3급 (Level 3)

Level 3 started about a month ago, but I was busy writing Japan posts, so this is my first real update of the semester. Hopefully I'll appreciate the Japan ones more in a few years when I can't remember the details as well, because it took a lot of time to sort through and caption photos.

Let me just say... wow. This level is kicking my butt. I thought they'd save all the pain for 4급, but I guess not... (The Sino-Korean number 4 sounds like the word for "death," so often times elevators will skip writing floors containing the number 4 altogether, or, more frequently lately, replace it with the Latin letter F for "four." In some cases, foreigners are also known to try to make bad puns...^^ No, but seriously. There's really a thing.) I think Joana and I have an interesting perspective, because we started taking classes at SNU at level 1. Most people take level 1 and/or 2 during their exchange program semester and that's it. Several people from our level 2 class are in our level 3 class, but they did not take level 1 here. Anyway, there was definitely a jump in difficulty between level 1 and 2, but I feel like there was a considerably larger jump in difficulty between levels 2 and 3. Suddenly the things we have to listen to are spoken much faster. Levels 1 and 2 taught 3-4 grammars per day then had a review day. Level 3 teaches 3-9 grammars per day. 9! And there's only 1 hour of review the next day, instead of 4. And we're using an old, boring book (first published in 2000). Levels 1 and 2 were redone recently, and have color! The new level 3 and 4 books are being released soon, but not in time for me for level 3, anyway. So some of the grammars from level 3 were already taught in level 2, or level 3 assumes some things not taught in the new level 2 book (but, I assume, they were taught in the 2000-series books). But, really, the main problem is the speed, I guess. I spend an hour or two every day previewing the next day's lesson so I can focus on listening to examples in class, rather than listening and trying to understand the grammar explanations. (Plus, the teachers really only speak Korean, and sometimes trying to explain a Korean grammar only in Korean doesn't work...) I dunno. It just seems like those of us from level 2 that came to level 3 should be less confused than the people that tested into level 3, because SNU should've prepared us (better) for level 3. I mean, I guess it's good level 3 is a lot more advanced, but still... I think level 2 should've left us in a better situation... but maybe I'm expecting too much. We'll blame it on the book discrepancies.

Enough class talk.^^

On May 19 (the day after I returned from Tokyo), Joana and I went to a free TalkToMeInKorean lecture at Kyobo Bookstore at Gwanghwamun. It was somewhat surreal to see the teachers in person. I first started seriously learning Korean through their website (with its podcasts/pdfs) 2 years ago. Hard to believe it's been that long and that I've come this far, heh. But, if you're thinking about learning Korean - you can't beat their lessons. For the past...6 months or so, they've been focusing on other things and haven't really released a lesson-lesson in a while (they've put out all sorts of culture and vocab videos, though), but they have ~200 lessons already posted, each covering a different grammar point or fixed expression. Level 1 Lesson 1 assumes you already know the alphabet, so I recommend BusyAtom's videos on YouTube to learn that much (at least, that's how I did it). They started a new website called HaruKorean.com, too, where you can write a sentence daily and receive feedback/corrections from native speakers. I haven't tried it myself, but it sounds cool if you have no one else to help you.


The audience. You can sort of see me in the back-middle-left, wearing yellow.

The next day, Mary, Hera, Joana and I went to the Seoul Zoo. You may recall I went there back in March, when everything was frozen over, including me. This time, there was no snow! The sun and plants and animals were out!




We saw lots of animals, too, but I didn't take very many pictures as they were all in cages....

On 5/25, my favorite actor, Lee Min Ho, had a fan meeting in Seoul. I'd seen ads on the internet about it, but I couldn't for the life of me find the event location or where to buy tickets. Eventually, after some searching in Korean a few days beforehand, I found out it was being held at the Grand Peace Palace (Cathedral) at Kyung-hee University on the other side of the city. I didn't have tickets, but I decided to check it out anyway, and maybe try to get tickets on site. They actually still had some available! Though, by the time I thought to just walk up to the box office and ask, I was a little late. Well, I didn't realize I was late, til I got in and the meeting had already started... I thought it started at 7. Turns out it started at 17:00. Oops. Good thing I came super early, planning to try to buy tickets. Curse you, 24-hour time!



LMH in action only ~30m away, some posters, the venue.


A powerpoint slideshow before he came out to sing us some songs... :)

On 5/26, Joana, Hera and I went to the last day of the annual, week-long Gyeongbok Palace lightup event. There were soooooo many people. And the walking paths on the palace grounds are covered in gravel, so in most of my pictures, it looks like it's snowing. Sadly, only the front part of the grounds were open, so we couldn't go to my favorite part (....the concubine pavilion, Hyangwonjeong, and its pond).


One of the palace buildings, crawling with people. And another on a pond.

May 31 was Anne's birthday, but we celebrated it on June 1, at Han River Park (my favorite place in the city!). It was a long day, but we all had a great time. Joana actually just talked about that day for her first level 3 presentation (the topic being a person or a day you can't/won't forget).



The river from near Yeouinaru subway station, and the 63 Building.



Playing in the fountain. It started off as volleyball, but ended as water-soccer. I was a
goalie and ended up soaked. Decided to play in the water jets. It was awesome.




Bike riding, listening to jazz on the floating stage, and sunset.



Sunset/night near the fountain.


I recorded sound, but the background convo was distracting, so I took it out...

I've been watching this one Japanese drama lately. It's a remake of my first Korean drama, "Playful Kiss" (which itself is a remake of a Japanese anime, which is based on a manga). It takes place in Tokyo, and the opening credits are basically a highlight reel of my Tokyo vacation... so I was drawn in. And now I'm sucked in, hah. Anyway, the main character always has cool braids, and it made me want to try to braiding my hair again. So lately I've been experimenting with French braiding my hair.... well, Dutch braiding ("inside-out French braids"), really. It doesn't take too much effort and it keeps the hair off my neck. And it looks cooler than a regular braid. I don't really have any good pictures, but maybe by next time I'll have one or two. :)

The fan's on high and I'm still sweating. Time for some ice cream. :)