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(Updated 2/8/08)
Okay it’s next time ;) thought I’d through together a few things about my Intensive Korean class. So far the group is pretty interesting. First there’s teacher 2.0a; she’s what I could consider a “typical” korean girl. Cute, in a 14 year old cousin sort of way, easily embarrassed and not one to be very forceful. Then there’s teacher 2.0b who’s totally not your typical Korean. I’ve heard that she hold some level of seniority at the school, and boy does she walk around like it. The first day of class she came in wearing corduroy pants, Puma shoes, and a turtleneck. As rockstar would say, “she’s rock n’ roll.” Then there’s Hiro, one of five Japanese students in my class. He’s probably in his late forties, has two daughters? and is in Korea studying the language for his job. He works for a Japanese company whose clients are increasingly more and more Korean. There are two girls that I would say are fairly “typical,” there’s the “80’s guy” someone didn’t tell him that tight jeans and turtlenecks left 25 years ago, and then there’s the “stripper.” There’s one girl from Hong Kong, pretty straight forward. Three girls from China, one, Boo-kie looks like a little doll, to quote the Ravi, “her pudgy cheeks make her eyes look like an afterthought” but she’s sweet and of course the baby of the class. Then there’s the Chinese guy who looks mid thirties but is actually early twenties. Hmmm. Rounding out the group is the Brazilian Korean with a brazilian first and middle name and the last name Won. She looks a bit like a Brazilian Lucy Lu to me, except her parents are both Korean? Of course then there’s me, the gyopo (korean abroad) who brings American humor and entertainment to the group. :D I have to say that I’ve been blessed with another great group of friends. I still keep in touch with the last class. Mai, Liene, Zhui-Fong, Nanupa, Elle, and Teacher #1.5a.
(Teachers: So perhaps I should explain my coding for teachers. Each level is broken into two session and each half has two teachers, the main teacher and the reading teacher. So Teacher 1.0b is the level 1 first session reading teacher, while Teacher 1.5a is the level one, second session, main teacher. Make sense? oh well.)
The focus of level one is simply grammar and vocabulary, and a lot of it. Level two has two focuses, one per session. Session one is common language, (Korean is broken into two primary levels of language: common and honorary*****) Up until now we’ve only learned and spoken in the honorary form, now we learn the common form. The second session of level two, we focus on “indirect, direct communication.” This is pretty weird for westerners. Basically, it’s the art of communicating in as many words and as indirectly as possible but still getting your point across. Let me give you an example:A month or so ago, I was walking with a friend in the subway and she looked to me and asked, “What does a guy in the US do when he’s walking with a girl who’s carrying a heavy bag?” Hmmm, I thought for a second and replied, “Well, I suppose it depends on the context. I mean, how old is the girl? how well do they know each other? does he like her? Where are they going? etc...” She responded, “I mean, if two people are walking and one’s a guy and one’s a girl and the girl is carrying a heavy bag, what does the guy do?” Hmmm, I replied, “Again, I think here the context is important.” This same dialogue went back and forth for another min or two before I finally understood that she was trying to tell me that she had had a long day and would appreciate a guy helping her carry her book bag. I asked her why she didn’t just ask if I could carry something for her to help her out? (Who knows).
So that’s partially the art of asking without asking. I heard it’s really hard for westerners to master... :\ (Indirect communication is pretty Greek to me to begin with... so we’ll have to see how this goes!) Well I think I’ve about talked by fingers off about Korean class. Check out the pictures, we even did a bit of cooking too!
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