Small Achievement

Recently, I wrote about how bad of an idea it was to take a month off from language practice. Probably a more accurate statement would have been, "I've just been punched in the face with the fact that I really need to buckle down and learn the Hangul writing system once and for all." It was a fairly painful process, but I managed to jump-start the language study again and resume my practice with just a month remaining before my departure. Today was somewhat encouraging though; I found myself more easily able to read and pronounce the words of the various activities. Note: this doesn't necessarily mean I knew what I was reading, but it's a start.

Rosetta Stone's organization hierarchy is arranged by Levels (I have 3 levels of Korean), then by Units (and each level has 4 units), and then by Lessons (4 of these in each unit). After that, each lesson has between 3-12 activities which have 5-36 problems each. Just in case you're not familiar with the program. :) Today I managed to complete unit 3 of level 1. In theory, that means I'm 25% of the way through the entire available course material. Yay, numbers from an English teacher! If I knew how to incorporate one into my blog, a handy visual aid might have been better, come to think of it.

What that boils down to is that I can exchange basic greetings and introductions, count to 50 and number things to 50 (different number systems), make basic statements of being and location, express some opposites, describe some basics about professions and appearances, and recognize most of the question words (what, how, where, when, who, why). Not too bad, provided I can apply these words in a real context when called upon to do so. I sort of wish I had kept general track of how many words I can recognize and use. Probably a couple/few hundred, actually.

Not much to this post, but more news to come!