KoreanClass101.com Blog

UPDATE: The migration is complete. Thanks for your patience and support. Should you come cross any issues, please report them here.

It’s time for scheduled maintenance at KoreanClass101.com. On Sunday, July 13th at 9am EST, KoreanClass101.com will go down for several hours. When it returns, there may be a few small quirks which will be ironed out ASAP.

What can you expect when the sites go live again?

Well, most of the changes are “under the hood” so you probably won’t be able to appreciate them fully right away (you will soon). What you will get right away is:

1. A new and improved vocabulary flashcards with audio that are more intuitive and easy to use.

2. A new sample sentence expansion section with audio in the Learning Center

Thanks for your patience and continued support in our quest to become the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Korean.

If you tried to follow along at home and translate the letter I shared, great!  If not, then file it away in your “come back to sometime” folder and take another crack at it!

Today I read it to my 6th grade students.  It was a little emotional the first time, but I manged to get though the other readings without too much trouble.  Then we played Twister!

Anyway, here is the English translation of my letter:

Dear 6th grade students,

It is almost summer vacation. You are really looking forward to it, aren’t you? Today is our last class together. I have some things I want to say, so I wrote this letter. I came to Korean in August of 2006 when you were in the 4th grade. Before that I had never lived in a foreign country so my life suddenly became very interesting.

Do you remember the first time we met? I have almost 600 students, so I can’t really remember well. However, I will always remember how you would greet me with a loud “Good Morning” each day. Because of you I felt welcome each day.

You know that during class I almost never spoke Korean. I did that so that you would grow accustomed to hearing English. It is best if native teachers only use English. It forces you to listen carefully and practice speaking! But, if you haven’t studied English for a long time, I know that it is also difficult. Thank you for studying so hard. I’m sorry that our classes were not long and I couldn’t teach you everything that I planned. I hope that I showed you learning a foreign language can be fun. Starting next semester, a new English teacher will come. Don’t worry about it. It is good for you to meet other foreigners. Even though, I don’t know anything about the new teacher, Seungbuk Elementary students are so kind, I am sure you will get along.

This fall I am planning to do some overseas travel. I want to study Spanish in Central America. I also will attend Graduate School. If you are curious about what I am doing, I will send pictures and letters to the school. If you want to contact me, you can send me an e-mail!

As you continue to study English, don’t worry about making mistakes. If you practice a lot you can learn to speak English fluently. If you continue to study diligently, English will become easier and easier.

In closing, these 2 years have been really fun and fulfilling. I have enjoyed spending time with you. Korea has become like a home to me. The teachers and students at Seongbuk Elementary School have treated me like family. As time passes I don’t know if we will meet again, and in a little while I will leave Korea, but I will carry memories in my heart. I will not forget you. Even when I am old, I will remember you fondly.

I love you all,

Mr. D

 

We have just added the AddThis button to our blog. Now you can share your favorite blogs posts with your friends and colleagues via social bookmarking sites or by email. You can find the “Share” button at the bottom of each post.

We hope that you enjoy this convenient way to share our content and encourage you to do so.

Do you have photos of Korea, photos of yourself taken in Korea, or just about any kind of photo that you would like to share with other listeners of KoreanClass101.com?

Well, if you do, please come to the KoreanClass101.com Flickr Group Page and share your pictures!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/koreanclass101/

KoreanClass101으로 한국어를 공부하고 있는 다른 사람들과 나누고 싶은 한국 사진, 한국 음식 사진, 아니면 한국에서 찍은 여러분의 사진을 갖고 계시면, ^^ Flickr의 KoreanClass101 그룹 페이지에 오셔서 올려 주세요!

Summer is here and school is out! For all of you students, we have a sizzling hot deal! Sign up for ANY Basic or Premium subscription and get 25% Off instantly

Don’t wait until classes begin in Fall, start now and be ahead of the curve once school is back in session!!!

This limited time offer expires on Monday, June 30, 2008 at 11:59pm EST.

If hope you can wait another week or so for an orphan story. Since Thursday was Teacher’s Day (스승의날) I thought I’d share a little bit about that, since I am currently teaching in a Korean school.

스승 is kind of a fancy word or “teacher” but it means the same thing as “선생님” with some more nuance of “mentor” or “master.” Anyway, that’s what they use to name the day.

Traditionally, it was a holiday and schools were closed, but sometime in the past few years that changed….oh well! Students typically give carnations and a letter to their teachers.

I am sort of a novelty at my school, and for a variety of reasons never know what to expect on a day like 스승의날. Since I am not a homeroom teacher, there is virtually zero obligation for my students to write me a letter. If I get one, it is because that student took the time to write it (or some other adult suggested it^^)

Another reason is that my students don’t really know that I can speak and read Korean. A few think I can manage a couple sentences, but the vast majority is shocked to hear me utter “응” or the occasional “뭐?” Since most of my students think I won’t understand their Korean letter, or they can’t write a letter in English, I wasn’t expecting much this year. Last year I got maybe 2-3 letters.

It’s not that I need them to write me letters so that I feel good about myself, but it IS a really great feeling to get a sweet letter from a student. Plus, I really crave the language practice!^^

I was pleasantly surprised this year. I got a deluge of letters. A great majority from second graders say something like:

“그동안 영어를 가르쳐 주셨어 감사함니다”
(try to translate it in the comments!)

Some of them made laugh out loud:

To..Mr D.

안녕하세요. 원지에요. English teacher 영어 그르쳐 주시느라 힘드신데 떠들어서 죄송해요. 저번 1학년 때 여름특강 때 제가 지우개 드렸는데, 기억하세요? 그 지우개 아직도 가지고 계세요? 기지고 계셨으면 좋겠네요! 영어 특강 때 선냉님니 주우개 고르는 장면:

(Give this one a shot too! Some hints: 떠들다 - talking, being noisy; 저번 - last time; 특강 - special class; 아직도 가지고 계시다 (가지고 있다) - so still have something; 고르다 - to select; 장면 - scene)

So to our KClass teachers: - 늦게 스승의날 축하합니다! 열심히 한국어를 가르쳐 주셨어 감사합니다!

If you really want your Korean learning to start with blazing speeds then you must arm yourself with the soon to be released KoreanClass101.com Box 1 CD Set. We’ve taken Beginner Season 1, Newbie Season 1, and Audio Blog Season 1 and packaged them all into one amazing CD. Eliminate the slow process of having to download all of the Audio MP3 Lessons, accompanying PDF Lesson Notes, Premium Dialog Tracks, and Premium Review Tracks, and instantly get your hands on practically everything we’ve released to date.

In addition to all the Season 1 Lessons, the CD also includes bonus material, such as the complete “How to Read and Write Hangul” video series, exclusive lessons, outtakes, intros, and much more. Sign up for a new 12-Month Premium Subscription today and we’ll ship you the Box 1 CD Set for FREE (a $99 value).

>>> Click to sign up for a 12-Month Premium subscription TODAY! <<<

* Can’t be combined with any other offer or coupon. Prior subscriptions are not eligible for offer. Limit one per customer, non-transferable. Only while supplies last! CD cover subject to change.

It is spring in Korea, and summer is probably just a week or two away.  It makes me think about when I’m planning to leave.  My contract finishes at the end of August.  That’s more than 4 months from now, but of course will come much faster than I expect.

Anyway, it brings up an important issue regarding the orphanage.  Those kids are used to seeing me on a regular basis over the past two years, and soon enough, I won’t be coming around at all.  So I am starting to think about how I can make my exit without causing a lot of trauma.  There isn’t a lot of consistency in their lives, and the mere fact thay live at an orphanage means that some deal with abandonment issues, so it is no simple matter to extract myself from their lives and leave them with some positive memories.

I’d love hear what your thoughts about this are.  These kids are pretty resilient, they will survive just fine without me, but I do want to minimize any fallout.

So, what do you think?

We have a new feature again. Now it’s easier to keep track of the recent updates in the forum and the blog! If you look at the right-hand side of the lessons page, you can see the lists of 5 recent posts in the forum and in the blog!

또 하나의 새로운 기능이 생겼어요! 이제 포럼과 블로그에 올라온 최신 글들을 더 쉽게 파악할 수 있어요! 레슨 페이지의 오른쪽을 보시면, 포럼과 블로그에 가장 최근에 올라온 글 5개의 목록을 볼 수 있습니다.

After weeks of development, we’re happy to announce the launch of the much anticipated My Feed. This fully customizable RSS feed let’s Premium members decide exactly what lesson content they want on their Premium feed. You can master Korean on your terms.

Setting up My Feed is a simple 3 step process.

1. Choose the lesson types you want (e.g. Beginner, Newbie, Audio Blog, etc.)
2. Choose the type of content you want (e.g. Main Audio, Dialog Clip, Review Clip, PDF, Video Vocab, etc.)
3. Add My Feed to iTunes or other iTunes compatible feed readers like Juice, and just watch the content you want come rolling in.

Click here to learn more about My Feed or if you’re a Premium member,
click here to get started now.

Thank you all for your continued support and feedback! Without it we simply could not do what we do. We hope you like this new feature and as always, if you encounter any issues with this new functionality or wish to see it enhanced in some way, please post a comment here or shoot us an email.

To get everyone started on this, we’re offering a 15% discount for all Premium Subscriptions.

Coupon code: MYFEED