Three weeks ago I felt the sweet relief of another successful year of school coming to an end. Three weeks later I felt the anxiety of starting not just a new term but a new term at a new school. Monday was examination day. The first part of our examination was a five page written test with an hour and a half time limit. The first two pages were basic questions such as "what is your name?" and "What brings you to Korea?" I have been asked these types of questions so often since I have been here that I had little trouble with them. The last two and half pages asked much more difficult questions such as "For what reasons are you learning Korean?" and "What are your other plans besides learning Korean while you are in Korea?" Some of these questions already had certain words filled in for the answer which meant they were asking me to fill in the rest of the response to see if I knew the most appropriate way to reply. The last page asked me to write a one page essay weighing the pro and cons of the internet, a hot topic in Korea which has 90% of families having wireless internet access at home. Needless to say, I was stumped after the first two pages. During my time at Seattle University, I have been told to never leave a question blank and make the best guesses I can but I seriously had no idea what to write. Like a typical green-minded Seattlelite, I felt bad they wasted two and a half pages printing out questions I could not answer.
The second part of the examination was a ten minute interview with a teacher in the program. After looking over my test my interviewer did not seem to have high expectations for me yet I managed to impress her with my pronunciation and somewhat willingness to try and speak what Korean I knew. Her conclusion was that my writing and spelling skills were just above beginners level but my verbal just might be good enough for the intermediate class. This makes sense since I never write Korean but I do try to use the vocabulary and grammatical structures my parents use when they speak Korean in the house from time to time. Because they had no class to fit my exact needs we decided it was best I enroll in class just above beginners to build my vocabulary and make sure I understand the most basic grammatical structures before trying to learn more advanced ones. After the first week I can say that I am in the right class and am enjoying learning four hours a day, five days a week....we'll see how long that lasts.
My only difficulty with the class is that we go through a chapter a day. I knew a five week program like this was going to be intense but a chapter a day with quizzes every morning seems a rough way to start the first week of class. Also, the chapters are not as accumulative as I would like them to be. Grammatical structures and vocabulary learned yesterday are not used that often in following lessons which makes it hard to remember them all come Friday when we are told we need to write a twenty sentence dialogue with a partner and present it on Tuesday.
The students attending this program come from all over the world, are different ages and are learning Korean for various reason. My new friend, John Lee, just turned 18 on the 1st of July and will be attending Cal-Berkley in the fall. My other friend, Kim, is 29 and working on her Ph.D. on North/South Korean relations. Other students I have met are from Madrid, Rome, Berlin, London, and Vancouver B.C... what a great big world! I have also met two students who attend UW, one of which attends a youth group I used to be a part of in high school...nope, it's a small world after all.
M&M and the plant are still alive and I have yet to be hit by a Hyundai. All seems to be well.
My friend, John, singing some Shaggy at a Karaoke Bar on his 18th Birthday. Yes, I sang Bon Jovi when it was my turn.
Our cultural lesson for the week was a Korean cooking class. This was our final product:
Here was my cooking team. Our teachers nicknamed us the "strong and troublesome" group. At least we washed our dishes.
