Wow, it's been a little while since I wrote! I've got tons to say, and I think that instead of making one huge post, I will split it up into a couple of smaller ones. This time it's about . . . school!Korean language school has been pretty intense these last couple of weeks. I'm not even joking. Last week Hannam's Korean language school held its second annual writing and speaking contest. Everyone in the language school is required to participate in the writing part, and cash prizes are awarded to the people with the best spelling and prettiest handwriting. (I did all right on the spelling part, but pretty handwriting is not my strong point. Not when writing the teacher's dictation down as fast as possible, anyway.)
Then everyone gets herded into the student building for the entertainment segment of the program . . . watching one representative from each class embarrass themselves in front of everybody else. That was the case for most classes, anyway
. A couple did group performances, like this scene of a marriage (left) acted out by one of the third-level classes. Our class, 1-C, was represented by Aaron (above), who talked about himself and his hobbies, and really challenged himself to use the most sophisticated Korean at his command. Unfortunately he didn't win. His nerves caused him to trip over his tongue in a couple places, so he ended up getting robbed by a girl from another class, who did indeed deliver a speech with very beautiful pronunciation, but in the simplest Korean possible. Bogus. Anyway, we enjoyed cheering our oppa on. In Korea, we say: Fighting! Fighting! to encourage people to hang in there and do their best, so we were yelling that from our section of the auditorium.
. A couple did group performances, like this scene of a marriage (left) acted out by one of the third-level classes. Our class, 1-C, was represented by Aaron (above), who talked about himself and his hobbies, and really challenged himself to use the most sophisticated Korean at his command. Unfortunately he didn't win. His nerves caused him to trip over his tongue in a couple places, so he ended up getting robbed by a girl from another class, who did indeed deliver a speech with very beautiful pronunciation, but in the simplest Korean possible. Bogus. Anyway, we enjoyed cheering our oppa on. In Korea, we say: Fighting! Fighting! to encourage people to hang in there and do their best, so we were yelling that from our section of the auditorium.As for this week, it must be Official Test Everybody On Everything Week, because in the last two days, I have had four exams . . . and more are coming before the end of the week. Yesterday I took a long written exam, then a reading exam where I stood in front of the class to sight-read a passage. Today there was an oral exam where the teacher interviewed us one-on-one, and also a dictation test. Katie and Jenny have been hit pretty hard, too, so it isn't just my class. Maybe they are trying to weed out the weaklings?
Man, these instructors are brutal. You will no doubt learn a lot.
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