Hi, everyone! I thought I would send out an update on what's been going on over here lately.
As a precursor, I imagine that I have been so long out of touch with some of you that you don't know that I have started dating a Korean girl named Vivi. We've been together for about three weeks now and things are great. The short story is that we met at the end of August through a mutual friend, went on a few dates when I came back in September, and are now officially "dating". I'm working on getting a photo of the two of us and will post it soon.
We don't get to see each other that often because we're both really busy with our various school work, but we try to meet up for dinner a few times a week and then go out on Saturday nights. Still, though, things are going really well and we're both really happy. =)
A week ago, I started taking Korean language classes. The classes meet four times a week and are three hours long. So I am a student from 10am to 1pm and then a teacher from 2pm to 10pm. It's a pretty rough schedule but now at least I feel like I am *doing* something other than just teaching.
I already knew the Korean letters and I knew a lot of useful words and phrases, so I was able to "hit the ground running" on the first day of class. Which was good because the teacher was really blowing through the alphabet and the basics. I could see where people might get a bit overwhelmed in those first few days. There are nine students in the class: me, three Japanese girls, a Japanese guy, a Chinese guy, an English guy, and two Canadian guys. The teacher (or "sonsaengnim" as we say) teaches the class in a mix of Korean, Japanese, English, and hand gestures. Though all of us speak English to some extent (except the Chinese guy), I think the teacher wants to teach only in Korean and then uses our native languages only to answer questions or to explain things that are a little hard to understand. I really like the way she teaches because it really forces us to pay attention and to almost teach ourselves. At this point we have covered the alphabet, some useful phrases for getting around, numbers, and basic nouns and basic sentences.
Here are a few things (most of which I already knew) that you might need to know if you ever find yourself in Korea (spelled phoenetically):
"Hello": on-young HA-say-oh
"My name is Chris": che EE-ruh-mun kuh-REE-suh im-NEE-da
"I am an American": cho-NUN MEE-gook sa-ROM im-NEE-da
"I am learning Korean": cho-NUN HAN-gook-mal PAE-wuh-yo
"I don't like kimchi": cho-NUN KEEM-chee ON-cho-ah-hae-yo
"But I do like beer": ku-ron-AH cho-NUN MEK-choo CHO-ah-hae-yo
I'd be happy to continue posting stuff that I've learned if anyone is interested in picking up some Korean phrases. =)
As I said, from 10am to 1pm I am a "haksaeng" (student) and then I have a very short time for "chumsheem" (lunch) and then I teach from 2 to 5 and then 7 to 10. So the days are pretty long but by the end of the day I feel like I've done a lot. In October I had a total of about 70 students but this month I only have 25, so there are a lot fewer papers to grade! I don't know if I could have done the language class and have 70 students and survived.
Last month I had Fridays off but this month is a little different. Because the GRE is only offered twice a year in Korea, and one of those times happens to be Nov 23, Princeton Review is trying to squeeze in the entire month's schedule into three weeks. Which means that I'm going to be really busy up until the 21st, but then I get the last ten days of the month off! Woo hoo! Originally I was thinking of going to Taiwan to visit a friend but I think I am just going to hang around Seoul and study Korean and try to spend more time with Vivi.
My roommate (Rob) and I are also toying with the idea of either writing some sort of "dumb Americans" tour guide to Seoul or maybe trying to update the Lonely Planet guide (which is crap). Like most people here, we are under the impression that if things warm up between North Korea and the US, and if the South Korean economy continues to grow like it is now, South Korea could be a pretty major business destination 10 years from now (in the same way that Japan had been) and would be even more so once China starts dealing more with the West. So possibly that will lead to more tourists here. I bought a book from the "Culture Shock" series (not so much a tour book but a book explaining cultural differences) and it is literally 70% wrong according to what I have observed and been told. So maybe there is a need for this sort of thing.
Most of you will be happy to know that I hardly ever drink anymore. Sometimes I go out with "the boys" for a drink after work, but Vivi doesn't drink and so whenever I'm with her, I don't either. Even still, I've been so busy lately that I either have homework to do or am just too tired after teaching.
On a related note... I was very disappointed to learn the other day that my friend Red is no longer working at The Flair. We had only been going there once a week (at the most) lately and stopped in the other day and were told that she had quit. Someone mentioned that she may come back in January but I fear that she's gone and all we'll have are the memories... =(
I think that's the latest. I hope all is well wherever you are! Take care!
Chris
