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:

1- 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.

2- 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.

3- 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…)

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…)

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…)

So after a several days (which I will never get back) of head-scratching and troubleshooting technical difficulties, Team GRRRL TRAVELER (that’s Me, Mich & Moi) was  able to successfully migrate my blog over to its actual domain, GRRRLTRAVELER.COM. Hooray & GRRR! While my old TravelerDiaries blog will be up on Wordpress.com a bit longer, I encourage all my dear friends out there to update your links and readers.

Man, hot-diggity that was hard and hopefully, the major work is over! I will be combing this site in the next couple of weeks to tweak possible broken links or to refine the design. If anyone accidentally stumbles upon a broken link, missing image or has feedback on this new design, please let me know and I will consult with my Triad to make necessary changes.

Happy Travel wings!

Christine

FROM THE  GRRRL SWISS ARMY TOOLKIT…
by Christine Ka’aloa

I’m very excited. Just had an appointment with my travel doctor this week to catch up on my travel vaccinations & flu shots, when I got an “off-the-record” tip for dealing with everything in travel-bug scary.  Last year when my girlfriend, Margaret and her travel posse, returned from Costa Rica with a souvenir case of “bed bugs”, it threw my hypochondria into a state of “what ifs…” tizzy. I was nearing my Thailand launch and my budget agenda entailed hostels, guesthouses and trekking in the mountains (Mosquitoes, bed bugs, head lice, oh my! ) Knowing that a fellow travel buddy had fallen in the line of action- despite her own safety precautions- warranted a call to my travel doctor for possible bed bug solutions. Until then,  I carried little “prayer”- sized bottles of Febreze (one travel friend I know would pack a Lysol can), knowing that while it might not kill anything more than bacterial odor and germs, it would definitely lend some piece of mind to my slumber.

Here are 2 travel doctor recommendations: (more…)

So today I’m going to talk about FUN things! I’m going to talk about how to prepare your documents for international acceptance. Woo hoo! Before I applied for my teach abroad program, I never encountered the word “Apostille“. If you’ve never dealt with government documents like name changes, birth or divorce records and affidavits or been in any library-scented government building other than where you are sent for jury duty, then obtaining an apostille can initially appear… overwhelming (it did for me!).  I have good news- It’s not.

Now here’s where I get instructional…

Requirements for ESL Teaching applicants seeking to teach in Korea
There are two main documents required of teaching applicants : 1) a copy of your Criminal Background History Record and 2) a copy of your MFA college diploma.   Both, need “certification and/or notarization” and an “apostille” and this is a 2-3 step process.  (more…)

There it is-E2 Korean Visa!

I just got my E-2 Korean visa this past week – whoop!  Looking at it, the fruit of my efforts and travel goals begin sinking in… I feel nervous, weird, most definitely excited and I even begin to feel like I might be a bit Korean!  Most of all, this visa stands for the achievement of a goal.

When I applied for this ESL teaching position 5 months ago, I thought it was going to be a breeze- like filling out a long form/questionaire, writing an essay and flashing my passport. Afterall, it’s a popular work-travel choice for many traveler’s and graduate students looking for an expat experience. What I eventually realized was that this process required so much more…
(more…)