Korean is that some Korean words are actually quite similar to their English translation. Although there are commonly more vowels in Korean, if spoken correctly, these similar words can be understood by English speakers pretty easily.
For example, the word “bus.” In Korean, “bus” is spelled “버스.” “ㅂ” makes the English “b” sound, “ㅓ” makes the sound of “oe” (like in the English word “toe”), “ㅅ” makes the English “s” sound, and “ㅡ” makes an “uh” sound. So, 버스 is roughly pronounced, “b-oe-ss-uh,” which, if you say quickly, pretty much sounds like “bus” in English. Understandably, I love these Korean words. Other words…well…they have taken a lot more practice to pronounce, and that is a major work in progress.
Learning any language is difficult, so I try not to be too hard on myself about how quickly I am learning (compared to how quickly I would ideally want to learn). But with quizzes and homework everyday, studying is also a part of my daily routine to keep up with the pace of the class, and that is definitely forcing me to learn quickly.
Yes, sometimes I get stressed about class or get sick of going everyday, but overall I do truly want to learn the language, so I love that I have them. I love my teachers, I love each class I am taking, and I feel so lucky to be able to take these courses while I am here.
Some quick phrases!
Hello: 안녕하세요 ahn-yong hah-say-yoh
Goodbye: 감사합니다 kahm-sa-ham-nee-da
I love you: 사랑해요 sah-rang-hay-yo