I am now halfway through my contract in Korea, and only slightly better at the language. I feel horrible about it too. I can answer basic questions like "Where are you from?", "Can you speak Korean?", "Would you like a bag", and "Do you have a point card?" ...yes the last two I consider basic because it is asked of me every time I go grocery shopping. I've learned a little, but nothing I have learned has been magical immersion learning, I've had someone either tell me the meaning of the question or have enough vocabulary via forced study to piece together the question listening for keywords.
I really need to think on this language more because I am finding that it doesn't interest me as much as I originally thought it did. I think I saw it as exotic so I wanted to learn it. I still plan to work on this language, but I will move it much further down the list now. So here is my progress with my other languages.
Japanese: Still working on kanji and vocabulary I think I am at 750 kanji at the moment. I am actually debating making my next job in Japan so I might speed up the learning a little bit.
Hindi: I have finally learned the Hindi alphabet, and with the help of some native speakers am actually learning! I have learned basic sentences and I am working on building my vocabulary. I am now debating trying to plan a fun vacation to India because I now know that I could at least ask for directions and read a sign.
I'm debating starting up Chinese again because I now have the correct copy of the textbook I was using, but I feel like I should keep reluctantly studying Korean instead and focus on these three languages for now.
