No news from 150 Boone of late--reached a plateau, I guess. Moving stuff into the storage unit, at least in a theoretical kind of way; waiting on Visa package, which entails trip to Korean Embassy in Atlanta; in holding pattern for e-ticket for my flight. Both are scheduled to arrive "in August." It's an annoyance, waiting.
Tomorrow, all bookcases, shelves, incidental tables go. Meanwhile, still muddling through Pimsleur lesson 8 (last of this package, and frankly, USD 300 for the full course sounds a lot); once in country I hope to find a Korean willing to teach Korean in exchange for learning English. Maybe I will try to learn Hangul in the meantime, and transfer it to what I think I know.
Still reading Korean expat blogs and gradually, tentatively, interacting with them. I'm shy, what can I say?
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
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4 comments:
You're now in the no-mans-land of Korean jobs; you have accepted, but are in paperwork limbo right now, waiting for everything to fall into place.
Personally, I'd hold off on the full Pimsleur set. Learning hangul is going to be WAY more useful, believe me, as then you will at least be able to pronounce the signs.
Don't be shy. Because I think the rest of us just starting out are as well.
Luckily, I went through The Shedding of the Stuff a few months ago when I was still in Brooklyn, so I'm sort of taking a two-prong approach to this whole madness. I can't imagine doing it all at once.
And definitely do take a look at Hangul. It was way easier than I was expecting it to be.
If you want to learn Hangul, I highly recommend this web site. the site design is quite primitive, but it does what no other website out there has done for me. It actually teaches you the alphabet. Take a few hours. Go through the whole site, and you will learn it. http://www.langintro.com/kintro/toc.htm
I used this 3 years ago, and I haven't forgotten the alphabet since. Granted, I've had other practice too, but this is where I started.
Yes you can live in Korea without speaking/reading a word, but trust me, when you go into a little kimbap place where no one speaks any English/are to scared to talk to you, and the menu is completely in English, pulling out words like rice or noodle (even if you can't figure out anything else) is incredibly helpful. At least you have a general idea of what you're getting.
Thanks to all for the encouragement and advice--I'm sure I can learn Hangul, even if it does look rather gibberishy to me at the moment!
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