{"id":960,"date":"2017-02-16T06:59:24","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T14:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jocularious.com\/?p=960"},"modified":"2017-02-16T17:21:43","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T01:21:43","slug":"rosetta-stone-road-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/?p=960","title":{"rendered":"My Rosetta Stone Road to Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Jack Edwards<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m traveling to South Korea this fall, so I\u2019ve decided to be fluent in the native tongue when I arrive. \u00a0You may be thinking, does he already have a basic proficiency?\u00a0 The answer would be, yes.\u00a0 I mastered how to say, \u201cWhere is the bathroom?\u201d in Korean, quite some time ago.\u00a0 I also know how to say, \u201cThat\u2019s too expensive.\u201d\u00a0 So, with this solid foundation, I figure I should need no more than three and a half weeks to \u201ccome up to speed\u201d to complete fluency.<\/p>\n

I went online to Rosetta Stone.\u00a0 My wife suggested that I order the first level and pace myself.\u00a0 This made perfect sense; so after due consideration, I ordered everything Rosetta Stone had.\u00a0 The whole shebang.\u00a0 Every \u201clevel,\u201d including one, that upon completion, should allow me to obtain a position as a professor of Korean linguistics at Seoul University \u2013 teaching post-graduate students.<\/p>\n

I hit my first roadblock when I openned the Rosetta Stone box.\u00a0 It contained several DVDs and a \u201cQuick Start\u201d booklet.\u00a0 To truly \u201cmaster\u201d the language, I figured that I\u2019d need to devote at least 20 or 30 minutes several times a week.\u00a0 Unfortunately, after an hour, I was still trying to figure out how to download the program using the \u201cQuick Start\u201d guide.\u00a0 I had a heck of a time deciphering the instructions, but what most concerned me was\u00a0 that the instructions were in ENGLISH.\u00a0 I\u2019ll admit it; this caused me to begin to doubt my ability to master the Korean language by October.<\/p>\n

I have tried to learn Korean before.\u00a0 My wife is Korean, and not just Korean, but the Real McCoy.\u00a0 She grew up in South Korea, and as you might suspect, a very popular pastime in Korea is speaking the Korean language.\u00a0 Sadly, each time I have started studying Korean, I have ultimately abandoned my pursuit.\u00a0 But as they say, \u201cThe 253rd time\u2019s the charm.\u201d<\/p>\n

This time, I have a special weapon.\u00a0 His name is Caleb.\u00a0 Caleb is my nephew who is learning Japanese.\u00a0 We have decided to become \u201caccountability buddies.\u201d\u00a0 I only have one concern about Caleb as an accountability buddy \u2013 Caleb is nice.\u00a0 He\u2019s a really nice well-mannered young man, and I don\u2019t think he has it in him to, for example, call me up and threaten me with severe bodily death if I don\u2019t get my butt “back with the program.” \u00a0 I may need more of an Arnold Schwarzenegger type accountability buddy, or maybe even Hannibal Lector.<\/p>\n

Well, I better get back to my Korean studies.\u00a0 Remind me again, what is Korean for, \u201cWhere is the bathroom?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jack Edwards I\u2019m traveling to South Korea this fall, so I\u2019ve decided to be fluent in the native tongue when I arrive. \u00a0You may be thinking, does he already have a basic proficiency?\u00a0 The answer would be, yes.\u00a0 I mastered how to say, \u201cWhere is the bathroom?\u201d in Korean, quite some time ago.\u00a0 I […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[532,575,577,578,582,583,581,584,585,576],"class_list":["post-960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","tag-humor","tag-korea","tag-korean","tag-korean-language","tag-korean-language-learing","tag-korean-language-study","tag-korean-lanuage","tag-rosetta-stone","tag-rosetta-stone-korean","tag-south-korea"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=960"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":966,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960\/revisions\/966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}