16 In Japanese learning journey (:/ Korean learning journey (:

일본어와 한국어 같이 배우면….

Had the first Japanese level 2 lesson of the semester and I must say that I’m rather… stressed up. >,< Unlike the past semester where my teacher was actually a Chinese, I had a Japanese teacher this sem. She uses minimal English in class and all her instructions are in Japanese!!! omg omg.

Rational me thinks that this is real awesome and that’s how a language class should be like. We were given ample opportunity to practice speaking and listening and it’s good that we are not relying on English. The sensei speaks in her normal speed and it’s good practice. She is more particular and will pick out our pronunciation mistakes, unlike our previous teacher where only the more obvious and major mistakes will be pointed out.

Korean fanatic me is super freaked out. Most of my classmates seems to have alot of prior knowledge and genuine interest/passion for the language. I wondered why I was in that class. I spent the whole lesson thinking in Korean and getting so mixed up over the 2 languages. We needed to talk about the days and I nearly said geumyobi instead of kayobi (tuesday). I told my sensei 네 instead of hai. and the list goes on….

Somehow after this episode, I can understand how people feel in Korean classes. Like those who wanna learn but are not THAT into the whole culture/language yet. Very stressed.

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16 Comments

  • Reply
    creativityjapanese
    1 February, 2011 at 11:34 PM

    I had that tendency at first when I started learning Korean as well. I was thinking in Japanese XD It took me a while to shut my “Japanese” off and just learn Korean for what Korean is.

    Don’t stress yourself too much. Hopefully as time goes by, things will get better. Fighting!

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      2 February, 2011 at 9:36 AM

      thank u! i need to learn to shut korean off >,<

  • Reply
    starxblinded
    1 February, 2011 at 11:55 PM

    totally agree! I tried taking Japanese 1 in my school then I got confused with the particles, like I’d add 이/가 instead of “wa” haha! gave up after a few weeks and decided to concentrate on Korean instead haha =)

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      2 February, 2011 at 9:36 AM

      hahaha. nus’s jap lessons are much more intensive than ours! so scary. and korean lessons are really conducted with almost no english right. nus’s korean coordinator is sooo nice! hahaha

      • Reply
        starxblinded
        2 February, 2011 at 5:26 PM

        haha you know our coordinator? my lecturer was Ms Park and she was really nice! (: and yup both korean and jap lessons are conducted without english, but she’ll use simpler korean words to explain new ones so it’s actually understandable (:

        yesss, nus jap lessons are like 2hr lect + 5hr tut per week! and there’s at least 2 quizzes every week =/ it’s MAD. that’s why i dropped it! hahaha

  • Reply
    isaberuchan
    2 February, 2011 at 1:17 AM

    Wow, you’re so lucky. You said you couldn’t concentrate on Japanese because you don’t enjoy it as much as Korean, but if you have lessons now, that shouldn’t be a problem anymore^^ I wish I had Japanese and Korean lessons too.
    I think is normal that you get messed up with both languages, it happens to everyone that studies 2 of them, but I’m sure your knowledge of Korean will help you with Japanese. 화이팅!

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      2 February, 2011 at 9:34 AM

      thank u! i’m glad our school offers japanese to a quite high level, so i’ll just continue taking japanese every semester until i graduate!

  • Reply
    Archana
    2 February, 2011 at 4:11 AM

    That sounds exactly like my sensei. I remember I nearly botched an oral exam because I got confused. But I think it was easier for me to flip that Japanese switch on precisely because my sensei made her class such a Japanese-only immersion environment. Good luck! I’m sure it will get easier with time ^^

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      2 February, 2011 at 9:33 AM

      hehe i think i’ll be the same too! hopefully i’ll get used to the environment soon. xD

  • Reply
    Naarai
    2 February, 2011 at 4:18 AM

    I remember when I took elementary Chinese last year and every time we had to translate something on a whiteboard or for homework I wrote the Korean translation in a small corner! Haha

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      2 February, 2011 at 9:32 AM

      hehe same. my japanese notes have korean scribbled all over the place oops

  • Reply
    Jeannie
    2 February, 2011 at 9:13 AM

    I was like that in class as well! Our sensei even said that I’m an alien XD I’m quite glad that Jap and Kor are similar in some ways but those similarities confuses me in class! Oral tests stresses me the most because I mix Jap with Korean.

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      2 February, 2011 at 9:32 AM

      oral tests >,< i'm not looking forward to it. must try to separate the 2 languages in the system in the meantime

  • Reply
    smell0gram
    2 February, 2011 at 10:49 AM

    Hahaha~ I TOTALLY understand what you mean. I was soo conofused in my French class as they do most of the instructions in French and encourage us to use only French (if possible) in class and we’re not allowed Eng-French/French-Eng dictionaries too! So I was quite lost at times and would just sit there staring blankly….
    Ha~~ time to review my elementary french notes…..

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      2 February, 2011 at 12:39 PM

      hahaha french. i’ve heard many ‘horror’ stories from my friends about how hard it is to pronounce the words >,< i'm more partial towards asian languages xD

  • Reply
    alodia
    5 February, 2011 at 12:42 PM

    My Korean teacher for my level 2 class is the same. Although our level 1 teacher is also Korean, we use English most of the time. But our level 2 teacher has never used english at all and opt to explain things in simpler Korean, or by giving examples in Korean still. She will only use English if she probably sees blank faces everywhere. To think that she is in fact very fluent in english. I simply love her! ^^

    During my level 1 class in the university, I’m on the advantage, having self-studied for a few years already, plus my huge interest in Korean culture… but next semester I’ll be taking Japanese from scratch (just like most of my classmates in my Korean class last semester). 🙁

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