It's been a long time! 오랜만이다!

I haven't updated this blog since 2018! The last time I traveled to Korea! 

Well, with COVID19, nobody is traveling anywhere. Bleh. Since I started this blog as my Korea travel blog, I figured that I should continue it as more of my Korean study documentation blog.

Thanks to COVID, tons of people have nothing to do at home. No, I don't mean it in a sarcastic way (ok, maybe I do, a little). But really, thanks to COVID, tons of people are stuck at home so they want to improve their English as a result of this extra time they gained. Which means I got tons of people asking me to do language exchange!

So yeah, that's how this summer had been. Since late April, I had been studying with 3 language partners, and they ALL wanted to meet more often than once per week (as was my old language partner). Thankfully, they are all relatively close in time zone to me, saving me the headache of figuring out how to meet with someone in the Korean time zone. 

Initially, two of them wanted to meet everyday, and I was like.... no way man, I don't want to spend ALL my summer on video conferences! So we reduced to 3 times a week for 2 of them, and the other person we meet twice a week. 

At the beginning, they all feel that my Korean is pretty good, but still have hiccups here and there. But so far, I have improved (after about 2 months!) to the point where they think my Korean is much smoother (I can hold longer sentences without stopping), grammar is better, and writing is also better. Phew, improvement! 

But seriously, this summer's intense studying had been quite the ups and downs! The first month or so, I seriously wanted to just give up learning this language. The improvement was haphazard, and to be honest, I had no idea how to improve. There seemed to be this wall that I cannot breakdown, no matter what methods I tried. And also the lack of motivation... why am I even studying?! Finally, a breakthrough came where I finally figured out how I can systematically study this by breaking down Korean sentences from textbooks and modeling my sentences after them. I started to figure out the way Koreans structure their sentences, which also made my speaking skills better. As for motivation, it's no longer "how good I can get", but more "I want to be able to communicate with these people" or "why do I keep thinking it's IMPOSSIBLE to learn this language?"... it's hard to explain, but at least I'm over my slump.

So in this first language post, I want to introduce my language partners! I actually wrote this as my first ever Korean presentation, which I presented to one of my language partners. He helped me correct the Korean... so the following is the corrected version!

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여러분 안녕하세요? 저는 앤이라고 합니다! 지금 언어교환을 한지 거의 2개월 되었어요. 

제가 언어교환을 어떻게 하는지 언어교환 파트너들이 어떤 사람인지 하나 하나 소개해줄게요! 이제 발표를 시작하겠습니다!

Hello everyone! My name is Ann. I have been doing language exchange for about two months. I want to show you how I have been doing language exchange and also introduce you to my language exchange partners. Let's start the presentation!

1. 해운 (아저씨) / Haewoon (ajeossi)

해운은 텐텀에서 만난 친구에요. 처음 만났을 때 저한테 계속 한국어로만 하고 있어서 영어를 잘 못한 줄 알았는데 그렇지 않았어요.  영어정도가 다른 파트너들만큼 아니지만 대화를 통할 수 있는 정도에요! 

I met Haewoon through the Tandem app. When I first met him, he kept speaking in Korean so I thought he couldn't speak English, but it was not true. His English level is not as good as my other partners, but enough to hold a conversation in English.

그는 지금 알라바마에서 살고 있어요. 10년전 일 때문에 가족이랑 (아내, 쌍둥이 아들) 같이 한국 여수에서 알라바마에 이민왔어요. 회사에 그만두고 나서 아내하고 같이 알라바마의 대학교에서 일본 식당을 차렸어요. 지금은 코로나 때문에 식당을 잠시 영업하지 못해요. 집에 있는 시간이 많아서 영어 실력을 올리고 싶어해요.

He is currently living in Alabama. He came here from Yeosoo, Korea ten years ago with his family (wife, twin sons). After he left his company, he started a restaurant in an Alabama university with his wife. Because of COVID, he has to temporarily close his restaurant. Since he has a lot of time at home, he wants to improve his English skills.

우리 매번 만날 때 카톡 보이스톡으로 얘기하거나 한국어로 된 글을 읽거나 이렇게 하거든요. 우리 서로 무슨 틀린 게 있을 때 바로 고쳐줘요. 해운은 칭찬 을 정말 잘 하는 사람이어서 자주 제 한국어를 정말 잘 한다고 해서 저는 진짜 큰 위로를 받았어요. 

Every time we meet, we would chat through Kakao Talk or read something in Korean. Whenever we make a mistake, we would correct each other immediately. Haewoon knows how to praise people a lot and always tells me that my Korean is really good, which gives me a lot of encouragement.

해운은 클래식 음악을 정말 좋아해요... 너무 좋아하니까 좋은 음질의 노래를  듣고 싶어해서 심지어 Atlanta까지 스피커를 사기 위해서 4시간쯤 운전했어요! 왜 클래식 음악을 좋아하냐면 들을 때 진정할 수 있고 기분이 좋아질 수 있대요. 그래서 아내하고 잘 지내고 있는 이유가 클래식 음악 덕분이에요 라고 농담했어요. 

Haewoon really likes classical music... to the point that he would drive four hours to Atlanta to buy speakers just so he can have better sound quality. If you ask him why he likes classical music so much, he would say that it always improves his mood. Which is why he gets along with his wife so well (he said this jokingly).

2. 시찬 / Si Chan (Brian)

시찬은 언어 교환 웹사이트에서 만난 친구에요. 그는 15살 때 미국에 왔어요. 여기 산지 한 15-16년 됐어요. 고등학교를 졸업하고 나서 먼저 community college에 들어가고 UCSD에 다녔어요. 졸업한 후에 군대에도 가고 지금은 Korea Town 있는 서점에 일하고 있어요. 코로나 때문에 서점 일이 잠시 그만두고 쉬는동안 영어 더 공부 하고 싶어해서 언어교환 파트너들하고 만나게 됐어요. 

I met Sichan from a language exchange website. He came here when he was 15. He has lived here for about 15-16 years. After he graduated from high school, he first went to community college before going to UCSD. After he graduated, he joined the military and is currently working at a bookstore in Korea Town. Because of COVID, he stopped working at the store. During this resting period, he wants to raise his English ability so he started looking for language exchange partners.

시찬의 영어가 고급이어서 얘기하거나 한국어로 설명을 간단 하게 할 수 있어요.  처음에 일주일에 한번씩 만났는데 지금은 2번씩으로 바꿨어요. 만날 때 한번은 발음 고치는게 한번은 쓰기에 대해 수정하는 것이에요. 하지만 지금은 여전히 쓰는 것 수정하고 다른 한번은 수다를 떨어요. 

Sichan's English is very good, so it's easy to chat with him or have him explain Korean to me. When we first started language exchange, we met once a week, but we have since changed to twice a week. In the two times we meet, we would practice pronunciation one time and the other time we would correct each other's writing. But now we had changed to just chatting for one time and kept the writing correction for the other time.

시찬은 음악을 좋아하나봐요. 여러가지 음악 장르도 좋아해요. 예를들어서 재즈, Kpop, 피아노 음악, 이탈리아 노래 등등. 특히 이탈리아 가수중에서 제일 좋아하는 가수가 Andrea Bocelli에요. 

Sichan seems to like music a lot. He liked many music genre. For example, jazz, Kpop, piano music, Italian music, etc. his favorite Italian singer is Andrew Bocelli.

다른 파트너들보다 가까이 살고 있어서 연락하기가 더 쉽고 나중에 거리두기  끝나면 직접 만날 수도 있어요.

He lives much closer than other language partners, so it's easier to contact him and once "safer at home" is over, we can even meet in person.

3. 민식 / Minsik

민식은 언어 교환 웹사이트에서 만난 친구에요. 그는 지금  콜롬비아에 있어요. 민식은 여행을 아주 좋아해서 여러가지 나라에 살아본적 있었어요... 그래서 어디에서 왔냐고 한다면 대답하기 좀 어려워요. 민식은 원래  콜롬비아에 간 후에 다른 남미 나라 여행 하려고 했는데 코로나가 갑자기 발생해서 지금  콜롬비아에서 지낼 수 밖에 없어요. 

I met Minsik from a language exchange website. He is currently living in Colombia. Minsik really likes to travel so had has lived in many countries before... so it's hard to answer questions like "where is he from?". Minsik was going to travel to Colombia first before going to other South American countries, but because COVID happened, he has no choice but to stay in Colombia.

코로나 때문에, 방, 옆집, 마켓 밖에 갈 수 없어서 하루종일 언어교환을 하고 있어요. 매일 거의 한 5-6시간은 언어교환을 하고 남은 시간은 쓰기연습하거나 운동해요. 그리고 영어만  하는 것 뿐만 아니라 일본어, 스페인어도 할 줄 알아요. 그래서 매일 언어교환을 3가지 언어로 연습 해요.  진짜 대단한 사람이에요! 

Because of COVID, he can't go anywhere beside his room, neighbor's house, and the supermarket, so he stays in his room all day doing language exchange. He spends about 5-6 hours a day doing language exchange and uses the remaining time to practice writing or exercise. He doesn't only know English, but he also knows how to speak Japanese and Spanish, which is why he is practicing all three languages at once. He's quite an incredible person!

민식하고 만날 시간 좀 별로 없어요. 일주일에 3일, 매번 한 시간만 만나요. 그리고 그는 일주일에 쓰기 5번씩 보내서 (주중 매일 한번씩) 만날 때 초반에는 믹식의 글에서 생긴 문제에 대해 대답하고 다 끝나면 그냥 얘기해요. 다른 파트너 언어교환 방식처럼 틀릴 때 바로 고쳐요. 

We actually don't spend a long time meeting. We meet three times a week, each time for an hour. He also sends me his writing 5 times a week (once a day on weekdays). The first half of the meeting, I would spend time answering his questions about his writing, and then we talk during the remaining time. And like what we do with the other partners, if someone makes a mistake, we correct them immediately.

민식은 간단하게 살기를 좋아하는 편이에요. 사진 찍기를 좋아하지만 사진 찍으려고 비싼 카메라 사는 것은 좋아하지 않아요. 그러면 사진이 별로 일수도 있겠죠? 사실은 아니거든요! 사진 찍는 실력은 정말 좋아서 비싼 카메라 없어도 예쁜 사진이 나올수 있거든요!

Minsik is someone who likes to live a simple life. He likes to take pictures, but he doesn't want to buy expensive cameras. So his pictures could turn out not so well right? Not true at all. His picture taking skills is so good that he can take great pictures even without expensive cameras!

여러분 제 발표를 듣고 나서 제 언어교환 파트너들을 더 알게 되셨나요? 제 발표를 들어주셔서 감사합니다!

Do you guys feel that you got to know my partners a little more? Thank you for listening to my presentation!