So after the incredibly awkward first day, the second day was packed with activities, which has generally been the schedule everyday here. Breakfast starts at about 8am in the school cafeteria and consists of kimchi, rice, some fruit and usually some soup. At 9 am, we have Korean language classes for 4 hours with 10 minute breaks every hour. Lunch is at 1 and then we have some kind of workshop from 2 until 6 pm, when dinner in the cafeteria starts. Usually the day ends at 7 pm and we have free time to ourselves, during which people either go to gym, study their Korean or go to the town which is about a 10 minute walk from the campus.
On the second day, we took a 3 part language test to get placed into classes. There was a writing part where we just wrote an essay in Korean, an oral interview with a Korean instructor and then a reading test. The writing test was pretty simple - write about yourself in Korean. I was able to write a little less than a page of stuff, although I'm positive my spelling was pretty bad. A few minutes into the test, an instructor announced that people who didn't know anything were allowed to skip the whole test altogether and just get placed in the beginner class. About 30 people or so then got up and walked out of the testing area, pleased with their new found free time.
The interview wasn't bad either. My interviewer asked me pretty simple questions like "what did I do yesterday", "what do I like to do in my free time", "how did I like the university we were staying at", etc. The reading test was a completely different story - I might as well not have even taken it. I couldn't even understand the directions and was circling answers if I could recognize anything in them. So yeah, this test redefined my idea of failing a test.
Despite badly failing the reading test, I got placed in the intermediate class. There are 8 students total in the class, half are Korean-American, 2 are African-American and the other 2 are white. On the first day of class, we did introductions and I was surprised to find that I was the only one who had not had formal Korean classes before. Several of my classmates took classes in college or went to Saturday Korean classes. I really like my class - it isn't too easy or too hard, and we help each other out and joke around in the class. The only downside is the amount of homework we get. I have to write a 3 minute speech in Korean for Monday, and I can't even do that in English lol. Anyways, I'll detail the details of my first night out on the town later.
hahaha bruce you crack me up <3
ReplyDelete