Japanese:1, Korean:0

Much to my chagrin, I've had to make a difficult decision regarding my Korean studies. As of this week, I'll be dropping the class. Why, why, why, you might ask?

There are many reasons, but I think the most important one is my motivation, or lack thereof. In my previous post, I wrote about motivation for both students and teachers. As a student in Korean 101, I'm seriously faltering in my aspirations at this latest attempt to acquire a new foreign language.

First of all, there's instrumental motivation. This is usually geared toward receiving some type of academic or professional goal. I'm not taking the course aiming for any specific "Korean TOEFL" score, nor am I doing it to proceed further in my current job situation.

Next is integrative motivation, or the desire to gain some cultural benefit through increased interpersonal interaction with native speakers. I've mentioned before that I'd like to teach in Korea once I finish my master's degree. This can still be a possibility even without a firm grasp of the local language.


Finally is Japanese. 話したい！聞きたい！また勉強したい！A funny thing happens in my Korean class when I open my mouth to speak...Japanese always bullies its way to the fore. It's fun to make crosslinguistic comparisons while I study Korean, but what it boils down to is that I'd really rather be studying Japanese. I've come too far in that language to just ignore that I'd still like to work on my existing skills.

So, what happens next? The lovely colleague who got me started in Korean this summer will be contacted for the possibility of resuming private lessons. This, I can do. Expending the energy for a 5-hour-a-week class, plus all the work outside of that, I cannot do for a variety of competing academic and personal reasons.

じゃぁ、これから頑張ります！

SSS: Now that I'll have my mornings free again, I'll be able to integrate exercise more often into my routine. For today, it's catching up on readings for master's classes.