Day 67: Am I on the Internet Too Much

Entry #4

Perhaps... I don't really know. A normal person when they wake up, I assume, brushes their teeth, washes their face, takes a shower and so on and so forth. When I wake up I think of Facebook notifications and my e-mail along with how far I can progress into something--be it a video game, life, homework, or maybe soul-searching.

But really, really... my life is run by the internet. Huzzah.

So, it's about a week and a day after I've left Jeonju, South Korea. I feel that my Korean has taken a dramatic hit and I'm slowly losing all the things I've learned. I know I'm being over dramatic and I'm playing it up...but it's weird. When you're not thouroughly using the language in a setting where the language must be used, the improvement capabilities outside of the classroom seem slim to nill.

This is my third foreign language, I know when I learn well and I know when I don't.

I can go over new vocabulary and grammar concepts by myself, but without the structure and dynamism of the classroom the learning and improvement rate is probably 1/4 as fast as what it could be. So, from today, I'm going to just learn new vocabulary from my Sogang Korean grammar book--which I recommend for any learner of the Korean Language above the absolute beginner level (so if you've completed a year of beginner Korean this is a really good textbook, especially for hardcore learners because it is all in Korean). That's my pretty poor resolution to continue maintaining my Korean over the next week before I go to Yonsei for the first time.

At the same time I also really miss my friends, not only for their company but for their educational purposes as well! Learners of a language, I feel, are some of the best people to learn a foreign language from--but only if you're part of a mixed bag of different levels. For example, I'm a beginner in Korean and my friend is an advanced beginner. Because there is no language barrier, at least simple mistakes or easy questions about the language I have can be remedied by her fairly quickly. On a fair note, my peer tutor was the one that put my words into context. Sorry for sounding all textbook-y. I've just been really into self-analysis of language learning for the past week and I need to find a way to put all these things down.

I think that when Americans pack, we pack on the assumption that we need everything to be prepared and to be ready for any upcoming situation. The truth is, we can live and we can survive anywhere we want to, if we put our minds to it. Its the mindset I've adapated to after traveling and being abroad so long. I'm not going to take two 50 lb. bags worth of things but rather I'm gonna take one bag and fill it with essentials. But, a smart traveller knows to always take an extra bag alongside with you just in case you decided to spend 200.00 on the most inane things the day before you leave! It always helps to be prepared.

But a fifty pound bag for four months abroad still seems a little...lightweight. I don't know, we'll see what happens. And there are just way too many things that I'm expecting to happen.


I still have to find out a lot of things for my year abroad at Korea and they're not bad I'm just a little ticked off by the lack of orientation information provided by Yonsei University. I'm a foward thinking person--I know what I need and how to get it--so when I lack the resources to actually plan I get a little irked off. There's not a lot I'm unsure about but I still need a cellphone in Korea and a bank account in Korea and I still don't really know how I'm going to get them. I'm supposed to be getting a "buddy" soon because I applied for this buddy program that sets me up with a local Yonsei student to help me. He or she is supposed to help me in getting all these things ready for my year at Yonsei and I'm really excited to meet him or her.

This list of things to do used to be about a bajillion things along, so I'm actually glad it got shorter.