2015년 07월 15일
Last Wednesday, classes went by without much change. We learned, we repeated, we collapsed from exhaustion (perhaps we only felt like collapsing). These long days started to wear on the entire class, as shown by the sudden drop in enthusiasm from the first week.
However, in an attempt to make our day more exciting, our culture class was to be held off-campus that day. We were given a packet the day before and were split into teams of two members. The packet, solely in Korean, told us to take certain subway stops and to meet at a particular location (it turned out to be a mall) before 2:00 PM -- the normal time at which our culture class begins.
Of course, half of our class decided to grab lunch and travel together so that it wouldn't be as lonely as leaving in partnered groups.
But, I don't believe that we fully realized how this would impact our adventures. After all, when you're eating lunch with friends, you assume you have all of the time in the world. So, leaving Sinchon station at 1:40 should be fine, right? I mean, it was a 15 minute journey, be we should be good...
Needless to say, as soon as we navigated through the terminal of our destination, we ad only 5 minutes to find the specific location where we were to meet.
I have never attempted to read Korean (and maps) faster in my life.
It was only 1:55, yet our "Running Man" missions had already begun. We were sprinting down the halls of the terminal (and mall), trying to find our mysterious meeting location before time was up and we were disqualified before the competition even began. Nevertheless, we made it (around 2:05, but we were fine) and were then given another packet.
Once every team arrived (not only students from 1B were there, but students from 2A joined us as well), the TAs distributed large stickers that said "Sogang Unviersity" and packets which detailed several "missions" for us to complete.
For those who have never watched the variety show "Running Man," our rules were as follows:
- Complete the missions (ask questions only in Korean)
- Keep your sticker on (opponents and TAs could attempt to rip it off at any time, disabling you for five minutes)
Our missions included writing store names out in Hangeul (the Korean writing system), finding the Best Selling Korean novels in a bookstore, and writing the names of restaurants within the mall which serves specific foods. These missions, as stated previously, had to be accomplished using only Korean. Typically, this resulted in my partner and I going up to random store clerks, pointing to a picture in our packet and asking "Where is this?" or "What is this?" ... It worked most of the time, at least!
Anyways, the event was made SO much more stressful by the sticker... We were so paranoid not to get our stickers ripped off (personally, I thought that if it happened, I would be out for the entire game, so I had reason to be paranoid at the time). At one point, our TA even chased us down a hallway AND up an escalator in the mall... Needless to say, the poor native Korean citizens were so confused. But, most store clerks and random passersby would help us while they laughed at our distress, which was nice...
We had a great time and even though my team didn't win, what matters is that we still finished (a lot of other teams didn't and just quit halfway).
It was a great way to end the day!
Last Wednesday, classes went by without much change. We learned, we repeated, we collapsed from exhaustion (perhaps we only felt like collapsing). These long days started to wear on the entire class, as shown by the sudden drop in enthusiasm from the first week.
However, in an attempt to make our day more exciting, our culture class was to be held off-campus that day. We were given a packet the day before and were split into teams of two members. The packet, solely in Korean, told us to take certain subway stops and to meet at a particular location (it turned out to be a mall) before 2:00 PM -- the normal time at which our culture class begins.
Of course, half of our class decided to grab lunch and travel together so that it wouldn't be as lonely as leaving in partnered groups.
But, I don't believe that we fully realized how this would impact our adventures. After all, when you're eating lunch with friends, you assume you have all of the time in the world. So, leaving Sinchon station at 1:40 should be fine, right? I mean, it was a 15 minute journey, be we should be good...
Needless to say, as soon as we navigated through the terminal of our destination, we ad only 5 minutes to find the specific location where we were to meet.
I have never attempted to read Korean (and maps) faster in my life.
It was only 1:55, yet our "Running Man" missions had already begun. We were sprinting down the halls of the terminal (and mall), trying to find our mysterious meeting location before time was up and we were disqualified before the competition even began. Nevertheless, we made it (around 2:05, but we were fine) and were then given another packet.
Once every team arrived (not only students from 1B were there, but students from 2A joined us as well), the TAs distributed large stickers that said "Sogang Unviersity" and packets which detailed several "missions" for us to complete.
For those who have never watched the variety show "Running Man," our rules were as follows:
- Complete the missions (ask questions only in Korean)
- Keep your sticker on (opponents and TAs could attempt to rip it off at any time, disabling you for five minutes)
Our missions included writing store names out in Hangeul (the Korean writing system), finding the Best Selling Korean novels in a bookstore, and writing the names of restaurants within the mall which serves specific foods. These missions, as stated previously, had to be accomplished using only Korean. Typically, this resulted in my partner and I going up to random store clerks, pointing to a picture in our packet and asking "Where is this?" or "What is this?" ... It worked most of the time, at least!
Anyways, the event was made SO much more stressful by the sticker... We were so paranoid not to get our stickers ripped off (personally, I thought that if it happened, I would be out for the entire game, so I had reason to be paranoid at the time). At one point, our TA even chased us down a hallway AND up an escalator in the mall... Needless to say, the poor native Korean citizens were so confused. But, most store clerks and random passersby would help us while they laughed at our distress, which was nice...
We had a great time and even though my team didn't win, what matters is that we still finished (a lot of other teams didn't and just quit halfway).
It was a great way to end the day!