And I am back. What a trip. We went to Gangwha Island for a bit, down to Gyeongju for a bit. Much Korean food was eaten. My mother-in-law makes her own kimchi - of many varieties - which is really quite good. Neither of her daughters make their own kimchi though
Gyeongju was the capital of a unified Korea during the period of the Silla empire. I'm not a history buff at all, but I do quite enjoy visiting museums and seeing old buildings and artifacts. Wolji Pond is spectacular at night. The story behind it and artifacts found in it are equally interesting.
This isn't a travel log, but a language log so I won't bore you with my travel interests. However if you are looking for things to do in Korea, stopping by Gyeongju and taking a city/surroundings tour is something I recommend.
So about Korean. Hmmm. Lets see... last time I was there was about a year ago I think. So in the meanwhile I put in at least a couple hundred more hours of study. My study activities have also changed during this time. I must have a total of 550 to 600 hours of 'Korean' so far. (Maybe 300 hours worth of listening included in that number)
Where did this get me?
Well as readers of this log know, I have not really done any speaking during the last year. My only output has been writing, and I did it almost daily.
So the most reasonable measure is to primarily consider my comprehension of input while I was there. I listened as much as I could to family discussions, TV shows, announcements (on tours or buses), and tried reading any notice board I happened to see.
First the good things:For brief interactions in stores my understanding of numbers was way up. On previous trips I might ask how much something is, or listen for the price but didn't really catch any of it. This time around it was much better - I don't think I had to ask anyone to repeat the price.
On TV there are programs wherein a camera crew follow foreigners around while they travel Korea. A panel of people then comment on the edited footage while the foreigners in the footage have their words translated to Korean as subtitles. I'm happy to say that for these kinds of programs which deal with simple vocabulary and language, I can at least read 95% of the subtitles. I struggle to understand what the panel are saying though.
There were many notice boards I was able to read and *some* announcements I was able to understand. This is certainly up from my last visit.
Now the not so good things:Most of what my family were saying was still a complete mystery to me. I understood almost nothing that my father-in-law said. I could understand a *bit* of what my mother-in-law said - simple directives were comprehensible, simple discussion I could maybe follow by catching words or phrases, but a lot of *real* conversation was simply unintelligible to me.
My sister-in-law was perhaps the clearest and I understood the most, but once again any proper conversation was not possible to follow aside from a word here or a phrase there. My brother-in-law was tough to understand and even simple things he said were hit and miss as to whether I'd catch them or not.
To be frank, I'd say TV is easier to follow than they are! But that comes as no surprise - actors and actresses speak their well-written lines clearly so unless they're whispering or shouting, it's mostly lack of vocabulary (and grammar) which stands in my way.
Most talk-shows or news items are far beyond me though. I just cant process speech at that speed. Clearly I still need to cover more grammar and vocabulary too, but I can certainly say it is also way too fast for me.
OutputSo, how did my output go?
Well I didn't do a whole lot of it. But largely I'm a solid A2 I'd say. Some of the things I was able to communicate via language (as opposed to signing with my hands):
"Is my wife still downstairs?"
"I'll come back later."
"I had a fantastic stay. Thank you very much for making it so."
"Is my son naughtier than his cousins were when they were 4?"
So the trip was dotted here and there with simple things including the above. It was clear that I needed a moment before beginning to say anything and as such nothing aside from simple pleasantries came easily off the tongue.
ConclusionsIt is certain that I have improved since my last trip. I *am* understanding more. But for a good 250 (or more) hours of study, the step forward is decidedly small. Even with having dedicated half my language learning time to listening, my listening ability is still so incredibly weak. Even having spent the entire trip *listening* to my family, they were barely any more comprehensible than when I arrived.
My goal is specifically communication with my parents-in-law. Thats what I set out to accomplish. I feel quite let-down that I was unable to understand my father-in-law. When we were staying over in Gangwha Island I decided to ask him something in Korean while we were alone waiting for family. I asked "How long will it take to get back to Seoul from here?" knowing that traffic was going to be crazy as all of Korea were making use of the extended public holidays.
He tried to speak loudly and as clear as he could for me. He said a lot of words. All I was able to make out were "1 hour" "traffic jam" and "3 to 3.5 hours". Sure I made out what was probably the key message right there, but he said many more words than those - the rest of them I couldn't make out.