My Korean Life #23: Last term at language school is on the horizon

Starting on Thursday, it will be the first day of my last term in language school. It all flew by very fast. Just a year ago I was beginning my new life as a full time language student in Level 2 and now I am about to start Level 6. I still have a few days of break left and I've kept quite busy even though going into the break I had very few plans.

One thing that I experienced for the first time was a wedding in Korea. My good friend from Level 3 tied the knot this past weekend and I attended the wedding ceremony. I had just read about what a Korean wedding was like so experiencing it was interesting. Before the ceremony you can visit the bride in a special room and take pictures with her. At the entrance to the wedding hall, both sets of parents and the groom stand out front to greet everyone. You also have the desk where you can give your congratulatory money (no physical gifts) and in return you receive a meal ticket.

The actual ceremony was different from what I'm used to in the USA. During the ceremony there were still people chit chatting while things were being read and people were also taking a bunch of pictures or on their cell phones. Friends of the groom (I think) sang a song and the groom joined in at the end. The couple bowed to both sets of parents and a few hugs and tears were also exchanged.

After the ceremony, they had picture time. First was the couple, then the family, and then all the friends. Also, the throwing of the bouquet is prearranged and staged. Only one girl (usually set to get married soon) stands behind the bride to catch the bouquet. If the picture isn't satisfactory the first time around, they reset and do it again, haha.

Finally comes the meal, they had food set out on the table before hand and as we sat down they brought out hot soup and rice. Other things available were fruit, meat, seafood, japchae, kimchi, beer, soju, and soft drinks. The couple also came around to each table to greet guests and thank them for coming.

After eating, you're done! No big reception with dancing and drinking and cake :/ Oh well.

Also, I recently met a fellow language student and did a little interview/chat with her, check it out below. We've planned to make more vlogs together so stay tuned to my YouTube channel for those:

www.youtube.com/user/brightness86

My Korean Summer 2013: Day 31 - Last day of class

How sad, the last day in the Sogang Korean Immersion Program. The schedule for the day consisted of a written exam and an interview assessment. The exam was quite brief actually, I'm guessing this was done to make for easy and quick grading by the teachers. In fact, our teacher had all of ours graded by the next morning. We had reviewed and practiced heavily before the written test so I wasn't actually too nervous about taking it. I was more nervous about forgetting a key vocabulary word or verb conjugation. For me, the only thing that got me points off was spelling...

The interview was another story. I was extremely nervous about this part. We were told our normal teachers were not going to interview us (which was kind of expected). They said that we would probably feel a little too comfortable and it wouldn't seem like a real assessment (something to that tune as they explained it in Korean). Fair enough.

I had practiced a lot with my classmates and the upper level students before hand. I also had a fairly large break between the written exam and when the interview was. Regardless of how many times I went over the interview questions, I still felt I might completely choke during the actual assessment. My classmates and I joked that we should make some funny comments or answer in humorous ways. But, honestly, I was too nervous when I stepped into the interview room to try any of those antics.

The final interview went very similarly to the placement interview...except I spoke a lot more Korean during the final, which felt really good. I had never seen my interview teacher before so, the feeling I got was very similar to the initial placement interview.

I sat down and the teacher asked me what my name was and then we jumped right into the questions. After about 12-13 minutes I guess I had talked enough. The next student was ushered in and I was DONE!

It kind of felt surreal after being in language class for a month now at 4 hours a day...

I've been told our actual letter grades would be sent in the mail.

~