Annyeonghaseyo!
Yeah! I finally enrolled in a Basic Korean class! I’ve been
studying Spanish and French (for school purposes) while self-studying Korean
through Talk to Me in Korean. So, I started my class last Saturday, 24 May
2014. I don’t really have a hard time finding new friends since I am really
friendly. I was also trying to feel the vibe of the people around me. If I get
too loud, they might think I am a stupid person (HAHAH!). I took things slow
and just approached an early bird like me. I asked her section and lo and
behold, I was in that section too. I easily made a friend. We sat in front of
the classroom.
FIRST DAY JITTERS? Nah. I am used to it. When I was in
college, I was also alone like that because I don’t have any high school
classmate/friend who enrolled in the same college that I entered. I easily made
friends because of Korean dramas, when I was in college. I also remembered that
my new circle of friends and I ate at Wendy’s while we were talking about our
common interests. End of flashback.
I guessed that we were just 25 students in a class. Most of
us are female fangirls of either Kpop or Korean dramas. I really felt
comfortable with my classmates because even though our age differ from each
other we still share the same interests – KPOP (yeah the music genre and the
Korean Pop Culture itself). The youngest in class are 16 years old and the
oldest, I think, was 30 plus and she doesn’t even look like 30 plus. We don’t
even look like our age though. My new friend, was a year older than I am so I
still feel comfortable.
Our teacher’s name was Shin Dawon. She was really cute. I
really saw IU in her. She spoke really cute; I really like to take her home
because of her cuteness.
After the “Introduce Yourself” portion we started the lesson
right away. Our teacher, started off with, as she said “funny” Korean culture.
*I will list all of her “funny” Korean culture later. She also showed us Korean
National symbols and using some Korean-related spiels.
We started with Korean Alphabet called Hangul. She told us
that Korean Letters are called Hangeul while Korean language is called
Hangukeo.
So:
·
“I can speak HANGEUL.” – is wrong because you are talking about the
Korean Alphabet and it is like “I can speak ALPHABET.”
·
“I can read and write HANGEUL.” – is correct.
·
“I can understand HANGUKEO.” – is also correct.
Hangeul was invented by the great King Sejong. He used to
draw lines and shapes that his son and daughter’s lips/mouth created.
Korean vowels were created metaphysically (from: sky, earth
and human) while Korean consonants were created scientifically.
Well, I learned Korean during our Cultural Exchange Program
in Kyungdong University before. Remember, I self-studied Korean while learning
Spanish and French (for school purposes)? Even though I already know some of
these stuff, I still manage to interact since the class was really fun.
We took a 10-minute break. Minutes before the class resumed,
my teacher asked us if we wanted to watch a music video. I really shouted for
“EXO!” and she turned off the lights and played EXO’s Growl in the big screen
projected in front of my eyes. It seemed like I NEVER watched this video. I was
really like fangirling so hard. I’ve seen this music video many times but it
never failed to make my heart disappear. I almost fell to my chair because of
squirming when Suho’s parts appeared. My seatmate was laughing. My classmates
were laughing at me when I praise THE KIM JUNMYEON. My neighboring seatmate was
also talking to me, she’s older than me and it felt like she’s just the
same-aged-friend of mine. She was in her early 30’s and she was happy to see me
fangirling. Video ended and everybody felt so good. I was not really sure about
the guys though. J
After the video, “Why Kris left? It’s too sad.” My teacher
cutely asked after the video. She was looking at me as if the question was
thrown to me and I was like giving her a
I-have-nothing-to-do-with-it-he-choose-to-leave look.
Class resumed. We continued doing Consonants and vowels. We
read “hangeulized” words too! We read Korean top stars names and Kim Soohyun’s
name was very popular in our class. It was really fun. It was really fun
learning Korean with classmates who share the same interests with you. It was
really fun learning Korean with a cute teacher who also uses Korean popular
culture as her spiels.
Spiels
as said by my teacher:
· Korean women
don’t change surnames even if they get married.
– She said it’s funny but don’t worry it’s just a tradition; we can
still marry a Korean.
o I read that it’s because women kinda like honor their
father’s name.
·
“There are no
bananas and mangoes in Korea.” – She said that bananas and mangoes cannot grow
in Korea because of the weather. She also said that she first ate bananas when
she was 8 years old.
·
Teacher said
that her ex-co-worker was a close friend of SNSD Jessica’s father. She happily
told us that Mr. Jung always call his daughter Jessica and tell his co-workers
how proud he is to have her and then he will call Krystal next and tell the
same thing to her. How cute.
·
Teacher used
Nichkhun’s picture in our class and she said “He’s not mine…Tiffany…” while
pouting her lips like a cute duck.
·
There are
four seasons in Korea and the best time to go there is during SPRING or AUTUMN.
·
She always
said that “Kim Soohyun” / Do Minjoon is hers.
Regarding the Korean age system, she said that once you are born in this world, you are already ONE YEAR OLD then every NEW YEAR (January 1) ALL Koreans will have another year old. So, if you were born on May 22, 1991 you are already one year old then on January 1, 1992 you'll become two years old. What's funny is that, if your birthday falls on example December 31, 1992 then on the following day, New Year you'll have to add another year, that makes you 2 years old in just two days time.
Regarding the Korean age system, she said that once you are born in this world, you are already ONE YEAR OLD then every NEW YEAR (January 1) ALL Koreans will have another year old. So, if you were born on May 22, 1991 you are already one year old then on January 1, 1992 you'll become two years old. What's funny is that, if your birthday falls on example December 31, 1992 then on the following day, New Year you'll have to add another year, that makes you 2 years old in just two days time.
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