JOURNAL | Language Learning V.1

LANGUAGE LEARNING EXPERIENCE:JOURNAL ENTRY 1 (3/6)

As I started my Chinese class yesterday (3/5/08) I felt so terrified and embarrassed. Terrified because everybody was Korean and I was the only foreigner, plus the fact that the professor only speaks Korean. As I stare at the professor, all sorts of things whirled around my mind and I am positive that I will fail the class. I am also anxious about learning, or if I will ever learn in a class where the mode of teaching is incmrehensible to me.

About my classmates, I have no idea but my guess is that it would take more than charm to get along with them since they can't speak English. There are a few but it is truly cumbersome to ask every so often what the teacher is talking about. Now I'm thinking whether this is worth the effort. The joke here is that, I finally found an advanced Korean class. So I advanced I just can't follow anymore.

The class on the other hand is rather tense. The teacher looks friendly but the teaching is certainly teacher centered so not much interacton in the class. I am also sure that this class will be tedious, very tedious. Why? Because I have to go the extra mile if I want to understand the lessons. Chinese is already difficult but Korean makes it even harder. It is not my attitude though to just give up without giving a good fight. I have nothing to lose here. If I fail then nothing will be affacted. The teacher knows very well that I am not good so there's no expectaton on my part. Whether it is the teacher or the makeup of the class, I don't really care. Both scare me to death. Maybe I am more scared of being tagged as a moron and stupid. You know when the professor asks me questions and I can't answer, I feel like I am not intelligent. But that is not true.

At the start, I was sitting in that corner hoping that the nobody notices me least the teacher. Everyone seems busy. When the teacher came, everybody answers to the questions asked except me. The professor is not that terrifying. Actually he is quite genial and motivating. If I am not mistaken (I can never be sure coz this was only transalted to me) the professor explained that the class is really for beginners. Yeah right, Korean beginners. So this is so far as I can write. I am going to attend the class today and see if I can make a head or tail of it. Then I'll decide. Come what may.