All Words, No Action

I'm well into my second week of level 5 at Sogang University. Maybe I should explain what the program is like for those of you who, um, aren't within driving distance of Korea. Which, presumably, is all of you.

1) Location - The tenth story of the highest building on the Sogang University campus. I'm not technically a student of Sogang, since I'm attending the affiliated language program, but I do have a student card and have access to the various facilities there, including the gym and the library.

2) Schedule - I take classes four hours a day, five days a week, making it a pretty intense schedule. This doesn't take into account the homework, of which there's a considerable amount. There are also additional classes available to those who are interested and ambitious (I suppose I may fall into category) like a pronunciation class that I took today.

3) Material - The first hour of the day is a writing class. We review the material covered in the other classes and implement it in our own free writing assignments. Next is a video class, which focuses on improving our listening skills. Right now we're watching a movie called "Christmas in August." Finally is two hours of reading and speaking, which is where we get most of the new material, including vocab and grammar. Perhaps needless to say, all these classes are taught in Korean. Since I'm in level 5 out of 6, this isn't surprising, but even level 1 is taught entirely in Korean. I really can't imagine how that works...!

I'll add some more topics when they occur to me. For now, another picture - pretty good looking, huh?

What I've Come to Realize

I'm very rarely satisfied with what I do, who I am.

I'm always making plans and never implementing them.

I hate saying no to people.

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In light of all this, I am very self-consciously planning to set aside some time to think about all of the things I'm dissatisfied with in my life and find a way to resolve them.

Faces and Names

Lots of things have happened here since I wrote last. In fact, lots of things happened before I wrote last, things that I never wrote about for lack of time or energy or creativity or some such excuse, easy enough to find.

One of these recent happenings is a good one, both for my happiness here as a student in Korea and for your happiness there as my earnest, faithful readers. (Yes, that's me flattering you, even if you are neither earnest nor faithful, nor a reader.)

To cut to the chase - I finally broke down and got internet at my boarding house. This will cost me about $35 a month, not bad, considering the installation was free, the first month bill is waived, and I get a free MP3 player to boot.

(Another little something I didn't get around to mentioning was me losing my MP3 player.)

And now, allow me to recapture your wandering attention with a few PICTURES!



Some of my classmates from level 4 at Sogang University's Korean program.
(Another milestone: passed the class, moving up to level 5, as well as bigger and better things, one hopes, starting in December.)


I like her, and she...?


잘 있어! Chal issoyo! (Take care!)

David

They Say I'm Well Connected

I can see your cynical expressions right now--I can even read your thoughts. "He's in Korea, and he said he'd blog. Right... That'll be the day. David? Actually following through on a resolution?"

Well, here I am, posting again! There's a good reason for the change, too. Don't worry, though: there haven't been any emergencies and I haven't made any huge life decisions lately. I'm still relatively intact, and I'm still unmarried.

But I've gotten my computer configured to work with Sogang university's wireless network, which means that

1) I don't have to shell out the extra 30 bucks a month to get internet at home
2) since I can use the free wireless here.*

Oh, and there's a third consequence:

3) You'll see me online a lot more often. Maybe get more emails from me, too!

Next time, I promise it'll be a little more substantive than this.

David

*You are welcome to infer, if you wish, that I am both lazy and a cheapskate. I won't deny it.

Where Do I Go from Here?

Korea, of course.

But some people haven't been satisfied with this answer. They like to know about those nasty things called details. They are unusually fond of asking hard questions. They want to know my reasons. And my whereabouts. What gives them the right, I could easily ask?

Being the pushover I am, I've put the details below along with a helpful map:


July
20: visit Owen in Tulsa
22: visit Matt, Spring, Chris, and Sarah in Dallas
24: return home, begin packing
26: watch Camelot, the musical (local Fort Smith production)
27: eat a Korean meal with my parents in Fayetteville
28: fly to Taiwan to visit my uncle John

August
3: return to Korea! arrive in Seoul
4: catch a bus from Seoul to Pusan (also spelled Busan, which incidentally is beating out Pusan on google hits by about 2 to 1)
6: start teaching kids again at a summer camp(this offer good for a limited time only!)
17: finish the camp and return to Seoul
18: start looking for a place to live

September
3: start my classes at 서강대학교 (Seogang Daehakkyo) - Sogang University.

You'll notice that toward the end of August my meticulous schedule becomes a little...open-ended. This is because I'm not entirely sure what will happen after that time. Never fear! Not only am I pretty sure that I will indeed do something, but I also have this blog, with which you can stay informed.

~David

PS - What's this about a kid holding up a sign written in some illegible script surrounded by some panting dogs?
In Korean, it says: "Please don't eat my friends."

[picture taken from The Marmot's Hole, a Korean blog]

I Have My Reasons

I really do, as much as you may wonder why in the world David is off to another country - and not Europe, mind you, or Canada or some other reasonable place - teaching English, learning Korean, leaving his friends and family behind and dealing with numerous inconveniences. There were the two months with no hot water, and diplomas submitted and not returned, and taxis that wouldn't pick up foreigners. Why put up with it all? Why stumble into law offices where hardly a word of English is spoken and try to get a document notarized that costs 50 dollars extra simply because - it's in English?

You might look at it a different way, though. Why live out your life in the ordinary way, continuing after a relatively uneventful, mostly successful cruise through college to the obvious grad program? Why idle away at home or in an easy career, thinking the same ideas and repeating the same words until the groove they wear in the mind is smooth and too deep to scramble out of?

Korea is, for me, another way to explore myself. It offers a history influenced by but distinct from the West, a people receptive of Western ways but uncertain of Westerners. It offers a language more challenging than those studied in American high schools because it is unrelated to English, a language bewildering because it reflects the intricate system of formality and courtesy ingrained in Korean society.

To learn it well, I have to try hard, and to keep on trying longer than I've ever done. I am a meddler and a dabbler, a prince of dilettantes, and no sooner have I started a new project than I've set it down again. This time, though I'm going to find my follow through. I'm going round the world again, and - this time - I'm not coming back until I've finished what I started.

More Soon

I've just gotten this blog going, but as you can see it's mostly skeletal. A bunch of scaffolding around the mere frame of a work, hardly begun.

See: Title.

Later, you'll be able to learn all about my continuing efforts to learn Korean, as well as miscellaneous observations about life, literature, culture. I.e. what you no doubt expect from blogs. But here language comes first.

Hope you'll keep me company as I learn.

David