I take my classes through YBM. YBM is one of the bigger language institutes here in Seoul, primarily dealing with English courses, but at the Jongro location they offer Korean classes.
I had my first class about two weeks ago. I was actually really surprised by the other students. There are only 10 of us, which is about the largest that the classes will actually be, and it’s an interesting mix of people. Most of us are English teachers, more of us are with SOME rather than at hagwons, but we also have a few curiosities. The first one is this man from the basque country of Spain. He’s just travelling through Korea—staying for a month—and decided to take Korean classes for the month he’s here. He was planning to go to Japan after Korea, but clearly, he’s been made to reconsider his plans. The second case is this German man who is here for business.
Lastly, there is a businessman who is ethic Korean, but is from Russia. Most of us communicate in English when we aren’t trying to speak our broken Korean, but with him it’s completely different. We have to use our broken Korean to try communicate with him since his English isn’t so great. And what makes things a bit difficult, is that the worksheets translate the Korean into English… I’m not sure how he manages to figure out what things mean, but its interesting speaking with him. We’re both foreigners but we don’t speak the same language, yet we’re trying to learn a same language. It’s funny how if we tried to communicate with him in English, it wouldn’t work. If we tried to communicate in Russian, it wouldn’t work either. And yet we understand each other perfectly in the suuper limited Korean that we know since we pull from roughly the same vocabulary and experience pool. That thought alone amazes me.
The biggest surprise, however, was that I seem to be the newest person to Korea in my class (save for the Spaniard). All the other teachers have been here for some time already: 7 months, 1.5 years, 2.5 years… and they are only now beginning to take Korean lessons. I should mention that I am in the lowest level class. To be fair, it’s not like we all don’t have some Korean that we already know. But it shocked me to learn that people have been here for YEARS and the extent of their language knowledge is around the same as mine.
But then, in Seoul, you can get by pretty well without learning Korean. It is a bit difficult for your everyday life, but honestly, you can do it because there will always be someone who speaks just enough English to be able to communicate with you. Even if they are reluctant, they are able to do it.
For me, however, I find it a little dissatisfying and embarrassing not to be able to communicate in the language of the country in which I live. I force everyone around me to speak English, instead of them forcing me to speak Korean. And it is my hope that I won’t just “get by” here in Korea, but to actually build a life here. I've always thought that an essential difference in living in a place and visiting in a place, is learning to speak like the locals.
As far as the actual courses go, YBM is pretty well structured and a good pace. Each course runs for a month and is comprised of 10 classes (meeting 2-3 times a week) that are 2 hours long. The cost for each month-long course is 130,000 won + 30,000 for the textbook. But the text book you use for each level. At YBM there are 5 levels, each comprised for 4 different courses for a grand total for over 2 years of Korean lessons.
YBM Language Institute
Subway: Jongro 3 (sam-ga), exit 15
http://kli.ybmedu.com/hakwon/kli/int_academy_eng.asp
To end, I will leave you with a quote from David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day. The set up is that the author is living in French, taking French courses with other students but they are having a difficult time. Not something completely I couldn't relate to at all. ^^
My only comfort was the knowledge that I was not alone. Huddled in the hallways and making the most of our pathetic French, my fellow students and I engaged in the sort of conversation commonly overheard in refugee camps. “Sometimes me cry alone at night.” “That be common for I, also, but be more strong, you. Much work and someday you talk pretty. People start love you soon. Maybe tomorrow, okay.” Understanding doesn’t mean that you can suddenly speak the language. Far from it. It’s a small step, nothing more, yet its rewards are intoxicating and deceptive. -David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day (172-173)
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