The title of this post still confuses me. How has it been 2 years??? (Almost. It's Nov 21, 2014, and I arrived Nov 26, 2012.) I really wanted to do a "things I've learned (about myself)" post, but I'm not sure I can put it into words. hah.
When I came here initially, I planned to learn Korean for a while, then go to grad school. Luckily, I've been able to do that. But I'm really disappointed with my Korean skills these days. I hardly speak Korean at all. I feel like I've reverted to level 1 or 2. There's another American in my 연구실 (research lab). We both have the same TOPIK level (5), but no one would ever believe it... because speaking skills are all that others really evaluate you on, and there's no speaking section on the test (thankfully). I don't know that he's better than me, but he's more confident. I get so nervous... nothing comes out. It's still interesting to me, though... when I do speak in Korean, my Korean classmates are like "You know Korean?!" ...What did you think I was doing during these many hours we've been in class (a class taught entirely in Korean!) together? I guess because I don't speak much, everyone assumes I don't know anything. The other day, one guy was actually talking about me in Korean to someone else, like I didn't understand. His conversation partner then pointed out that I understood Korean, and you could see his "oh shit" face forming. Sigh. It's my own fault for never having the confidence to speak in Korean... I really need to work on that. I really want to try only (mostly) speaking in Korean during the vacation, which is coming up soon.
Speaking of vacation... In the US, the "main" semester starts in September, but there are a few students that apply/enroll in the spring. In Korea, it's the opposite. The "main" semester is the spring semester. I started in the fall semester, so I was the backwards one. But maybe this was a good idea, because there was probably a lower application/competition rate. Most Koreans graduate HS/undergrad in Feb, and so many apply for Spring semester. Anyway -- in the US, we get 2-3 weeks off at Christmas, then early May-late Aug/early Sept for summer break. Here, we get mid Dec-early March and mid June-early Sept for breaks... so ~10 weeks each time. SNU offers shorter duration classes during these times... but nothing really worth taking this Winter session. Still, I have a huge list of things to do --- learn IPA, learn more linguistics terms in Korean, preview phonology (mainly the points of articulation), read a bunch of Comp Ling papers, practice Korean, learn to program in Python more "pythonically" (instead of my current Java-style code). I'd also like to GO somewhere... but where? I still want to go to Macau, Hong Kong, and Australia/New Zealand before I leave Asia. And Maldives^^ It's 16* Celsius right now in Seoul...and 26* in HK. That might not be a bad long weekend. And Macau is right there... but... money. Sigh. I'll probably be unable to decide on anything, and just stay at home (or worse, the lab!) for 2.5 months, heh.
Anyway, that self-reflection post may still be coming... but.. probably not.^^
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