Remember in yesterday’s post I said I was HORRIFIED at my Korean?! Well things just got 1 BILLION times worse for me my Korean 언니 messaged me on Kakao and said we should have a voice call so I can practice more and my accent can get better (I had spoken about my bad accent and she was gonna help me) and so I agreed ~ we had done many voice calls before but this time it was already planned to be just a Korean conversation to help me with my thinking quick in Korean ^.^
So it comes to the time we planned together and I answered the call and all of a sudden I get the like “Wake-Up Call” I can hear what she is saying but I really can’t respond that fast ^^;;
W.T.H?????
The phone call started as usual with 여보세요….케이야 which is cool, I was still going pretty well at this point ^^ then things slowly started to get worse for me when my Korean friend said she would speak in NORMAL speed ~ like she does in her everyday life and obviously I agreed because it is a good idea for me.
But I shouldn’t have ㅠㅠ
About 2 minutes into NORMAL speed Korean I was thinking to myself “sh** this is hard” and then went back to the slow speak till I actually had enough of that fact that I was total crap in my understanding ^.^ I understood it but I couldn’t process the information I was hearing and answer just as fast I was stuttering and stopping even in the middle of words and some words I just said completely wrong, I am the kind of person who really has no problem with making mistakes, so the mistakes with words didn’t really bug me at all 🙂 I see them as a learning curb to better myself in Korean, and believe me these days it’s like I lost my head cos I really need a lot of BETTERING ~
So after all those little mistakes I just asked my Korean friend if we could postpone the call in 100% Korean and just focus on getting me to talk like a normal human being 🙂 she is honestly really kind so she said yes to the postponement and she was real sweet about reassuring me that it was alright and not as bad as I was making it out to be 🙂 but for me NO it was a very very very BIG DEAL
Then I thought it might be best to go back and start emailing my Korean friend daily (like she told me too!!) typing a Korean paragraph in English and in Korean since we did meet on a Pen-Pal language exchange site 😀 that was how we started out but then we really hit it off and most times we just forget to actually study (well….I do..!!) but her encouragement towards me is great it puts a big smile on my face 🙂
Regardless I still need to work on my things so I don’t have things like this happening ever again …I must be able to work through this and get better and better I know it can’t happen overnight and that I need to work really really hard, and I know that hard work pays off and I shouldn’t let life issues get in the way if not studying enough Korean 🙂 and I must write A LOT 😀 even made a little journal to carry around with me (:
Have you ever had any disaster calls?
Do you do voice calls with your Korean friends often?
Please leave your opinions 🙂
Oh I know the feeling! Different language, though. I had a disaster call in Italian at work the other day. One of my colleagues passed me the phone and said “could you please talk to this guy? I don’t speak Italian”. No warning, my first Italian work phone call. My colleagues were listening in. Absolutely horrendous. The guy on the other end of the line had apparently asked a colleague to step in because he didn’t speak English while my colleage asked me to take over so neither of us actually knew the case and she was very annoyed, spoke very fast and in dialect and about something technical. I felt like disappearing into a hole and wait for the world to forget that call ever took place. And of course those are the moment you realise you don’t know how to say things like “@” when you need to ask the person to send you a mail with some information. I still haven’t recovered emotionally.
Oh my word…!!! That’s the absolute worst I think at least with me I knew it was coming but the phone being handed to you and then fast talking and mashed up Italian DX actually if it was just me in the room I might have been able to “recover” from the incident but when there is people!!! I WOULD DIE ~ those moments are the worst its something so simple and then your like “ummmh….what it that???” yet it so basic and it just can’t come up in your head T^T
Makes the both of us T^T I need a bit of time before I make another phone call (make a week or more)
That’s how you know that you still have a long way to go as a language learner… Sigh… But the fact that you can keep a conversation going in Korean – that’s more than I can. You’ll come back strong next week 🙂
Seriously long way 🙂 but I’m up for it never giving up …!!!! I can keep it going but not for long and I actually have to think about it, its not natural at all for me …so much effort lol. I bet I will 😀 *fingers crossed* Thanks 🙂
I had tons of experience with disaster calls! When I was studying in Korea, I had to buy a Korean phone because it’s needed in school, dormitory, work etc.
Whenever I communicate with my friends, teachers and seniors at work, I always send them a message instead of calling them. I suck at speaking in Korean so I prefer sending messages. I think Koreans prefer having phone calls instead of exchanging messages so I often get a phone call as a reply! One time, I sent a message to the mother of my friend saying that I will not be able to meet her daughter because I am going to Incheon. Instead of replying to my message, she called me and I had to answer her. At first I was very skeptical if I will answer it or not. I am inside the bus and a lot of Koreans will hear my fail Korean! I was able to answer her questions but I just kept saying “네,네, 알았어요. 내일 봐요.” FAAAAAIL!
Another disaster call was with my Korean professors. We were having a school festival and me and my Filipino classmates were late. Our adviser called my phone asking where are we and what time are we going to go to our building. I stuttered and just said “우리는 지금 오고 있어요 – my favorite line.” jfdshfjkhsdgjkhsadkjghak
The most disastrous phone calls involved me and the 택배! I love online shopping and I always order from different online shopping malls. Whenever an unregistered number calls my phone, I never answer them. One time, an unknown number kept on calling me from morning up to the evening. I sent a message to the number asking why is he calling. AGAIN, instead of sending me a message, he called me! I had to answer because it seems very important. He said that he’s the delivery guy who will give my Super Junior concert ticket. Aside from the question, “what time can I meet you?”, I didn’t understood the rest. I tried to talk to him in English and he kept on laughing like “Wow-you-don’t-know-how-to-speak-Korean-what-are-we-going-to-do?” He tried to speak English and I can hear some people talking in the background telling him what to say. “Tomorrow, 6pm, front dormitory.” I said, Okay and Thank you. Geez, that was very awkward and embarassing :((