Search
New Topic
Forum Home | Login
singrdave
singrdave
Join Date 07/2004
+1

Humbled by Korean

Language 'refresher' implies there was something there to begin with.

January 4, 2006 9:47:10 PM from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Oh... my... goodness...

I just started five grueling weeks in a Korean language refresher course here in suburban Baltimore. Yikes, double yikes, triple yikes. Work's not insisting that I do this; it's a "recommended course of study" since I am a "Korea-centric intel analyst".

First of all, let me say that I was no great Korean linguist to begin with. I was shocked and frightened when my Korea-centrism was put on the table at my new job. I know my limitations, and the Korean language is one of them.

I never finished at the Defense Language Institute. In fact, after being academically "rolled" (aka FLUNKED and moved back several units for review) an unprecedented TWO TIMES, I was unceremoniously shown the door from language school and sent on to my follow-on training at Goodfellow AFB as a non-language Intel Analyst (98C).

Second of all, I certainly haven't cracked open the pages of a Korean book in four-plus years. Do you think I would return to a subject that brought me so much heartache, frustration, despair, and irritation? I can make stumbling small talk. I can impress the lady cutting my hair or handing me my dry cleaning. But I certainly can't understand Korean news reports or curl up with a good Korean book. Just don't have the ability.

But my boss says it'd be good for my career. And so I went willingly, but nervously, to my first day of language class. These people have five weeks to cram 63 weeks of study into your brain. So we started right in with... weather. Good ol'... well, all I remember about weather is that the guy sitting next to me made up this funny statement about how whenever he goes to the bathroom, it rains a lot in the toilet. Well, it's funnier when you know that Koreans use metaphor all the time and have no actual sense of humor...

Needless to say, this is going to be a killer class. Considering the pace at which we are taking in (for me, new) information, I would dare say this is more intense than DLI ever was. It's because they expect these students have a level of ability that, frankly, I don't.

And it's embarrassing!
misc
Locked Post
Search this post
Advanced Search
Subscription Options
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
singrdave
Join Date 07/2004
+1
Reply #1 January 4, 2006 10:01:45 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
NAPUN HAKSENG EE-YAY-YO!
(I AM A BAD STUDENT!)
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
xtine
Join Date 04/2004
+4
Reply #2 January 4, 2006 11:35:03 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Hey! I understood what you wrote!

I should pick it up again, but out here in rural Minnesota....why bother?

Good luck, have fun.
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
Talisein
Join Date 01/0001
+13
Reply #3 January 5, 2006 2:21:49 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
All non-native Korean linguists understand your position, don't sweat it. Get what you can out of the class and get some BS on your NCOER and you're at what we all know to be the real Army standard.
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
Spc Nobody Special
Join Date 08/2004
+10
Reply #4 January 5, 2006 8:04:53 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
ONULUN NALSHEE GA, OTTO SOOM NEE KA?
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
Dr Guy
Join Date 09/2004
+129
Reply #5 January 5, 2006 9:23:20 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Does Korean use the same alphabet?  Or is it cyrillic or the Japanese one?  I have never tried a langauge that does not use the roman Alphabet, so I really have no idea how hard it would be.
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
Talisein
Join Date 01/0001
+13
Reply #6 January 5, 2006 3:58:48 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Korean has their own, SCIENTIFICLY DERIVED alphabet. Its was developed only like 500 years ago. At the time everyone spoke Korean, but if they wanted to write stuff they had to learn Chinese. So the king at the time created an alphabet so simple that you could learn it in three mornings, and the people could use it to write the sounds they made were they spoke. There's something like 28 characters or something, I dunno. Anyways, it looks totally different than written Chinese or Japanese.

In the end, the alphabet is the easy part of Korean. It doesn't take much to learn at all. Koreans problem is its grammar, because its the devil language.
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
Spc Nobody Special
Join Date 08/2004
+10
Reply #7 January 5, 2006 4:08:02 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Korean has their own, SCIENTIFICLY DERIVED alphabet.


I know they say that all the frickin' time, but really. How scientific can it be? Did King Sejong go around in a lab coat making markings on a clip board? Did he hypothesize the possible results of his language and then do clinical experiments with the placement of the sheeit?

(For those of you not familiar, sheeit is an actual scientific type korean letter, not a reference to excrement. But what the hell, sheeit happens.)

I bet he didn't make it up at all. I bet some lowly subordinate did it for him, and he took all the credit and got an ARCOM........

And yes. It's the devil language.
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
Dr Guy
Join Date 09/2004
+129
Reply #8 January 5, 2006 4:12:12 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

Reply By: Talisein(Anonymous User)

I appreciate the explanation, even if some would disagree with you on the how it was derived!

And yes. It's the devil language.

Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
SSG Geezer
Join Date 08/2004
+1
Reply #9 January 5, 2006 8:26:13 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Nah, it is fun and helps you eat new and exciting food.
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
singrdave
Join Date 07/2004
+1
Reply #10 January 6, 2006 9:18:41 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Xtine:
I should pick it up again, but out here in rural Minnesota...


X-X-SPC:
ONULUN NALSHEE GA, OTTO SOOM NEE KA?

How did you know our first lesson was on weather? Good job, byung-jang. ::

I bet he didn't make it up at all. I bet some lowly subordinate did it for him, and he took all the credit...

Do you really think King James translated the Bible?

Geez:
Nah, it is fun and helps you eat new and exciting food.

Like red hot-pepper seasoned jellyfish. Yum, baby. The only thing I have ever forcibly spat out of my mouth.

Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
Talisein
Join Date 01/0001
+13
Reply #11 January 6, 2006 9:37:46 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Hey, do any of you other DLI foolz remember a video about Hangul? It showed like the Kiuk was supposed to symbolize where the tongue was supposed to be in the mouth, and stuff. I seem to remember it only making sense for like, two letters...
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
Spc Nobody Special
Join Date 08/2004
+10
Reply #12 January 6, 2006 10:36:23 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
How did you know our first lesson was on weather? Good job, byung-jang.


So we started right in with... weather. Good ol'... well, all I remember about weather is that the guy sitting next to me made up this funny statement about how whenever he goes to the bathroom, it rains a lot in the toilet.


Do you really think King James translated the Bible?


Of course. And I didn't know someone in college who'd daddy used to play for a literally propped up Jerry Lee Lewis when he was too drunk to play himself. Right. And alas. I am but a lowly sang pyong. Pyong chang an ee ya.

Hey, do any of you other DLI foolz remember a video about Hangul?


Vaguely. Very scientific.
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
singrdave
Join Date 07/2004
+1
Reply #13 January 6, 2006 10:58:59 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
I am but a lowly sang pyong. Pyong chang an ee ya.

Mee-an-hamnida, sang byung NBS. Bali pyong chang uh-ro do-ge-sumnida!
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
singrdave
Join Date 07/2004
+1
Reply #14 January 6, 2006 11:00:08 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
How did you know our first lesson was on weather?

All right, smart aleck. I only read that post after I wrote it, not since...

A small update, BTW...
I am enjoying a class update from the language learning center. They are allowing me to take half the class period to come and do my own foundational Korean language refresher coursework. As long as I DLPT at the end, they will be happy. And they will get results.
Oh yes, they will egt results. I'm so much happier!
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
singrdave
Join Date 07/2004
+1
Reply #15 January 6, 2006 6:24:27 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Here's the Korean mindset for you:

I don't fit neatly into any of the classes offered at this school.
I don't have the level of ability to put me in the basic class.
But I do speak Korean and have a firm footing on which to build.

The Admin NCO and the head of the school asked the following of the Korean faculty:

The Korean teachers were asked if they could rotate in and out of my independent study to help and coach me through this five-week course.

The natives claimed it was not possible, since they are already overworked. The non-native-speakers were happy to accomodate me.

The natives claimed it was not possible, since they couldn't come up with another course of instruction for me. The non-native-speakers were willing to adapt the current curriculum to my needs.

Lazy Koreans. I thought the point of teaching was to instruct, not to tick marks in boxes showing how many courses they'd taught or students they'd moved through the system. Way to be there for a needy student.
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
SSG Geezer
Join Date 08/2004
+1
Reply #16 January 6, 2006 7:18:54 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Oh silly needy one!
You should know better!
Oh, that's right. you haven't spent 5+ years actually in Korea.
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
lifehappens
Join Date 07/2004
+5
Reply #17 January 10, 2006 9:50:03 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
the alphabet is the easy part of Korean.

KA NA DA RA MA PA SA AH JA CHA KA TA PA HA KO NO DO RO MO PO SO OH HO CHO KO TO PO SO.......but the alphabet song is IMPOSSIBLY LONG!

And yes. It's the devil language

AMEN TO THAT! I also Rocked after rolling more times than I thought was humanly possible. At first I was sad, but then I realized that I had been LIBERATED! WOO HOO!

CHO NUN POP TONG IM NEE DA
I remember that because all my teachers called me that! (thanks for the self esteem boost there....)
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
singrdave
Join Date 07/2004
+1
Reply #18 January 12, 2006 12:14:00 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
After five days now of being almost completely ignored by both the teaching team and the administration, suddenly over lunch I was approached by two teachers and the assistant to the admin NCO. Apparently they had to have a faculty meeting to remember that there was a red-headed stepchild out there, self-studying himself into oblivion.



His bleeding eyes and exploded skull were no dead giveaway; they had to be reminded that there is a student making up his own curriculum.

Not only was I was invited to the school's "culture day" festivities tomorrow, but I was also assured that after the long weekend I would be tutored for three hours a day for the rest of my time here (Feb 8th is my final day).

But for today, just keep doing what you're doing and we'll see you at Culture Day!
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
singrdave
singrdave
Join Date 07/2004
+1
Reply #19 January 18, 2006 3:34:20 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
I am back in the office today, actually working and being productive. I have given up on Korean for the time being, mostly because of apathy from the teaching team. When someone finally came in to tutor me, all she did was play me some of the practice DLPT exam in a hope to scare me off. And it worked.

I can blame the school all I want, but what it really comes down to is that I just do not get the Korean language. I had the same problem back at DLI: my brain just can't process the words fast enough to keep up with what is being said.

No big deal, really. I was blindly optimistic to have even tried in the first place. I just thought it'd be a great idea to re-learn Korean. Too bad...
Reason for Karma (Optional)
Successfully updated karma reason!
Stardock Forums v        Server Load Time:   Page Render Time: