Learning Korean

*Note: This post contains a lot of links to products, but I am  in no way profiting off of it.

A few weeks ago, I lazily started learning Hangul, or the Korean alphabet by using a video series called Hana Hana Hangul by KoreanClass101.com. I began a few days after graduation, but I was so tired and worn out from 20 years of studying that I just wasn’t feeling up to doing any at that particular moment. However, Hangul is relatively easy to learn, so even though I wasn’t putting a lot of effort into it, I still managed to retain a lot of information.

Now I have started to put more effort into it, I rewatched the Hana Hana Hangul videos, found games and videos online, made notecards, and now I try to read all of the Korean that I come across. Since I don’t know very many words, Google translate has become my best friend, even if the translations can be quite rough, at the very least, it helps me “check my answers” and pronunciation. So what I do is, I try to read it first, then put it into the translator to see if I was right, after that I click on the speakerphone to hear it pronounced, and then I try to copy what it said.

In addition to this, I just bought Hanguel Master from Talk to Me in Korean, because I wanted some guided exercises, to learn the proper strokes, and because it has a section on how to read handwritten Korean – which can be a little tough for beginners. The only downside is that since they are based in Korea, it will take 2 – 3 weeks for delivery! Ah well, nothing I can do about that.

The other learning device I bought was Living Language Korean, Complete Edition. I bought it mostly because it seemed to offer quite a lot and it is a package for beginner – intermediate level. Plus, it’s a lot cheaper than Rosetta Stone. I haven’t received it in the mail yet, but I’ll be sure to post updates on my experience.

If you are looking to learn Korean as well, but don’t want to spend money, no shame in that! There are quite a lot of free resources, the main one is linked above – Talk to Me in Korean: they have tons of free downloadable lessons on their website and YouTube videos. I have also used Mango Languages, which I get free access to via my local library. There are also apps on both apple and android – for Hangul I used TenguGo Hangul: Android Apple

화이팅!

EPIK Document Collection: Finished!

Today I shipped off the last bit of my documents for EPIK – my apostilled degree and final transcript. I got my final transcript in the mail some time at the end of last week, but unfortunately, the envelope had gotten ripped in the mail, it was only a small tear, but I didn’t want to risk mailing it off and having to send another one later. Mailing documents to Korea is expensive!!

So now that I have all of my documents out of the way, it’s a slight weight off my shoulder. Even better is the fact that the Ministry of Education should have already started looking at applications, so hopefully I’ll hear back in the next few weeks! That will be a major weight off of my shoulders because these days I feel like I’m in limbo. Do I start getting things in order to  move thousands of miles away or do I start on my backup plans? Do I tell my friends that I’m moving to South Korea or do I vaguely answer their questions about my next step in life?

Anyway, I’m trying to distract myself from thinking about when I’ll get an email from EPIK by obsessing over the kpop band, EXO, learning Korean, watching kdramas, spewing out information about Korea to unsuspecting family/friends, and going to work. For the most part it’s working, but hopefully I’ll receive an announcement soon before I completely lose it.

Total Amount Spent (USD): $558

I am finally a graduate!

I graduated on May 10th and I now have a BA in English – Creative Writing!!!

The Monday following graduation, I was supposed to make copies of my degree, have my coworker notarize it, and send it off to Richmond to get an apostille. However, I wasn’t able to do all that until Tuesday, but that’s was fine. Tuesday found me in FedEx trying to figure out how to copy this 12″x17″ piece of paper and if I really needed the seal to be in color. Seven dollars later, I finally figured it out and walked out with 4 bad copies and 2 acceptable ones.

Fortunately, a woman I work with is a public notary and I was able to get my copies notarized for free – so that saved me about $10! Immediately after, I went to the post office to try and mail it out, but they didn’t have the priority mail envelopes that I needed and the woman I was working with was all snappy and agitated, so I left with my documents still in hand.

Through a series of events, chiefly being that I was being lazy and I was having second thoughts about moving to Korea, I didn’t mail my documents off until Friday morning. Thankfully, the authentications office’s website states a turnaround time of 3 – 5 days, so I think I should get it back early next week. At which time, I will promptly take it to FedEx and send it to Korea, along with my final transcripts. Then I will be finished with this document game… well until I, hopefully, have to mail the Korean Embassy in DC for my visa!