Just Show Me Pictures! | GRRRL TRAVELER

Getting a Korean phone (when you don’t know the language)

Filed under Just Show Me Pictures!, Korea by MyCrazyKimchi on April 18, 2010 at 3:56 pm {5 comments}

: My new phone. Many Korean phones come with a Korean-English word dictionary
& subway maps for the major cities in Korea.

Warning: This is not a “How To” on getting a Korean phone…

After what I’ve gone through, I’d probably call it a “How not to get a Korean phone”.

Being new to a country, the last thing you want is extraneous stress and confusion when dealing with important things, like cellphones and phone plans. Still, when the one person (i.e. my Korean co-teacher), whom you were told could help you set up the necessities of your brand new life, can’t lend simple advice or avoids helping you outside of work hours, what do you do?

Whatever it takes. (more…)

GRRRL Goes Whimpery in Her New Korean Location

Filed under Just Show Me Pictures!, Korea by Christine Ka'aloa on March 2, 2010 at 3:33 pm {35 comments}

: My Korean bathroom (sink/toilet/shower compressed in the same room) is smaller than my NYC apt bathroom

How do you take a bath in Korea?

Let me tell you how I just did it. I washed over my sink and shaved my legs by propping them up on my toilet lid. Yes, a toilet lid can have more uses than just one when you’re in an efficient country like Korea…

But all smart-assing aside. You haven’t heard peep from me since I’ve arrived in Korea, as I’ve been in an intense transition and it just hit rocky. The “rocky” is something I’m still working through. I’ll fast-forward over my escape from the draft of flu, my partial hearing loss due to airplane travel with a cold and my suspended bowel movement, which had me alarmed for several days. I will blow past my initial romance phase with Korea- my wonderful EPIK orientation, experiencing Korea for the first time and the “Oh snaps, I love being here!“

I’m gonna start my Korean blogging with my first “real” GRRRL whimper… the moment when “yours truly” turned girlie whiny and wanted to book the (more…)

5 Tips for Speed Learning a Language

Filed under Just Show Me Pictures! by Christine Ka'aloa on February 8, 2010 at 11:36 am {2 comments}

Trying to learn a new language or in a rush to learn the language of the country you’ll be moving to? Here are some tips to help you with your memory technique, as well as ideas to help you optimize your speed learning process.

5 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY & TECHNIQUE FOR SPEED LEARNING A LANGUAGE:

• Practice first thing in the morning.
Did you know that the morning is the best time for learning and memorization? Your mind is fresh, alert (after you’ve had your coffee…), retentive and most permeable to suggestion.

• Create your own immersive environment.
Dress up in your sari or beret and bombard yourself with the language in various forms- watch films, listen to radio news and music, listen to language tapes, join language groups. The more you surround yourself with a language, you become familiar with its sound and the way it’s spoken. This will help your mind’s receptivity to it- intuitively, rhythmically and tonally.

• Employ active listening.
Listening to a language doesn’t have to be a passive sport- you can add other activities to it to optimize your lesson and make it fun. Be creative! If (more…)

Learning Survival Korean (Part II)

Filed under Just Show Me Pictures!, Korea by MyCrazyKimchi on February 6, 2010 at 9:50 pm {no comments}

Hangul Chart

Note: Apologies to readers- I’m still in the shuffle learning about my new blog site, so this post was accidentally released before my final edit. I’ve since updated it. Enjoy and thanks for reading!

This week:

Countdown to Korea, my Self-Taught Language Lessons and an update on my Speed Learning
The countdown to my Korea launch date has officially begun so roughly put,… I’m trying to speed learn Korean. My learning obstacle? I’m kinda vacillating between a silent freak out and a scattered panic. A few weeks ago, I started my search for the Cinderella’s glass slipper of grammar books that would ultimately teach me Korean in the simplest (more…)

Learning Survival Korean (Part 1)

Filed under Just Show Me Pictures!, Korea by MyCrazyKimchi on February 6, 2010 at 4:43 pm {no comments}

Living Language Korean

Two weeks ago:

Vegetarian Mouth to Language
It’s hard to imagine that food and learning a foreign language can feel so intimately connected, but right now it does. To learn a word is to chew into it and digest it; and when you’re a vegetarian moving abroad to a foreign country like Korea, to eat you’ll eventually need to learn to read a restaurant menu, food ingredients or be able to ask the waitress about vegetarian options. If eating is important to you…

Which brings me to- learning survival phrases. Mastering survival phrases are great for a short-term travel band-aid and may even get you through the course of a year of living abroad. But I think- being able to read bus schedules, store/street signs and to communicate in a more modes, than mute, giggle, or grunt all help to create an easier road into expat life. Right now, my dangling carrot for focusing on Korean literally starts at food. (more…)