Well, I’ve spoken and studied more Korean in the last few weeks than I have in several years. Basically, I got myself a tutor, a wonderful student from past semesters named Young Ah someone suggested to me would be a good tutor for me.
One of my favorite phrases from among the ones she’s taught me, in the “free talk” part of our lessons, is “머리에 쥐나다” which translates as “to get a cramp in the head.” Such as, “I studied so hard my head cramped up.”
The thing about studying it and using it with my tutor is that I’m now using Korean more with other people. In the past week I’d say 70% of my conversations — even with foreigners — have included a little Korean at least, and some conversations have involved a lot of Korean. I’m writing email with the language again — even though I feel a little embarrassed by the fact my expressiveness and hold on nuance is roughly that of a little kid. I occasionally chat online in Korean, sometimes at length that would have surprised me only a few months ago. I’ve even started drafting little poems in Korean, which is no small endeavour. They’re not great, but they’re not horrible.
Anyway, I’ll be bringing along a Korean textbook and working my way through it this summer, with the goal of finishing the book by the time I return to Korea at the end of summer. Then I’ll be set to dive into something new, I think, in terms of study. Too bad my schedule precludes me taking a course at my Uni, and that the Korean language schools are all so far away. (Well, except the local one offered for migrant workers, at which I’d be welcome — some others who live in my building attend courses there — but which I think I can’t attend because of scheduling issues.)