여러분 오랜만이에요.
제가 마지막으로 영상을 올린 후로 많은 것이 바뀌었어요.
먼저, 저는 그 동안 잘 지냈어요. 지금은 서울에서 살고 있고 요즘 한국말을 많이 하고 있어요. 그래도 아직 그렇게 잘 하지는 못해요. 사실은 한국에 도착하고 한국어 공부를 빨리 시작 했어요. 하지만 제가 고등학생이었을 때나 아니면 좀 더 어렸을 때 한국어 공부를 시작했어야 했는 데 말이예요.
왜냐하면 여자친구의 부모님과 이야기 하면서 유창하지 않아서 좀 부끄럽거든요. 하지만 저는 이대에서 공부를 많이 하고 있기 때문에 괜찮아요. 그 과정이 저에게 많은 도움이 되었어요. 앞으로 더 많이 배우고 싶어요.
그리고 요즘 한국 역사에 관한 책을 많이 읽고 있어요. 언젠가 한국 역사를 가르칠 수 있으면 좋겠어요. 얼마나 멋진 일일까요?
한국에 사는 것은 언제나 즐거울 거예요. 여기 있어서 행복해요. 다음에 또 봐요. 바이바이!
Watch the horror here. (Alt link)
It's been a year since I redid this speech. Goodness it seems like years ago.
I seriously need to work on my speaking skills. Granted it's been a year since this post, but I was (unrealistically) hoping to be crazy fluent. Perhaps I am and I just don't know it. I'm the worst judge of my own ability because I honestly feel like I can't speak Korean to save my life. It all depends on your perspective. Sometimes I hear "wow your Korean is amazing! You;re so fluent" and other times I hear "You have such a long way to go".
Allow me to put my own perspective. If one's goal is to order drinks at a bar, say cute things to kids and say a few Korean sentences to someone who is speaking English to you in an effort to make them feel more comfortable, then that's fine. I have no problem with that. But that's not at all what I want. I want as close to native speaking as possible. I want to be able to realistically convey all major ideas and opinions I have as well as debate historical interpretations and the like. I want to speak to my parents-in-law without ever skipping a beat. I want to speak to my future wife in 90% Korean and 10% English. These things may never happen. But that doesn't stop me from studying. Part of studying is charting your progress and looking to the past in order to look to the future. I can honestly say I've improved tremedously since this recording which was in fact a re-enactment of the speech that took place a year and a half ago. Confusing timeline aside, I am confident that if I continue to study I'll get there someday. Or close to it. I have a long way to go.
As it stands, I need to record more youtube. The lady-friend is out of the country at the moment which provides me for a distraction-free weekend that might actually produce a video. Fingers crossed.
