a quick note for those who have been tracking my language learning process.
i'm pleased to say that i found a small hint of inspiration this weekend and, for the time being, have a significant drive to study.

i had a bit of a crazy day on friday. i left my house in cheonan at 10am headed for seoul, and due to a number of various, random events, ended up arriving at my parents' house around 11pm that night. needless to say, i was totally spent. omma & appa had been messaging me all day, wanting to know when i would get there, so they were full of questions by the time i arrived 12 hours after the fact.

one of my severe downfalls is that i am a ridiculous perfectionist. this has been a huge roadblock in my language learning, as i am always terrified to open my mouth to speak korean out of fear of making a mistake. as a general rule, i try not to use a new word or phrase or part of speech until i've studied it for at least 4 months and practiced it about 6,000 times. a bit of an overexaggeration...but not too much. i'm that ridiculous (prideful) and am so afraid of making a mistake.

fortunately, exhaustion had gotten the best of me by friday night and it somehow managed to overcome my fear of looking like an idiot. omma and appa were asking all of these questions & i was exhausted...and the korean just came spewing from my mouth. i told them the story of the entire day, where i had gone, who i had met, how i had to help my friend who missed his transpacific flight. i have no idea where it all came from & i didn't even realize it was happening until i looked at appa's face & saw his shocked expression. it was, by far, the most korean i have ever spoken to him. i was amazed by the pride that i saw in his eyes and the enormous grin on his face. he looked like i had just given him a billion dollars. he told me "you have studied a lot. your korean is getting much better. you did a good job." his validation still has me on cloud nine & i have been studying my butt off ever since. these are the confidence-boosting moments that will spur me on to fluency!

a quick note for adoptees reading this blog. the wonderful folks over at GOAL have worked tirelessly for the past 3 years to get the korean nationality laws changed. their hard work paid off when the korean national assembly recently adopted the revision of the law to allow dual citizenship! the revision went into effect the first of this year, and since then GOAL has been an enormous aid to adoptees wanting to apply for dual citizenship. in return, they are asking adoptees to fill out a simple online survey. i took it and it required all of 5 minutes. if you are an adoptee (adoptees only!) please take the survey here to help provide valuable feedback regarding the needs of adoptees.

tomorrow, i'll be moving to seoul for 2.5 weeks. the day after, i'll head to the airport to pick up my little brother from china! who knows the next time the entire jeon family will be able to be together under the same roof...so we will enjoy this time for all it's worth. after spending the chinese new year together, i'll be flying to america on february 7th. i'll be largely absent during this time, so until we meet again, please be well.

and america...
i'll see you soon.