Quarterly update

I have now lived here for 9 months, so it is time for another quarterly update.

First of all here's my job situation. Since I mentioned about a month ago the lack of funding their position flip-flopped a couple times, but now it is back to saying that they cannot give me another contract. It is all bullshit beauracracy. They say they have enough money to hire me for 4 months (to finish the year) but not for a full 12 month contract. But they can only write up a 12 month contract. I suggest they give me a normal contract with the agreement that I will quit at the beginning of 2010, but it is no dice.

One option now is to resign early here to get a good job that starts at the beginning of Sept. but if I do that I will be giving up a lot of vacation time and a last month which is more than double salary (due to a bonus and free plane ticket). So things are still a little up in the air for what I shall do come October, but I'll at least be visiting America, and maybe staying there although I don't have any prospects lined up yet, and the economy may still suck for over educated under experienced folk like myself. By all means drop me a line if you hear of an opportunity that might interest me.

Language skills. They are coming along smoothly. My book vocabulary is growing at a slower rate these days, probably still between 1500-2000 words, but my recall speed of these words is increasing, as is my ability to more quickly select (or identify when listening) different sentence structures, plus my accent is improving - I think my tongue can finally distinguish between the j and jj sounds. The main thing is confidence. The more of that I have, the more I will let myself practice, and thus I'll just improve at a faster rate. The best thing to give me lots of confidence is to have in the group other Americans who have much worse (or zero) Korean ability (and none who are much better). This is another reason it was nice to have Jarod visit earlier this week.

Job satisfaction. Really, my opinion hasn't much changed in this realm. Some of the kids are getting restless because the weather is now hot and humid and its been a long time since their last vacation. This week is exam week, but there are three weeks of school yet to come before a 5 week summer vacation. Then I just have three more weeks in September before my contract expires.