잘 지냈어요 (been doin' great!)

It is absolutely amazing to me that I've sat through 108 hours of intense Korean study in the past 18 days, but the most shocking part is how much fun I've had. My teachers, Lee Gyeong-Ryoon and Kim Seong-Soo, are great at presenting a ton of information and making it understandable, and my class, elementary level 1 (the lowest level of the 4 classes) is a blast. We know so little Korean (but so much more now!) that we don't have to get very profound or complex in our sentence formation for our classmates to applaud and offer up a very Korean "Wah!" (like the English "wow"). We are all humble enough to laugh at ourselves and eager enough to learn to take chances and play with this new, slippery language. I definitely cracked up at myself when my teacher pointed out that my page in our class's "Thank You" scrapbook featured, instead of the intended "it is raining" (비), a squirrel cartoon saying, "the blood is coming" (피). I then imagined this may be a karmic payback for buying all those shirts with the hilarious and poorly-translated English phrases...

Here is my stellar roommate and language partner, Beilin Ye, cheesin' it up while 김 선생님 ("Kim Teacher") teaches us how to describe what we did "in order to" do something else.

Class pictures with Kim and Lee Teachers, and Olenka and Michelle and Beilin and I reacting in shock and confusion to our perplexing textbook.

Studying this language has helped me understand the Korean culture so much better. It's amazing how much a society's worldview is reflected in the phrases and words it chooses to represent, as best as any language can, human thought and the world surrounding it's people. Confucianism plays a strong role in this language, which has at least 4 different levels of verb conjugation to use, depending on the hierarchical level of the speaker and the listener. I now know how to conjugate my measly handful of verb flashcards for speaking in formal interviews or military or business settings; with people with whom I feel familiar but must still defer to formally; with people with whom I feel friendly but still polite; and with peers, those younger than myself, and people with whom I can be most intimate and not at all formal. This lowest form is called "반 말" or ban mal, literally "rough speak," and it is advised never to use this with someone without express permission or without being 100% sure of their younger age.

Then there's the whole "Konglish" can of worms.... Many words were introduced to Korea along with the item/concept they represent from the English-speaking world, either directly or via Japan. Instead of inventing new words, Koreans just took the English and fit it into the consistent and logical pronunciation patterns of their alphabet, Hangul, which was invented in the mid-15th Century at the behest of King Sejong. Often enough, when my classmates and I ask for the Korean version of a word related to 20th century electronics or trends, it comes out as something like "텔레비전" = "tay-lay-bee-jeon" = television, "스웨터" = ("suh-way-tah") = sweater, "오토바이" = ("oh-toe-baa-ee,") = autobike/motorcycle, or "패스트푸드" = ("pay-suh-tuh-poo-duh") = fast food. The first time I stumbled upon Konglish was after an evening of drinking soju and beer and singing in a noraebang with a couple of my fellow grantees and coordinators during orientation. We had all gone back to the hotel we were staying at in Haeinsa, and while I took a tipsy shower, I stared at the Korean writing on the dispenser in the shower. My slightly blurred vision and newly acquired knowledge of Hangul made deciphering the sounds difficult, but I finally said, "shawm-poo reen-suh..." aloud before it dawned on me that I had "shampoo and rinse!" in front of me.

Back to the world of CLEA, tonight we gave our teachers the scrapbooks we made for them and mini tiramisu cakes to thank them for their tireless work and excellent instruction. Later in the evening a few classmates and I threw a surprise birthday party for Erin and Michelle, complete with pizza, cheesecake, and Apples to Apples:

We have one more day of class before our final on Sunday, then more class (don't ask me why) and a graduation ceremony on Monday. On Tuesday, we move back to our respective homestays, at which point I get to a "T" in my story. The other night, I called my co-teacher to find out if she had booked my plane tickets to Jeju Island for the Fulbright Spring Conference, and she informed me that my host family needs me to move out ASAP because my host sister -who is going into the 3rd grade of high school and facing the "Su Neung" SAT test in the fall- needs to have her own bedroom. This is totally a legitimate reason to ask me to find a different place to stay. I won't go into detail about how I felt about finding this out from a third party less than a week and a half before I'm expected to move, despite the fact that the conditions for which I am required to leave have been foreseen throughout my stay thus far.... I was certainly bummed to hear that my school had not successfully found me a new homestay, and that I would be heading back to Cheonan with no permanent place to stay and no new co-teacher (since the AMAZING Ms. Na has moved to her new teaching job at a boy's middle school near Boryeong). After only a few hours, though, my phone rang, and one of my favorite students (not that I have favorites... cough cough) asked me if I would like to come live with her family. I am so excited! She is a great English student and is very enthusiastic about learning, and with my renewed enthusiasm for Korean, I'm sure we'll have a ball trying to communicate! Also, her apartment is a mere FIVE MINUTE WALK from my school! Good bye, 40-minute bus rides; Hello, convenience!

I'm so excited to move and get the new semester started (not to mention implement my new curriculum, discipline plan, and lesson format,) but I am really REALLY going to miss the mighty marble Jungwon University, my 36-hours of class per week, and my ETA and Jungwon friends.