Korean studies...

Just a lil about my talent in studying languages.... Well I have NONE!!! hahahaha... No joke, I'm Chinese/Malaysian (specifically...Mum is Malaysian and Dad is from Hong Kong)  but I was born in Melbourne (Australia) so... I'm Aussie. There was never a need to learn anything but English. I was even so confused when I was younger listening to cantonese at home and then going to school and hearing english...I thought ppl would understand me if I was expressing the same words but in cantonese to my friends in primary school (really only thought there was the one universal language hahhaahaha).. but realised no one understood me and thought I was speaking some alien language.

Then it was time to go and study Chinese (mandarin) which many would be forced to do when you're young and when you have nothing to do on your weekends. Man~~~ I totally dreaded it... to the point of wagging school every week for a month and getting caught... I was never good at learning mandarin coz cantonese at home was hard enough~~~~ So I dropped out.

In high school the only language I loved to learn was French and I wasn't too bad at it but then followed the trend to study Japanese. But yet again after so many years of learning jap in school I wasn't that great at it in the end ... I'm more a listener than a speaker...

At uni I felt that maybe I should be getting back to my roots somehow and picked up Chinese again as my minor in my Arts degree .... But man oh man~~~ I sucked at it bad ... In fact all the western dudes in my class was much better than me (and all other ABC looking aussie born chinese). I'm so ashamed and I had no idea what I was doing there or what I was even learning~~~ My limit was at level 8 when others went onto level 13 or something~~~ bummer....

And now... in preparation for my trip to Korea with my bestie Sunny... I've decided with my limited language talent I have that I would start learning some Korean (even if it is only basic)... Here's how I've been doing it....

Purchased an electronic dictionary which I've never felt the need to buy even when I was studying Jap or Chinese... But guess it's time to get serious now~~ This one is the Casio EW-H7100 gosh... I forgot how much it is but it's affordable coz I bought it online with my other friend from my Korean class who happened to be wanting one too ... Here is where I purchased it from ... very trusty and fast too....

At start of the year I even joined up a short course class at CAE in the city (night school for adults) to learn Korean... and finished level 1 ahahahhaha...
Vivian my bestie in  class says that she had a friend who was at the time in Korea and could ask him to buy us a beginners level textbook to help us learn... and it would be so much cheaper to purchase from Korea ($20 AUD) compared to $80AUD purchased in Melb... And here it is.... such a great textbook ...really does go through all the basics hahahaahaha....

Just for fun... I wanted to show you what I've asked Sunny to help me with... My lil self introduction in Korean hahhaahahah

And so I'm still learning.... Going to classes, buying books and an electronic dictionary so maybe I'll get better over time provided I stick to it~~~With all the languages I've been learning over the years I'm never really good at speaking them... I'm great at listening though... The problem with learning English first is that it's very hard to pronounce certain sounds... hence I'll never be fluent in foreign languages, I'll just be content when others can understand even a lil of what I want to express :)

Alrighty till next time...