Midterm day! Well, the midterms went all right I think. I think I did better on the writing/grammar test than I did on the listening/reading test. And I know I misspelled a lot of words too… Not sure when the results will be back, but I’m looking forward to knowing what it’ll be. The listening test was the hardest for me. The CD we listened to was clear for the most part, but some of the words were said too quick for me to comprehend very well. Which means I need to listen to the CD’s from the books more and more and study more and more.

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A park in Korea

At school today we practiced conversations of the new grammar we learned the previous day. At Sogang University, during the 2 speaking hours of class, one day is spent learning new grammar, and the second day is spent practicing conversations using the new grammar. During the third hour, one day is spent practicing listening and the second day is spent practicing reading. Also, during the third hour, we can practice speaking with each other about the topic of the day.

Anyway, we had a special day where half of the class went to visit another level 3 class, and vice-versa. We got to meet new students and practice some conversations we had just learned. I really enjoyed this sort of activity, even though I ended up speaking with a fellow student from my level 2 class. Sogang has these various activities that makes learning hear a lot of fun, and much more interactive than Yonsei was.

After class, I was walking outside and saw a couple fellow level 2 students and ended up eating lunch with them. One is from Japan and knows just a little bit of English, while the other is from Germany and can speak English well. But, since we’re all learning Korean, and the Japanese friend can’t speak English very well, we all spoke in Korean. And at the restaurant we went to, I saw 5 other fellow students that I knew. I’ve only been to that place a few times, but it seems very popular with Sogang students who are studying Korean.

At home, I did a lot of homework and afterwards did some English tutoring with a Korean friend. She’s an English teacher who wants to improve her speaking skills. I meet with her on Tuesdays and another English teacher on Thursdays. We meet up at a local café and spend most of the time just talking in English. I correct them if they make mistakes and explain grammar or words if they don’t know. I also use a conversation book that is a very good way of coming up with topics to discuss. It’s pretty fun doing it and I enjoy teaching them one on one.

Smoothie King

it’s a little over midnight right now. Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is on TV, but muted while i listen to some Assemblage 23 music and study. it’s raining outside, and will supposedly rain all of next week. it’s the middle of the first of two big rainy seasons here. the weather is in the 80′s which isn’t usually bad, but the humidity here is very high. actually, walking around outside isn’t too bad, but once i walk indoors where the temperature is cooler, i suddenly feel very very hot XD i’m thankful for air-conditioning!

i did some studying today, and then during the evening, i went to dance practice at my church. we learned cha-cha, which i’ve learned before. it was still fun and i got to meet some new people. we have a great dance teacher who is an amazing dancer! she’s taught us cha-cha, jive and also rumba i’ve been going to these practices every Wednesday and Saturday. Wednesdays we have been practicing for a performance some of us will give at a big event/meeting/gathering thing at church. it should be fun doing the performance, and hopefully i won’t get nervous XD

changed the music to Iris, and might change it again before i finish this post…

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i finished up the first semester a week or so ago. the finals were tough.  i didn’t study as much as i should have, and the listening and speaking tests showed that… and that which i did study i seemed to have forgotten during the tests also… overall i passed the 1st semester with a 75%. not horrible, but i would have been happier with a B. i’m now a week into my month long vacation before the 2nd semester starts. all the other students in Seoul are in the middle of their finals right now. i’ve been attempting to study alone at home, but have found myself easily distracted by computer, games and tv. i’m slowly getting into a routine. i’m hoping soon i can get some practice with speaking and listening with some of the Korean friends i’ve made here. most are pretty busy with school or work right now though.

the weather here has been getting colder. the saturday before last it dropped to 10° F! too cold for my tastes XD but, i went out anyway with some classmates to my teacher’s wedding. the wedding was nice and some of her older students showed up too. they had a big 4 course meal which was all western food (seafood appetizers, cream soup, rolls, roast beef, mashed potatoes and veggies. and fruit for dessert). there seemed to be over 200 people from my quick estimate, so it must have cost them a lot to provide all of the food for everyone. the wedding was held at a wedding hall, so i’m guessing they just paid a (large) fee and let the staff handle everything.

i may be learning some ballroom dances soon i’ve been wanting to learn more swing dance as well as other ballroom dances for a long time now, and today i met someone at church who knows many ballroom dances and is in need of a practice partner for the classes she’ll be teaching. it should be fun i hope

well, before i left for Korea, i told many people how i hoped to update my website very often with stories of living here, but i haven’t done a very good job at that yet XD

so it’s been over a month living here. i started school a few weeks ago and really like it! there are over 1000 students here at Yonsei University trying to learn Korean. they split everyone up into 12-13 students per class. the class is 4 hours per day with 3 breaks in between. during the 3rd hour, a different teacher comes in to teach reading. the toughest part of the class for me is memorizing the vocabulary and understanding the speaking parts because it is spoken very fast. i think with more vocab knowledge, as well as practice, i’ll be able to understand the speaking better. my class is a mix of American, Japanese, Mongolian, Spanish, German and Italian. the teacher tries to keep everything spoken in the class in Korean, but sometimes she has to briefly explain things in English. she knows a bit of Japanese too. the Mongolian guys have difficulty with both the Korean and the English… and those without English as their first language have to do some double translating when the teacher explains something in English. the class is very fast-paced, and i worry about even missing a few minutes of the class or i’ll fall behind.

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i decided a while back after visiting Korea back in February to look into the possibility of going to school there to learn the Korean language. actually, only after a few days of being there, i started having thoughts of either teaching English there or studying Hangul (the Korean language). i really liked it there, but it may have mostly been the vacation to a new country… whatever the feeling at that time, when arriving back in the US, i’ve been craving to go back and have been studying Hangul on and off ever since. i applied to Yonsei University and was accepted to the fall semester! the plan is to move to Seoul at the end of August, stay with the Hong family, which are very cool, and then search for an apartment and take care of other things like Alien ID, Student Visa, bank account, etc. for a few weeks before the semester starts near the end of September. everything is falling into place so far. i still have a big list of things to take care of in the next few months. i’m excited about it and a bit nervous–mainly i worry about getting everything taken care of when i’m over there and also hopefully not getting lost in the giant city of Seoul…

Yonsei has a one and a half year language program split into 6 semesters with an optional 7th semester afterwards. it’s 4 hours per day, 5 days a week. i’ll probably look for a job after getting the hang of the language enough. it should be an interesting adventure i also want to make some “tutorials” on how to move to Korea and go to school once i get settled to help out anyone else who may be considering it