7/30/2018
Last Thursday was my last day of classes at SNU. This past month and a half at Seoul National University has really flown by. I definitely spent an action packed time in Korea, even though I did not get to do everything that I wanted to try. There’s just so much to see and do here!
First off, I think that my Korean has improved. At first, I was a little concerned that my Korean would not improve much as the class was a little difficult and because I feel that it is hard to improve in a language after you get to a certain level. However, I think that my professor did a wonderful job trying to match the wide range of levels in our class. I felt that we spent more time on Korean culture and how it shaped Korean language, such as learning about different 사자성어 (sajaseonguh) which are four letter idioms. We also did a lot of shorter writing assignments that helped me improve my writing. These writing assignments focused more on how to make more fluid sentences in Korean rather than focusing on our grammar or spelling. I think that this helped me get a better grasp on writing while also helping my grammar. Also because the assignments were shorter, we were able to get feedback more quickly and make corrections in our next assignment which also helped me retain the information that I received.
Second off, although I did not make many Korean friends as our program was not in adjunct with the normal SNU summer courses, I did get to befriend a few who happened to live in the dorms as well. I think through these friends I learned a lot more about Korean culture. Even though we learn about culture in class, I think it is completely different from experiencing it first hand and hanging out with people who grew up in Korea helped me better understand the culture better (although they totally understood when we made cultural mistakes as we were foreigners who did not know any better). Probably one of the most useful things I learned in Korea was how to grill meat at a Korean barbecue. Although I have gone to many Korean barbecue places, I have never grilled the meat myself. But this time, I put what I had seen in K-dramas and what I have seen my parents do in practice. The first time was a little ruff, but I got a hang of it really quickly.
Lastly, I think that I have made some of my best friends here. Although they live all around the world, I hope that one day we will be able to meet again as successful adults who have achieved our goals and dreams. 그래서 꼭 다시 만나자! (So let’s definitely meet again!)
