Explore 2019: Learning Korean Again

I periodically joke about being a "bad Korean" (one who can't speak Korean). Though actually, I did learn some Korean 18 years ago.

Context: After 3 years in Canada working on my Ph.D., I was ABD (all but dissertation). Jon wanted to pursue a Master's back in the US so I negotiated with my Ph.D. advisor to commute. Jon and I moved to Maryland, where I worked full-time on my dissertation, and every few weeks I flew back to Canada to do real time check-ins with my advisor. (Oh, to have had Skype at that time of life!)

Working by yourself all day on a dissertation is, well, a little maddening. Let's just say I developed a few hobbies during this time to keep from going crazy.

One thing I did was take Korean lessons at the Korean Embassy in DC. It was pretty amazing...in just a few months I was able to (simply) converse with and write letters to my parents. I cannot believe I just found this photo of me and my adorable Korean Embassy teacher. She was so welcoming and encouraging!

After leaving DC, life got busy and I stopped practicing and everything fell out of my brain. Someone recently asked if I have ever been to Korea and I said no, and I know part of that seems impossible to me because I can't speak. I felt a little embarrassed thinking that the only way I could go is if I went with my Mom (which would be fun, but at 45 years old feels a little like, seriously?!).

So this week I decided to explore (my #2019 word) learning Korean again. I have tried and not enjoyed a couple of apps in the past. This time I downloaded LingoDeer because it's well-rated and also appears to have been built for Asian languages first.

And I love it! I actually feel like I have made progress in the last 5 days and an unexpected thing is that Laurel and Violet were so curious that they started using LingoDeer too! It's pretty funny to hear all the Korean that is happening around here after there being no Korean at all! So, thanks LingoDeer people, for helping me explore, and thanks to my Korean Embassy teacher, for totally not being judgmental about my "bad Korean" status all those years ago.