2015년 07월 31일
On Friday, our teachers handed back our quizzes from the previous class period and I must say -- I'm doing pretty well in my classes! :) I definitely feel that I'm learning a lot about the Korean language through my time at Sogang, even though I wholeheartedly believe that I'm going to need a lot more time (i.e. a couple of years) to truly make progress on becoming fluent in Korean... At least, I'm slowly becoming more confident in my basic abilities and am progressing towards that 201 level! Being here in Korea has also forced me to practice what I learn in daily situations - whether going shopping (i.e. asking for a different size/color, determining the price of an object, asking if I can pay with card or cash) or messaging my teacher to tell her that I can't come to class today because I'm not feeling well and my throat hurts (yes, I had to do this once). I can finally see some (if only a little) tangible progress and I do think my hard work is starting to pay off!
For culture class today, we had a special lecturer visit from Hongik University. She provided a semiotic analysis of Korean commerical advertisements in relation to schemas such as "masculinity v. femininity" (although I had an issue with those terms) and constructs of power. Her talk was very interesting, but it was at an inappropriate time, I believe... We had class from 9am-1pm and then the lecture from 2-3:30pm only to travel to the Jamsil Baseball Stadium at 4pm for the 6:30pm game... It made for a very long day. I wish they had made the lecture on another day when I was more inclined to listen and less focused on what would happen later that night.
Around 4:00pm, we departed Sogang for the Samsung v. Doosan Bears game! We were provided with inflatable tubes (?) on the bus to help cheer for Doosan, the "underdog" of the two teams.
Once we got to the stadium, around 5:00pm, we had some time to eat dinner prior to finding our seats for the game. So, my friends and I decided to grab some sausages (the closest thing we could get to hotdogs), chips, and drinks (yes, I chose bubble tea... I was craving it) and ate some ballpark food prior to the game.
After we found our seats, the game began...
Korean baseball is slightly different from American baseball -- mainly in terms of cheering on players. Basically, U.S. fans go "wooo!" and Korean fans SING SONGS AND DANCE AND TAKE THIS SO SERIOUSLY. It's awesome, but slightly intimidating.
Oh, did I mention there's a representative "cheerleader" who continually leads the chants? That dude was inspiring. Also, there are actual cheerleaders for the game who dance every time the teams switch positions. I don't really understand, but I accept it.
The game itself wasn't too great, though... Our team was losing 7-0 at the top of the 3rd inning, so some of my friends and I decided to leave and head to Hongdae to grab some 치맥 (chimaek, chicken and beer). Ultimately, however, most of us were feeling sick, so we didn't actually get beer... or cola... we just drank water with our chicken. Regardless, it was delicious!
But, it was a long night... When I got back around 11pm, I collapsed. I also knew that the following morning would be very busy...
On Friday, our teachers handed back our quizzes from the previous class period and I must say -- I'm doing pretty well in my classes! :) I definitely feel that I'm learning a lot about the Korean language through my time at Sogang, even though I wholeheartedly believe that I'm going to need a lot more time (i.e. a couple of years) to truly make progress on becoming fluent in Korean... At least, I'm slowly becoming more confident in my basic abilities and am progressing towards that 201 level! Being here in Korea has also forced me to practice what I learn in daily situations - whether going shopping (i.e. asking for a different size/color, determining the price of an object, asking if I can pay with card or cash) or messaging my teacher to tell her that I can't come to class today because I'm not feeling well and my throat hurts (yes, I had to do this once). I can finally see some (if only a little) tangible progress and I do think my hard work is starting to pay off!
For culture class today, we had a special lecturer visit from Hongik University. She provided a semiotic analysis of Korean commerical advertisements in relation to schemas such as "masculinity v. femininity" (although I had an issue with those terms) and constructs of power. Her talk was very interesting, but it was at an inappropriate time, I believe... We had class from 9am-1pm and then the lecture from 2-3:30pm only to travel to the Jamsil Baseball Stadium at 4pm for the 6:30pm game... It made for a very long day. I wish they had made the lecture on another day when I was more inclined to listen and less focused on what would happen later that night.
Around 4:00pm, we departed Sogang for the Samsung v. Doosan Bears game! We were provided with inflatable tubes (?) on the bus to help cheer for Doosan, the "underdog" of the two teams.
Once we got to the stadium, around 5:00pm, we had some time to eat dinner prior to finding our seats for the game. So, my friends and I decided to grab some sausages (the closest thing we could get to hotdogs), chips, and drinks (yes, I chose bubble tea... I was craving it) and ate some ballpark food prior to the game.
After we found our seats, the game began...
Korean baseball is slightly different from American baseball -- mainly in terms of cheering on players. Basically, U.S. fans go "wooo!" and Korean fans SING SONGS AND DANCE AND TAKE THIS SO SERIOUSLY. It's awesome, but slightly intimidating.
Oh, did I mention there's a representative "cheerleader" who continually leads the chants? That dude was inspiring. Also, there are actual cheerleaders for the game who dance every time the teams switch positions. I don't really understand, but I accept it.
The game itself wasn't too great, though... Our team was losing 7-0 at the top of the 3rd inning, so some of my friends and I decided to leave and head to Hongdae to grab some 치맥 (chimaek, chicken and beer). Ultimately, however, most of us were feeling sick, so we didn't actually get beer... or cola... we just drank water with our chicken. Regardless, it was delicious!
But, it was a long night... When I got back around 11pm, I collapsed. I also knew that the following morning would be very busy...