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íìžì ìŹëŹë¶! Today I wanted to do something a little different and make a post describing my experience in a college Korean class. This is for anyone whoâs wanting to take Korean in college and is curious about what itâs like. Obviously every college is different so Iâm just going to talk about my personal experience to give you an idea of what it might be like.
I go to college in Mississippi and, even at a university as big as mine, there arenât a lot of people taking Korean. Because of this, my class is very small and I imagine itâs going to get smaller and smaller as the semesters go on. In the first semester there were about 22 people and this semester there are 14. Everyone in that class knows each other and the professor knows us all pretty well too. The small class size is beneficial in that you get a more individualistic and one-on-one learning experience. Downside is that there isnât just not showing up like a big lecture class. If youâre not there, it wonât go unnoticed.
Our professorâs name is Dr. Lee and sheâs great. Actually, I know a few people in my class donât really vibe with her or think sheâs scary because of just how blunt she can be. Personally, I donât mind. After you go for so long without having any help or guidance learning Korean, itâs nice to have someone there to tell you when you make dumb mistakes. Sheâs also a professor who likes to call on people randomly and with such a small class there is no avoiding it. Normally, I HATE when professors do this. However, I really like the challenge when it comes to Korean. Normal conversation is all unplanned and on the spot so itâs really good practice for real interactions.
Every Monday or every other Monday is when we have vocabulary quizzes. In our textbooks, each chapter has a new batch of vocabulary to learn so thatâs what we study for.
The quizzes are pretty simple with just some translations from Korean to English and English to Korean.
Please ignore my handwriting
And that one I missed bc my brain doesnât work sometimes
And my misspelling of Vancouver bc my brain doesnât work sometimes
Almost everyday we are learning a new conjugation / grammar pattern and we do that with the help of our textbooks and handouts. We use both to practice what we learned usually with a partner, group, and by speaking and reading outloud (as a group and individually). Hereâs the handout we got yesterday when we were learning -ì/ăčëì, (ì)ë, and -ë°ì so you have an idea:
Every Wednesday we have homework that we go over on Thursdays. These usually involve translating and listening practice for whatever weâre learning that week and itâs always from our textbook. This wasnât actually homework but this is what a lot of our homework looks like:
Our Mid-Terms and Finals are really just a culmination of everything we learned that semester. This includes listening, translation, reading comprehension, and writing.
Aside from tests, we also do a few presentations. Last semester, they were all in groups and my groups did presentations on ì¶ì and places to visit in Korea outside of Seoul. Personally, this is my least favorite part of the class.
Anyway, this was a very brief description and I hope it gave you an idea of what a college level Korean class may be like (but maybe not!). And if youâre in a Korean class thatâs different, Iâd love to hear about it!
