Well, I’ve been here two years now and tutoring and self-study didn’t work ’cause I have no self discipline and call me weird, but I need PEOPLE to study language with. But last month I got inspired by a fellow expat Native English Teacher (also here two years) when she signed up for free beginning Korean language classes at the Seoul Global Center with her and her boyfriend. I only had a couple minutes to decide if I wanted to join her and give up my Sundays. I decided I did, but the class conflicted with TRACK meetings, so I had to turn it down.
Yesterday my school told me there were classes for foreigners in Chuncheon, and would I like to take them? Sure! Only it turns out they were expensive and required 3 nights a week. Actually, they were a reasonable cost per hour, but 18 classes adds up. And that meant kissing my nice evenings painting goodbye and also kissing all earthly pleasures goodbye.
But then I remembered the Korea Foundation Cultural Center classes (click on English, then click on Communication and then click on any of the Korean Language Classes you see listed to get to the page that gives you details about the classes) I’d meant to take. Before, I could only fit classes in on the weekends and theirs are offered during the week. And there were always conflicts: night classes, the commute, etc. But all the planets are aligning this time, and I can get there with plenty of time to spare, thanks to the new subway line. The only conflict is the first 4 week class, which starts during my work day. But it also happens to fall on my prep day when I have only one class, so the school said I could leave early for it – no problem! Yayy!
It’s once a week, costs nothing, and my weekends are still my own. Perfect.
It’ll be nice to finally be in a class with others in the same boat, wanting to practice. The first four weeks may be a drag, just because it’s hangul and I already got that down. But it can’t hurt. So supposedly 16 classes and then you can test into the advanced class, which I have no clue what level on the TOPIK exam that is. Hope it’s great. Hope I meet some nice non-adoptees, because you know what? there are more people in Korea than adoptees and it would be nice to meet them.
Hello Korea ! 
i found the KFCC’s classes to be valuable because they attract a really diverse crowd… many nationalities and many different types of work.
Yeah! It was exciting to see the intermediate class doing their thing. I mean, it’s great to have tutoring, but it’s nice to know enough to be able to ask valuable questions so you can get the most out of the tutor, and for beginning language w/o practice partners, you need the lab atmosphere of having other students at your own level to practice with.
I hope the teacher lets me in, but if not it’s only one more month I have to wait. I think the 12 weeks per class is a type-o, though. There’s 4 weeks of hanguel, and then it looks more like 16 for each additional level: beginner, and intermediate. So that’s 40 weeks before you can apply for their advanced class. They also offer small group classes through GOAL for adoptees, but I 1)have had my fill of commiserating with adoptees and 2)I feel more confident that this program will be well implemented, as it seems like it’s well established and probably had a lot of its kinks worked out.