In my desperate attempt to improve my Korean skills from "embarrasingly non-existent" to "still embarrasingly non-existent, but now I understand something every 20 words or so", I'm listening to a Korean language audio lesson.

What I find strange is that these are the first 15 expressions they teach:

My pleasure
It's over
Why not?
It's about time
You're here

You're kidding
It's out of the question
What's going on?
Are you sure?
I don't have time

I'm afraid
To do my best
Smoking prohibited
To do without
Good night

You're kidding? It's out of the question? Smoking prohibited???

Can you imagine learning these expressions as the very first things you learn in a foreign language?

What happened to the lesson where the first expresssions you learn are Hello, My name is Mr. Lee, and I don't speak Korean?