One More Week

I just finished the last week before finals. I'm on the verge of being able to get the scholarship again. It's within grasp, but only if a stretch my every bone in my body as if I were on the rack. I studied a lot yesterday and today. I would like to think I'm ready, but I know that's a joke. If it's one thing that Korean grammar has taught me, it's that you can study, study, listen to examples, make your own examples, but there's always gonna be that ONE exception that you overlooked. And that's what they test over. Vocab is just vocab. Some vocabulary words I understand, but can't quite make sentences with. Even if I have the English translation, sometimes what's a object in English becomes a subject in Korean. You just have to memorize/think like a Korean to be able to make sentences correctly. I'm always the most nervous about the speaking test, least nervous about the writing test, and do the worst on the listening test. In order to pull my grade up to where it needs to be for a scholarship, I need to get a 93 on speaking, 94 on reading, over an 80 on listening (notice that I've just given up pulling that one up to an A) and just not bomb writing.

I just got back from playing soccer with the Koreans I play with on Sundays now. One of them became an elder in the church, and so they all had dinner afterwards. (It's a very Korean thing where if someone gets promoted etc, they take everyone out for dinner.) So, they invited me to come with them. It was super great listening/speaking practice. At first, they were all going at normal speed (which to me seems like mach 12), but then they realized that my comprehension was suffering, so when they talked to me, they slowed it down a bit. Thankfully, they didn't do the yelling thing that so many Americans seem to be fond of when talking to foreigners. "Hey, where are you going? ... I SAID, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" I have since found out that people generally don't understand because you either slurred your words together or used an expression that isn't in there language. For example, tonight one of the men asked me (literally translated) "Meals how?" meaning what do I normally eat at home. It took me a few seconds to process that, but I eventually understood... I think. Either that or I stumbled on a great answer by mistake. Both are possible.

Other than that, not much is new. I'm getting super excited for the end of the semester. I'm ready for a short break from school. The semester officially ends September 3rd, but after exams, there's really not much we do. I definitely plan on continuing to studying during the vacation, but it will be nice to scale it back a little and not learn a thousand new words a day. I can't wait for the day when I listen to a conversation and understand every word. Maybe one of these days...

The Best Burgers in Seoul

 So, this week was pretty interesting actually. Thursday was Korea's independence day/end of WW2, so we had that day off of class. My teacher from last semester has been on me and my classmates for a while to get us to go to this one restaurant that serves burgers. Honestly, burgers here aren't that great. I don't know how you manage to mess up something as simple as grilling a piece of beef and putting it on a bun, but they seem do accomplish this on a daily basis. However, this burger place was quite different. I knew this immediately as I walked in and noticed they served Barq's Rootbeer. This place knows what's going on.

Definitely the best burgers I've had in Korea. They are even good by American standards. It's the rootbeer rule. Works every time. I also got to meet my teacher's little kid. She really wanted him to speak English to me. (Korean mothers are CRAZY when it comes to their children's education. I think it's magnified about 2 times that normal CRAZY to turn into CCRRAAZZYY when it comes to English education.) But much to her disappointment, the only 2 words he said were, "hello" and "teacher." I asked him in Korean how old he was, holding up 3 fingers. He didn't respond verbally, but reached over, grabbed my hand, and pulled up my remaining two. Satisfied with the result, he then noticed how big my hands were. This held him captivated the rest of the time. I got a picture of me and him as we were waiting to be seated.

*Korean age is calculated differently than in America. When a Korean is born, they are considered 1, and at the new year, they turn 2. So if you are born on December 31st, it is possible to be 2 years old at the age of 2 days.

Also, not sure if Dad knows that he has a plot here in Korea. We found this in the French area near the French embassy in Seoul.












I went hiking with my "cousin" here on Wednesday on a mountain right behind my school. It was a great day to do it too despite the heat. Normally, especially in the summer, you can't see the sky due to the cloud coverage/rain, but we caught it on a great day. I tried taking a panorama shot on my camera, and it turned out pretty well. You're looking at about 1/3 of Seoul. It's really hard to describe how incredibly sprawling this city is, and it gets significantly bigger every year.

A First Time for Everything

So, I got fed up with just sitting in my house doing nothing, so I decided to go out for a run today. After running for about a mile to a mile and a half, I was approached by 2 Korean men. They invited me to play soccer with them and their soccer team, to which I instantly accepted. Were I in any other country, I wouldn't have gotten into their car to drive there, but Korea is just that safe. The thought did cross my mind though... "I would never do this in America." And I would be lying if I said I wasn't coming up with a plan just in case. 

Luckily, they really did just want to play soccer. They had me introduce myself to the group in Korean, which was met by "ooooooo"s and "aaaaaaaah"s after every sentence. (You'd think they'd never seen a foreigner speaking Korean before.) All I said was, "Hi, my name's Joe. I'm from Chicago. I'm 23. Last year I taught English here in Korea, but this year I'm currently learning Korean at Yonsei University. They thought I was fluent, which they quickly discovered was incorrect. 

I had a first though. After about 15 minutes of playing, I suddenly had the urge to throw up. I've never exercised to the point of throwing up though... It totally took me off guard. And the fact that I had to communicate everything in Korean made it even a bit more comical. Were I not spewing acidic liquid out of my mouth into the storm drain, I would've been laughing. I think it was just a combination of being incredibly out of shape; my diet consisting of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bananas, and ramen; and being a bit dehydrated. All I could say to the "leader" of our team was:

"Uhhhhh. Hey, I need to rest now."

"Oh really? Why?"

"Umm.... I throw up"  [insert gag] (I'm allowed some bad grammar under the circumstances.)

[Turning to the ref] "Hey, he suddenly got the urge to throw up. Stop the game a sec."

[Everybody stares and laughs at me]

OK, maybe that last one didn't happen. They were really kind about it though. They gave me my out. The Korean guys that picked me up told everyone else that I had already been running for quite a while before I came to play. It was also pretty hot outside today; 32 Celsius which is probably in the upper 80s to lower 90s. A little embarrassing, but I made a few Korean friends from it, plus they want me to come back every week, so I chalk it up as a win. I even taught them the English word "throw up." I've just gotta remember to start running everyday now. I still can't believe that happened... They thought I was a heavy drinker, which I quickly tried to disspell. If I were them, I probably wouldn't believe me though.

I ended up going back on the field, which probably wasn't the smartest idea, but hey, I'm still young, right? I played for another hour or so until I realized that I really was dehydrated on account of starting to see dots. So after the game, they wanted to play another, but I stylishly excused myself, went back home, and will never get out of my bed again.

In other news, nothing is new. Drinking water slowly; trying to recover. Class is class. Work is work. Study is study. Sleep is zzzzzzzzzzzz

[Context Is Key]

I realize that my posts are becoming more and more infrequent. It isn't necessarily because I'm strapped for time (although sometimes that may be the case). It's mostly just because there's not much interesting going on from my perspective. Most of the pictures I take go up on facebook, and I'm becoming less and less of a clutz in Korean. The opportunity for me to regale you with horrendous mistakes is dwindling. The mistakes I make now are either a result of "I didn't quite understand, but I'm gonna respond anyway" or tense errors (using past instead of future etc). I don't consider the last one to be a huge mistake seeing as most people understand anyway. I've dealt with enough people in English that are exactly the same. Obviously, I'm going to continue working on it, but writing a paragraph on "I said came instead of come" doesn't make for the best read.

The more Korean I learn, the harder and harder it is to translate it to English. I find a lot of it poetic in the way it conveys ideas. For example, "please let me know [fill in the blank]" in Korean would be something more like, "Please give me knowledge about [fill in the blank]." I am now also in the stage where I can understand a whole lot, but I don't remember quite how to say it when I speak. So, for example, instead of saying, "The people elected a president." I would say, "The people did the thing where they choose a person who is above them." Understandable? Yes. Raise eyebrows? Yes. Takes me a long time to put the sentence together? Yes. Have I ever said that? No.

I got my midterm grades back. Speaking - 88.5, Writing - 93.9, Reading - 88, Listening - 82. My teacher actually trolled me about my grades. (For those of you who may not know what "trolling" is, or why I used quotation marks there, please keep reading. Trolling is a relatively new word invented in an online context to refer to teasing or making someone's life difficult for no other reason that to obtain pleasure from it. And I don't know why I used quotation marks there.) Anyway, after we all got our grades back, she was going over certain mistakes we had made on the tests. Surprisingly, she was very open with who got good/bad grades on certain things. (I know that in college in America, a teacher sharing grades is illegal.) When it became my turn, she looked over the scores and said the following. "Hmmm. I heard from your teacher last term that you normally test better on the final [than on the midterm]. [I was kind of surprised] to see your scores [were so low].  I guess we'll wait for the final [to see if you're really that good]." I put brackets in because she didn't actually say that, but since Korean is a very high context language, I just want to make sure you get the full implication of what she was actually saying. 

After the whole class, including me, laughed for a bit (which was good because I needed time to form a retort) I responded with, "I'll show you [what I can do on the final]." Granted, not the wittiest of comebacks, but at least it has motivated me to try a lot harder. 2 of my classmates beat me in scores by a little bit, so that's also another motivating factor. I'm going to do my best to get another scholarship, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. If I can keep listening at a B and pull the other 2 up to A's, then I should be OK.

I've finally been invited to a soccer group that plays every Thursday. Maybe from there, I can stem off into playing more days. I guess it depends if I'll be able to walk the next day or not. I've been inactive for so long, I'm not sure exactly how my body will react to the sudden demand. I just went for a run today and wasn't much pleased with my fitness. I did make it about half a mile before my mind started, "Hey, you don't wanna run past these people. It will make them feel awkward. Why don't you just walk for now? The sidewalk is too narrow here anyway."  

I'm also seriously considering trying to get a part time job working in a Korean company like a hotel or something else. A lot of companies want people who speak English to teach the staff, and it would be a great opportunity for me to practice Korean as well as make a little spending money so I can upgrade my meals from ramen to something a bit more substantial. We'll see how it goes I guess.

2 Days of Solitary with 2 Birds and a Stone

Not much new this week. I haven't worked all week, which means I had the whole week to study. And believe it or not, I did study quite a bit. This week definitely came at the right time. We've been learning so much vocabulary recently, it's hard to keep track. I find it really amazing at just how much our brains can store. If you think about the amount of vocabulary you have stored in your brain, it's kind of amazing. And then your brain remembers how to use each specific word in certain orders to convey certain meanings. Language really is an interesting study. Unfortunately, the theory is much easier than the actual day to day.

Since I now am able to have a somewhat vague thought process in Korean now, I practice using it when I can. It is definitely helping with memorizing new vocabulary. I write down example sentences with the new vocabulary I've learned. I get the examples either from class or an online dictionary. The association of the word to a situation helps the memorization as well as speaking. 2 birds with one stone?

My language blunders are definitely decreasing. I was able to have about an hour conversation with a Chinese girl in my school. The only real blunders had to do with misused transition words (so instead of and, but instead of so, etc.) I guess the biggest embarrassment is how much better she is at Korean than I am, which of course gives me renewed vigor to study even harder. It's a good thing I'm not competitive or anything.

I'm finding my overall retention is increasing as well. Now that I'm familiar with some of the Chinese roots, words in the same family come a lot easier. I'm even starting to remember things I only hear. Sometimes though, I can't get over how juvenile some of the words sound when literally translated. For example, ventilation (which my landlord so courteously taught me) literally translates to "Change/exchange machine." I was able to pick out the Chinese roots and then got stuck at "Change machine." I then pretended to get it and be on my merry way only later to look it up in the dictionary. The wave of "OOOOOOOOOHHHHHH" hit me pretty hard.

I've been sick these past two days (Saturday and Sunday). Not sure exactly what's wrong, but if it persists, I'm going to the health center at my school to let them take a look. Pretty sure it's some kind of bacterial infection due to the white spots on the back of my throat. Either way, this too has cleared my plans for the weekend and allowed me to study. YAHHH! or not.

I also got another scholarship! Once again, it was for half of the tuition cost. So I essentially have take one free semester there. The dude who gave a speech after said that we were the top 3 percent of students in the school for grades, attendance, participation, being nice to others, and something else I didn't understand, but I'm sure had to do something with just being generally awesome. Maybe most likely to rule a 3rd world country? OK, here's the Joe Lee translation. Words in brackets are guesses. "The above person during the 2013 spring semester of Yonsei language school tried very hard and showed great [improvement] in his Korean ability [through this] this excellent student is awarded 840,000 won. [Man, this guy sucks. I guess we have to give him something though.]

Even though I've made all of these strides in the language, I still feel incredibly inadequate in social situations. It's like climbing a mountain with no peak. I look at natives and realize I will never be that good or natural. This experience has really given me a great respect for those that come to America and learn the language. Some of them with no actual academic training in the language at all. I can't imagine trying to do that with Korean.

I Can't See Clearly Now... It's Still Raining

This past week has probably been my busiest one yet. I worked a full week in addition to school/minimal study. I can't imagine having to do this every week. I would only be able to retain about half of the info I need. I now have a renewed compassion for those that work full time and do school. At the end of the day, your motivation to study is far surpassed by your desire to sleep. Especially when learning a language. There's not much reasoning that goes on; studying involves pretty much just straight memorization. It's kind of hard to get excited about studying, unless your geeky like me. I'm beginning to see patterns in different words (etymology) but it can be really frustrating at times. It might be a Chinese root or a Korean word, and I have no real way of knowing... So at this point, it's still just memorizing.

My Korean is getting much better though. If the person is patient enough, I can have a conversation with them. (Tell stories, my opinion on things, etc.) Normally, I like talking with other Asian classmates because they are in the same boat as me but have the Chinese background advantage. Nothing too deep of course, and it takes me a while to be able to actually switch languages in my head. Basically nothing translates from this language to English. It's really tiring, but a new way of thinking.

My biggest challenge is still speaking. When I write in Korean, I have time to think, but when speaking, that time is greatly reduced. Since the languages are so different, I can't think in English and speak in Korean or else my brain might explode. So it forces me to think in Korean as I speak. However, I find that when I think in Korean, it is like my brain is enveloped in this nebulous cloud of mist. I'm literally not thinking anything. There's only this nothing-like blankness. The more I practice, the less hazy it gets, but it's definitely a long way to sunny days.

This week during teaching, I surprised two of my students, and the look on their faces was priceless. They came early to class as I was setting things up. They were talking in Korean about where they wanted to sit, and I finished preparing and just sat down and listened. "No, I don't want to sit there. I want to sit here. I hate it over there." At which point, I decided to jump in in English with a "Why?" Both of them just turned to me and were stunned out of words. After about 10 seconds of staring, one asked in Korean, "Teacher, do you speak Korean?" At which point, a Korean staff member walked in. They went crazy trying to explain to her that I spoke Korean, but I pretended like I had no idea what they were saying, and I just was doing some work on the computer. The Korean staff member told them they were being silly and to sit back down. I've never seen so much confusion on the face of a children before.

Apparently, I can hang with the Asians when it comes to playing ping-pong. After tutoring one of my students yesterday, he invited me over to his house to play with him. His house ended up being a mansion in the middle of one of the richest sections of Seoul. There was a fountain and everything in his yard. (I instantly thought that I was undercharging him.) He beat me 5-4, but I did have a small handicap due to the fact that he had only one good paddle. Next time, I won't be so generous.

Yes, I Am That Popular

Sorry. It's been a while since I've written one of these. I've been pretty busy on the weekends recently. I promise I will try to make up for it with incredible wit and style, would you expect anything less?

2 weeks ago, we had the singing competition at my school. It was actually quite enjoyable. I had to take a bit more of a major role in the actual performance due to lack of class participation, but who ever said I didn't like stage time? One of my classmates filmed it and put in on a private channel on youtube. Unfortunately, it's gonna stay private. My ego's already been hurt enough this week. I will say this about it though, when we walked up on stage, I could hear Chinese girls saying (in Korean), "Wow. They're so handsome!" and the performance ended with me throwing my fedora into the crowd. I'll just let your minds create the best situation possible from that and bury what actually happened.

I got interviewed at the end because I was the class president. I randomly met the MC last week, so he told me what questions he was going to ask me. He wasn't too creative, so he asked me to just try and be funny with my answer. The song my class did is about a certain area of Seoul, so his question was whether or not I've been there. Of course, the answer could just be "yes" and that's the end of the "interview." So I decided to go a bit further due to my performance high. I said something similar to, "Yes, and if any of you want to go contact me and we'll go together." The next day, my teacher was really disappointed with me, but I had no idea why. When I finally asked her, she said, "You didn't give out your number. If you had given your number, you would be going on a date tonight." Oh well... maybe next time

I went to a pretty interesting market the other day with my language group. You buy tokens like at an arcade, and then you go around and spend them on different dishes from different stores. It was really cool. I found my restaurant there though. Literally, the sign reads "Lee, Joe Restaurant." Normally, I would say it's just coincidence, but I've been quite the celebrity in this country recently. You never know...

On this week's episode of "Language Blunders" we have an attempt at saying, "I'll ask my Korean friend where to book a plane ticket for a cheap price, and I'll get back to you." But what ended up coming out was, "I'll bite my Korean friend and get back to you." Also, I've found out it's next to impossible to understand older people in a foreign language. Mumblers, the lot of them! I honestly can't tell sometimes if they're speaking Korean or not. So, what usually happens if an older person speaks to me is a pause, me trying to guess from nonverbals/situation, and then just saying, "I don't know" and continuing on.

I also got my hair cut/styled last week. Surprisingly, there were no glaring language blunders. The stylist wouldn't stop talking either, so I definitely got my share of practice in. She was really nice though. She asked me if I miss my family, and I told her, "I call my parents _______ a month." to which she responded, "How many times a month?" If tipping were a thing in Korea, she would definitely have gotten one. The guy helping her told me that he saw all the Spider Man movies and wondered if America were similar to those.

I also went to a break dancing contest last night. It was really cool. Unfortunately, they make it look much easier than it actually is. Last time I try that gymnastics thing where you stand on your hands and spin your legs around. Doesn't turn out so great.

 If you wanna hear what it sounds like when a Korean tries to say "wolf" listen to this new song that just came out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAal8xHfV0c