Good lord, if you start watching this thing I might have to to. I know I can rent the DVDs and watch with Japanese subs, which would be like studying two languages at once. Because I'm not going to jump of the bridge with everyone no matter how cool it is, unless I can convince myself I'm learning something.
Yeah, my teacher's closing comments: You don't think you learned a lot, but you totally did! In eight months, you've learned how to read Hangeul, identify six particles, and count to ten!
Me: I taught myself how to read Hangeul in a week, and it's kind of sad that in eight months we didn't even learn how to, I dunno, conjugate verbs or anything.
I asked her about this, and her response was: Well, there's no way you can get fluent in eight months, so it would be pointless to try.
Which is relevant to what we were discussing earlier - people want to think they can learn a language in 6.5 minutes a day, and so they aren't willing to put in the work it actually takes, and the people in the business of providing instruction are catering to them. Which is unfortunate for the people (like me) who are prepared to spend a good deal of time learning.
If I were you, I'd ask to sit in on a class or two and see if they were worth the price. I'd also ask to see a syllabus for the entire course - something I didn't do for Korean. My first two classes were great, but the woman just didn't have any overall plan for the class and wasn't going to waste her time making one, and that's why it failed.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2005-04-21 12:19 am (UTC)Because I'm not going to jump of the bridge with everyone no matter how cool it is, unless I can convince myself I'm learning something.Yeah, my teacher's closing comments: You don't think you learned a lot, but you totally did! In eight months, you've learned how to read Hangeul, identify six particles, and count to ten!
Me: I taught myself how to read Hangeul in a week, and it's kind of sad that in eight months we didn't even learn how to, I dunno, conjugate verbs or anything.
I asked her about this, and her response was: Well, there's no way you can get fluent in eight months, so it would be pointless to try.
Which is relevant to what we were discussing earlier - people want to think they can learn a language in 6.5 minutes a day, and so they aren't willing to put in the work it actually takes, and the people in the business of providing instruction are catering to them. Which is unfortunate for the people (like me) who are prepared to spend a good deal of time learning.
If I were you, I'd ask to sit in on a class or two and see if they were worth the price. I'd also ask to see a syllabus for the entire course - something I didn't do for Korean. My first two classes were great, but the woman just didn't have any overall plan for the class and wasn't going to waste her time making one, and that's why it failed.