I will be good at Korean before I leave! I will!

Recently I've been very busy at the weekends and this weekend was no exception. At 9am on Saturday morning I found myself, up, dressed, fed and on my way to my very first Korean class! I have three months (maybe just less) left in this country and now is the time I make the commitment to attempt to learn the language! Ha! I really should have 'better late than never' tattooed across my forehead!

During the language class orientation the week before and through a discussion/ mini assessment of my Korean ability with one of the teachers, it was decided that I could skip the basic level class which would mainly be focused around learning the alphabet and an introduction into the language. Instead I could join the 1A group. I was really glad about that as joining the basic class would have been really demotivating and boring for me as I learned all of that when I first came here almost two years ago! Class 1A is what I need.

But then when I got to the class, I got a bit of a shock. There are four other members in my group and all of them are better than me at Korean though I'm quite sure I've been here longer than each of them! Ugh. As soon as the class began we were asked to introduce ourselves in Korean. Shock number one. All I could come up with on the spot like that was, 'Hello. My name is Chelsea and I'm from England." Then shortly after this we were given a test to complete. And upon seeing that I wanted to cry. The majority of it was in Korean and we had to translate both ways and complete and correct dialogues which, quite frankly, I didn't have a clue about.

My initial panic was soon eradicated though as it became clear that I was in a stress-free relaxed and comfortable learning environment. Our teacher, Shinyoung, is lovely; so patient and kind and the other members are nice too. And too be honest, my attitude is different to how it would have been before. I'm past caring what anyone thinks of me. They can think I'm stupid or whatever but that's why I'm there. I'm there to get better and that's the important thing. So who cares what anyone thinks of me. I also gave them all quite the laugh too when I consistently didn't know anything. My general response throughout the session was, "몰라요" (mul-ai-yo) which means, 'I don't know.' Hahaha. Poor teacher has her work cut out with me.

So you're probably thinking that that class is beyond me or too advanced but the good news is that by the end of the lesson, everything had fallen into place. I  understood everything we'd been taught and what I gained from the lesson, I realised afterwards, was vast. Towards the end of the lesson I was even able to go out to the front and write the corrected version of a dialogue on the board CORRECTLY focusing on one aspect of grammar, and what's more, explain the reasons, in Korean, (more or less) that I'd chosen the words that I had (from the choice of two each time) and genuinely understand it! Wow! Massive achievement by the end of the first lesson even if I do say so myself.

The test we were given at the beginning which afterwards became the basis for  our lesson.

The dialogue I had to write on the board 

My explanation in Korean! Go me! :)

So excited for the next class! Best get on with my homework in the meantime :)