Level 6 completed.....but....^^

for the mean time...no comment...just pictures....OK?

we were preparing the ceremony. Trying out our gown and toga. 

toga? check! gown? check! All were in place and intact.

Ilya and Taekcho in the ceremony. It's been like a dream comes true.

Well, to call it as a graduation day would be too overwhelmingly burdensome. I call it an intermission in between another further endeavor of learning Korean language. 

Good to be around friends who were sharing the same passion in Korean language.

With Ilya (Kazakhstan); Benjamin (Sweden); Taekcho (China). 

Another angle of getting SHOT. 

With my beloved teacher Ms. Lee Young Ju, outside the graduation hall. Taking a chance to take a picture with her, of course.

My other friends were also busy taking pictures to celebrate or at least to seize the moment.

One of the highlights: of course....being one of the few to graduate. 

To our surprise: the university provided each class with 2 bottles of champagne^^ and a congratulatory cake for all of us. Well...who could reject such a treat?

Everyone's busy......or clumsy to start digging on the cake. pretty much so.

With Lee Min Woo & Lee Young Ju sonsaengnim ^^

I took off my gown already, so...so as to reprimand me in case I would look back at the picture....and not knowing what occasion this was.....I guess I might as well wear my toga just in case...^^

A friend's visit

Yes, it was the first and the last time Taekcho visited my house. Taekcho has been my friend since we were in the same class at Korean language classes in HUFS. We met at level 3 last year. We became close friends afterwards. After more than 7 months of being together, he has to go home after finishing the 6-level course on Korean language.

So, that day...I think it was...on May 9, 2012...we had lunch together at dolseotbibimbab place where we used to go together. 

Along with other friends like Ilya and Taekcho's gf, they visited our house to have some snacks and lat least to chat and converse. My kids loved to play with them. In fact, they were spending some time playing cards with rock, scissors, and paper games--esque style.

As a token of a remembrance, we took a picture together.  Taekcho informed me that he was thinking of finishing his degree back in China and then started his higher education either in Korea or in other countries. But, I think what interests him most was that the wants to learn English in English-speaking countries. He's gonna do that. 

Hope you all the best...^^

사랑비 sarang Bi

The class was over. No..not  yet. Still got a lot of things going on in my mind. But the thing is...at least..the most difficult part was over. No more quizzes and stuffs. The last thing we had on my mind ..our mind....was just to take some pictures  with the whole family of class. The reason to do that? we got to make some pictures to put onto our class album to celebrate the coming graduation day.^^

So, we went out to the park outside the FLEX building where we usually study. We needed a good spot to take a picture with the whole lot of friends. The theme of our picture was Sarang Bi. 사랑비  so, despite the fact that it was a bright day with the blistering sun rays on our eyes...we brought some umbrellas with us...just for the sake of the theme. So, conventionally interesting, right?

Our class was 6B 6급 B반. So, Sarang B or 사랑 B did entice our notion of what our class pretty much was..

This was how the day looked like when we went out to take the picture. 

The HUFS main building stood out at the backgroud...

Midterm Test

midterm test을 봤다. 드디어 이번주의 중간 시험이 왔다. 생각보다 시간이 진짜 빨리 갔다. 시작 한 지 엊그제 같은데 (?) 벌써 5주가 지나갔다. 어떻게 하죠? 어쩔 수 없지뭐. 오늘 아침에 봤던 말하기 시험이 색각했던 거 보다 재미있었다. 물론 긴장을 했지만 해 봐야 했죠. 순서대로 12두 명 중 9번째로 했으니까 아침 9시부터 대기실에서 기다리는 동안 아무 생각 없이 그냥 걱정만 했다. 막상...시험을 봤을 때 .....잘 했는(?)편인 갓 같다.  집에서 외워 온 것들을 머릿속으로 가졌는데.....배운 문법들도   준비했는데.....한번도...쓸 때가 없는 것 같아서....속상했다 (?). 원래 ...선생님이 지금까지 배운 문법/사자성어/속담을 이용해서 얘기하라고 하셨는데.....말하기 시험중에 ...문법조차....가끔...단어도...잊어버릴 뻔했다. 아니다....잊어버렸다.^^ ㅋㅋㅋ
다행이.....밤새웠기에 망정이지 안 그랬으면 ........큰일 날 뻔했다.^^

Today's Discussion Class

Well, I cannot come up with any good idea of how to put the term 기부입학 (gibuibhak) is in English. Anyway...this was just a term or a topic that I did in my class this morning. Every Thursday, we have a discussion class where we had to talk about a certain topic. Today, the topic was about this gibuibhak. It was a difficult topic to deal with. But I think our class seemed to do it quite well..considering the facts that we were not that exposed to the topic--let alone about this issue in Korea.
So, I learned that this topic has steered a lot of heating debates across Korea in the past two years or so. Despite the fact that it is legally prohibited in Korea, it is still obscure as to whether there are (were) universities practicing this. Anyway, we did a lot of great stuffs to talk about.

I love Thursdays because --despite its being difficult for me, for we need to talk in Korean.
Let me see what I remembered from the class today. It was so tough that we needed to use new terms to describe our ideas on the issue. It's a relief that our sonsaengnim did a good job of 'insisting'+ pushing+demanding+encouraging us to use all possible ways and ideas to express our ideas.
To give an idea of what we did in the class, here is the picture of how our ideas were transformed and expressed as seen on the whiteboard^^

Bye-bye, friends

from left: Mai (Japan), Seogon, Gaheun, Sangil (Korea), Soso, Yurim
alone at the back: Tanapat^^ (Thailand)
others come from China

So, this was the day when one of our classmate (Sang il ssi) had to leave the class without having to finish it. He got to be in Pohang to start his class at a university there.
So, that was the last day he went to school...and thus...we luckily managed to say goodbye and wished him luck.

Me, Tanapat, Sang  il

Sang il has been living in Pakistan until he finished his high school, or that's what I learned, though.
So, it is his time to start a university-level life right here in his parents' country.
Quite an interesting story, indeed.
Some of our classmates showed up and met him and wished him luck.
Been quite nice to know all of those friends of mine at level 5.

Completing level 5^^

Finally, the Winter term ended last February...with a heart-warming news that I got. I passed my TOPIK exam.....and also...I finished my level 5 term at ohaktang. ^^ phew..what a relief.

me, Cheongang, Jeong seonsaengnim, Munyeon,
 Soso, Mai Okune

Never thought that I could catch up my breath to complete the seemingly impossible tasks.

Oops someone's coming..Wait!!^^

Well..first thing first....out of 12 students in my class, 7 of them were my friends from China who knows Hanca....^^.











They know it so well (of course) that it was so easy for them to understand any new words in Korea. Gosh....lots of Korean words did indeed come from Chinese words.......^^.
And then......I have three friends whose either Mom or Daddy was Korean by origin.^^







Great!!!!!
I had to compete with them.
Well...it was tough, really.
But then...I could learn a lot from them. It turned out that the class was so fun and helpful for me.
At least, I could learn directly from my fellow friends on how to use certain patterns or words.

Most of all, level 5 exposed me to another level of academic Korean language...that I desperately need in order to be able to participate in real classes later on in my graduate school.
So, this is a kind of achievement in itself..for me....for being able to complete this level. and now....





I have to prepare for the level 6 starting from March 5, 2012.
---

Seoul Cheese Pizza: the nearest and cheapest,
yet yummy pizza near our campus

First thing first.....these were the pictures of our classmates who showed up during the so-called graduation day...
we did also have lunch at a nearby pizza eatery.
Lots of memories and lessons I got from the class.

My 4F friends

4F?, yep...that's what I usually call or we usually call ourselves. Despite the fact that now I am at level 6 at ohaktang or Language institute, I never forget...or let me phrase it in other words.....I cannot forget our  so-called glue-like friendship we've shared.

Yes, our 4 F (level 4 F class) at HUFS did knock me out. I mean..it was so memorable that even though we've been learning at different classes, we still hang out together.
Just like what we did the other week.

Two of our friends from Japan, Chika Tatsuno and Akane were going back to Japan. So, without further ado, we kinda got ourselves together and ready to have dinner again (together)....and...then.....nothing felt like it.

Well, saying good bye to Chika--the strongest female friends alive in our class or should I say..campus(?) ^^-- as well as saying good bye to Akane seemed so hard since they've been cherishing or coloring our lives with their music video, songs, dances, and the likes.
well.....anyway...we did our dinner 2gether.
and...what's more interesting thing to do to end our night but......having the best ice cream we could think of...^^
yes...indeed...we call it 우리들의 행복한 밤....^^ (the happy night of our life^^(?)) or sort of.^^

A reflection of serenity in one early Winter afternoon (at my HUFS)

I think it was the first week of Winter. I remembered the temperature was about 7 Celcius or so. The wind was blowing a bit hard. The barren trees were as if left stranded without any warm embrace from the leaves that left them staggering in the chilly day of one Winter afternoon.

I was passing by the main building when I saw no one was around. Oh, yes....it was Sunday. No one was seen everywhere...I bet it was sooo chilly for some.

I kinda liked it since it did give a postcard-like image of the university main building. The sky was bright blue with no traces of any single cloud visible.  It was --- I think--- breathtakingly stunning.

I am glad that I did take the snap of the moment to capture it into my memory so as I will alwasy remember and be able to share it with others how beautiful a single day could be when we just stand and sit and calm ourselves down to contemplate the beauty. In this case, the black-looking barren tree in the picture tells it all. It was as if it was ready to welcome the bright Winter it has been waiting for....

It's been a while since I last blogged it out

I think it's been two-week off season for me:) I mean..I've been so busy preparing for the last term's exam on Korean languaage as well as my preparation to welcome my family to live in Korea during my 4-year study here. What a hectic (but hey..it's a wonderful one) life here.
I have been busy moving out from the dorm to our two-room house near campus.
I was lucky to have such friendly friends who helped me out when I got to move into the new house.
The thing is....
there have been so many things going around me in my campus that I got to make sure I can keep up with them.
I got sooooo many stuffs to tell on the blog but yet...to do so.
so....guess I'd better wait till I got some time off...afterall...I just started my 5 level term in Korean language. I mean....I can't believe it myself that now I AM having my 5 level of Korean class. Really?
I'd better check and re-check as to whether I AM capable of being at this level.
So...the only way to find it out is by taking a TOPIK test next year on January 29.
Already registered myself.
Got to prepare for it.
And...Hope for the best.
Ok...my friends and fellows out there...pls. wait for more blogs and entries on my site.
I am sorry for not checking this out often lately.
But I do promise to keep posting more stories on Korea and my life around it.....sooooooon.
till then..enjoy reading my previous blogs.
It's been like minus 10 degrees lately in Seoul (especially)...and I love it....^^ (really?) brrrrrrrrrr

3급 친구들을 만남

This term has yet to be over.

me and Ullan

Yet, we decided to have lunch altogether along with our beloved teacher from the previous term when we were still at level 3. Usually, we would have this kind so-called 'lunch party' or whatsoever it is.....at the end of each term as soon as we have our 'graduation' day. But, today....I found it a bit odd yet...satisfyingly feel-good moment indeed.

ready for some ...get set....

Well, yes....most of us--except Eva--chipped in. ^^
Let's see....where we went today.
I vaguely remember where we were for lunch, today. But, I still vividly remember that it was just around our campus corner. I was informed that our friends had been there.
All of us came up to have the samgyeobsal 삼겹살 that surely I could not eat since it was grilled pork.
Me and Ullan had no other choices but to order something we love: dwenjang chike. 된장찌개(?)
It was lucky that the banchan were great, simply because it offered some nice tofu with its Korean touch of eatery.

 I had like....3 courses of tofu since I kept asking the ajumma to give me more...^^ well, that was the only dish that I could eat.....
Indeed, been a great day today....meeting our friends of previous term.
Funny, eh?
I would not even have started thinking about having this kind of lunch-meeting with my very own present classmates....while I just did it with my friends.
OK. the thing was.....our feeling of being one and being re-united again was somewhat differently necessary.
We will never change the time we used to have for anything.
Some of our friends -- as I learned along the way -- would not continue up to level 5.....which means that they are about to leave Korea.
Ah..that's why...we had this lunch!
Oh....I like wearing the blue APRON with a CASS on it. ^0^