One of my goals when moving to Incheon was to take Korean classes again. There were classes being offered but they were further away so I opted to try culcom (culture complex) in Bupyeong. It was really easy to sign up via their website. I learned about Culcom through a friend and have found it to be a more informal setting. For now this is okay with me as it is pretty flexible. The one thing I did find so far is that the group I am assigned to is advanced students where I would classify myself as intermediate.
The problem becomes my listening and reading are higher, even if my speaking can be lacking in terms of elegant, fluid speech. I’m also lacking in grammar, but most of the people I have worked with think that I don’t need help with my grammar or I can learn it on my own quickly. Most of the other students in my class are enrolled at a Korean University and took the Advanced Topik test in April. I’m nowhere near that level yet, but when I took my time I received 6 out of 6 questions on my homework. I might have looked up 80 words on one page but if I am given the time I can perform at a higher level, which sometimes surprises me.
Because a lot of the others have been skipping class lately, my teacher asked what I thought about working through a Korean novel. So that is what we did last class and it wasn’t so bad. We moved slowly and looked up words as we went, writing down English or Korean words we didn’t know. To be able to function at this level is interesting and I wish I could focus more on grammar when I am alone, but grammar is no fun to study, haha.
We have decided to use this book, “멈추면, 비로소 보이는 것들” by 해민.
I decided to buy the book after class so that my teacher didn’t have to make copies and then I can also try and read more on my own.
( A page that we read the other day together.)
I’m hoping that reading a novel together will help motivate me and make me realize I can do a lot more than I think. I find learning another language fascinating and we forget that we have come so far and that in itself is an accomplishment.