Songtan and Studying

On Saturday, I went to Songtan with some of my international friends. Amanda and Heather, both new students from the USA, wanted to see a new town and were craving a taste of home. I took them to Songtan, about an hour from school by subway and home of the USA Airforce Base. Because it is home to about 500 USA servicemen, there is a bit of America in town. We went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch, which was pretty good. We also walked around a nearby market and bought some fresh fruit. It was a nice afternoon away from quiet Sinchang, which is extremely empty on weekends because many of the Koreans go to their homes.

I have had one week of classes, and they are going well! I am sticking to my goal of learning more Korean by studying ten new words a day, as well as working with my suitemates on grammar, spelling, pronunciation, all that language stuff. They are great teachers, and keep me accountable to learn Korean every day so I can reach my goals. I feel so blessed to have so many great girls in my suite who want me to succeed in my goal to become conversational in Korean. I hope by the end of the semester I will be able to join in the Korean conversations they have during our suite parties. I am starting to pick more words out when I hear Korean and I can follow most conversations, I just struggle with thinking of the words to respond with, and then to put those words in the proper structure. ARGH!

One thing that is interesting about Korean that I don't think I have talked about is that there are levels of formality, meaning that you use a different word/ending when speaking to different people. For example, when speaking with your peers, you would greet them with "Anyong" kind of like our "Hi." You would never address anyone older than you in this way though, you would use "Anyonghaseyo" or if in a really formal setting "Anyonghashimnika." It is the same basic "Hello" but depending on the person you are speaking to, you use a different form. There are several other levels of formality, but these are the basic three. I guess we kind of use this with some words, but with Korean, every verb has levels of formality and many other words have it as well. It's just one more thing you have to be aware about: Who am I speaking to, what level of formality do I use?

Oh, I added a link to my YouTube account on the side of the blog. I was having trouble loading videos to this blog, so my videos from Korea are on the YouTube site. I will try to post more videos there when I have the chance. Right now, I need to study the ten words my suitemates gave me as well as the vocabulary my Songsangnim (teacher) gave me for homework.