I'm one of the people who has been exposed to a lot of Korean, but it's almost like my brain got lazy and stopped trying to understand everything. I got married to a Korean lady 30 years ago when I was in Korea, and so I have heard the 부산 사투리 version of Korean in my house almost daily for the last 30 years. I moved back to Korea with my job about 2 years ago, and after moving back, I managed to take time in the two summers to attend 경성대의 immersion Korean classes at level 2 and 3. I think my speaking is a bit weak, but my reading and writing are on level for having finished those levels, but although listening was my strongest skill when I returned, it hasn't improved at the same rate that the other skills have. So things I've heard in my house for 30 years I understand without having to mentally translate, but things I need to learn outside of the house and basic shopping have been very slow in coming along, and this is frustrating.
I have some physical difficulties as I have lost some hearing in recent years. So, for instance, I often cannot hear the ㅅ sound when it is pronounced by a woman from Seoul, although I seem to hear it fine when pronounced by a woman from Busan, or pretty much any man. I sometimes do not hear the ㅈ sound from a woman from Seoul, too, or sometimes it sounds like a ㄷ sound to me. So those are difficulties I will just have to learn to deal with, but this isn't he main problem. The main problem is that I can hear someone talk, and often, I only pick out a few words, but if I read the transcript of what they said, I understand every word, and it frustrates me that I didn't understand it when they spoke it.
I'm hoping that the community is active here, and have enjoyed the lessons I have listened to thus far. Thus far I haven't gone premium because I know the most of the words and all of the grammar in the intermediate lessons thus far, and what I really need is the listening practice. (BTW, I can hear the differences in accent in the spoken Korean
![Smile :)](/static/images/forum_ro/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
I'm very interested to know how others have improved their listening skills in Korean. This is my weakest point currently, and I must improve it.