I'd like to begin with a sincere apology. My previous post, entitled "Police State", was inappropriate given the realities of the conditions of true police states. My use of the term was an ignorant attempt at describing what I believed to be a "heavy" police presence in the country of South Korea. Once again I apologize for my insensitive and disrespectful comment.
I suppose I must also apologize for the lack of regular updates, but to be honest that would be a waste of time. To apologize would mean that I would do my best never to repeat the mistake and while the apology above is a sincere promise to think wisely before criticizing a country, I can't make a similar promise to update the site regularly or even frequently. Or maybe I can and I just don't want to. Either way, I'm wasting too much time with this. Updates:
I started classes. They're going well. All the material is in Korean. This includes Lectures, Textbooks, Assignments, Homework. Everything. It has been effective in teaching me the language. The written "alphabet" isn't too difficult. The characters all have a consistent phonetic counterpart, so pronouncing a word will be easy so long as you know what "sound" a character makes. There are a few irregular cases, but even those are simple enough to grasp. Grammar takes some getting used to as words aren't in a similar "place" as they are in English. There are also special articles that denote what part of speech a word is (Subject, Object, etc.) All in all it's fun, and I'd like to expand upon it more in the future.
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| My desk. My name is written out in 한글. 조슈아, pronounced "Joh-shu-ah" |
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| The class room we study in. Empty. |
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| The class room we study in. During break time (쉬는 시간) |
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| The Right side of the class room, with students in their seats. |
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| The Left side of the class room. The empty chair in between the two students is mine. |
As for events and trips: We took a trip to the south of South Korea, near the coast. An area by the name of Haenam (or maybe Jindo, the destination changes depending on who I asked.). While there, we saw a festival reenacting a famous Korean battle. It was neat, until a Helicopter and Jet Ski came in to ruin the historical accuracy. Or maybe their inclusion made it better. In any case, I had fun wandering around with my two partners in crime and our new friend, Hue (or Hill, I couldn't understand his pronunciation) from Vietnam. He was from Chungnam National University. The two schools (Kyonggi and Chungnam) were given the opportunity to go on this trip through Korail who, despite their name and specialty, transported the passengers via Bus. I didn't care too much for the bus ride, though the festival and little side trips were fun if brief. We also got to stay in a traditional Korean motel, which was interesting. Sleeping on a floor with nothing but a mat to rest on is an interesting experience as is Korean television. But that's a story for another day.
The next event (and my final update for the night) was the Kyonggi Festival held here on campus a few weeks ago. It was a pretty big deal with a large stage set up on the soccer field and tents perched all around the field's perimeter where students served fellow students and teachers with food and drinks. The stage shows ranged from amusing to amazing and there were even Korean stars who made appearances. Unfortunately, I'm not too familiar to Korean pop culture so I couldn't appreciate some of the more reputable performers, but I could vouch for their talent. As for my own personal experiences, I was pulled to the stage myself to introduce myself (in Korean) and for my troubles I received a gift card. I still haven't spent it yet. I also drank alcohol for the first time in my life (I know, pathetic). I tasted Souju, which is Korea's national brew. The taste wasn't too bad, but it burned in my throat, chest and stomach as it slowly went down my digestive tract. Not an experience I'm eager to repeat, but interesting nonetheless. That about wraps it up for tonight. I'll see you all, when I see you.
