i just finished my midterms last thursday and friday. we had 4 tests; reading, writing, speaking, and listening. i did well on the writing and reading, but averaged a C for the speaking and listening… those two are the toughest for me. i understand the grammar so far, but putting together sentences quickly is tough. and trying to understand what people say when they speak very quickly is also very hard. i just need to practice more and more.

today we got 2 new 선생님 (teachers). during the 3rd hour of class, a second teacher comes in to teach us reading. the new teachers seem great.

hmm, what else is new… oh yeah, i’ve had a few chances to get some one on one speaking practice with some friends. this has been helpful, but i need to do it a lot moreso–daily even. many times when i see my Korean friends, we seem to only speak in English. and if there are groups talking, i have a hard time trying to say something in Korean since i’m slow at it. i also worry (which i shouldn’t) that i may be interupting a deep conversation amongst them with some question like “what kind of food do you like?” i think i will try to set up more language practice meetings with my friends so i can get better at it. i have two set for this week, and am going to try to only speak in Korean.

not much else has been going on here. the weather has been getting colder, and i’m in need of getting some more sweaters and a scarf or two. the mornings walking to school is much colder than in the afternoons. but i remember in february it got very cold here!