KOREA FOUNDATION

ACH REVIEW

2022 Summer, Conversation Class,
ASEAN Language ProgramVietnamese Course Review

As someone who teaches Korean to foreigners,I was wondering how to get better acquaintedwith my Vietnamese students. Whilewondering how to make communication easier,I decided to try learning Vietnamese. Afterhearing about ASEAN Culture House throughthe Korea Foundation (and thanks to perfecttiming), I immediately registered for thesummer language course.

I had great confidence in the instructor, anative Vietnamese speaker who happens tospeaks Korean fluently. This was, obviously, aboon for me. I was also, as a teacher myself,able to understand her teaching methods andlesson plans from an insider’s perspective.She was very passionate and sincere aboutteaching, which motivated me to study harder.

Thanks to the instructor’s guidance, I quicklybefriended other students. Everybody was verydevoted to learning Vietnamese. The tonesand pronunciation were quite difficult. Atfirst, I stuttered every word. By the fifth day,however, I was able to read an entire sentenceon my own (I was very proud of myself!). Onthe last day, I had a simple conversation withthe instructor in Vietnamese. I was not theonly one: all of the students showed significantprogress by the end of the course. Though eachtrip to and from ACH took two hours by car,I found myself anticipating the classes andenjoyed them very much. Currently, my goal isto obtain a Vietnamese proficiency certificate.I can’t wait to study again with my wonderfulclassmates and our passionate teacher nextsemester