Lackidasical Me

I can't believe I only blogged 5 times last month. I could blame it on many things, but ultimately it came down to me being lazy and feeling like I didn't have much to say. Or, as I've said previously, I was probably happy. Because being happy/having too much fun always makes me skip out on blogging ^^

In my last post, I talked about my fail Korean. Since then things have gotten slightly better. I decided to drop out--okay maybe drop out isn't quite the word for it--to take a break from taking classes at YBM. I need to sort out how the language is working and get to a place where I feel comfortable with it, instead of piling up more grammar and vocabulary that I'll only end up forgetting come next class, when we move onto something new.

I feel really good about my decision, although I DID miss out on my last class, which is something of a regret. I didn't even tell my teacher that I wouldn't be there, and by that I mean she didn't hear it from me. I was pretty bothered by that, since I felt like I owed her at least that much. And whatever, I'm a sentimental person so there was some feeling there of something that I choose not to dwell upon.

That being said, I have yet to really talk about my language partner.

So about a month ago I finally got brave enough to get myself a language partner. Having talked to some people for advice on how to procure a language exchange partner and not a future boyfriend, I ventured into the dangerous waters of .com/languagepartner. I randomly selected a website, #1 on my google search, and browsed the website a bit.

The profiles of people had their name (first only), their age (GDI), location, what languages they spoke, what languages they were studying, and a short blurb on what they were looking for. Putting up pictures of yourself wasn't required, or even the norm.

All good things so far.

BUT when I looked at just WHO was posting profiles...it seemed like an awful lot of american GUYS wanted to learn Korean. And, much to their luck, hey, there seemed to be an awful lot of korean GIRLS who were willing to teach them.

In other words, shadiness/dating website/warning flag.

Maybe I should have stopped there. But I had invested all this time on this website already, that I just went ahead and put up a short blurb.

I'm not even kidding, my email got like 10 messages in 15 minutes. From a lot of guys.

And thus began my screening process lol. It was like a line up and I got to pick hah. I was, naturally, super hesitant to choose anyone of the opposite sex, because I didn't want to deal with trying to dodge fake language exchanges. Anyone who I got a creepy vibe from were automatically dismissed. However, I also didn't want to completely dismiss people who honestly wanted to better their English based on their gender.

So I screened heavily--sending potentials messages asking specifically why they wanted a partner and what they wanted to focus on. I also checked for their english level. If their english was too low, we would have problems communicating. If their english was too high, I grew suspicious as to why they needed a partner. It was a plus, however, if a person had previously taught/tutored Korean to a foreigner.

After much labor, and being stood up by my first choice (haha), I took my chances with a guy. We will call him John haha. John's english was really good, and he had lived abroad in Australia for a period of time, and had even taught Korean before. What he wanted now that he was back in Korea, was someone to speak english with so as not to forget it...and also to improve his knowledge of english idioms/slang that we use in conversation.

So our first meeting was sort of a disaster. There was never anything more awkward. We went to a charlie brown cafe (!!!) and I was hyper hyper shy. I didn't even want him around me when I ordered my coffee in Korean. Needless to say, there was no Korean spoken on my part that night.

We met again and it was like he twisted my arm to get me to speak Korean. I realized that as nice as a guy as he is, he's also really seriously about teaching me Korean. He pulled out handouts for me, gave me homework, AND a quiz. I kind of wanted to die, my head was exploding.

A few days later, he messages me to check if I'm doing my homework.

Yikes.

Because it's just him and me, I feel way more responsible for the work he gives me. My improvement is utterly in my hands. It's overwhelming but also really exciting. He's patient with me but firm, and it both instills fear and drive in me.

SO YAYY!

Additionally, I've been supplementing my learning with lessons from TTMIK and to be honest, I haven't been this excited to learn korean in a while.

^__________^