Gee ...Korean Language is Indeed Unforgiving...

Yes...it's darn difficult to get the hang of it..I mean...the Korean language.

Even the Koreans themselves got to be reminded about how to use the proper language.

As for me...apart from having to learn the language...at times..by looking at this weekly-poster posted inside the lift at KBS Hall....I came to realize that..Korean language is indeed a challenging language to master.

We Met Again Finally

 

After more than 3 years, we finally met again.  

Ms. Han, Ms. Kang, and Ms. Park (all of them used to be Korean teachers dispatched by KOICA). They were teaching Korean language and culture at our university (UGM) back then in 2008-2010). 

Well, I met ms. Park in Daejeon a couple of montsh ago, but the other sonsaengnims...I haven't met them for like more than 3 years.

So, it's indeed a reunion for us when they visited us in Seoul.

What could be better way to celebrate our reunion than having Indonesian food and added with some touches like 'birthday-like' party for the kids, though none of us were celebrating one.:-) 

Then, it would be a great way to enjoy the night while we're talking about nostalgia we had back then.

so many things to catch up among us. I am glad that all of them have secured their jobs in Korea.  

What would be a 'gathering' like this without games?

Well, it was sort of a  coincidence that Freya tossed her toy while she's playing with them...and then we started off....playing along with it. 

One thing that surely struck them was the fact that Eyra and Freya communicated with them using Korean language. Sure..it must be a shocking revelation for them who's never met both of our girls for quite some time. 

As for me, it was also a good chance to remember again..the good old time we spent together in Jogjakarta. 

Thank you, ms. Kang, ms. Park, and ms. Han for visiting us in Seoul.

Afternoon for kids during summer

It's already 8 pm and yet the sun is still shining. I overheard some 'commotion' at the parking lot. I knew it. Kids were playing around the parking lot in front of our apartment complex. Well, it's summer and they have more time to play around.

Eyra and Freya already makes friends in the neighborhood.

Although all of them are foreigners, they do not speak English. Of course, they speak Korean. 

Yes, all ( I think) foreign kids in our apartment complex know Korean and use Korean on daily basis. They go to Korean kindergarten, elementary school. So....it's an amazing sight for us, parents..who still find it hard to speak Korean.^^

Yes, English is NOT their international language, instead, it IS Korean language. 

At times I find it funny and surprisingly interesting to know this.

Well, it just shows or proves the fact that kids learn language (even foreign ones) at a much faster pace than adults do. 

FUnny sighns

This is just a snapshot of a shoe-store at an H station--the very station where start and end our journey through subway everywhere we go around Seoul. This station connects with a small bus called 마을버스  (maeul beoseu) or literally translated into 'village bus' which funnily does not operate in villages, but in cities like Seoul. Anyway, I'm not going to write about this so-called 'bus ndeso'.

Instead,

we got a very funny sign right here in this very spot when we were passing this through. At a first glance, one may not find it strange, but if we take a closer look at the picture.....

something 'outrageously funny' is visible, right here.

Can anyone guess what it is......?

연탄재 briquette

So many things just wrapped up into my mind, especially the ever-exploding words, vocabularies, and expressions that I learned, ...have learned, ...am learning during Korean classes. So as to keep them intact in my memories, I am thinking of writing them down as a non-sequential story-line of mind-pouring or jot-it-down-quick kinda stuff.^^. Never mind the grammar^^. Korean grammar has ruined/does ruin/keeps ruining my head^^. It is way more complicated than I had previously thought of^^
Here we go:

연탄재 함부로

발로 차지 마라

너는 그 누구에게 뜨거운

사람이었느냐

This concise poetry was written by 안도현. I hope I spelled the name correctly.

'Don't you dare kick the used briquette'

'Are you yourself a man of better (things as compared to the briquette itself)?'

That's pretty much of what it is, I guess. 

Level 7

Level 7 in Korean Language really perturbs me....in a good way. Well, it is way more difficult than I thought it would be, though. What I have learned so far....seems to be so inadequate to conquer the different subjects and classes I am into.
 In short: I think I have put myself in a positively challenging jeopardy of my life in term of learning  ...... Korean language.
7급이 생각보다 너무 어렵다.
지금까지 벼웠던 (지식, 인식, 등...) 것들을 가지고 수업을 들을때 자신감이 있는 줄.......알았는데.....^^ 와 ^^....땀이 날 수 밖에 없다. ㅋㅋㅋ

TOPIK

TOPIK or Test of Proficiency in Korean Language was like a nightmarish-type of thing these days--at least for me. OK, to start with. I got to get through this lots-o-fun test.  (the good part: I got my intermediate level already). Done that. (check!).
NOw..comes the most boldly daring part of me: trying to beat it for its higher ground--that is to say---I got to get my advanced level. (Did that today) (Check!).

a so-called forced-courtesy smile on my face.....^^

what seems to be the problem, then????
I felt like I blew it.
Gosh....I got to admit that Korean language is so .........difficult.  (ok.....couldn't describe it literally right here).
I started the test at around 9.30 this morning.
Got up early and got a ride by subway to Sungsil University in Seoul where the test took place.
Got my classmate by my side, well...we were on the same mission--so to speak.
Did I study and prepare well? I think I pretty much did. Well, not that much I guess. but the thing was that.....no matter how long I've been trying to ram it up myself .....hook myself up.....with all the twists and tricks....it seemed to me..that I need more and a looooooot to learn again.
Gosh, vocabularies and grammar in Korean did give me a blow on my head (read: brain)!!!
I felt like what I've been learning up to now....is not yet complete or sufficient enough to get me prepared for the test.
I felt like I need more than just.....books. I need to squander myself on more real Korean news: be it those on the newspaper or TV or books. I need to learn and read more and more.
OK...what a great day today...it was indeed......to spend it on a hot-seat like TOPIK test^^
a good lesson worth-remembering, Suray? You beT!

Bingo??

First, I thought they were doing some kind of Bingo.^^ I was wrong. I was so oblivious that they were actually doing a tracking practice.They were drawing the lines over the dots that once they do so, a series of numbers would appear. A good practice for kids to learn the numbers and how to write them.
So...I thought it was Bingo.
It was almost 11 pm and they insisted on doing this until they finished up to number 60. Eyra and Freya were busy doing this while I had to make sure that they were on time to go to bed afterwards.
One of the good things of being in Korea is that my children can learn both English and Korean at the same time. It was amazing to see how the kids could grasp both languages at the same time. They are now able to count in Indonesian, Javanese, English, and of course....in Korean language. Kids do have a mind of their own in learning new languages. ^^

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^^

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.

Eyra Learning Hangeul

It has been a month or so since Eyra started learning Hangeul or Korean alphabets. She is going to Korea to meet me this coming December or in January. I do not know when...but it's just that she needs to be prepared. After all, we are planning to send her to the local school in Korea where she will be able to mingle and befriend and learn and get exposed to Korean life and culture. I know that it might be hard for her since she has not  had any previous experiences of what Korea is. But, time will tell since she is a kind of eager to learn and know more about it.

So, she kinda likes it.
She keeps learning how to read and write in Korean.
Adi, my colleague back home, is the one who teaches Korean to Eyra.
Hope she will be able to make the most and the best out of it.
**Oh, the colorful studying desk that she is using is a gift box set from Susu Bendera:) We've been collecting the receipts of the milk purchases we made for the past one year.....^^. It's free in the sense...that we did not have to buy for it. 

Korean Language Mid Term Exam

It's been two months since I became a student again.^^.
I felt the sense of jittery and restless prior to taking the exam.
Guess, that was what my fellow students back home might have felt whenever they were preparing for any test.
So, being in a Korean class might not seem so challenging for some. But, it was for me. And it is.
I never thought that vocabulary is so strenuously distressing in the first place.
I did not know what to do with the bombardment of newly induced vocabularies every day. I said: Every Day. Yes, I felt like being choked up.
I got to swallow, gulp, chew, lick, smear, sense, feel the new senses of vocabularies.
Not to mention the seemingly out-of-place idioms that adorn the Korean language.
Well, all of these are challenges too interesting to overlook^^
So, I might as well fight for it.
And..that was the simple reason as to why I was struggling and keeping myself awoke late until  the wee morning to study (or: memorizing) the patterns and other related trivia.
I thought that the Reading section was so difficult that I used most of my time being in the room.......learning.
Then, this morning, it turned out that Reading was ok, but...on the other around, Listening and Structure were way too out of imagination for me. Sure, I did it quite well, to some extent.
I came out of the exam room with a smile on my face; hinting that I did it quite well. At least to the point of where I was going.