Learning the language

I've been spending 1-2 hours a day, on my own, studying Korean.  I've found an incedible website http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/ and spent probably 2-3 hours on it yesterday.  I try to write the alphabet multiple times a day, I read every sign I see (at least the ones that don't go by too fast), when I write or read I try to speak aloud, too, and obviously I'm hearing it and when I do I try to spell out a few of the words in my head.  I've always enjoyed learning languages and this is the first time I'll be totally immersed for such a long time.  I actually have the time to systematically learn the language rather than learn the necessary phrases like I did for Chinese.

My goal is to be conversational by summertime.  That shouldn't really be that hard.  I figure at the end of this week, or maybe next since this week I'll be very busy with the first week of the semester, I will know the alphabet well enough that I can quickly pronounce what I see and I should be able to spell most of what I hear.  After that I just need to start learning vocabulary and grammar.  Vocabulary is vocabulary, so it's just rote learning and with an hour a day I should be able to make lots of headway on it.  Grammar's a little different, though, because whereas English is Subject Verb Object (SVO), Korean is SOV.  In addition, there is a large emphasis placed on respect and how you greet someone changes depending on their age compared to yours, and their gender.  For example, there's one word for a man addressing an older man, another for a man addressing a younger man, another for a man addressing an older woman, etc.  That doesn't just apply to greetings, though, it applies to other things as well.  That's the main thing that makes learning Korean difficult, otherwise it's pretty accessible.  

I went to Grace Kim's church today.  It's a pretty large (what isn't in Asia?) Presbyterian church  about a 10 minute walk (what isn't in Asia?) from my apt.  The sermon is translated into English and you can get a little headset from them to hear it.  Grace is one of the people who translate it; I think there are 5 or so who take turns.  Anyway, the translation didn't come through and they decided later that a microphone or something was unplugged.  Kinda funny.   I really didn't mind, though, because from what Grace translated to me it's a similar service to what I'd get in America.  After service Grace invited me to meet her friends who do the translating, and by "meet" she apparently meant "help with translating" because that's what I did, haha.  After each service the whole group gets together and the person who translated the service that day goes over their translation and explains why they translated it this way or that way, and they critique and help.  Pretty cool idea, though it makes more since to do that before the service.  Anyway, I got to help them with some phraseology and I also got to proofread their Vision Statement that they had just translated into English.

The best thing about the service, though, was the music.  They had an entire orchestra with choir, and when I asked Grace if she ever plays her flute in it she said no, they're all professionals.  They sure sounded it, with the exception of the snare drum, haha.  However, they had a "praise" team on stage who did most of the playing and singing.  During that singing they had the Korean words up on the screen and I was able to follow along while they sang.  It was pretty difficult, especially on the faster songs, but it was an incredible opportunity to hear and read the words being spoken.  I get that on the sogang website, but only a letter or word at a time, not entire songs.  So, even if they do translate the sermon every week right into my ear, I'm going for the language practice.  And I'll be able to help the translation group with their translations, improving their English and more accurately translating the sermon for those who need it.