South Korea and I: Regular Korean language class at CNU

Once you start studying in Korea you might feel the urge to start learning the Korean language. Especially, because not all Koreans speak English with you. Don't expect a vendor to answer your questions in English, or to even understand you ^_~
Most of the time, when people see that you don't understand what they are saying, they just start to repeat the same sentence over and over again.

CNU offers two different language classes - an intensive one and the regular course.
The intensive language class starts in the second week of the semester. It's 20 hours a week as far as I remember, so five days each with four hours of class. This class is not for free. But as exchange student you will get a 50% discount (at least, that's what I was told). The costs are about 450€.
If you decide to take this class: be prepared, it's hard work. You won't have time for more than one other course. But you will learn a lot!

I took the regular class, which is for free. During Orientation I was told that the regular class also starts in the second week of the semester. Lies!!! ^^;;
The class started (not just this semester, also last year) one month later in April! It's three days a week, each class taking two hours. There's a beginner and intermediate level. You can choose between daytime (4pm to 6pm) or evening class (7pm to 9pm). The quality of this course depends on your teacher. I am taking the daytime class, but the students in the evening class have the better teacher. They learn more and better in using the Korean language.
On negative thing about my teacher is that she can't really speak English. She knows some words, but doesn't explain the grammar you will learn. You can conjugate verbs, but you'll never know if you say "I'm going" or "I go".... If you really want to study a language like this you have to do some extra homework. But my teacher is really fun. She brings us snacks, fruits, juice and other Korean food to class ^^

Another thing about the regular class are the student teachers (teachers in training). After a few weeks you a lot of "old" people will be sitting in the class with you constantly observing. In the break time in between classes they will all storm to the front to get the signature for their attendance (“⌒∇⌒”) Some will start talking to you out of the blue; very friendly people. After one month the student teachers will take over the lessons. Sometimes this is fortunate (some can give you explanations in English and answer your questions), but most of the time you will be at a disadvantage. All of them will talk a lot in Korean! This doesn't mean that lectures are boring. The student teachers are very motivated. We still get snacks, fruits and one day we even got beer, and we play games ☆～（ゝ。∂）

The book we use is called 한국어 1 - Korean 2nd Edition from Seoul National University (SNU). This is a very bad choice. You might think SNU knows how to teach a language, but they did not exactly cover themselves with glory. You can't find good explanations in this book. Sometimes explanations are placed as notes, in small letters, some pages after the example sentences. This is not how you do it, guys!!! (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ
.... And this fact will bring you even more extra homework.

So my progression in the Korean language isn't really tremendous. I am kind of disappointed with this outcome. I can speak some basic sentences, but when Koreans talk to me I still can't follow.