prologue: today's dialogue practice, talking about the things that we will remember from our Korean class (imagine that this whole conversation took place in Korean, and you can tell because the translation is mad awkward).
Me: Hmmm...I will remember our listening/reading teacher, Yang Sunsaengnim, who always talked so quickly!
Yuki: Of course! I think she's a great example of like, the real, typical Korean woman.
Me: I know, right? When we started out, I could only understand about 20% of what she said when she spoke. Listening class made me so nervous, I hated it!
Yuki: I remember that. You always had such a worried expression on your face, and you kept mouthing to Becky throughout the class, "What is she saying? What does that mean??"
Me: You noticed that? Oh my God.
Yuki: You were like that for weeks.
Me: But I like this class so much better now that I can understand what she's saying. I think I understand about 90-95% of what goes on now! I'm really going to miss it!
Yuki: Me too!
How things have changed.
I went to a coffee shop today intent on doing homework/studying for about 4 hours; I made it through about 1.5 hours (and two assignments) before a Korean-American girl approached me and asked me if I wouldn't mind taking a picture of her and her Korean cousins. I obliged, and jokingly remarked that they should help me with my Korean homework in return for the favor. She replied that her cousin would be great at that, since he was like, actually Korean and not a visiting foreigner (like myself). I laughed, bid them farewell, and returned to my table. I made it through another 3 or 4 songs on my Korean Pop playlist (shut up) before the cousins got up and made to leave. The real Korean dude, though, stopped at my table and was like, "Hey! My cousins are leaving, do you want help with your homework?"
Who was I to refuse?
He helped me with a particularly difficult to grasp grammar pattern that I had been having trouble with all night, but of course conversation eventually strayed from homework, because it's boring and stupid and nobody cares (just kidding). We chatted in a mix of English and Korean before I showed him my final exam prep work and he was like, "Okay, let's talk about this stuff, then! You can practice." Much to my surprise, I was able to hold my own in a conversation, using (correctly!!) the new grammar patterns we've learned. I was kind of surprised. Maybe I am not as bad at speaking as I thought. This does not, however, change the fact that I will be spending this entire weekend under lock and key studying. Oh, except for the meal that I promised Jaehyun, my new coffeeshop language-practicing friend :)
It's currently about 1:00AM and because I spent the past like, 4 hours talking with Jaehyun, I didn't finish my writing homework and will have to stay up late to get it done. But I don't regret it, nor do I feel like I missed out big time on the studying front. Granted, I've got plenty of time before I have to face any of my tests (first one's writing, next Tuesday, and I've already been spending monstrous amounts of time and money reviewing vocab like a madwoman in various coffeeshops in Sinchon), and I DID practice a considerable amount of speaking with him; but regardless, I came to Korea for experiences like these. I'm happy to have them, even at the expense of an hour or two of sleep.
Some (lengthy) postscripts:
- A word to the wise if you plan on living in a goshitel for the summer: keep in mind that a lot of them do not go halfsies on rent. In other words, even though you are leaving on the 16th, Jangmi, you still have to pay the full rent for August. When I questioned this, my goshitel oppa looked at me like I was crazy and replied in English, "This goshitel. This not hotel." Gee, really? Because the lack of room service didn't totally tip me off to that within the first like, 8 minutes of being here. I am peeved that I had to pay ~$150 for a room I am not going to live in, but as I'm still decently within the bounds of my Light Fellowship budget, I am not going to throw a screaming fit about it. Especially since I asked around and it seems like this might be fairly standard/expected of goshitels. Who knew?
- I'm still sick; Sneha caught whatever it is I have and we decided today to go to Yonsei Severance Hospital, which is very close & has an International Clinic (where they speak ENGRISH). Plus, I was at my wit's end with trying to figure out what it is, exactly, that's causing me to get so sick, because I can eat certain things just fine (bulgogi, ice cream, yogurt, dumplings) and other things not so much (eggs, pizza, bibimbap, kimbap). The odd thing about the things I can't eat is that they have like, nothing in common. So it was time to call in the big guns. Essentially, I paid about $50 to be told that I have a stomach flu, which I already knew, but I finally got what appears to be a legitimate prescription from a real doctor who, by all appearances, is well-versed in Western medicine. Not to dis Korea's...ah...traditional medicine, but it's kind of ineffective and gross. Yesterday, Jihyang Unni took me to a pharmacy and got me traditional digestive medicine, which consisted of a packet of no less than 30 very tiny ball-shaped pills and a full bottle of some disgusting nebulous liquid. Evidently, you are supposed to swallow all 30 of these tiny balls at once while washing it down with whatever that drink was. When she relayed these instructions to me, Jihyang Unni realized pretty quickly that I was not a fan, so she basically ripped the package open and force-fed me the medicine. I spit it out as soon as she wasn't looking. I do not think I was any better or worse off for it. I showed my writing teacher the remaining pill packets this morning, and she was like, "Ah. That stuff tastes like crap." I wish that was a direct quote. Anyway, my new prescription looks much more like what I'm accustomed to and I understood everything the pharmacist said to me, so WIN. Yet another word to the wise, however: if you come to Korea, it might be a good idea to bring a mini-pharmacy with you. Korean pharmacies are great for getting things that you need, but you don't really have a choice in what you get, especially if you aren't great at vocalizing it or have no idea what sort of medicine you might actually need. The procedure is like this: walk into pharmacy, tell pharmacist symptoms, he/she gives you medicine, you pay and leave. It's not like RiteAid where you can freely browse the shelves to pick something you best like. And there's no Pepto Bismol here. I'd recommend bringing a supply, lest you want to choke down 30 pellets of death followed by a vile brew. Sorry, that embellishment wasn't really necessary.
- On the subject of Jihyang Unni, we went out with her and a bunch of the cool people from my trip to Gyeongju for pizza last night (Jangmi's stomach would like everyone to know that this was a bad call), and NORAEBANG (karaoke!). I keep expanding my repertoire of Korean pop songs, and it makes me infinitely happy. I had a great time, and I'm really going to miss Jihyang Unni. I hope I see her again...next year...?
- I'm sorry that I have no pop songs to post today; here, watch this instead. I nearly died laughing (make sure you read both the subtitles and the text on top of the screen). I guess even Koreans have trouble with Korean. How comforting, especially because I tried to watch the TV show that this is from, SNSD's "Hello Baby" (essentially, some irresponsible set of parents decided to give their 1-year-old son to SNSD to take care of for what appears to be like, a day and a half and they've somehow stretched this into 15 episodes) and I had an incredibly difficult time understanding it. At first, I was upset - I mean, how difficult could it be, these are a bunch of 19-20 year old girls talking in what I'm sure is common speech (반말), and I doubt they're using complicated sentence structure or super advanced vocabularly; but I think there is a big difference between understanding your Level 3 sunsaengnims (teachers), which I can do fairly well at this point, and understanding 그냥 한국어(everyday Korean). I still have a long way to go. But thank you for making me feel better, Kim Taeyeon, and embarrassingly mixing up the words for "nipple" and "pacifier" on network Korean television.
- My time here is rapidly dwindling (~10 days), and I'm starting to gather my thoughts on the summer as a whole, including Sogang and my experience there; I promise I'll post some stuff when exams aren't breathing down my neck, even if I have to wait until I'm back in America to do so ㅠ.ㅠ
- Just kidding, you can watch this video of 4 Minute, another abysmally wonderful girl group, singing an annoying song that I of course am currently trying to (illegally) download. The song title is "Hot Issue." AWESOME. What does that even mean?? Oh, and for good measure, I just downloaded this gem right here. SNSD's Jessica + SHINee's Onew = ballad goodness (the song title: "One Year Later"). I am going to start looking for the duet that Tiffany did with K.Will as soon as my homework is done...
Well, if it helps, we actually budget housing for the full month, knowing that "This not hotel." =)
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