Amanda Takes Off...

I finally got to see Good Man Wednesday night. After having a nice dinner and spending some time together, I proceeded to torture him.

"We will study Korean! Help me, please." First I showed him two text messages I'd written a friend. "Are there any mistakes?"

"She wrote this to you?"

"No, I wrote it to her."

He nodded, "Perfect." (The second message had one small mistake. The funny thing is that while I was writing it I knew I was making a mistake but couldn't figure out what it was.)

Then I pulled out "The Tortoise and the Hare" and we spent 40 mins reading it. I read out loud, he would correct pronunciation, we'd discuss meaning. Rinse and repeat.

Poor man...40 mins of me reading out loud. Ugh.

Last night I pulled out my Korean fairy tales book. This is much easier to read than the Aesop's Fables book. I said, "Let's read a story."

"OK, which one?"

"Your choice. There are twenty-three, but I know one through eight very well, so they should go faster."

He nodded, "Three."

So I read "The Old Man With a Lump." It sort of felt like cheating since I know the story and thus it's easy. But when I teach, I let my student re-read things. What's wrong with that? It will help my fluency if nothing else.

Before last night, I hadn't picked up the fairy tale book in a spell. I haven't read anything from this book in probably three months. I haven't used it seriously in six.

Then today, at work, where I had nothing to do for four hours, I started reading new stories. I still had to look at the list for many words (pond, fox, serpent, etc) but damn, I knew a lot of these words. I also knew a lot of the grammar patterns. (Recognize would be a better description since I don't know many of them English to Korean, but I recognize them the other way, in context.)

I know this book is very easy, simplified stories, but the fact that it's easier for me than before feels wonderful.