새해 복 많이 받으세요!*

* = lots of luck in the new year.

Happy 2011, fools!  As usual, my only New Year's resolution was not to make one, because I don't like to disappoint myself.  But I AM hopeful that this year will bring some positive changes - I submitted my graduate school applications and am waiting for my admissions decisions with bated breath.  I'm really hopeful that next year will find me at Harvard a place that will allow me to continue studying Korea and Korean in an encouraging and academically supportive environment.  Best of luck to all of my friends who've also applied to grad school - I hope and pray that next year finds us all in the places we want to be and are meant to be (I'm looking at you, JM + YSM Class of 2011!).

Anyway, midterms are right around the corner (don't they ALWAYS seem to be right around the corner?), and I have to say, I'm disappointed with the way Sogang is running Level 6 so far.  This is technically the last level of language school; while there is a Level 7, it's a "post-grad" course, and completing Level 6 wins you a shiny Certificate of Proficiency in Korean...or does it?

I've been thinking a lot about fighting the plateau of language learning ever since I visited Yale and the Light Fellowship office back in November, and I'm starting to feel a little bit like Koreans themselves (or at least those who are educating foreigners on how to speak, read, and write Korean) are completely buying into the idea that at some point, us stupid waegukins (foreigners) just become essentially saturated and can no longer make real progress in Korean after reaching a language school-imposed "critical mass."  I say this because I am now 1.5 months away from graduating from what is generally considered to be one of, if not the best Korean language schools in this country and found out today that I will end my stint in this program at a middle-school level of reading and writing.  Truthfully, I'm not sure where I'd place my speaking - I guess I'd say that it's also at middle school level, given my (incredibly frustrating) inability to intelligently hold conversations about topics that you normally wouldn't cover while having dinner or drinks with a few good friends.  And this earns me a Certificate of Proficiency?  Proficiency in what, collegiate gossip?

I know Korean is a hard language, even the United States Military thinks so (the Defense Language Institute currently has a Korean language instruction program that is a killer 75 weeks long - longer than any other language program - and it stands alone as the only Category V language, which beats out languages that are traditionally considered difficult for native English speakers to learn, like Chinese and Arabic).  But does that mean that foreigners are just incapable of reaching a level of fluency that extends beyond reasonable and into remarkable?  Why is it that my former college suitemate, who has only been learning German for about a year and 3 months, is currently writing resumes and cover letters in German to submit to German employers so that she can WORK IN GERMANY while I am struggling through texts that appear in middle school history books after 2.5 years of (not to toot my own horn, but) EXTREMELY DEDICATED study?

Since I'm going to go ahead and declare that the problem isn't entirely with my studying and linguistic integration habits, I have to wonder if it's the strength of the programs.  Hatin' all over the weaknesses of Yale's Korean program was a former pastime of mine, but now I'm wondering if the problem might be with Sogang.  I've heard it said that Sogang is great at the early levels and wanes at the uppers; though I admittedly know NOTHING about the curricula offered at Yonsei, Ewha, and SNU, I am nonetheless still a little flabbergasted that a language school as on top of this field as Sogang is churning out students who can only function in Korean society, not really participate in it.  I mean, what the hell point is there in giving me a Certificate of Proficiency if I'm going to have to take this certificate and then go to another school for more advanced training?

Given how hard Korean is, it is, perhaps, a completely unrealistic goal to expect students who go from Level 1 to Level 6 at Sogang to reach college-level proficiency in 1.5 years (which is, I think, how long it takes to complete all six levels).  But from what I hear from my China Light correspondents, they're taking culture and politics classes, holding debates, getting personalized instruction on a daily basis - and though they work their tailbones off (and can't use electronic dictionaries, either - the horror!) and probably don't have as much fun as I do, they are absolutely bitchin' at Chinese after a few months of that - and the Yale course offerings in Chinese, ranging from literature classes to classes on ancient Chinese poetry, speak to the abilities of their students once they have been through the mill with the Chinese programs at Yale and their Light-approved counterparts in China.  And while I guess Korean might be technically harder than Chinese, I really don't think that it's all that unrealistic to replicate this kind of work ethic in programs here.  I'm starting to think that as fun and interactive as Sogang is, it's just too soft - even if Level 5 was an absolute beast, I think it was the level in which I saw the greatest amount of improvement in all of my abilities (aside: can there really be such a thing as a completely effective fun and interactive language program?  If you're a language student or Kelly McLaughlin, this post from the blog Ask a Korean! is an absolute must read and I really would love to hear your opinion on it).  And frankly, it worries me that even though I'll (hopefully) be entering a Korean studies graduate program in the fall having completed one of the strongest Korean language education programs that a foreigner could possibly seek, I am in no way prepared to make use of textual resources in Korean or to keep up with my potential classmates (and if you go on the Harvard RSEA program website and take a look at all of the current degree candidates, you'll find that probably 90% of those studying Korea are from Korea and are, we assume, fluent speakers and readers of Korean).  And then I ask myself: how could I possibly be more prepared for a Korean studies program?  What more could I do?  And the truth is that I simply don't know.

Anyway.  Food for linguistic and personal thought.  I'd welcome opinions, comments, and suggestions, unless you're going to tell me to stop hanging out with my 언니들 and lock myself in a library.  NEVER.  Although I basically just said that therein lies the problem, so clearly what do I know...

I feel kind of bad that I blabbed on and on for so long about my linguistic woes, because I had some thoughtful questions from Kelly that I really wanted to touch upon in this post, but I'm afraid that it's length will already have deterred some potential readers and I'd prefer to do justice to both questions instead of just glossing over them for the sake of having them addressed in a timely fashion.  Next time, folks, you have my word!

Oh, and some gifts for people I like back home: PICTURES!

What I spent my Christmas doing: decorating angel food cake at Somang Church!  This was this finished product - I got to frost the cake with whipped cream.  I was universally elected to do so because I was the only American and it was correctly assumed by all involved that I was the only person in the room who had ever baked any kind of anything.

The other cakes!  The one on the far left was prettier before someone made the executive decision to drizzle the whole thing with Hershey's syrup.  It really, really breaks my heart that people in this country do not bake and simply buy all of their baked goods, including birthday cakes, from commercial bakeries like Paris Baguette.  I love making homemade cakes, among other things...once I offered to bake JM's mom banana bread, and she smiled, and said, "Sure, what's that?"  HORROR.

Christmas dinner - 부대찌개, budaejjigae, a popular dish based on what American and Korean soldiers used to eat during the Korean War.  It's made of scraps picked up here and there - ramen noodles, hot dogs, dumplings, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, etc.  Very spicy, but my tolerance for spicy has gone up by unreasonable levels since I got here.  I think it's because all of my taste buds are now dead.

DRINKS AT RAINBOW.  But more importantly, getting to spend time with my lovely Hwayoung Unni, who came back to Korea for winter break.  I actually met her while I was at Yale in November and we basically just hit it off and are now kickin' it like we have known each other for years.  I'm a big fan - I wish she didn't have to go back to Yale this weekend ㅠ.ㅠ

This is a terrible picture of me, but welcome back 베프 (the Korean abbreviation for BFF, essentially) :) :)  I was so happy to get to spend time with JM Unni this break, and I hope to see her once more before she leaves again.  We're about to hit our longest stretch - five months until we see each other again, which is absurdly long and I hate distance so much.  But it undoubtedly does make the heart grow fonder, and I am SO MUCH LOOKING FORWARD to seeing how these next five months play out...2011년에 언니 건강하구 즐겁게 살기를...우리 더~욱 친해지자!  사랑사랑해 ♥

ROTTIBOY buns!  An import from Singapore, so I hear...plus an Americano and green tea latte :) a delicious post-shabu-shabu dessert with JM!  Thanks for treating kkkk