As you may or may not know I am really into Asian culture. Specifically Korean culture. I have always been into the culture from a very young age from gaming and such. From there I fell in love with Anime, K Pop, K Dramas and everything else the culture has to offer. After a very long time of teaching myself Korean by using You Tube and various other sites, I decided to finally take formal classes. Besides I only know a few words and phrases from watching K Dramas and K Pop and such. I do much better in a classroom setting anyway. I found a place here in town that has Adult Korean Classes. I had no idea this place existed, but I am very excited to find it! I found it by doing a google search and found the Facebook page of the Korean School. I decided to register and take classes.
My first week went very well. My class is quite small. I met some great people though. There are several classes at the Korean School. They have classes for kids and adults. The adult classes are separated into Beginner and Intermediate Classes. Of course I am in the Beginner Class, but I am not the only one. I met a couple who is adopting a little boy from Korea, and another young man who enjoys traveling and learning different languages. He has traveled all over Asia and knows Chinese. And there are two girls that are 11 and 14 who come with their mother. They have a adopted little brother who is Korean and he is taking classes as well. The teachers and staff are very nice and very accepting of everybody. They are very patient with all of us in the beginner classes and I really like that. The first week we learned the Korean Alphabet which consists of 14 consonants, and I learned how to write my name. I did not know this was even possible since my name is not even close to being Korean. We learned how to write and pronounce the 14 consonants. I made flash cards and studied them the entire week. We also received some worksheets to practice writing them. I was very nervous when I was in class but after a few tries at pronunciation I got the hang of it. Now I am confident that I can read, write, pronounce the consonants.
Week two was a review of the 14 consonants. Our teacher also added on the 10 vowels too. So now this week I will be studying the 10 vowels which are easy in my opinion. I have to just put them with the consonants and practice pronouncing and writing them. I already have my flashcards made and started to study. We also did some Korean art in class as well. I practiced painting a bamboo with this very cool ink and brush. I can’t remember what the name of it is called but you mix the ink with water and you use a tool to mix it with. When mixing you have to go counter clock wise. I have posted my art and things on my instagram (@pmsblackqueen) and here as well. I really like the art portion of the class because we get to learn about the culture of Korea. We will be painting the 4 seasons of flowers on plates, mugs and such. I must say I am having a lot of fun so far and learning so much. I really like the people too.
Now I know what you may be asking....Why do I want to learn Korean? Well as I mentioned before I have always been interested in the culture and I want to go to Korea one day. I would love to see the schools there. I know they are very different from here in the United States. I hear that teaching is a great job in Korea as well. So visiting Korea is definitely in my plan one day. I would love to visit Seoul, Busan, and Jeju Island. Hopefully one day I will get there........and learning the language is a great start.
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