It’s a topic that’s been done to death, I admit.
Anyway. One of the nice things that Korea has is something called the PC방. Not sure how to say it in English–PC cafe or something? Anyway, a small fee (1,000 won/hr, or a bit less than a dollar per hour, at this one), you get to use a gaming-spec machine for a while. Quite a number of games here, though all in Korean of course. And, I can safely say, Starcraft (the original, though I’ve seen SC2 as well) is alive and well here. If in the minority of games I see people playing. If nothing else, the 27″ screens are nice for writing on as well.
Downside to these nice little places is the cigarette smoke. The people in these places tend to go through a pack pretty quick too. There are quite a number of fans running to help but it’s still a pervasive smell. Even so, it’s a way to get online when my current lodging has nothing in the way of internet (or hot water, haha).
Back to the topic of studying abroad, I’m beginning to think more and more that I made a big mistake in signing up for my university’s program. I didn’t do it because I thought it would help me acquire the language, but because I wanted a Korean minor. I wanted that little line item on my credentials to assure people that I know something about Korean (hahahaha). But I hoped I’d learn some in the process.
So far it’s been the worst thing for my Korean since coming to the country. I’m regretting it more and more, particularly after spending the lion’s share of my savings on this. Some mistakes are necessarily to learn but this is not a minor one and it’ll cost me dearly.
The classes start the day with lecture field trips. I suppose some people must like the tourist sites and history but honestly it bores me. I’d rather be in a classroom where I can sit to write and have a board I can copy notes from. The content is not interesting either way but I can keep better track with the latter. That’s not the part that’s such a critical failure, however.
The part that is boils down to the whole extrovert/introvert thing. We’re supposed to chat up people we meet on the street, sit next to, or whatever else. Essentially approaching people at random. We have a number of returned missionaries in our group and, naturally, this works pretty well for them…They’ve had two years of experience doing it on the difficult topic of religion. But I can’t operate like that. No point in explaining, really; extroverts can’t understand either way. My professor can’t understand.
And the heart of the problem is as simple as that.
It’s perfectly possible for highly-introverted people to do very well in language acquisition. Read into the academic literature a bit and you’ll find introverts even tend to do much better in several areas. Read into it further, and you’ll also find that one of the field’s biggest problems is programs are misaligned with the types of learners that the students are, which in this area, it’s something that has a huge impact on the success (or failure) of a program/class.
The way I can work, and do…make a friend. Not a ton, I can’t do that either, but even starting with just 1 is fine. But the ones I do make are usually pretty good ones. From there, make friends of friends…and before you know it, you’ll have more than you can manage. Do it right, and they’ll be the kind of people you really want as your friend as well.
But it takes time to cultivate. Moving around is bad, as it severs local relations…and we move around a lot here as well. I was just starting to get some roots in the city I left before (시흥시) too–made sorta friends with 2 shopkeeps, involvement in the local church community, etc.
An ancillary problem is…I don’t really have friends in this group, which again, largely consists of RMs. That became painfully explicit when I returned to our lodging. Not a soul was there. Everyone else…out with their friends in the group, shopping, visiting museums, eating, or whatever else. As per the normal of cliques everywhere, they’re not exactly looking for others to invite along and I’d probably only tips things further away if I tried to tag along all of a sudden. Then again, it’s all English amongst themselves anyway…
What I’m not sure of is how to salvage this exactly. Fortunately, my attendance at Sogang U (a notable Korean university) starts midway through the program so I’ll be making an early exit. But it’s a month of what precious little time I have here, too valuable to write off. So, how can I salvage it…