My Korean Life #17: Over 5 months living here and the midterms are over!

Quack Quack

I thought I'd open with a picture of the big rubber duck that is visiting Seoul to bring some cheer to this post. The above duck has made its rounds to many different cities lately. Anyway, back to life since the last post which was about a month ago. Looking back at my calendar I have been rather busy and I'll try not to bore you too much with all the nitty gritty details.

During the beginning of October, a lot was going on with both school and my personal life. I attended a Korean adoptee art event which included works by some of my friends that live here in Korea. After viewing the works in the gallery and attending a short reception I went out to dinner with some friends and also walked around Samcheongdong. The following day was the world festival at school which is put on by the Korean language education center. The various classes cooked food from different countries such as Brazil, Japan, France, Spain, etc. They even had a raffle for some really nice prizes. One of my classmates won a vacuum cleaner! Another friend won what in the USA we would call a varsity jacket or letterman jacket perhaps.

The first weekend in October was a three day weekend which I spent hanging with friends before having to kick it into high gear to study for my midterm exams. I was quite stressed as there was a ton of material to study and we were tested on writing, reading comprehension, listening comprehension, speaking, grammar, vocabulary, and dialogue creation. I put in many hours into studying whether it be reviewing vocabulary or going back through book dialogues and worksheets. Sometimes I struggle with if any of the material is actually soaking in. The pace is so fast that often it takes me awhile for it to fully settle in my brain.

Right before midterms was my birthday. I got to enjoy a nice sushi dinner and cake the night before my actual birthday and then on my birthday I was basically studying most of the day except for in the evening where two of my classmates treated me to dinner and ice cream.

Come test time, I struggled most with listening comprehension and did best on reading comprehension (a perfect score ^.^). The midterm for speaking in level 3 was quite different than level 2. It seems they are more trying to gauge just how you may be able to survive the upper levels. The teachers gave individual feedback to each student via informal interviews that didn't count towards your grade.

Besides exams I saw a few movies recently, one of which is a film by an adoptee called In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee. In contrast to that I saw the horror film Annabelle and the action film Dracula Untold (For some reason this link redirects you to Universal Korea's Facebook page if in Korea, otherwise I think it should work). I also plan to see the movie Interstellar when it comes out the first week of November.

To wrap up, it's hard to believe I've been in Korea for over 5 months now. I remember when I was having Skype calls with one of my friends this past spring about my upcoming life changes that would be happening in the summer. Those seem so recent...

You may be asking how I've been keeping up with people I know back in the USA. I'll admit I've been better with some than others. Then again, there are those that I haven't heard anything from since moving here. On the other hand, I have met some really interesting and amazing people since moving to Korea. People I would have not otherwise had a chance to meet living in the suburbs of America.

Until next time...

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My Korean Life #16: Welcome to Autumn - reflections on learning Korean thus far

*DISCLAIMER*

The below are my personal opinions/views and have no intention of communicating qualities, good or bad, about the program I am currently enrolled in

*END DISCLAIMER*

Finally we have entered autumn. It is probably my most favorite season here in Korea. The weather is comfortable and not humid, the leaves begin to change, etc. Anyway, I thought I would take this moment to reflect on my experience learning Korean so far. It's almost been 4.5 months since I moved here and about 4 months since I've been learning Korean.

• The expectations are high. This is somewhat expected as the program is marketed as intensive/immersive however, if you are struggling, it can be a challenge to find people able to explain concepts in your native language especially if you do not speak English, Japanese, or Chinese (Mandarin/Cantonese/other widely spoken dialects).
• There is little focus on explaining things like passive versus active voice, what a perfect tense is, and so on - I think this is because it really doesn't make sense to do in an immersive environment where, among the students, there could be 5+ native languages. Instead, there is a focus on what I will call sentence constructs. Simply, how to make certain sentences using, for example, because or expressing hopes/wishes.
• You are given a moderate amount of time to practice concepts in class but it seems like the pace is faster than level 2. I'm guessing they expect you to practice a lot outside of class but some sentence constructs require you to disagree with someone or quote someone's speech. I'll say I'm not that creative and repeatedly use similar sentences with new grammar. 
• I'm also getting quite bored talking about the same things (school, home, my home country, self-introduction). Luckily in level 3 we start talking about more real world applications (finding a place to live, describing personality and appearance more in depth, meeting co-workers/students/etc, interactions in the workplace).
• More focus is being put on our pronunciation and intonation. During our review days our teacher has us memorize dialogues and gives us pointers on our pronunciation and intonation. The memorization is not the hard part but sounding like a native Korean is...

That's all I've got for now. Stay tuned for more. Until next time.

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My Korean Life #15: The start of my second term at 서강대...3급!

From the other Korean language learners I've talked to, they say that level 3 is challenging. The difficulty jump is supposedly large from level 2 to 3. So far it's been manageable but I find myself dedicating more time to reviewing and previewing compared to last term. We've actually just completed the first full week of class (the past two weeks have only included a few days of actual class). I'll give my initial impressions of level 3 so far...

쓰기 (Writing)

• The expectations just keep escalating - sentences are supposed to be long and prioritize all the grammar we learn in level 3. The more I study Korean, the more it seems like making REALLY long sentences equates to an advanced level of comprehension. Korean sentences can be very long due to the many ways there are to connect sentences together.
• There is only one writing book that we get this level (level 2 had two separate ones). Most of the exercises have us write quite a bit compared to level 2.
• We have two essays we have to write in level 3. This is the first time that we have a requirement to write a more formal composition.

말하기 (Speaking)

• Speaking class is fairly similar to level 2. We go over the days grammar lesson and then follow it with examples, the chapter dialogues, and various other activities. Just like level 2, we do a lot of "get-up-and-talk-with-people-at-other-tables" activities. 
• There seems to be more vocabulary...just judging by these first 3 chapters in the level 3A book.
• Our teacher said they are emphasizing intonation, fluency, and pronunciation more this level. When I say fluency, I simply mean speaking smoothly (no pauses, hesitations, etc) - not necessarily being highly proficient.  
• Today we got to socialize with other classes of level 3 students which was fun.

읽기/듣기 (Listening/Reading)

• This class is also fairly similar to level 2. The listening has gotten more difficult (the pace is more at what people might consider 'normal' speed). The reading seems to be manageable so far but I'm expecting it to get harder as the term goes on. I've been doing a preview of the listening the night before due to the new vocabulary and pace at which we have to listen. Since the book comes with a CD of all the dialogues, listening, and reading - one could preview pretty much everything before class. This CD is also helpful with speaking intonation, pronunciation, and proper speaking speed. 

Other notes

• I'm the only male out of 13 total students in my class. 청일점이에요.
• Some of the students in my class are really good at Korean. Some are bilingual or trilingual. 
• I feel I know a decent amount of Korean but still have trouble forming ideas and speaking. This may be due to lack of practice or a combination of lack of practice and having English as my first language. 
• I have met some students that have skipped whole levels (one that skipped level 2 and one that skipped level 3). I find this amazing. Korean in my opinion is hard enough, let alone trying to study in order to skip levels. 

My Korean Life #14: 3 Months in and I graduated from Level 2!

[Level 2 Completed]
First thing's first - I PASSED LEVEL 2! HOORAY! From what I had heard and read before taking this level at Sogang University I knew it would be a challenge for me. One blog I read a while back mentioned that only 5 out of a class of 12 or 13 were able to immediately go into Level 3. My class had much better results. After taking the final, 9 out of 11* students were immediately granted the ability to take level 3 (*one student elected not to take the final exams so I left them out of the total). I know a few others in my class that will not continue during fall term due to other obligations but otherwise I believe a lot of my classmates will study level 3 this fall.

The report card Sogang University gives out is quite detailed. There is the oral interview evaluation with 4 categories and 8 level-grades. Then there are all your written test grades (grammar/vocab, conversation/dialogue, reading, listening, and writing). Then an oral test grade (percentage), a classroom activity evaluation, and finally a total grade and next level. There is a box for teacher comments but mine was left blank.

It seemed students struggled with the reading/listening test the most in my class and it may have been due to the time limit. I found myself scrambling to complete the test during the midterm and the final. I luckily made enough points on the final to pass out of level 2 since the reading portion was basically the one area that I had to improve upon from the midterm. The way the grading works is that if you make at least a 70% in all the categories (grammar/vocab, conversation/dialogue, reading, listening, writing, and speaking) you can go to the next level. If you happen to not do well on a category (for example reading) you can do a make-up test the day after the graduation day but your other scores have to be at least 80% I think.

Having experienced a full term at Sogang now I think I know what to expect going forward (at least in level 3). Previewing new material and then reviewing the material after class will be crucial. I started doing both of these things kind of late last term and trying to cram all the vocabulary and grammar in close to the end of the term was stressful. I also don't think I wrote down enough verb examples for all the grammar patterns as I found myself constantly referencing the grammar supplement book.

[3 Months]
I've been living in Korea now for over 3 months and the time has flown by. It's still amazing to think that back in May I shed my life in the USA for a completely new life here in Korea. I'm still getting a grasp on the language but I think that with hard work and studying I will have a decent grasp of it maybe late next year. My goal is to still graduate from Sogang Unversity's Korean language program (complete through level 6). If everything works out, I'll be through level 6 by next summer. Although, just judging from this past term, I may end up redoing a level...but let's hope my brain remains sponge-like through level 6!

Until next time...
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My Korean Life #13: SMTOWN Live World Tour IV in Seoul [AKA Longest Concert Name Ever]

A friend of a friend had a spare ticket to SMTOWN Live World Tour IV in Seoul [from here "SMTOWN"] and I was lucky enough to snag it before anyone else did. We were on the 3rd level of Seoul's World Cup Stadium and I was told these were the least expensive seats. I was also told that tickets were very hard to get due to the EXO fans. In relation to the EXO fans, it honestly felt like we went to an EXO concert and some other artists just happened to show up. Their fan base covered over half the third deck level alone with many others on the 2nd and 1st level.

Personally I'm biased towards Girls' Generation and most of the footage I took (which you can see in the video below) is of them. Sorry for the poor quality as I only had my iPhone on me and didn't know you could bring normal cameras into the venue. In fact, I didn't know people would be bringing in whole pizzas, beer, and boxes of fried chicken either...but this is Korea I suppose. I had to strip out the original audio as it would be flagged on YouTube.

If you see the different colored balloons and lights - those are for the specific fan clubs. EXO is white, Girls' Generation is pink, Super Junior is blue...etc. With the coordinated shaking of the lights and/or balloons came screaming and a lot of it. It was the loudest screaming I've heard in a long time...the chorus of thousands of Korean girls yelling at the top of their lungs every time their favorite group came on stage or one of them decided to take their shirt off.

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My Korean Life #12: You Are Here Cafe Opening Day

This past Saturday I went to the opening of the You Are Here Cafe. This is a joint venture between two (mainly) online companies, namely Eat Your Kimchi and Talk To Me In Korean. It is located near Hongdae Station on Line 2 in Seoul, Korea. The directions and specific address to the cafe can be found on the You Are Here social media pages. The closest exit is Exit 1 from Hongdae Station. 

My video gives you a decent overview of how the cafe looks and the chaos that was opening day. The line stretched for blocks early in the day and when I decided to wait in line it took me about 1.5 hours to get to the counter to order. If you were wondering, I got a lemonade. The beverage prices are reasonable and a lot of merchandise is also available.

The vast majority of patrons were not Korean but, this may change as time goes by. The huge crowd outside drew some spectators as well, namely Koreans thinking what the heck is going on. My Korean friend even messaged me after I sent them a picture and was like "WHAT THE HECK?" [they said the equivalent in Korean].

I hope the atmosphere becomes less hectic over the coming weeks/months/years since it is also supposed to be a place of study/learning. The classroom portion of the cafe does have doors so you are able to close that part of the cafe off from the main lobby/ordering area. Upstairs are the bathrooms and more tables/chairs as well as balcony access.

Anyway below is my video! Thanks to all that have watched it already!

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My Korean Life #11: English Restaurant Names in 한글!

So you know many American restaurant chains are present in Korea and you whip out your smartphone to see what's around. You search "McDonald's" and nothing comes up...you search "Starbucks" and again...nothing. WHY!? A lot of times these names have been adapted to the Korean alphabet (한글). I have started to compile a list of the English names of restaurants and their 한글 equivalent. Let me know if you see any errors!

Coffee Shops/Cafes
Dunkin Donuts: 던킨 도너츠
Starbucks: 스타벅스
Caribou Coffee: 카리부 커피
Krispy Kreme Donuts: 크리스피 크림 도넛

Pizza
Pizza Hut: 피자헛
Domino's Pizza: 도미노 피자
Papa John's: 파파존스

Fast Food
McDonald's: 맥도날드
Taco Bell: 타코벨
KFC: KFC [Usually not written in 한글]
Burger King: 버거 킹
Subway: 서부웨이
Quiznos: 퀴즈노스

Casual Dining
Outback Steakhouse: 아웃백스테이크하우스
TGI Fridays (Fridays in the USA): TGI 프라이데이스
On The Border: 오더보더

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