* = this kind of thing is not really all that much (ee-geot jjeum-eun jeongmal byeolgeo ann-ya)
Week 4. Done.
The title for today's post (also from an SNSD song - sorry, I'm secretly 12?) marks a significant leap in my understanding of the Korean language. Well, perhaps that's an exaggeration - but generally, I feel like nearly all spoken Korean is beyond my realm of comprehension, and it's always exciting when I finally get something, especially if it's something I've heard without understanding over and over again. So the above line - I've known what it means for awhile, because I've seen translations of the song, but I never really thought about it until yesterday, when I was studying vocabulary for midterms (next week. doom.) Lo and behold, a bunch of vocab words that I've learned here miraculously and sensically broke down the translation!
이것저것 = this or that; the first part, 이것, is the same as in the song 정말 = really; I've known this one since Korean at Yale 별거 아니에요 = it's nothing at all; you're supposed to use this when you give a gift. The way this one's written is little more formal than it is in the song, but the root is the same.
So I guess I'm actually learning some practical/applicable Korean. Let's hope I've learned enough to deal with the listening portion of next week's midterm...
Some highlights of the week:
venturing out to the Han River Park, which I'd been intending to go to for awhile and finally made it to yesterday. I underestimated the subway trip, and once I arrived in Cheonso, it took me a little while to actually FIND my way to the river, but once I got there, I had a very nice and quiet time. I studied vocab right along the riverbank, and it was a truly nutty experience to be sitting there. I don't know, it reminded me of being in Nyack, sitting on the boardwalk by the Hudson River; I think for the first time, I felt the thousands of miles between here and there. Not that I was particularly sad or homesick, just a little awestruck. Sitting on the edges of Seoul, I wish I hadn't been stupid and left my camera at the goshitel. I want to go back, though; in getting a little a lost, I stumbled upon a FABULOUS open market and almost bought some sweet ddeok from a street vendor. Hopefully, the weather will hold and I can head down there again sometime this week.
Going out in Gangnam with Jihye on Friday night. I don't even have words to express how happy I was to see her. I also had the great pleasure of meeting her friend Hyerim, who is delightful and also plays violin in the Philharmonic. It was all so great, and I could gush about it for the next 8 paragraphs, but in this case, photos are perhaps better than words:
JIHYE UNNI :) @ the Rainbow Club in Gangnam
언니, 너무 사랑해요!
Gathering up the courage to go get a haircut in a country where I can hardly express myself adequately in daily life, let alone in situations that require a specific set of vocabulary. But unfortunately, the haircut was kind of necessary after some hookah and a close interaction with an open flame. Don't ask. Anyway, a new place opened up above Red Mango, so I went to check it out (it looked uber swanky); I arrived and nervously bumbled out, "How much for a haircut?" The guy says the price, but I was so disbelieving that he got out a calculator and actually typed out 200,000 won (= ~$120.00). WTF. I wouldn't pay that much for a haircut even in the States, so that was out of the question. I left and decided to look near EDae, which is a woman's college. Surely, there HAD to be SOME sort of salon in an area drenched with that much estrogen. And naturally, there were many. I settled on a place called JaThree (question mark), which looked really posh and lovely from the outside. Again, I timidly approached and asked how much a haircut cost, to which the attendant replied, "이십삼천 원," (23,000 won = ~$19.oo). I asked her to repeat herself, because I'm bad with Korean numbers and really did not want to pay 230,000 won instead of 23,000; plus, a haircut at a place that nice for under $20 did not seem possible. Thankfully, I'd heard right, although I began to doubt myself again once I was shown in, given a cubbie to place my bag in, and a complimentary drink menu. Less than 20 minutes later, I was sipping an iced chocolate with whipped cream while getting a scalp massage along with my shampoo. BEST SERVICE EVER. The actual haircut itself was awesome as well - my lovely language partner, Hyojung, was kind enough to write out some useful words ("Please just cut a little and leave the length long," "Please cut layers," etc.) which were fortunately understood by the hairdresser. It was so great, I don't even have words to express it. Oh, and the result? Undeniably Asian-looking, but just what I asked for. Seriously, I can't get AMERICAN hairdressers to listen to me, and one with whom I could barely communicate did a better job. 2 thumbs up, JaThree. If/when I come back to Korea, you're going to be my primary hair-care salon. Before leaving, I joked to Hayeon that I was going to come back looking like Kim Taeyeon of SNSD. The funny part is, I actually sort of did. But without the bangs and without being Asian. That part's kind of important.
This morning, I met with the aforementioned Hyojung, the language partner I found on the KLEC message board. This was the only the second time that we've met, but already I've spent about 8 hours talking to her. We literally sat in McDonald's from 9:00 to 1:00 today. Conversation flows easily, and I feel like it's helpful to both of us. Her English is EXCELLENT, though, so it's much harder for us to talk in Korean. Luckily, she's really patient. I would much rather meet with her than meet with my Sogang-assigned language partner, who is still awkward and not terribly helpful. Oh, well - what can you do?
I have a great deal more to say on various and sundry topics, such as Korean standards of beauty and the ridiculous culture it creates, the place that plastic surgery has come to have among Korean young women, my progress in this language, and my future in this country - but all will have to wait, because my books are beckoning me to study for the midterms that I am almost assuredly not yet prepared to take. I'll check in soon, hopefully with some decently profound insights.
Jangmi out.
p.s. A preview: watch this. As this just came out, it will predictably be everywhere for the rest of the summer and thus the soundtrack to my daily walks to Sogang. Snippets of my life.
* = don't wait for a miracle, there's a rough road ahead (Teuk-byul-han gi-jeok-eul gi-dari-jima, nun-appesan-woori-eh geo-chingireun)
I will start today with a list of pros & cons. Pros:
Pottery with L3: So today, all of the Sogang levels had outings with their respective levels to different "culturally informative" places within the city. Level 3 wound up going to this pottery shop in Hongdae, where you could decorate your own mug, which would then be fired and glazed for your enjoyment. I have to say that as a person who does not much care for arts and crafts, I actually had quite the fine time. I think this was much more due to the pretty outstanding people in my class than the fact that I am now the proud owner of a mug emblazoned with a purple cow (yeah, I don't know either). Most of my class was in attendance, as well as (most of) our teachers; my writing teacher was the only one who wasn't there, which made me pretty sad. She's my FAVE. Not that I dislike my speaking teacher or my listening teacher (whose clothes indicate that she is either still living in the 80s or is just horribly misinformed about what actually looks good on her). Okay, that was mean. But I kind of want to take her shopping or something.
3급 hard at work on our mugs. I've never seen adults so excited for arts & crafts. P.S. Becky spent the entire time we were there with that same ridiculous grin on her face. It was kind of adorable.
again.
speaking teacher, 이선생님. She's pregnant and said she's too fat for photos, but I disagree and am posting this anyway. Note with delight the Asian peace sign. Sadly, I have no pictures of my listening teacher to post...
my finished product. I didn't draw the cow, it was from a copy-on stencil thingy. I did, however, color it purple and then, in a fit of artistic exasperation, give up and draw polka dots on the whole thing. What this has to do with Korean culture, I have no idea, but it was a nice bonding experience.
After pottery, lunch with (most of) my class. We ate at this nice BBQ place and had (I hope I'm getting this right) 닭갈비 보끔밥, or spicy chicken fried rice. NOM. It was really good and it was really nice to just hang out with these people I see every day outside of KLEC. Surprisingly (or maybe not surprisingly?), they are all older than me, probably by at least 5-20 years. No other Americans, either. But you'd be surprised how much you can communicate using extremely broken English and rudimentary Korean.
the initial: spicy, savory chicken + ddeok + scallions/onions
the finished: FRIED RICE :)
the happy eaters: Akabame, Konomi, Ada, Chuchun, Seona, Becky, Yukiko, Jere, Riston. Given that I know these people's names only in Korean, I actually have serious doubts about whether or not I am spelling them correctly. But 3.5/5 Asians throwing up the peace sign = win.
Pronunciation class, which is offered in addition to regular classes on Tuesday and Thursday. Really, this class wasn't all that great/necessary, especially because I feel like Lee Sunsaengnim pounded pronunciation drills into our heads at Yale, plus I did a lot with Jihye; however, it was a huge ego boost, because while just about everything else I do here seems sub-par, I am a superior pronunciator and put the Japanese girls here to shame. Okay, so what I really mean is that I found an opportunity to pay back two girls in my class who are always helping me out when I have no idea what is going on by helping them to understand the subtle pronunciation differences between 가, 카, and 까. Success?
Korean beauty products, which are available at no less than 5 or so makeup stores on my street. I bought a face wash from a place called InnisFree (all organic products, surprisingly not as expensive as you might expect) and it's FABULOUS. Probably the best stuff I've ever used. The only downside to this is that when Sneha and I first went into the store, we were tailed by the ONE makeup-store employee in perhaps all of Korea who was Korean-American. She pounced on us immediately, recognizing us to be the Korean-deficient English speakers that we are, and proceeded to follow us around the entire store, despite the fact that we told her once or twice that we were just checking out the stuff at all the stores on the street to see what was there and were not interested in knowing the details of every product on the shelf. Actually, in Korea, this isn't terribly out of the ordinary - ajummas in shops consistently stalk you from the moment you enter, and it's terribly annoying and oppressive (at least it is in my opinion). It doesn't really give the opportunity to compare products or prices because you feel insanely pressured to BUY SOMETHING FAST and get the hell out. But JESUS, this girl from InnisFree was just too much. She also had some farfetched and convoluted story about what she was doing in Korea and why she was working at InnisFree. The whole thing made very little sense, and I was almost disappointed when I found a soap that I wanted to buy, because it just provided her the opportunity to talk more. I've since been back to InnisFree (the second time, I went with Christine), but the girl found me again and picked up right where she left off. Expletive.
I bought 2 magazines from a street vendor in Sinchon Rotary, both of which are in Korean. One of them has Korean actress Jeon Ji-Hyun on the cover, who I have venerated since I saw My Sassy Girl, a hilarious Korean film that remains in my top 5 all-time favorite movies. Evidently, she has a new movie coming out and they interviewed her about it; I expect to have some vague idea about what she said in the interview by the time this program is over, which is to say, it is probably going to take me months or longer to decipher it. But one day, I swear I'll read it, and the rest of the magazine while I'm at it.
Waffles from Casse Croute. I eat 2 a day sometimes. At less than a dollar each, I feel absolutely no guilt in buying them. I might feel guilt if I have to buy new pants as a result, but for now...well. We'll cross that bridge if/when we come to it.
I may be going to Gyeongju in two weeks. This is all slightly up in the air, though, so I will refrain from providing details until things are more set in stone.
Cons:
I am about 95% sure my wisdom teeth are coming in. This is just awesome, since I have no hope of getting dental care for the next 2 months. I have a decent supply of American ibuprofen, but I doubt it'll be enough with the headaches/pain I've been getting. Plus, the last thing I want to do when I arrive home is get oral surgery, but it would be necessary to do so ASAP in order to return to Yale fully recovered by the end of August. I've made an appointment to get all of this checked out on August 19, which is...a day after I arrive home. SWEET (not).
Speaking is still a royal pain, but! there is hope. I responded to a KLEC message board post by a Korean girl looking for a language exchange partner (I help with her English, she helps with my Korean) and I got a response back! Hopefully, I can start meeting with her soon, although I haven't heard from her in a few days...
I will not be traveling to Tokyo this summer. Enough said about that.
No Jihye time this week. It's still concert season, but I think they basically have July & August off. Soonish?
On that note, I cannot believe that I have been here for over 20 days, indicating that I'm a quarter of the way through my time here. I think I express some degree of shock over this in every entry, but yeah. Time flies, dude.
As always, if you're reading this, chances are I miss you.
* = have strength, we've come this far (him-eul-nae, ee man-keum wasst-jan-ah) An already-embarrassing obsession with K-Pop has lent itself nicely to creating titles for these posts. The above line is from an SNSD song called "Him Nae." For the latest additions to my collection, courtesy of Hayeon, see this, this, or this.
Aside from skyping until late last night, thus forcing me to do my homework at an ungodly hour, I had a fabulous weekend, and I finally bring you photographs of my travels, along with documented proof that I am, indeed, in Korea.
Friday night, following dinner & shopping with Becky and Sejin, I finally ventured out to Hongdae with a bunch of people to check out the clubbing scene. Evidently, Koreans do not really have a time limit on partying; we arrived at Noise Basement via taxi (subways close at midnight on weekends; WHY?) at around 1AM to find the place completely packed, incredibly smoky, and loud. Still, it was a lot of fun, and when we finally escaped at 3:30ish, the club was still just as packed, smoky, and loud. When do these people go home? Anyway, we ourselves didn't even head back, but instead went to the nearest noraebang (karaoke room) for a few hours of screaming/singing. The ajumma running the whole operation must have liked us for some reason, because she let us stay for an extra 40 minutes or so, giving me enough time to belt out some American classics as well as Super Junior's "Don't Don" and "Maria," a track from a great (if morally ambiguous) Korean film called 200 Pounds Beauty. Look it up on Youtube.
You know what is not a great Korean film? This godawful movie we actually paid money to watch on Saturday night at a DVD bang (like a noraebang, this is kind of a like a Blockbuster that allows you to watch the movies there for a small fee). It was called My Wife Got Married, and I'm not even going to bother hyperlinking it because that is how much I hated it. When we got there, I had wanted to watch another Korean movie that Hayeon had recommended, but the stupid nerd at the front desk talked us out of it, saying that it was 재미없어, not interesting or funny. Well, his replacement suggestion of My Wife Got Married was neither interesting, funny, or even sensical; basically, it was a mess of a film. Sejin & Lee Sunsaengnim, my speaking teacher, said that it was really popular when it came out last year, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. FAIL. Win some, lose some, I guess?
Anyway.
Sunday was by far the most awesome day of the weekend, beginning with some much-needed sleep after late-ish nights on Friday and Saturday. After lunch, I met up again with Becky and Sejin, whose wonderful mother drove us out to a galbi restaurant for perhaps the best dinner I've had here in Korea. Galbi (갈비) is essentially beef, marinated in I don't know what, and grilled on your table right in front of you. Once it's cooked, you can eat it however you want, really, but the best way by far is to make a little lettuce envelope. Start with a lettuce leaf; in the center, put a piece of the galbi, some bean paste, garlic, chives, vegetables, basically whatever suits your fancy, really. Wrap it up all up as best you can and then stuff the whole thing into your mouth. Lather, rinse, repeat. Seriously, so awesome. Perhaps not the most glamorous thing to eat, but one of the best, for sure.
Following dinner, Sejin's mom took us to 엔 서울 타워, North Seoul Tower, a popular tourist destination in. I wish I had some sort of history to back it up with, but evidently it is/was a communications tower that has now become popular for providing a magnificent panoramic view of the city:
Seoul by night
You can take a Namsan cable car to get to the Tower, followed by an elevator that can take you up to view the city. It was a touch foggy yesterday (as it always seems to be in Seoul), but it was awesome nonetheless. Sejin's mom is fabulous, and I wish I could have spoken more to her (she doesn't speak any English whatsoever, so it made communicating a little difficult). Hopefully, by the end of the summer, we'll be able to have a conversation. That way, I can thank her for the fact that she not only generously treated us to dinner and touristy things, but also gave Sejin her credit card and told her to buy fruit (which is ridiculously expensive here) for me and Becky so that we are getting enough vitamins and such. ISN'T THAT SO CUTE? SO SWEET!
Thus beings week 3, with some vocab review and more head-spinning hyper-concentration for 4 hours at a time in the KLEC building. It's actually quite fun, though, and I am enjoying it a lot. The next few days should bring another epic encounter with Jihye, perhaps more studying/food/shopping with Sejin, an outing to Hongdae with the rest of Level 3, and hopefully more karaoke. And food.
I close now with some pictures for your viewing pleasure, as well as with a note that I miss you all (really, really, really - especially T^3, and Hayeon, I can't wait til you are here!), and continue to keep in touch, yeah?
From Week 1's trip to Gyeongbokgung Palace
The gardens around the Palace; a pagoda and some gorgeous mountains. Probably the coolest thing about Seoul is how the whole city is wedged completely within breathtaking mountains.
The palace facade; the changing of the guard
view from inside the palace, with a crazy backdrop of Seoul, the metropolitan center; a blend of old & new if I ever saw one. If it weren't for all the freaking kimchi, sometimes I might think I'm in NY. dessert from Waffle It Up! near E-Dae. Sejin & I went here on Friday, and it was so good - waffles with blueberry yogurt & chocolate gelato. On that note, I promise to post more pictures of Korean food...
me & Sejin's mom! You can see the galbi cooking right on the table, along with the 8000 other side dishes...
L-R: Becky, Sejin's mom, Sejin, me; outside the restaurant!
view from the Namsan Cable Car
At the top of Namsan, couples put locks on a link fence as a declaration of their undying love for each other. There were thousands of them. I think you're supposed to chuck the key over the ledge; as Sejin put it, probably half of these couples no longer speak to each other.
Sejin and Becky, two wonderful, wonderful people! I'm so happy to have these two in Seoul :)
When did it become June 11? No, really...is it like, practically mid-June already? What?
Tomorrow wraps up my second official week at Sogang, and tonight marks the 2-week anniversary of my arrival in South Korea. I am a little disappointed to report that time here flies as quickly as it does at Yale; another week has gone by before I could even wrap my mind around it, and here I am wondering how the hell it is that we are already about 1/4 of the way through the entire curriculum. Seriously, I'm not even kidding - each level at Sogang consists of two books (A and B), each of which has about 8 chapters. We finish chapter 4A tomorrow. HOW.
So classes progress at the speed of lightning; is this the case, you might ask, for my language skills? Again, I am a little disappointed (okay, a lot disappointed) to report that it is not. This is perhaps the most unrealistic thing on the face of the earth, but my speaking skills are really, really not up to scratch. I met with my Sogang-assigned language partner today, a Korean student who perhaps stupidly signed up to help us dumb 워국 사람 (foreigners) learn Korean, and it instantly became painfully obvious that I am not really ready for a language partner. Sogang reserves this quite nice bonus for levels 3 and up, because at level 3 I suppose they expect you to be reasonably conversant. I am not. Oh, well. I felt fairly crappy after this meeting, especially because I'd missed dinner with all the other Fellows, but a sandwich from Paris Baguette and a waffle smothered in cream and strawberry sauce made me feel a little better. Fat kid.
All that being said, I suppose I'm stuck in level 3, because it seems silly to switch down now. I've already become accustomed to my teachers, their style of instruction, their mannerisms while speaking, etc; plus, I am not suffocating in their classes and understand a decent amount, so I'll just stay and hope for the best. Plus, I adore adore adore my writing teacher and want to be her best friend (she seems to understand that I need a little extra help - whenever she explains things to the class, she generally looks right at me and gesticulates wildly so as to aid her explanation, which is then followed by her coming over to me, pointing at my paper, and slowly repeating everything she just said. I'm starting to get things the first time they are said, so this is becoming unnecessary, but it's kind of hilariously adorable, so I always just smile and nod and sometimes flash a thumbs up).
And with that, I close the book on this ridiculous level 3/level 2 saga, and will only mention it again should I for some reason be kicked out of level 3 due to my astounding linguistic incompetence. Cross your fingers, folks.
Fortunately, in all of my fretting over how bad my speaking is, my writing and reading are definitely improving, and quite quickly. Just because I can't use grammar patterns in spoken Korean does not mean that I don't understand them or can't apply them, because I can. I'm kind of hoping that as these patterns become ingrained in my writing and my psyche, I will be able to gradually incorporate them into my speaking with more confidence.
All things considered (and classwork aside), I am having quite the fine time here in the land of a thousand types of kimchi. This week, I saw Sejin on Tuesday and Wednesday; on Tuesday, she took me down to the City Hall area (a few subway stops away from Sinchon, but a place I'd yet to visit), where we wandered around and eventually settled down for dinner at this yummy place where you sit on the floor (these are actually everywhere in Korea, and happen to be a particular favorite of Sneha's). We ordered this meal, I can't even remember what it's called, but it came with something like 18 side dishes and 2 steaming hot bowls of soup, one 순두부 (sundubu), a smooth tofu soup, and one 된장 찌깨 (dwenjang jjiggae), a soup made from soybean paste. It was all very delicious, and we topped it off with a slice of chocolate cake from a nearby coffeeshop. I think it was my first slice of cake since arriving, and I am most glad that I was able to share it with Sejin! Hopefully, we'll see more of each other, and soon.
Wednesday brought the 3-hour trip to Yongsan from hell, which I will decline to talk about except to mention that I managed (chiefly, in fact exclusively due to Sejin's extremely generous help) to procure both a cell phone and ridiculously-overpriced camera battery charger. The cell phone is the jankiest thing on the planet; pre-paid phones in Korea, called card phones, are pretty much second-hand phones that have been returned and are re-sold for stupidly low prices, so you absolutely get what you pay for. Mine looks like it's been through a washing machine, perhaps a couple of times. On that subject, I have yet to do laundry and am running out of clothes. You didn't need to know that, but yeah. I was also a little PO'ed about the battery charger, since the one that I have at home looks like a Glade plug-in and probably costs even less than that, but that is what I get for being stupid and leaving it there. In the end, I'd rather have a lot of pictures than the 20 or so extra dollars that I had to spend, so no big deal. That being said, I'll post pictures soon. No, really, I will.
And now I shall recommence studying vocabulary and finally crash for the night. The weekend should bring about festivities and hopefully more touristing, so stay tuned.
* = I am gradually adapting (jeom jeom jeok-eung hago isseoh)
Week 2 begins, and I probably understood about 30% more of what was going on in class today. Somebody asked me if that makes 90% total; I replied that it actually makes about 60%, seeing as I understood about a third (or less) of what was going on last week. I realized this this morning when it became apparent that we had a rather lengthy homework assignment that I completely did not know was ever delegated to us. Live and learn? At least here, homework is not a high priority - you of course should do it (and in a somewhat timely fashion, so as to keep up with the pace of the program), but as most of the students are adults who lead busy lives beyond the four hours they spend at Sogang every morning, homework is emphasized far less than is classwork.
I also discovered what I need to do to stay afloat in level 3, and that is prep work like the devil is after me. Our textbook and workbook come with this tiny booklet outlining all of the grammar patterns and vocabulary for each new chapter; if you study this intensely the weekend/night before class, you are a lot less lost, trust me. It may involve a little extra work here and there, but the payoff is quite nice. I even answered one or two questions in my listening class (ironically, one of which was to make a sentence using the word for "to lack confidence"), and Yang Sunsaengnim doesn't seem as terrifying anymore. I think all three of my teachers are growing on me, which is definitely a positive step.
After class today, we had our obligatory lunch at Kimbap Heaven (kimbap + dumplings = $2.80) followed by homework-ing and the like. At 6:00, we all plodded down to the Hyundai Department Store to meet Jihye Unni** again for dinner - which was wonderful, as always. She took us to a 닭갈비 (dalk-galbi) restaurant, which specializes in serving a spicy chicken stew made with ddeokbokki, noodles, and various vegetables. It was fabulous; we ate it along with a couple of merry shots of Korea's alcohol of choice, soju. Honestly, I love that girl - Jihye's company is such a comfort to me here in Seoul, more so than any other Korean or American friends that I have here. She seems very protective of all of us, and very much lives up to her title as "older sister." I'm glad to know she's always just a phone call away, and I hope I see her again soon.
Jihye & (most of) our Korean class - an old photo, to surely be replaced by some newer ones, pending the procurement of that stupid camera battery charger.
While walking Jihye to the subway station, some white guy came up to me unexpectedly and asked, "Are you Dana D'Amelio?" Sure enough, it was Philip Gant, perhaps the most famous Light Fellow to ever come to Korea (if you ask Lee Sunsaengnim, that is) as well as my friend Sejin's boyfriend, who was in tow. It was really nice to see Sejin again - she's sticking around Korea for most of the summer. She promised to meet me tomorrow and to help me (finally) get a cell phone and camera battery on Wednesday. This is a relief, since, you know, I'd actually like to have these electronics instead of wimping around and whining that my language skills aren't good enough to procure such devices (which, okay, they probably are - but I fear speaking at this point. It's on the to-do list, I promise).
A couple of hours, mostly spent doing homework and goofing off at Starbucks, have since elapsed, and my Korean clock tells me that it is bedtime as the day begins in New York/New Haven. So it is.
** = something I have intended to address for awhile is the kind of ridiculous obsession with age that Korean culture seems to revolve around (if you are Korean or are taking Korean, you might want to skip this; you'll know about it already). Well, I suppose "ridiculous" is a harsh word; "unfamiliar" is more like it, seeing as I can't really think of any true equivalent in any other language. Basically, Korean language changes and adapts to fit the social situation at hand, or rather, the speaker must adapt their language and grammatical choices to the appropriate level. I *think* there are something like 6 or 7 levels of formality; which one you use depends almost entirely on age. Whereas I might use familiar speech (반말, or banmal) with close friends my own age, I would have to use a more formal style of construction when addressing teachers, parents of friends, basically any adults that you don't know well or wish to show respect. There is yet another level of formal speech, used to convey utmost respect and which I have most often heard used by news reporters on TV and by people who are introduced for the first time. It's all very confusing, and knowing when to switch in and out of each level of formality seems totally ingrained in the Korean psyche. Which is to say that it is near impossible for foreigners to grasp. We don't have things like this back in the States; the closest approximation would maybe be changing the word "yeah" to "yes" (as in you might say "yeah" to a friend, but "yes" to a teacher or something like that). Even this, however, is not nearly as strict as it is in Korea; also, it doesn't really quite revolve around age.
A manifestation of the Korean obsession with age is the terms by which younger people are supposed to address people older than they. This applies to children AND adults. Take me and Jihye, for example - Jihye is five or so years older than me, and therefore I should not address her solely by her first name, but by 언니(unni, a term meaning "older sister"). If I want to distinguish her from other girls who are older than me, because I am supposed to call each and every one of them unni, I have to add unni to her name, making her Jihye Unni, as specified above. If I am addressing an older boy, the term is 오빠 (oppa, meaning "older brother"); as if this wasn't all confusing enough, there are actually separate terms for girls and boys to use (boys refer to older girls as 누나, nuna, and older guys as 형, hyung). This relationship applies even to family members; if we were Korean, my younger brother Matt would always, always refer to me simply as nuna. This is totally unfathomable to me; I can't imagine my brother never calling me by name, or never calling my older friends by their true names. If Hayeon and I were totally Korean all the time, she would technically be my unni, because she's a year and a month older than me. I am grateful that she hates the term.
I think the age thing seems to remove a certain level of personability that I know I've reached with older friends, but Koreans seem comfortable in it and I would be stunned if this ever changed. Chalk it up to one of those things you just have to get used to; it's like eating kimchi. I know it's weird and looks funny and isn't what you're used to, but everyone else is eating it. You might as well, too.
I just returned from a late-night stroll with Hisashi and Sneha, whereupon we stumbled across a rather drunk and sad-looking girl (or perhaps more correctly, she stumbled across us). Out of concern, we followed her for a bit - okay, that sounds creepier than I intended it to - and eventually, she collapsed onto a stone bench and dissolved into loud sobs. We felt so bad that we approached her and asked, "실레지마...괜찮아요?" (translation: excuse me, but are you okay?) She shook her head at us while answering that she was fine; I asked her if we could help her, to which she again responded that she was fine. Not wanting to be any more an intrusion, we left her to herself. I desperately wanted to go buy her an ice cream or something, but was persuaded against it after realizing that it might seem really creepy and strange.
Maybe I'm a sucker, and in fact, I'm sure that I am - but nothing here has made me as sad as this girl did. The worst part was that I really wanted to help her, but due to a frustrating language barrier, my options for doing even the most basic of things was severely limited. Then again, I suppose we live in a world where even the kindest gestures can be looked upon with suspicion (Sneha opined that if some stranger brought her ice cream on the street, she would assume it was poisonous and chuck it), which makes me pretty sad for humanity. I think I just have more faith in people, which sadly makes me more vulernable to the many people whose intentions are less than pure. Sad face. Every time something like this happens, I think of that line in Memoirs of a Geisha (the book or movie): "None of us finds as much kindness in this world as we should." Sigh.
Part of me still wants to run back into the street and find her, call her a cab, and see her safely off home. But I won't. Instead, I'll just hope that tomorrow treats her better than did today.
For those of you who are more concerned with me than you are with the sad girl, I will offer that everything is fine here (I had a delicious dinner of bulgogi, a lovely beef stew - to be contrasted with Sneha's disastrous soup) and spent most of the day studying at a cafe called Beans 'n Berries. I am not much further along in catching up, but at least some of the vocab is coming along. We have plans to meet Jihye again tomorrow night(!!), which is excellent and should provide some much-needed relief from the fairly constant studying.
Jangmi out.
p.s. to address the question I have most often received, there are no pictures on this blog yet because I realized that I stupidly left my camera's battery charger at home. This week, I'm going to Yongsan to get a card phone and will try to pick one up then. Stay tuned. p.p.s. Waffle eaten. Mission accomplished.
* = I will gain self-confidence (jashingam-ee saenggil-geoh-ya)
I have officially been in Seoul for over a week now, and adjusting to life as Jangmi (장미, my Korean name, which means "rose") has been nothing if not terribly interesting. I'm inclined to say that I really like Seoul 생활 (daily life), which is to say that the many frustrations that are implicit in living in a far stranger setting than what you're used to are usually minimized by the amazing payoffs that immersing yourself in a new culture undoubtedly brings.
Goshitel life is just fine, although everyone here is unfriendly to the point where I may or may not have seen a girl or two snarl when I talk to Sneha or Becky (who are both living here) in the hall. Nobody's really spoken to me, although the girl who lives next door to me did give me a small smile and bow when we ran into each other in the kitchen. I want to be like, "HEY let's practice Korean and be 친구 (chingu, friend)!" but of course I don't say that because that would make me look even more like the absurd American I'm sure 80% of these people think I am. The only people who seem to be vaguely amused by me are high school kids, many of whom giggle and stare as I pass. Some of them even work up the courage to say, "Hi!" to which I usually respond in kind, sending them into convulsions of giggles yet again. The other day, the girl to whom I spoke looked so thrilled at talking to an American that I even went a step further and asked, "How are you?" She replied in a high voice, "FINE THANKS AND YOU!" It was hilarious. She and the boy she was with then proceded to follow us for a good 30 feet. I don't really know what they wanted, but the whole exchange was rather amusing.
I finally did buy bed supplies, but honestly, it was one of those WTF foreigner experiences. Evidently, Koreans do not use sheets. Bedding seems to consist of an outrageously expensive mattress cover (mine cost about $40) and a blanket, which was only $10 in comparsion. This is incredibly odd to me, whose entire set of bed sheets for school (this includes a matress cover, sheet, and pillowcase) was about $15 total, plus a more expensive comforter and perhaps another sheet to go in between. But here, my bed consists of the blanket I bought (usually haphazardly draped over the bed) the mattress cover, and a $5 pillow currently encased in an old Yale t-shirt because I neglected to purchase a pillowcase. Okay.
Because there's no food in the goshitel (with the exception of round-the-clock rice and kimchi, which, no thanks), we go out to eat every night for dinner. We've found some keepers in this process, as well as some disasters - one restaurant kept Hisashi waiting for over 30 minutes for his food, due to the incompetence of a waitress who refused to speak to us, preferring to use hand gestures to indicate yeses and nos, despite the fact that we spoke to her in intelligible Korean. Other than that, we found a place with spectacular dumplings, made by an ajoshi sitting by the window, a vegetarian haven, and a cute restaurant where you sit on the floor with delicious banchan and 뚝배 불고기, a savoury beef soup with onions and noodles. We went there tonight, and it was astoundingly good. Cheap, too - only 5 dollars for a very good meal. Prices are extremely decent here, and the exchange rate is currently in our favor. Let's hope it lasts. We've yet to eat the famous and wonderfully delicious Korean BBQ (Sneha and Bob are vegetarians, so we do what we can to avoid places that only serve BBQ), but I am dying to go and hopefully will go this week.
We've also been eating a lot of dessert, mostly patbingsu, or a frozen dessert made with shaved ice, condensed milk, frozen yogurt, fruit, red bean (pat), and ddeok (the Korean version of Japanese mochi, sweet rice cakes). This treat is meant to be mixed and shared, and we've eaten it 4 or 5 times already. Good ice cream is also readily available at Baskin Robbins, which are EVERYWHERE and seem to have a monopoly on the ice cream market - they are fancier and (in my opinion) much better here than they are in the States. We had chocolate fondue and ice cream the other night and it was great. In addition to ice cream or ice cream-based desserts, I'm dying to try Korean waffles, which everyone here seems to be crazy about. You've only to walk down the street to see a bunch of college and high school kids carrying hot waffles, folded over a creamy and delicious-looking filling. One girl was eating one in front of me on the subway today and I stared at her jealously for almost the entire ride. I wanted to buy one as soon as we arrived back in Sinchon, but alas, it was too close to dinnertime. I still haven't had one. WHY.
After a full week of classes, I am still not totally sure that I should be in level 3, although my listening and understanding have definitely improved. Speaking, not so much (I made a complete ass of myself at the post office trying to send a package home to a friend - quite the ego-smasher, that was, and terribly indicative of how far I have to go in this language), but it is still very, very early in the program. I can't expect to be chatting up the locals after 20 hours of Korean class, only 8 of which were actually devoted to 말하기 (malhagi, or speaking). Unfortunately, it is really hard to practice among the Light Fellows because most of us are at the same low level and communication on any scale beyond simple sentences (most of which are extraordinarily context-dependent), is near impossible. I am hoping to get a language partner in the next week or so, one who can speak to me in Korean and force me to use my language skills, however limited, to get a point across.
So class begins at 9:00AM, which is earlier than any class I ever took at Yale, and lasts for about 4 hours (thankfully peppered with breaks every 50 minutes). My schedule looks something like this: 9:00 -- 쓰기 (writing) with Choi Sunsaengnim, a delightful young woman who is incredibly patient and consistently encouraging of my decidedly stunted abilities. She calmly corrects my many spelling errors and always tells me that I did well, regardless of how stupid my mistakes have been. I have to admit that I took an immediate liking to her because she reminds me very much of my old sort-of tutor, Jaehee Ju - if any readers out there know Jaehee, you'll know that anyone who is remotely like her must be a pretty spectacular individual. 10:00 -- 말하기 (speaking) with Lee Sunsaengnim, who is sadly not Angela Sunsaengnim, despite the fact that they have the same last name. We have speaking class for two hours; Sogang is intensely focused on speaking ability. While I certainly appreciate this, I actually feel as though my speaking abilities are the only ones getting worse, or at least not improving. I think the reason for this is the fact that I am so far behind everyone else; my speaking is still at level 2, which implies that there are 9 or so chapters of grammar that I haven't been using/don't know how to use. Hence the need to find a language partner and start brushing up. A girl in my class was nice enough to photocopy her copy of book 2B for me, so I've been studying that on my own and hopefully can practice some of this stuff in the coming days. In any case, Lee Sunsaegnim is generally nice, pregnant, and looks an awful lot like Hayeon's mom to me. That says almost nothing about her, but that would be my only impression at this point. She does have cute maternity clothes, though. 12:00 -- 듣기/읽기 (listening/reading) with Yang Sunsaengnim. This class makes me break out in hives, I swear. When Yang Sunsaengnim walks into the room, I can all of a sudden understand absolutely nothing. She speaks very quickly, and I get nervous just trying to follow. I think the issue with this class is (again) that I am missing 9 chapters of vocabulary. I started trying to catch up today, and it...well, it's going to take some time. 화이팅? Anyway, someone told me that Yang (양) is a pretty common last name out on Jeju-do, an island south of Korea, where they speak a heavily-accented version of the Seoul Korean I'm used to hearing; therefore, I have decided that this teacher must be from Jeju-do and therefore speaks incomprehensibly. Becky, another Light Fellow who I am extremely grateful to have met, informs me that this is absolutely not the case, but I swear - I can understand both Choi and Lee Sunsaengnim a thousand times better than this one! WHY. She's totally from Jeju-do.
Class ends at 1:00, and our little group of Lighters usually congregates outside of the KLEC building and heads off to a cheap but delicious lunch at a low-end chain restaurant called Kimbap Heaven. This place serves nearly everything you can think of, from its namesake food (kimbap = Korean sushi-ish rolls, full of vegetables & meat, flavored with sesame oil) to bibimbap and kimchi jjigae. I've taken a special liking to cheese ddeokbokki, which is essentially fat rice cakes covered in a spicy red sauce and a slice of what appears to be Kraft Singles cheese. You can add ramen noodes for <50 cents more. EVERYTHING IS SO CHEAP. Loves it.
Last Tuesday, I actually went to a ddeokbokki restaurant near E-Dae (Ewha Women's University) with Michelle Cho, a friend of Hayeon and Greta's that I met when all three were studying at Cambridge last summer. It was really great to see Michelle again, to catch up, and to eat more ddeokbokki than I could chew. After we scraped the plate clean, our waiter reheat the burner (a lot of food is served in big communal dishes that are heated over a burner in the center of the table and shared) and filled the pan with rice, vegetables, and gochujang to make a very tasty fried rice - for <$1.50 more! Such a good idea. On our way back to the rotary, Michelle pointed out good locales for future dining, which I'm sure will come in handy. This walk around E-Dae also allowed me my first experience with 장마 (jangma, the rainy season), in which the heavens open up and attempt to drown everyone for about an hour. This is then followed by sunshine and total calm, as though it had never happened at all. I had to buy an umbrella because I stupidly forgot one at home. I think that this rainy season is supposed to last basically the entire summer, so I'm sure I've got a lot more potential drowning to look forward to.
But enough about that.
In other news, last night I had the fabulous opportunity to see the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra perform free of charge. This was courtesy of my beloved fall semester TA, Jihye Chung, who left Yale in December to join the orchestra. After some email correspondence (none of us have phones yet), we boarded the 2 line subway bound for Seocho, yet another ritzy area home not only to one Hayeon Lee, but also to the Seoul Arts Center, where the Philharmonic plays. It was a pretty beautiful area, quite unlike Sinchon, and the concert hall was gorgeous. After a wonderful show, which included some crazy drummer guy named Colin Currie, who astounded the crowd with his percussion skills (prompting him to come out for no less than 8 encores and play another set), we saw Jihye, and that was probably one of the most wonderful things to happen since I've been in Seoul. Everyone knows how much I hate goodbyes, but I acknowledge their necessity if we are to have reunions as happy as the one Jihye had with our class last night. Once we met her, we all stood around grinning like idiots for a good 15 seconds before I awkwardly proffered the cheap-ass bouquet of gaudy-looking roses we bought for her from a flower vendor at the Sinchon rotary, then mob-hugged her. She hasn't changed a bit (not that she would have in 6 months), and it was so wonderful to see her. She and her boyfriend Wayne, who is concert-master of the orchestra(!) generously took us out to a soju bar in Apgujeong afterwards, where we caught up a little, drank, ate ddeokbokki, and played this ridiculous drinking game involving the names of various fruits and vegetables (I think it's called
딸기 게임, Strawberry Game, or something along those lines). I lost twice; no further comment is needed.
Jihye promised to meet us again on Monday night, and when their touring season calms down a bit in a few weeks, she said she'd be happy to meet with me and tutor me again. This is the best news I've heard in awhile, not only because I missed Jihye so much, but because my Korean is severely in want of a solid tutor. Hopefully she can help me catch up with all the stuff I've missed.
Today, we went to 명동, Myeongdong, an area famous for its shopping district. There are a lot of these in Seoul (Dongdaemun, Namdaemun, and Insadong, to name just a few), but Myeongdong has a lot of appeal for younger audiences. There are plenty of clothing shops, jewelry stores, food stands, makeup places, etc. I wound up buying 2 pairs of earrings for less than 2 dollars; after putting them in and discovering how ridiculously cute they were, I immediately regretted not buying more, but there are plenty of weekends left for me to go back to Myeongdong, and plenty more time to realize that these cheap earring are probably going to turn my earlobes green. Similarly, there is plenty of time left for me to go to a noraebang (I can't believe I haven't done this yet - these are essentially karaoke rooms, translated from 노래 = norae, or song and 방 = bang, or room), eat galbi and samgyeopsal until I burst, visit Hangang Park, get another ear piercing in Hongdae (what?), and a thousand other things that I have planned to do. A summer seems like forever, but it's already been a week in the blink of an eye. How quickly will the rest pass?
This is long enough, long enough to the point where I'd be surprised if anyone has made it to these actual words detailing a psuedo-apology for the length of this entry. I suppose this indicates that I should blog more frequently so I don't have to cram everything into one ridiculous post. In the meantime, I'll be returning to my studying and to listening to Korean pop, which I do often and much. My current favorite song is a rather terrible SNSD song called "Into the New World." It's quite catchy, and perfectly applicable in my opinion - this whole crazy trip is nothing if not a new world. Is it not?
After a weekend of relative tourist-ing (we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace and poked our heads inside the National Folk Museum of Korea before deciding that we were too tired to explore), classes have begun. For whatever reason (it certainly can't be my astounding linguistic skills), I was placed into Level 3 here at Sogang while everyone else in my class was placed into Level 2. I'm fairly sure I don't belong in L3; with Lee Sunsaengnim, we only finished 7/8 chapters of book 2A, and we never even looked at 2B. In fact, I never even purchased book 2B, so I really have no idea what it covers or if it is terribly different from 2A. In any case, I suppose my position is unique because Level 2 would assuredly cover half of what I already know and then introduce new material a month or so down the road; Level 3, on the other hand, introduces new material starting tomorrow on the assumption that everything in Level 2 has been learned and memorized. I guess I really belong in Level 2.5, which unfortunately doesn't exist. I don't quite know what to do, so I suppose I'll give Level 3 a shot for the first week and if it seems impossible by that point, I'll ask to switch down to 2.
I already have metric tons of homework. I'm looking at the pile of papers I received right now with bleary, jet-lagged, relatively homesick (or at least Yale-sick) eyes, and I can hardly bring myself to lift a pencil. It's all so much and I feel so ill-equipped to tackle it. Honestly, I have no idea what to do with myself, feeling as I do. Don't get me wrong - I've been having a lot of fun exploring Seoul, riding the subway, eating foods I never thought I'd try, hanging out with other Yale Light Fellows, etc.; but every once in a while (now being one of those times), everything that I'm doing seems totally and completely absurd. For someone who has quite a bit of wanderlust, it turns out that I'm also a total coward who quakes in the face of a new travel experience. Sometimes, I think that I like the idea of saying that I've been to such-and-such a place more than I like actually going there. From the minute I set foot on the airplane, I miss my friends, my family, my dog, my school, my normal, everyday life peppered with normal, everyday things. Being here is a surreal and fabulous opportunity, but my mind is elsewhere and it is preventing me from enjoying everything that this can be. I don't know how to pull my head out of the sand, but I know that it needs to be done, and fast.
Post-script: I'm fairly sure this happened to me when I was in Spain in the summer of 2007 as well, and anyone who knows me can attest that that was one of the best experiences of my life. So I don't find this all that worrisome, but for the time being, it sucks. Game, set, match.
I'm sorry for whining. In the meantime, a list of observations: 1) Everyone here is Korean. This is totally and completely obvious, but when you look like me, you really realize it. So far, I've not been the victim of too many awkward stares, but I often hear myself referred to as 외국 사람 (foreigner) on the street. 2) I can't drink enough water with dinner. Korean food is spicy, and I'm not kidding. They have this penchant for putting 고추장 (gochujang), a spicy red pepper paste, on or in pretty much everything they eat. I find it currently possible to enjoy dinner only if I've had about 8 or 9 glasses of water to put out the fire in my throat. This is not to say that the food isn't delicious; a lot of it is. But I have a particularly low tolerance for spicy food, and the omniprescence of gochujang gets me every time. 3) The neighborhood where I live, Sinchon, doesn't seem to ever sleep. I think this is kind of a good thing. In contrast, everywhere else seems totally dead; the other day, we took the subway south of the river to the fairly ritzy Apgujeong, where we explored the plastic surgery clinic-lined streets of Gangnam (this phenomenon is something I'll probably address later), and it seemed remarkably quiet. Not a lot of people walking, a lot of expensive-looking cars. 4) I realize that I am only blogging now to put off doing my homework, which is pathetically only about a quarter done. It is currently ~11:00 PM, and my jetlagged self has 0 motivation. Sigh.
언니, 너무 사랑해요!
언니, 너무 사랑해요!
Before leaving, I joked to Hayeon that I was going to come back looking like Kim Taeyeon of SNSD. The funny part is, I actually sort of did. But without the bangs and without being Asian. That part's kind of important.
