Over the Hills and Far Away

Yep…

Before getting into that, though, I’ll start with what’s been going well.

I took advantage of our host university here and paid a visit to their campus, with the intention of making a few friends. It was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. In any population, it’s a given that most people aren’t interested in learning other languages. Still, I hoped it might be at least 10%, but it wasn’t even that. Nonetheless, I eventually met two girls and they were willing to tolerate my rather terrible Korean. Turned out they were both majoring in Chinese, not because they wanted to work or live there but due to the country’s increasing economic strength and relevance. They also didn’t want to attempt to learn two languages at once, for which I can’t blame them!

The next day we went as a class and I was able to make a few more friends. From here it should be pretty easy–the outset is hardest but, as I’ve mentioned before, once you know at least one person you can ask them who’s interested in learning English, or just might be willing to help you practice your second language if not.

So, 4 or 5 new numbers in my phone and some plans to meet. As far as salvaging goes, it’s not bad at all. I can definitely use the half-month I have left here. On top of that, I’ve started to befriend 1 or 2 people from within the study abroad group too. But with this little time left, I don’t think it’ll really develop much.

By the way, if I have any advice for people traveling abroad to learn a language it’s this: get a cell phone. It’s a real pain to do in a foreign country but it pays for itself many times over.

Anyway. So in the previous post I complained about how things were being run a bit. This shouldn’t be terribly surprising but when I have to get up at 6am (bathroom sharing and all…) and then don’t get home until 9-10pm, when most places are closed and it’s too late to do much of anything, and when we’re walking around most of that, crammed into a van beyond its rated capacity for the rest, doing things that I didn’t come to Korea to waste my time on… Yeah, my mood tanked a bit. I tried not to make it too obvious but I do think I was a bit sullen and irritable.

Well the professor took me aside for a little the other day. I guess it must have been pretty obvious.  First he does the usual spiel that I’ve been hearing since 4th grade or so (that is, about 12 years old)… Speak up, talk more, etc etc. As though one’s personality can be changed as simply as flipping a switch.

Then he asked if I was taking or had been receiving counseling. Okaaay, a little personal there but I told him no. His next batch of questions completely blew me away. “Have you been hearing voices?” Er. What? I hope I hid my surprise from my face, but as with the above, I probably didn’t. He went on to ask some other similarly themed questions. I still can’t quite believe it: my professor thinks I’m freakin schizophrenic. (Yeah, yeah, save the jokes for later).

That would take the cake if the implicit threats that followed weren’t so serious. One thing you need to understand is that a number of higher jobs–the government being the most well known for this but some private companies do it as well, something my professor is well aware of–do background checks. I don’t mean some online service that lets them check you for a criminal record; they actually send people out to interview people you’ve known, past employers, etc. And a study abroad program sticks out like a roman candle in the dead of night.

My skill set–languages, computers, things technical–means that ending up in one of those jobs is a very real and unfortunate risk. Well, maybe not such a risk anymore, and maybe my professor is really doing me a favor–I don’t want a job that invades my personal life, really.

I really should have just come here on my own to study. Not only would I have sidestepped the obscene cost of BYU’s thing, but I could have focused on language and making friends in one place from day 1, and, well, I would have avoided this professor. Even with the positive notes above, participating here something I really, truly regret. It’s going to be something I regret and feel the effects of for a long time. I leave at the month’s end but it’s not something I’ll get away from for years and years. Sigh…

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…