[Cafe Hopping] Coffee Break @ Sinchon

Not a new cafe at all but I’ve finally captured enough photos to talk about it! I really like this place because it’s a really nice place to study or do work or just blog or watch dramas wtv. Haha. The coffee is really cheap, 2800 won for a latte, and it has sufficient power points and toilets. It’s also really huge with plenty of space. Even on crowded days you’re bound to find a decent spot. It also closes at midnight which is beneficial to me! Finally, it has 7 wifis i’m not kidding i have photo proof. Haha.

Above photo not mine. Kept forgettng to take a photo of the store front so I took it from naver~ credit on the pic!

First floor~

See I wasn’t kidding about the 7 wifis

Affordable glory~

Second floor. Photo from the staircase~

Left side of the second floor haha

Right side of the second floor with smoking corner~ toilet is at the far right

Their muffins are also tasty and crispy on the outside!

Overall an amazing place to study or hang out for students! 😀 Especially if you’re in Sogang!!

How to get to Coffee Break: If you’re coming from Sinchon, go via Exit 6 and follow the path down towards Sogang University. Coffee Break is right before Sogang! If you’re in Sogang, well, get out of the school and turn right haha.

 

My affair with Korea(n), the bad and the good

Starting Korean was kind of out of the blue, and for reasons I still can’t pinpoint till this day. It’s almost 2 years since I first stared at the Korean characters and I’ve always wanted to write about it, somehow, but the time was not right then and I hadn’t experienced enough to be able to write my experiences. But now that my exchange in Korea is coming to an end, I feel that my journey in learning Korean is coming to its bloom pretty soon (don’t ask me what ‘bloom’ refers to IDEK it’s just the feels) if I keep up at it anyways LOL. So I want to write about how it all started and the things I encountered along the way. It turned out more personal than I expected but it was a relief to get all of it out and public like this. 🙂 Hopefully for those also learning this elusive language, you may be able to take away a thing or two from this post~

Long post ahead. You have been warned!

Why did I start learning Korean?

It’s a question I still falter in answering. I couldn’t answer it to my friends, to my parents, to my siblings, and I couldn’t answer it even more than a year later when facing my interviewer from Sogang University. I had stared at her completely helpless, and ended up saying I just wanted to be able to understand dramas and songs.

If the reason was really just that, I doubt I would have tried so hard, given the easy accessibility of english subtitles. A lot of my friends attributed it to my fangirling over SNSD haha, and perhaps that could have been true as one of the triggers, but looking back it’s no longer the reason, seeing that I’ve almost completely abandoned that fangirl life and am still pursuing Korean.

It’s also a question my brother struggled to answer. I asked him the same thing, why did you learn Japanese? And he gave me the same helpless gaze. In the end, I believe our answers are the same. Korean and Japanese for us are like personal goals, a personal project. There could be no absolute reason why, but if we like it and conquering it will give us a sense of personal pride, then why not?

Another fact that not everyone knows was that in this period in 2012, I was facing something like depression. I’ve never talked about it this openly, but i’ve off-handedly mentioned it to the BF, and perhaps a handful of friends. But I’ve never delved into it as a serious issue or anything. But regardless of whether it’s actually a medical issue, the feeling was real. I had tons of insecurities, ranging from not being good enough to do anything, not having a practical passion, losing close friends, feeling absolutely alone and abandoned, etc. I knew at that time I just wanted to run, but I don’t know where to. And perhaps that was when I found the crazy world of fandom life hahahaha, it’s really crazy out there and unless you’re in one i think you wouldn’t know what Im talking about. But it was a good escape and I made precious friends there, and it also give me a new motive: to learn Korean. I wanted to accomplish something I liked. Not for my career, not for my grades, not for the people around me, but entirely just for me. So I started.

Late 2012 – first Korean class and self-learning

I started by signing up for a Korean class at a local academy. The stint only lasted for 10 lessons and after that I was left wondering how I should pick up from there. Since I felt the lessons were too slow, I decided to follow my brother’s method of learning Japanese and do it on my own.

So I started utilizing resources like talktomeinkorean.com, textbooks i ripped off from online torrents (not proud of it LOL), and spending hours at Coffee Bean pondering over certain grammars. I remember clearly going onto the Sogang website and not being able to understand what they were teaching because the classes were so brief lol, and I remembered not liking Sogang’s way of teaching. The irony!

Perhaps the biggest flaw in self-learning so early was that I had no idea how to apply it at all. That time I didn’t realize how much of a problem it was that I was only learning to understand what a sentence means when the grammar or vocab was applied by someone else. I didn’t realize it was a problem that I couldn’t understand when the grammar was spoken by a native Korean, and I didn’t know how to string it into my own sentences. I thought it would come naturally but it became a problem that crippled me all the way until I went to Korea, and the entire first half of my exchange in Korea. I didn’t realize how important revision was in order to be able to apply what you learned, and I only wanted to keep learning new stuff and skip the boring old stuff. So my first advice to language learners now is: Revision is more important than learning. You could learn all the grammars and vocab that exist in the world but when you’re unable to apply any of them by yourself, you’re automatically considered less fluent than the one who only knows 5 grammars off-hand and a couple of vocabs, but uses them to get his message across. The thing about language is that it’s a form of communication, it’s not just knowledge, and my first mistake was treating it as knowledge acquired rather than a new way to communicate.

It is not impossible to learn on your own. But it does take a huge amount of discipline and an understanding that just learning is not enough. You need to keep reaching out to improve yourself, keep going back to the things you dislike but know they’re important, that’s perhaps why I would say self-learning, although the most accessible means of learning, is the most difficult path to achieving fluency. Hats off to all those who succeeded down this path!!

Late 2012 – Application to Korea for exchange rejected

This is a moment I constantly look back on, not with regret but with wonder. I’ve told plenty of people rather unrestrictively that I’ve been rejected before when I tried to apply to the universities in Korea for Y3S1, the fall period of 2013. I’m an average student and my GPA was something I’ve been kinda ashamed to talk about for a long time, and with this rejection I had felt even more worthless. But more than that, it had given me the strength to realize that things don’t get offered to me on a silver platter. Sure I can keep on lamenting about how the system is flawed and that sometimes no matter how hard you work you still can’t do well, or I can try to change that. At least try.

At that time, after rejection, my desire to go to Korea for exchange and the desire to achieve Korean fluency was magnified so much, to the extent that something in me probably changed for the better. I started putting in more effort into my work and kept my goal in mind while I worked my asssss off that sem. The results of that semester wasn’t fantastic compared to all the amazing achievers in SMU, but it was my personal best and in all honesty, the first A’s I’ve ever achieved in all my years in university came from that semester. It’s not even something to boast, saying i’ve achieved A’s only after two whole years in SMU, but I was elated and proud and it’s all that really mattered. My GPA was boosted by 0.1, an amazing feat not to others but to myself – I’ve been facing a constant downward spiral since my first semester and this was the first semester I managed to bring it up.

So then, does this guarantee I can get an exchange? Not even close because it was still a bad GPA compared to many others who wanted popular Korea as their destination. But so what, it allowed me to move forward with some hope in mind.

This is the second advice I’d like to give in this post: You deserve what you work for. Our fortunes are not always what we hoped or think we deserve, but I learned first-hand that if you never put in your due diligence, you can forget about hoping for anything. You might not get it even if you work hard, but it WILL give you hope that you might. And that alone is enough to give you strength to continue forward.

I mentioned earlier that this is a moment I look back with wonder, not with regret, and I’ll get back to that later on 🙂

Early 2013 – Korean class at SMU

I only realized how much I was not improving from my flawed self-learning method when I enrolled in the Korean elective lesson in SMU. That was my fastest progress that year, being forced to apply directly what I learned in class. I learned all the basics quickly in that semester thanks to an amazing teacher, and it was also the best module i’ve ever taken in SMU. It was a class atmosphere I couldn’t feel in any other modules. It was a class full of people who truly wanted to learn and enjoyed what they were learning, and that was their priority, instead of chasing to get their As and outing everyone else. Everyone was fascinated with the language and everyone was on equal standing.

Our group project was to create a Korean script and damn that was hands-down the best group projet ever in SMU! It was a whole lot of fun with Zenn and our unnies/oppas from senior year. Our unnies took care of us so kindly like their own sisters, and for the first time I felt such warmth in this school 🙂 We had a blast in that project, creating fake love stories and dramas all in Korean, spending hours of laughter and amateur acting.

I was sad when it was over, but I had so many great memories from it that it was impossible to not smile just thinking about it. Also, my Korean progressed drastically, which was why I began to realize how I had been learning so wrongly in my self-learning.

Mid 2013 – Acceptance of exchange application to Korea

I applied again after that semester that I still dub as the semester that turned my university life around. Haha. I wasn’t confident I could get in with the GPA and stuff, but I appealed earnestly via my study plan hoping they would read it and understand my feelings. I promised to write a Korean travel blog and I’m proud that I’ve done just that 😀 It’s nothing much and more of a personal record rather than a guide that will actually help others, but I’ve fulfilled what I promised.

At that time, all my friends were getting their offers from their universities and I was anxious that the letters from Korean universities had not arrived yet. However, just a day after my birthday, I finally received it!!

:’)

No words could express my excitement. 😀 It’s probably the time I also knew I was completely freed of this depression shit and inferiority complex. Granted I still have moments like that but i knew i would never go down that route again, not for the same reasons. I realized I had the power to change my own circumstances (sorry for the cheeesiness) and I definitely should, instead of mourning and thinking constantly that the world was against me, and expecting someone to take sympathy on me. I deserved none because i was just dwelling in self-pity.

This period was a hiatus period in my Korean learning. Haha. I almost totally abandoned it, only looking back at old materials once in a while, and sometimes when i have the time, taking to translating simple things on Twitter. I wouldn’t say my progress went downhill, rather it was maintained at that basic level. It’s bad that I abandoned Korean like this, I’d advice you to please not do this D: try as much as possible to fit it into your schedule.

I spent my semester mostly recovering from the weird depression stage shit, getting to know more people and improving myself career wise by taking up a part time internship (LINK) at the most amazing organization. And of course also, maintaining my grades or improving it if possible. It was an uphill journey from here onwards, and i realized how true it is that when you hit your lowest you can only go up. Hitting my lowest made me cherish the people around me better, made me remove the people that were toxic to my life, and made me solidify my goals and pursue them in a more focused manner.

I gained so much in this semester, and also it was an opportunity to clarify my relationship/commitment issues and settle into a proper long-term oriented one. That’s why I said I looked back on my exchange rejection with some fondness and a lot of wonder haha. Because if I had been accepted then, perhaps i’d never realize what went wrong with me. I’d keep on thinking “HA I was right, i’m capable by myself and everyone else was wrong to not have cherished me” you know something lame and self-entitling like that. Luckily i was rejected ruthlessly so I could think and realize that I was the one who was kinda screwed up. And also the rejection allowed me to stay for one more semester in the school, the semester that I gained friendships, gained back my strength, gained my faith in relationships, and gained so many more things that i believe made me better as a person.

So no matter how I think of it, the dots connected perfectly and I would never regret that rejection. It’s really true how things happen for a reason, and it’s often a good reason, if only you’re willing to wait and see how things play out instead of just living in resentment. 🙂 I can say this with confidence because besides being rejected for the Korean universities, i’ve also been rejected by SMU before and I got in through appeal, and only at the last minute when orientation was over. But that’s another story for another day 🙂 Point is that things really do happen for a good reason and you just have to believe it and make the best out of your situation.

Late 2013 – Korean lessons at CC

Moving on from all that self-development prep talk, I realized that going to Korea for exchange meant I had to go back to my Korean learning. So Zenn and I applied for an intermediate Korean lesson at BB community club, and I guess because I was busy I didn’t focus on revising properly so the entirely lesson didn’t turn out too useful 😦 it was my fault though, i do think CC lessons are quite okay for intermediate lessons, just that there’s no proper structure. If you’re the type to revise a lot on your own, CC lessons could be an affordable way to improve your Korean alongside your self-learning 🙂

As soon as my exams were over, I focused on listening to talktomeinkorean’s audio lessons on buses whenever possible, i borrowed Korean textbooks and I tried having conversations with myself as my brother told me to LOL. Previously I depended on grammar textbooks alone, but I realized the importance of a structuerd Korean textbook to help guide you and put you on the right path, instad of just learning from grammar book or vocab lists. I also started trying TOPIK papers. I will list later on the resources in another post soon, watch out for it! ^^

Time was short and before I knew it it was already time to go for exchange o.o I wrapped up my amazing internship nicely and started preparing myself for the most exciting journey!!!!

akfljghaldkgjhagd

/end spazz

2014 – Coming to Korea and the fastest progress in Korean

They all say that the best way to learn Korean is to come to Korea, and they couldn’t be more right!

The first times i was in Korea, i was really scared. I believe Zenn felt the same. We both spoke in English to people although it was a basic question that we could easily say in Korean. Up till this time we had almost 0 practice speaking and conversing in Korean in a natural setting outside the classroom, so we were frightened hahaha. After a few days we realized how bad it was and started to force each other to speak more often than not in Korean. So we did and just by speaking to staff in restaurants and cafes, cab drivers and asking for directions, our Korean improved much more than I think we realized. Because it was real application and we picked up things we never would have learned from textbooks. Like the terminology and all that are used to order food/drinks and the language used by service people. It was fascinating and also helped us to change our Korean to be more colloquial.

I also started lessons in Sogang and was put into Level 3A, a personal achievement that I’m still proud of. Upon first entering the class I was shocked at everyone’s level of fluency hahaha, and for the first time I realized how inferior I really was and how far I have to go. My entrance interview went badly in my opinion and I had already realized then how weak i was at speaking and how wrong my entire self-study thingy was at that time, so I was so grateful to be put in 3A, a level I deemed to be above me.

After a few lessons in 3A, that’s when I realized for good, how much lower my speaking level was compared to my grammar. Considering that I actually knew a lot of the grammars taught in 3A, but I struggled to keep up with the teacher who spoke in 100% Korean… I realized my learning so far had been almost futile because I didn’t know how to apply what I learned. So i swept all the things I’ve learned to the back of my mind and focused first and foremost in getting my speaking level up.

I tried a variety of ways for this, some succeeding and failing. I went on a hunt for language exchange partners (a handful I still keep in touch with), I talked to myself, I printed drama scripts to read (this failed), I noted the things people say in variety shows or dramas, and I spoke with others who were leaning Korean alongside me. Personally I was fortunate to have found people at my level and we helped each other out alot.

It is still very difficult for me to speak with local Koreans and at first I beat myself up over it… a lot. I lamented that here I am in a rare opportunity to Korea but because I’m not good enough I can’t even practice with all the local Koreans here. It’s like an opportunity wasted because of my lack of skills. But I realized I was expecting way more than my level, way more than the effort I put in. I have a conversation partner who is on her way to level 5 of Korean, but is speaking at my level. In my class, the ones who spoke fluently were those with Korean background. I realized how unforgiving i had been with myself, and how that had crippled me. My friend at level 5 acknowledges that her speaking needs improvement, but instead of beating herself up like I do, she does something. She went out there to search for help, she spent her time carefully formulating sentences in her head, and talking to her is always so refreshing because of the sheer determination in her voice. So I stopped beating myself up and tried to find a solution, like she did.

And so I jumped on every opportunity to meet or hang out with someone who is learning Korean at my level, and I found that talking to them in Korean helped me learn so much more than actually talking with native Koreans. This is because the people learning Korean with me were willing to speak slow, willing to help me find my vocab or grammar, corrected me with a smile and we spoke with priority being to improve our Korean. On the contrary when speaking with Koreans my age, the focus is of course to build a friendship, and I often felt that my slow Korean was a burden because it stopped us from chatting and creating a bond. So I often switched back to English after a short while of attempting Korean.

Thus it’s apt for me to say at this point: It’s okay if you are not confident with speaking to a native. Don’t beat yourself up over it like I did, yes it does make you feel unworthy and unable to take on a challenge like that, but it could well be that you’re not prepared at the level you’re at. Of course I’d encourage challenges in speaking with natives, but don’t make that your single-handed focus. Open your mind because there are other possibilities. If you’re more comfortable speaking with other people learning the language as well, by all means do so, it might be a better method at least for now, until you’re confident of speaking with a native.

My next advice at this point: You have to step out of your comfort zone. Learning a language is the exact opposite of staying in your comfort zone, if you’re gonna want to master a languge but remain too scared to go out there and create opportunities, then your learning is going to be very limited. It wasn’t easy to step out of my comfort zone too, i’ve never been the kind who liked to do that. I always try to find solutions that don’t require me to step out. But with Korean, that was impossible, and I was forced in the end to cross all boundaries to help myself. It’s not always what you’re comfortable with, but if it’s necessary and you’r determined, then do it whole-heartedly.

Speaking set aside, my listening has also improved tremendously. That’s a given because listening is more passive than speaking and living in an environment with everyone around me speaking Korean of course was the biggest help. Just by being here, I can now understand whenever my professors speak in Korean, whenever my groupmates discussed in Korean, whenever service staff spoke to me, and I found that my instances of blankly looking at people have reduced immensely. I often don’t let on on this fact that I can understand almost everything they’re saying, but in some instances I’ve acknowledged their words and hence received looks of shock from groupmates or professors that I’ve understood everything they’ve been saying all along hahaha. I live for these moments sometimes, it’s like proof of how far I’ve gotten xD

My pride 🙂

What now?

Now that exchange is coming to an end, I have to find means to stay connected to Korean. i’ve so far been prowling language exchange websites to find Koreans living in Singapore, and at the same time I’ve been searching for classes in Singapore. I found an interesting method of learning via italki.com, i haven’t attended the trial class yet so I’m not sure, but I did find a teacher who said she focuses on speaking the most, which was exactly what I need.

I’m nowhere near the end, I know that there’s a long journey ahead. I just feel like my affair with Korean and Korea isn’t going to end soon, and I hope for it to last long. Until now I still don’t know how it’s useful to learn a language, and I’ve been asked before why I would want to pursue it diligently when I’m not planning to make a career out of it. I don’t have a good answer to that, except simply that I like it. Perhaps that is the best answer instead. Sometimes there really is no other reason to pursuing something in life, except that you like it. Sometimes it’s really as simple as that, and I’m grateful that I have found something like that. I don’t know how learning Korean will take me anywhere, but I know that it’s so refreshing and self-fulfilling to learn it. Perhaps I will grow tired of it, but that’s a future that can worry for itself.

Thanks for reading up till this point. This post was meant to include the recommendations and resources but it ended up being more of a personal story to tell and a mega long reflection haha. Nevertheless, the actual receommendations and resources list is on another post that I will do soon.

Hope I didn’t bore you, if you’re reading this you’re pretty amazing for having read through like my life story lmao.

That’s all for now. This won’t be the last ‘reflection’ post on this journey!

Korean Language Learning Progress (2nd Record)

The second record is here! Phew a long time has passed since I wrote about my Korean learning progress, and exchange is about to come to an end 😦 When I look back at my blog posts, it feels like it’s actually been a long time and I’ve never been ,more glad that I made the decision to regularly and diligently update my blog. I don’t have the best memories ever, usually memories of my trips are only snippets of where I’ve been and I end up not remembering the places I really went to. I only remember like for example ‘there was this patch of grass’ LOLOL.

I digressed didn’t i.

Korean Language Exam @ Sogang

So I thought it’s apt to start the second record by formally announcing that I’ve completed level 3A in Sogang and with much success! I remember not too long ago that I was writing a post on getting into level 3A and being genuinely scared because my class was so competent and the teacher spoke in complete Korean and I was just wrecked with lack of confidence. So I’m really proud that I got through that and learned a lot of things along the way, and passed my exams with flying colors!!!!

 

❤ I was so happy upon receiving the results because I felt I didn’t prepare sufficiently enough for it, due to the fact that the BF came when I was supposed to take my exam haha. I hadn’t finished my revision earlier (which was my fault) and when he arrived, he generously gave me about 2 hours for last minute revision LOL. It wasn’t really enough and I did go in feeling unprepared. And I did leave blanks actually during the exam but it wasn’t really due to me not preparing enough, i knew those words were not from this book so I couldn’t have known how to do those qns from my revision unless I read outside material or learned from elsewhere.

And for the interview, I didn’t memorize the grammar the teacher told us to use with each sample question and before going in i was telling the BF i’m going to speak as fluently as I can and hope to wing it by fluency alone, not application of grammar/vocabs.

And it worked. HAHAHA. I just slurred my words abit to sound more native Korean, tried to connect long sentences, didn’t pause too long when speaking and I think I sounded pretty fluent. So although all my grammar and vocab used were basic, my sentences were stringed properly and I answered her questions. So I guess she gave me the A for that. 😀

I took the exam earlier than the rest of the class due to Jeju trip the next day, so I was sitting in their office doing work while all the other teachers were speaking behind me lol it wasn’t actually a good environment cuz i kept listening in to their conversations LOL. My teacher appeared halfway through and tapped me on the shoulder and said hwaiting hahaha ❤

Anyway enough with the Korean exam rant! I’m just proud I’ve completed Level 3A in Sogang University~

The Amazing Journey of Edward Tulane (Korean translated)

There hasn’t been that much progress elsewhere because all my time was spent trying to focus on the Korean exam, but I did buy a book to help with my Korean. It’s this famous translated book that was featured in You Who Came From the Stars!

 

I’m sure those of you who watched the drama would know about this book~ The Amazing Journey of Edward Tulane, translated in Korean. I picked this book mainly because it’s a children’s book with manageable Korean, and also because I know the general story of it through the drama and I liked it. I saw The Little Prince korean version with annotated explanations to some Korean words at the bottom of the page and full translation on the other page, but thought that’s too risky as I might get lazy and just refer to the english. So I bought this book as a challenge.

I haven’t read many pages so far HAHHA because i’ve been so busy, but i look forward to finishing this book 🙂 I think it’s a good book for intermediate learners because the story is not hard to grasp, and mostly it’s the vocab that you wouldn’t be sure of rather than the grammar. I’m annotating in pencil as I go along 🙂

This book’s price was jacked up in Korean stores haha, about 15000won which is $17+, kinda pricey. I doubt it was this pricey until the Korean drama was released lol.

Korean Language Exchange

As for my Korean language exchange partners, it’s all okay except I haven’t met up with any of them yet so there hasn’t been real practice in terms of speaking, which is what I need the most!! But I have however been practicing with Zenn whenever I meet her, and also Jasmine’s roomie. In the Jeonju trip that I went with Jasmine, her roomie and others, I spoke Korean with her roomie all the way because I couldn’t speak Chinese that well either haha. It’s good when there is no English alternative, I’m literally forced to use Korean. The trip was tiring because i exhausted my brain speaking in Korean but also very fulfilling 🙂

I aim to look for more of such partners in Singapore~ I’m glad I have Zenn amongst all these because she’s at my level and she lives in Singapore and she’s more than willing to speak Korean ❤

italki.com

I just started signing up and am going to do a trial run with a teacher real soon, so will update how it goes. The teacher’s profile said she focused on speaking with her students and i felt that’s excatly what i needed~ prior to this i had been searching for Korean lessons in Singapore and most academies offer only up to Intermediate level. I knew that I was already halfway through intermediate and I didn’t want to restart, so that option was out for me. I then tried searching for institutions that offered advanced Korean, and there was one (Singapore Korean International School) that was reviewed by hangukdrama.com who had a trial class, but it was a bit on the pricey side ($16.20ish per hour), 15 lessons in total. I am keeping that in view for now, while I finish up my intermediate level on my own. Personally it’s because they utilize Yonsei books and I’ve been following Sogang 3A so I feel I should complete 3B first, before deciding to switch books altogether. Haha.

So in the mean time i’m going to have my trial run with the teacher from italki and see how it goes. I feel my speaking is behind my writing and listening so it’s important i bring it up to the same level before moving to an advanced class with SKIS, which would be difficult to catch up with.

This teacher has a package of 110 USD for 10 lessons (1 hour each), hourly rates aren’t that much cheaper than the usual academies or the SKIS, but it’s one-on-one. Granted it’s via Skype but the fact that she is willing to cater her materials to each student’s needs alone makes it pretty worth it, at least in my opinion. 1 full hour or speaking in Korean with your teacher isn’t something I’m confident of finding in Singapore at an affordable rate, so Skype will have to do. I wouldn’t know till I try right 😀

So I’ve dropped her an email in Korean and she responded really fast saying I write well and probably would speak well too, and she looks forward to the trial lesson. 🙂 Let’s see how this goes!!!!!

Others

With speaking in restaurants, counters, taxi drivers and the likes in the service area, I’ve been improving as well, picking up more courage to call the waiters over etc and express what I want. I find it much easier to do so when no one expects me to do it haha. For example if I go with a group of friends and one person tries to order in English and struggle, I can step in easily with Korean. But if I go in and everyone looks at me expecting that i have to order in Korean, I found that these expectations weigh down on me and literally bring me down. It’s a problem that i have to figure out real soon, not being able to deal with expectatinons hahahaa.

I’ve also started slurring my pronunciation like I did with the Korean exam, because let’s face it Koreans here don’t speak perfectly pronounced Korean. They have their way of speaking which slurs certain words, for example ‘m’ in Korean is often pronounced a bit like ‘b’. When I do those kinds of slurs with cab drivers they understand me in the first try, when previously my perfect pronunciation led me to repeating it 3 times at least haha.

It’s nice that I have more confidence now to converse with Koreans. At hostels or restaurants for example, the ahjumma would chat me up to find out where i’m from etc and it’s so rewarding each time they end the conversation with “You speak Korean really well!”. Even though I know it’s like Korean formalities, they give praise really freely here haha, and also that they have very little expectations of foreigners’ abilities to speak Korean, it still gives me a sense of pride 🙂 Haha i’ve also been receiving more comments that I look Korean especially now that I’m able to converse with them I think they’re disillusioned to thinking that way xD one ahjumma in Jeju told me she thought I was Korean because Korean girls are all pretty HAHAHAHA i just stood there acting shy and thanking her l m a o. Maybe i’m plastic looking??

Okay that’s about it for the second update! Just pure words here~

The Past Week

Phew where do I even begin? See this is the problem of not posting day-by-day posts, i easily forget what exactly i did the past few days. Need to start getting back into the habit, i still want to have a blog i can look back years from now, with minute details of my experiences so I’ll try my best to recall! This post will be separated into headings to help me remember what happened on certain days!

So first of all, class has started of course! I was lucky enough to be chosen as first presenter for Digital Media Tech and lucky enough to have 2 groupmates drop out to leave only me and Sungmin to do the project together -___- and we only had 4 days to prepare lol so yeah. Nevertheless the presentation went great 🙂

7th March: Business School Orientation

Also we had our orientation for Business faculty and it was quite a chill event. Introducing faculty members, Sogang high school rules, and calling students one by one by university up on stage to introduce themselves and their country/university. When it was our turn all 8 of us (minus Ting Yu cuz he was busy) crowded the stage and talked about SMUgger and food in Singapore. When we were done the MC took the opportunity to ask us to perform something and get a gift in return, seeing how we had many members. Federick suggested we sing Home otl and he started singing in the mic LOL some of us sang along but the rest didn’t :< nevertheless we got a lot of cheers for the 8 of us on behalf of Singapore and were given two gifts yayyy. And we had a lot of unglam photos taken by our buddies. Sigh. Not posting them here.

The free meal!! And the nice name tag that they collected back afterwards #soganghighschool

After the orientation we went to eat jimeg w our korean buddies!! (chicken & beer) Finally learned the Korean drinking songs. The chicken wasn’t that good actually bleh but everyone else seemed to find it nice so i hush hush

~

This is the jimeg that I ate with Zenn a few days after that jimeg with the Korean buddies. The one with Zenn was so much nicer omg it was delicious. I kinda forgot the shop name OTL i shld ask zenn again. i would definitely come back.

The Korean buddies told us Jeonju is a nice place for a hanok village stay and we agreed to go tgt although i was due to go Jeonju the next day alr haha. We also made plans to go hiking and fish market (live octopus and fresh seafood) this weekend! 😀

9th March: Jeonju

post here~

11th March: New Korean Friends & Baus House Dog Cafe

We went to this dog cafe called Baus House. The day before when I was eating jimeg with Zenn, she was asking me to go Myeongdong with her hahaha but i was soooo lazy. So on 12th March after waking up late and having nothing to do I asked the rest if they wanted to go to a dog cafe or smth! They all agreed so I asked Zenn along~

I headed out at lunch time to meet Sheryl and her Korean friend she wanted to introduce me to. We met and he brought two other friends along. They brought us to a Japanese eatery that’s apparently quite popular with the school kids around here and was always crowded!

Too much garlic though >< but it was delicious i missed curry so much!

Sheryl’s Korean friend (shall nickname him YW for easier quoting) was actually in SMU for exchange the previous sem so we were chatting a bit about SMU. The two other friends got really surprised that YW spoke good english and they commented about it in Korean. They got even more surprised when I translated what they just commented to Sheryl LOLLLL. “You know Korean?!?!” Haha and they proceeded to mix their speech with both English and Korean. I only replied in English though and I know it’s a bad habit like I’m scared to step out or smth but i shall try harder!!!

One of the friends was actualy going for a ‘sogeting’ which is Korea’s term for blind dating. Apparentl it’s common here in Korea to go blind dating because Koreans don’t really like to date within their social circle too much in case anything goes wrong. It was funny because they kept giving him advice that would make him screw up and saying things like she’s out of his league. I learned how to say that someone is out of someone else’s league in Korean that day OTL. I also picked up swear words and mean phrases like ” don’t bullshit me” lolllll they could come in handy really!

YW treated us for lunch and we headed over to a cafe to chill some more and the other friend treated us haha! Thanks guys, will treat next time 🙂

After the meeting Sheryl and I chatted for another hour before we headed out to meet the rest and went to Baus House Dog Cafe in Hapjeong! (because the rest hated cats)

Baus House separate post/review hereeee~

13th March: More… music shows?

Since Vanessa was here in Korea and Adeline & Kelly joined recently, we all headed down to CJ E&M again and met Michelle (the other mich) for our second try at SNSD’s comeback music shows! The pre-rec was kinda sucky that day but regardless it was quite fun as we chatted a lot more and kept teasing Mich about her auntie umbrella she carried around since it rained that day xD

Phew that was a very long recall! Will start to update more regularly from now onwards!! 🙂

The start of cafe hopping~

I’ve been telling people the next time anyone asks me what my hobby is I’m going to say cafe hopping. Mainly because i’ve received that question 10000 times since exchange started, not surprisingly, and I always gave lame answers.

So far I’ve been to a little under 10 cafes in Korea? Been busy the first week with administration stuff and i only have two free weekdays and yeah ._. But trying to get into the habit of it!

Sogang has a few cafes inside the campus and I’ve been to two of them! Cafe May is really awesome because of its convenient location and also its nice affordable coffee. You can get a caffe latte at 1900 won which is about $2.50! Super cheap and nice! We hung out there a couple of times after class. I was googling for images of Cafe May but ah there was nothing 😦 will try to get a shot if i get the chance to! It’s a really popular cafe here in Sogang because of price location and ambience~ also speed, they take orders and make them really fast!

I’ve also been to the International Cafe which is at the Business building, it’s quieter and less of the cafe feel. But it has a bagel set consisting of a bagel of your choice and english breakfast tea for only 2200 won ($2.70) which is super worth it! It’s also a place where I see people studying a lot. They also have board games for you to play with! They call themselves the International Cafe with the promise that they will not speak Korean lol.

Right outside of Sogang, just next door from the main gate, is Coffee Break. I think it’s kind of a chain cafe but I haven’t seen it around so I might be wrong. It started off with one floor but expanded to the second floor and it’s really huge! It seems like a nice place to study! No pictures unfortunately ugh i need to get into the habit of taking pictures inside cafes without worrying about getting judged HAHA. Korean sim cards don’t let you turn off the camera shutter sound so i guess it’s a little tougher.

Just opposite the road near Coffee Break is Caffe Bene. It’s also kind of a chain cafe but oh gosh i love th einterior so much! So cosy ❤ Of course a little more pricey on the coffee price but what can I say, cafe hopping is an expensive (and fattening) hobby to begin with.

Remembered to take pictures this time!! I went with Jasmine during my long break and we didn’t want to go far so we just crossed the road LOL. I learned my lesson that i should probably explore my own area first and not keep thinking i have the chance to go there any time and thus should venture further if there’s time… because chances are i wouldn’t get to visit the nearby cafes at all hahaha. That’s what happened when i lived in Hongdae for 10 days and only visited one cafe ._.

Cosy seats!

More cosy seats and environment!

It was a good studying period because of the ambience and I sneaked in Kimbap to eat like how i always sneak in Old Chang Kee back to Coffee Bean in Singapore when I want to stay long periods at the cafe but dont’ really want to eat elsewhere. Hahahah. That officially kickstarted my Korean language revision and learning.

Another cafe I’ve been to is A Twosome Place. This is a pretty large chain cafe in Korea, there’s a really huge outlet near Sinchon station near my school, but I’ve only been there to look for Zenn. The one I went to was at CJ E&M building for music shows, and during morning periods they have an affordable breakfast set for 5000 won (sandwich + coffee). I say affordable because their cafe latte cost 4400 won haha so it’s just plus less than a dollar for sandwich. Unfortunately without that breakfast set the sandwich itself cost almost 5000won in itself.

Yet another chain cafe I went to is Hollys Coffee. Their coffee isn’t that expensive, similar to A Twosome Place, and the atmosphere was comfortable. Zenn and I sat there to talk for an hour plus!

A long time ago, early in the time I first came to Korea, we went to this very small homey cafe called Damso. Man their coffee was so expensive (6500 won for a latte, equivalent to almost $8) but the place was really nice for a long chat away from the noisy streets of Hongdae.

I haven’t talked about the coffee in particular in all the cafes haha… i’m a fan of coffee personally, the classic latte grew on me very gradually and became a favorite very quickly, but i’m no expert HAHAHAHA like tbh all cafes make good coffee and unless you really screw up the coffee i will like it. Some may be a little more bitter, some a little more sweet, but honestly as long as I like the taste I never take notice of that difference enough to remember or talk about it. I will only remember very particularly with flavored coffee like Mocha etc. Like Caffe Bene’s Mocha Frap was super sweet which wasn’t to my liking. But lattes are usually all good.

Note to self: Take more pictures of cafe interiors/exteriors since you don’t even talk about the coffee!!!

Another note to self: Organize an index for cafe hopping

Challenge: Level 3A Korean?!?!

IM CREY

So today after an exhilirating day at Mnet Mcountdown watching Soshi’s comeback stage, I headed back to Sogang and dropped by the Arrupe building to check on my placement test results for Korean language.

I fearfully scanned 2A and 2B to see if my name is in either, expecting mine to be in 2B. Surprise surprise, they had put me in 3A! I wasn’t sure what that means but i knew that for evening class the maximum offered was 4B, which was right after 3A. So I was pretty much high up and I thought like ok my semester won’t be wasted learning what i already know, seems legit let’s take this challenge.

And so with a very bright and positive mood, I ate dinner at the cafeteria with Jasmine and headed over to the building together. I found Amber (a Korean-American friend) in the same class as me and I sat down with a lot of confidence. Really.

And then. Teacher started speaking.

I raised an eyebrow because i was surprised at how fast she spoke and the only help offered was her hand gestures once in a while. I was like ok can, because i could understand 90% of what she said and the remainder I kinda guessed by body language. Then she asked everyone to introduce themselves. When the first girl started to speak, that’s when I knew i was in for a real huge challenge if I didn’t want to fail and pay for this class. Sigh.

I mean i entered the class with so much confidence but halfway through i was ready to panic LOL. And then they had this session where we go around interviewing each other and everyone spoke so fast and stuff and i felt super paiseh having to ask them to repeat or explain a word lol #noob

it’s ok CHALLENGE ACCEPTED i shall be as good as them by the end of this course.

Half of th class were professors and working adults, i think three exchange kids two of which are graduate students. I think I was the only undergrad otl

So anyway, for anyone curious, the placement test had a dictation section, a self-introductory essay and a section where you can write your motivations for learning Korean (in English). Then they call you out one by one for an interview. During my interview, the instructor had a stack of paper filled with questions. I was guessing they are arranged by levels. With every question I answered she would put a paper aside, which prolly means I ‘pass’ that level. She asked things like why am I in Korea, what do I like about Korea, what do i do to stay healthy, what do i think i should do to improve my korean etc… the last qn i remember was ‘what are you going to do when you are done studying Korean’ and then she told me ‘good work’ and that was it. She asked about 17 qns? Haha. So I guess for anyone who’s curious to know, if you could answer 15-20 qns you’re probably in a safe Level 3A, which is an Intermediate level.

Life at Sogang University

I’m gonna be dropping the days counting soon because I wanna start with themed posts, such as this one. This post is as a result of orientation, school starting and the miscellaneous.

I did a mini campus tour previously so I won’t talk about the beautiful campus anymore haha. Instead I shall talk about campus and dorm life because seriously this is like a high school LOL. It’s nothing bad, i mean a lot of people dislike it but personally for me i think this is a rare experience i wouldn’t get from other universities or ever again for that matter and i have nothing much against the restrictions they set haha.

Dorm Life

Possibly the most exciting part because we never had this in Singapore. Sogang is notoriously known as Sogang High School because of how strict the rules are and how well behaved the students are compared to other unis.

1. Curfew

No going out between 12am – 5am or you will be issued a penalty, and that doesn’t mean you should stay out either because they have your records and if you don’t come home for a night you get penalty. So let’s say i get hungry after 12 (which i always do) i can’t leave the dorm to get food next door. Nope. Unless I tap out BEFORE 12, then I can return between that time and they don’t count it.

But of course they try not to treat us like kids right? So they allow you to apply for late nights or overnight stay-outs but limited to 10 times per month. I would try to maximize that man.

2. Floor Checks

I just had the first floor check today as I’m writing this (4 March) so yeah. They gather us for a floor check in the cafeteria and brief us on latest updates and rules. Then the floor assistants will go around to check the rooms, our first floor check was lenient because they just opened the bathrooms and gave us our name tags and yep that’s all.

Floor meeting at 11pm.

3. The Rules

No alcohol. No going home drunk. No visiting another gender’s level. No packing of cafeteria food. Etc. #highschool

4. The Meals

 

We have meal plans that we signed up for when we registered for dorm and mine is once a day worth of meal credits added to my card. 104 meals in total. Haha. I just need to tap every time i get a meal. The food doesn’t look very appetizing but i was so happy to see it because i haven’t seen fresh vegetables for a long time. The fish is also really really tasty ❤ It’s actually not bad for dorm food, I like it better than a lot of meals i’ve had outside haha. And every meal for us is about 3500won i think, about $4ish which isn’t cheap but cheaper than the cafeterias outside our dorms which sell about 5000won (except the cheap 2,700 kimbap).

The downside is that the meals are available at timings I’m not used to. By 9am the breakfast would be finishing and dinner is only till 7pm. ): And they only provide breakfast and dinner for most days, and only breakfast for Saturday. NO LUNCH ):

5. Dorm Facilities

We have a gym at the basement of our dorm and also the laundry room. the other day i did my laundry for the first time and i ACCIDENTALLY STARTED SOMEONE ELSE’S DRYER and like that person already finished drying i think, and just left the clothes there, AND I STARTED IT AGAIN HAHAHAHA my 1000 won 😦 i hope they never noticed it happened, oh wells it doesn’t seem like the owner was in a rush seeing how the clothes were still there when i hurriedly collect my clothes 40 minutes later.

The gym is really small and i’ve been meaning to try it, Jasmine already went twice but i fail to wake up early enough or i’ve been running around doing errands and got tired and thus haven’t gymmed yet. I’m sure i’ll get around to doing it soon… soon… soon.

6. Throwing out thrash

Korea is a rather environmentally friendly country I think, so they have very systematic ways of throwing out thrash. They separate organic stuff, recyclable stuff and other stuff. Apparently you get penalties if they discover you’re not doing that in the dorm LOL but my roomie and I are not really in the habit or separating those kind of thrash yet.

Also, Korea have official bags you have to use to throw general thrash. I haven’t figured if you need this for recyclable items too because the garbage dump outside our dorm only stated that official bags are needed for the general thrash so idk?? Anyway, thrash bags are color coded according to each district so they can identify where the thrash is coming from. We have to purchase these thrash bags, they sell each bag for about 170 won (2o cents) so I bought 5 the other day for about $1 worth and coincidentally my roomie bought too hahaha. I’m glad she isn’t a super clean freak and yet she is clean, it’s the level I’m comfortable with 🙂

Classroom life

The Sogang classrooms are practically like high school complete with chalk boards (for a country like Korea that uses pass-coded door systems for all the dorms i was surprised), and the system is also practically like high school.

3 late = 1 absence
3 absence = fail

So yes I’m on exchange but I can’t skip school 😦 But it’s okay at least i set aside two days that are relatively free for me to travel! Speaking of which, i’m currently putting together my travel plan. I met with Jasmine at a nice cosy school cafe to talk about it and we were like omg where did all the time go it feels like no time at all to travel when we see our schedules and we still need to study to pass and stuffs ottoke

In the end i think we’re setting aside like one or two days to cafe hop together per week i really hope that works out like i know this week is pretty tough because errands to run hope by next week my travel plans will be more solid and i actually start to act on them lol time is running out!

The high school style class! I feel so nostalgic i mean i never experienced this but i see it a lot in dramas and esp mangas/animes and it’s like awww i’m living it :’)

No laptops in most classes so far, and sometimes no phones too. Haha.

Classes are also about an hour each LOL, once again Sogang High School. Twice a week though so that’s a bummer, if you go out of town for a week you miss two classes and you only have one more time left zzz.

The Campus

The facilities here are quite complete i think. There’s a convenience store right next door to my dorm, and opposite Gonzaga Hall (the dorm) is Gonzaga Plaza with a bookstore, Coffee Bean, eateries, Popeyes etc. Sogang campus itself spans within the vicinity of three train stations, so depending on which exit you take you are walking distance to a one of those stations (Daeheung, Ewha and Sinhchon).

Further down away from the campus is a post office which is very useful for me haha.

There are also nice homey cafes littered across the campus, the more common one (i think) being May Cafe which is right next to the post office and across the economics building. The rest are situated in a less central area so i guess that’s why? I really like May Cafe because it feels a lot like those small cafes in Singapore and it’s so cheap! A nice hot cup of caffe latte – standard coffee cup size – for 1,900 won ($2.40~), iced coffee drinks 2,000 won, and cookies go at 1,000 won ish. The cakes are affordable too but i try not to get into that habit seeing how i want to cafe hop haha.

 

Not a good shot as the sim card in korea makes it such that your camera will always click noisily when you take pictures -___- can’t turn that off man. Anyway, sat down to discuss schedule and plans w Jasmine over nice affordable cups of coffee and cookies!

I wanted to write a bit about the students but then realized i don’t really know much so far haha. So I think I’ll end off here and sleep early for class tomorrow ^_^

Day 12: My new crib!! @ Gonzaga Hall (Sogang Dormitory)

NOTE: BUY BEDSHEETS IN YOUR HOME COUNTRY AND BRING THEM ALONG IF YOU’RE ON EXCHANGE IN KOREA

BUY SUPER SINGLE BEDSHEETS

BUY SUPER SINGLE BEDSHEETS

BUY SUPER SINGLE BEDSHEETS

I brought a single sized bedsheet here and it didn’t fit. Bedsheets in Korea cost at least $30+ and most of them are not fitted bedsheets, they’re just like some sort of padding on top of the bed. I’m currently sleeping with half a bedsheet until Vanessa comes with her bedsheets (bless this kid for helping me), I kid you not.

Anyway! The day started out lazily as usual, me getting up at 10+ to pack and check out. Did one last wash at the hostel and Zenn came over to help me move. Bless you gurl! She met the girls I met the night before and they tried to talk to her about luck OTL. We bid goodbye to the folks at Mamas and Papas and told them we’ll come back.

We cabbed down to Gonzaga Hall and omg I love Sogang. It’s huge yet not THAT huge compared to the other unis. It has a cozy, small SMU feel and yet it retains the charm of a huge NUS-style uni campus. Kinda feels like those kids i see on TV when they study abroad and move in. I really love where the dormitory is at, i have a good view from where I am into the clearing & campus outside, and there’s a convenience store right downstairs the dorm area!! Literally walk down, turn left and you’re there.

 

 

The famous Sogang entrance structure! Haha! We took touristy photos but i think the pic is still in Jasmine’s phone. I met up with her and Sheryl the moment I checked in!

It was a very hazy day that day and the window’s dirty so I couldn’t take a decent shot. Nevertheless, this is my view from the hostel! So happy I got this view, some of my friends got the dumpster as the view HAHAHA

You can’t see the words there but it says Gonzaga Plaza and it’s nifty because it has cafes, an eatery with home made affordable Korean food ($3.50 Kimbap fed me for two meals), bookshop etc! There are so many cafes around I’ve barely explored the campus! I think it’s a pretty campus and I really love the feel of staying in campus dormitory. Haha.

I feel excited just looking at the view!

Without further ado, the intro to my new crib:

I’m standing next to the shoe closet but i forgot to take a picture of it. It’s plenty of space for two people! Jasmine’s room actually looked bigger, the space between the two beds, but i’m not sure if i’m imagining things or smth.

The shower room!

Sink and toilet bowl!

They’ve got this nifty hanger thing on the wall beside the bed that I found so useful.

That’s the wardrobe at the foot of the bed. It’s actually quite a spacey wardrobe, looked bigger than Yonsei’s one and more than enough for the few clothes i brought along LOL. It wouldn’t have been enough for the clothes i have back home. I plan to shop a lot here in Korea though…..

The shelves and table and chair and the place i would camp at as i blog hahaha.

BRING SUPER SINGLE BEDSHEETS. My single bedsheet could not fit and i’m sad but Vanessa will save me very soon.

I live on the 8th floor! It sucks because they have separate lifts for 1-6 floors and 7 onwards. All the Singaporeans live on 2/3rd floor so i have to go down to the 1st floor first and go back up again -__- and the staircase doors are often locked so i can’t even go down to Jasmine on the 6th floor grrrr. Anyway, the picture above is the area outside the lift. We can all use the fridge but I think food get stolen all the time so i haven’t used it yet. Before I forget, Sogang Uni is a Catholic school and i had no idea until orientation day, seriously. Haha. I just thought it was Christian. Seems like Sogang is perfect for me then! heh. Business is also really big in this school which is great because most exchange kids i’ve met come from Business so yay more friendly faces! Apparently International Relations is also big for the Master’s kids here which is another plus point for Sogang in terms of compatibility with me, because lately i’ve been considering taking a masters in IR in the future instead of Business, for a better variety 🙂

It was late by the time we all settled in and did all our grocery shoppings at Daiso and Grand Mart (Sinchon station, about 15 min walking distance from the dorm and abt 5 min from Sogang main entrance). We had a late lunch so we only started to be hungry at about 9pm. Jasmine wasn’t hungry so Sheryl and I popped by next door to find food at the convenience store.

In an attempt to eat healthy we chose an expensive udon at 2900 won (more ex than my kimbap that fed me 2 meals LOL) for dinner! They had a couple of tables at the store so we could sit and eat.

We poured hot water and settled down at a corner table and chatted about dramas and variety shows haha. After like 5 min we checked and the udon doesn’t seem like it was cooked? We were confused but then Sheryl checked the instructions and apparently we had to put it in the microwave after putting hot water haha. Damn we’re noob. We did that and the udon cooked nicely!

It was sooooo tasty omg! I know it isn’t healthy but it still beats the other types of cup ramen and is just as tasty! ❤

We headed back up to rest after that and I chiong’ed to watch Mr. Mr. MV release haha. I LOVE THE FREAKING CONCEPT

OH yes before i forgot! My roommate is called Serina and she’s from Germany! She’s a really sweet girl, our timetables are similar too in that we have tuesday and thursday free, hopefully we can have some opportunity to travel together 🙂

I’m typing this the night before school starts, well technically 2am+, so I shall end this long post~ Will update on orientation and first day of school soon!

Day 2 and 3: Myeongdong, “Moon Embraces the Sun” Musical, Digital Media City and Gwanghwamun

On Day 2, I received a Facebook message from Sam and she and Matthias just reached Seoul the day before! So we decided to meet at their place in Myeongdong because we needed to get EG sim card and they are only available in certain places in Seoul, Myeongdong being one of them.

So it’s Myeongdong again yay!

I like this place although it’s a rip-off to tourists, please do bargain when you purchase stuff, usually they’d allow cuts of 2000 won, any more is usually hard and depends on how good or convincing you are. For the sake of it, here are some terms:

깎아주세요 Gga-gga juseyo: “Please lower the price”
깎아주면안돼요? Gga-gga ju-myeon an-dwe-yo?: This is my own way of saying it, it’s a little more of a sad plea LOL “Is it not possible to lower the price? :(” and it gets the shopkeepers looking a little more flustered/somehow LOL.
저는 학생인데요… jeo-neun hak-saeng in-dae-yo: “I’m a student…” which is a way of saying you have no money. I tried this a few times and one time the shopkeeper replied “I’m also a student!” so i failed oh wells but it should work most times LOL.

We chatted with one shopkeeper and he cut the price for us nicely. He was asking us which country we liked better, Singapore or Seoul? And praised our country for being clean. It was awkward cuz it’s not that we couldn’t understand but how do we praise his country in return and even begin to answer if we like Spore or Seuol better?? I wouldn’t be able to answer these questions even in English.

Zenn was telling me to pull the ‘oppa’ card if the shopkeepers refuse, it COULD work but I never tried it! Oppa is a friendly way of a younger female person greeting an older male person. Oh yes on this note, Koreans typically ask for age pretty early in any conversation, in fact they hardly ever ask for my name before my age, cuz they wanna find out first how to talk to us. I’ve been lucky to meet Koreans younger than me so far so if I slip up on my formalities it’s okay hahaha. But when I meet older Koreans, especially elderly, I’m going to have to formalize my speech like by three levels OTL I’m REALLY bad at that…

Oh yes fun fact! 네 ‘Nae’ means ‘yes’ in Korean, and is a typical general response when talking to people to acknowledge what they said or answer their questions. For elderly though, we’re actually supposed to say 예 ‘Ye’ as it’s more polite, I had no freaking idea and  we have been saying nae to everyone including the elderly asking us stuff ._. sorry!!

The street food too!! Super amazing and cheap :’) mostly ranging from 1,500 – 3,000 won (less than $5)

 

 

Ah btw here’s some explanation on EG Sim card for foreigners that we obtained on Day 2: https://darmawanders.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/eg-sim-card-for-foreigners/

Anyway it was a short trip because we had to head to Seoul Arts Center for Seohyun’s muscial! Yay finally!

The musical was great, based off a drama i really loved “The Moon that Embraces the Sun” ahhhhhhh i loved that drama so much I had to attend the musical, specially since Seohyun was playing. I understood less than half of it but oh wells it was still great :’)

As we left, we were lucky enough to bump into Taeyeon and Yoona who were leaving from backstage after watching Seohyun’s musical :)))) Really lucky to have seen all three of them up close in just the 2nd day of Seoul!! ❤

(As promised, no spazzing here, spazzing remains in IGAT. Let’s just say i had no idea they attended the musical and it was an amazing surprise :’))

Fast forward to 3rd day!

3rd day was a lot more lazy. We again slept in till the afternoon and headed down after that to Digital Media City because we heard the notice was up for MCountdown! For those who are unsure what it is, basically Korea holds 5 weekly music shows for music artists to promote their latest albums. M Countdown is one of them. Zenn and I wanted to go for at least 1 because currently both Taeyeon and Jonghyun are promoting TOGETHER for SM the Ballad and it’ll be so awesome to watch them perform live. The best part is that it’s free lol.

So how it works is that as soon as the notice is up, you’d have to head down to CJ E&M Center at Digital Media Center (at least for M Countdown) and take a selca with the notice and send it to the number posted there. The notice would be at some random wall in the area LOL. They’ll reply you with your queue number, mine was 23 and Zenn 24. What this means is that we were 23 and 24 in line for the non official fans queue. Official fans are those who paid to register membership and so they get in first no matter what. So let’s say on the day itself 300 official fans turn up and 300 is the quota that day, then you will never get through. But still, 23 and 24 were good numbers so it was pretty hopeful we could get in. We would have to return at night for a ‘roll call’ where they will confirm your registration and slash out those that didn’t appear. They’ll then tell you what time to come the next day to catch your artist’s recording live. Still no guarantee tho cuz as i mentioned, official fans always get priority.

Regardless, it’s nice we don’t have to physically queue, just get down early when you know the notice is up, so you can get a good number, and turn up for the roll call. Next day is a designated time so you can relax and if you’re not meant to enter cuz of the official fans, getting earlier isn’t going to help anything!

After this, we headed down to Kwanghwamun to explore, meet Shaun (another Yonsei student  and also to get SM the Ballad album because we need it to enter music shows. Lol. Turns out it’s pointless though, because we found out later on there’s gonna be two fansigns going on and you have to purchase an album from the organizing party to qualify for the lottery/lucky draw! So we’d probably head down tmr and get those 🙂

Oh yes and SM the Ballad got cancelled .____. we were so disappointed to find out! They rarely ever cancel shows but I think it was a rare circumstance. So we won’t be going any music shows, but instead try to get a fansign.

We also met Shaun going to Yonsei!! He just arrived today so we had dinner with him~ nice to meet another Korean speaking Singaporean!! He said apparently Kwanghwamun was also a Running Man filming location but i didn’t take photo 😦 We walked around abit and ate somewhere with a really nice ahjumma but the food portion was so big lmao. When you see food prices a little pricey, e.g. 18000 won for one portion ($20ish), sometimes it’s not that the food is actually pricey, it could just be the portion was huge. We packed them back.

Good news is I seem to be catching on Korean a little faster now! After all the speaking with service staff I could catch on a bit faster when they speak, but my talking is still weak. Haha.

Two new Koreans from Jeju moved in today! They’re super cute and are EXO fans and we sat down together at 2am+ to watch Kim Yuna skate and own everyone. Koreans are SO proud of Kim Yuna it’s really cute ❤ she’s like their national treasure. The Koreans I watched with just kept sighing and proclaiming 멋있다 which means ‘She’s so cool’ haha. And she didn’t let them down yesterday – 1st place!!

That’s all for now! Today we’re separating to help each other get the albums for the two separate fansigns, so it’ll be interesting i think. We promised to get each other a 5000 won gift from the different sides of the world we’ll be in~ I’ll prolly explore Ilsan while I’m at it! 🙂 Shall plan my itinerary~

Planning for an exchange in South Korea // Sogang University

So this is a long overdue post but thought i’d make one for people who’d be interested to read if they’re going Korea for exchange! This post is going to contain some Sogang stuff as well. When I was preparing I had such a lack of information when I google, the bulk of the info was from friends or discovered when they happened, so I decided to write a rough one for people seeking info. Warning: very lengthy post ahead!!

This post is only relevant when you’ve received confirmation from your university (btw congrats if you’ve already received!!! Yay you’re going Korea on exchange!!!) so this will NOT include the health checkup, filling up Sogang’s application form etc your school will assist you pretty closely on this part. So without further ado, some important things you need to prepare before exchange~

1. Flight ticket and visa

I got my flight ticket wayyyy before i got a confirmation from Sogang because I’m quite kanchiong and there was a promotion hahaha. I got myself a round ticket for $820 from STA which to me is quite a steal considering I’m flying Singapore Airlines. You could get a single trip too but I think it wasn’t much cheaper, and it was more worth t getting the round trip ticket and paying a little more to change the return flight afterwards. Granted, you must decide on your return date earlier (2 months prior) because the admin fees get a lot more expensive the harder it is to get a flight. Minimum admin fee was quoted to be $75. I have 30kg baggage allowance and 7kg handcarry. Yay. Don’t scrimp too much on flight because you’re gonna have lots of baggage.

Now coming to visa. The troublesome part. First of all, which visa to get? There are two types of visa for exchange students, single entry and multiple entry. The trick is that when you enter Korea, you need to apply for a compulsory ARC (Alien Registration Card, ikr we are aliens basically). Mine is due to be arranged by Sogang so I don’t have to worry. The ARC should be done by around April, about a month’s time period, and with that ARC you can leave and enter Korea multiple times no matter what visa you have. So if you’re not planning to leave Korea and then return in that one month period while your ARC is being made, get the single visa. Single visa is about $76 and multiple is about $110ish if I’m not wrong. You can play safe and get multiple entry if you’re worried but I think it’s money well saved, if you’re not planning to leave Korea in that time.

Things you need to bring for visa application? Gawd I was so annoyed because I had to return and come back despite being prepared and researching about people’s experiences. So on top of what you can find on other’s blogs, take my list into consideration and play safe on this part. The first 10 are what was given to me, the next 2 are the additional things I had to bring.

1. Passport, valid for at least 6 months
2. Birth certificate
3. Visa Application form (download at their website)
4. One color passport-sized photograph taken within the last 6 months
5. Certificate of Admission issued by Partner University
6. Acceptance letter issued by Partner University
7. Certification letter issued by home university
8. Documentary proof of financial support of yourself (bank statements, salary slips etc)
9. Letter from Financial Sponsor stating/confirming support (if any)
10. Census registry (only for Mainland Chinese)
11. IC and photocopy of IC
12. Re-entry permit 

Because I was not Singaporean I had to have IC etc and i didn’t bring it for some stupid reason on that day, so I had to return again. And I printed by re-entry permit just in case and thank god i did because they asked for it. If you’re not Singaporean take note of these additional details.

For me, they didn’t need the birth certificate and proof of financial support (note that this could ONLY be for Sogang, because in Sogang’s form you could indicate how you’re financially supported and the form was signed by Sogang, thus it was enough proof that I had financial support. I noticed Yonsei didn’t have this). My friend from Yonsei got her bank statements stamped by the bank to verify. For those getting financial support elsewhere unfortunately i’m not sure how the letter from financial sponsor would be like.

The staff there are not very pleasant as expected from a lot of embassy staff, so please prepare very very well. They’re not kind on the unprepared at all. I didn’t bring photocopies of the acceptance letters etc for example and they are NOT going to help you do it. They have a photocopier there but no paper stocked up when I was there and they’re NOT willing to give you paper. Very reluctant, if they have to, or else they’ll ask you to recycle whatever papers you have on hand. In my case, the photocopy of my birth certificate which they didn’t need – they asked me to use that to photocopy my other stuff. Also paste the photograph on your application form I just pinned it there and they weren’t happy LOL.

They also wait for your queue number for about 3 seconds and skip you if they don’t see you getting up. Which is mean because they put a TV there and that makes it distracting. I got passed over once and had to prowl near the counter the second time i took a number, and leap up dramatically the moment it’s my call.

Overall, not a pleasant experience but i’m at fault too anyway for not preparing properly.

So after you’ve finally succeeded (congrats!! i hope you made it 1st try) they’ll issue you this slip of paper for you to collect your passport. It took 3 working days for mine.

2. Insurance

Ah insurance, another headache. STA had a student assist insurance for $310ish for 6 months ,which is quite okay but the downside is that they don’t include illness medical expenses. They only include accidental medical expenses which is self-explanatory. Stomach flu, food poisoning and the likes, are all under illness medical expenses so they are NOT covered. Medication from doctors etc NOT covered. Take note!! It is only covered when you get Plan B I think, which is a lot more expensive than basic Plan A.

The cheapest so far is from Direct Asia at $270+ but I’ve heard about difficulty of claiming so I didn’t get that.

In the end i got myself the MSIG basic plan which includes illnesses etc and it cost me $319.50 for a coverage of 5 months. They have some of the best coverage out there for travel, in terms of variety and also amount claimable, and i heard they are easier to claim from. Of course it’s more pricey than the rest. 6 months insurance from MSIG was quoted $380 i think. I may have to extend but for now I doubt I’ll be staying more than 5 months.

3. Sogang related!

this part is all about Sogang so skip if you aren’t going Sogang~~

The letter from Sogang came rather late. I received nothing since the first letter regarding acceptance into Sogang, in fact the next email was chasing us for insurance. It was written in the acceptance pack that we need to submit insurance evidence but at that point we had no idea how we were supposed to do it.

The official email arrived on 10th January which was slightly less than 2 months before the semester starts. The email attached a pre-departure handbook and a guide for incoming students. At this point they will also invite you to join the Facebook page which is very helpful and the best way to ask for help or stalk the other students from other universities!!! The guide is very comprehensive and should answer all your enquiries.

Course registration for Sogang began on 21st January and it was super hectic. Take note that the modules you’ve mapped based on last year’s courses are but a LOOSE guide because a lot of modules were removed for my semester which means re-planning. Courses for the semester started to be released and confirmed a few days prior to the registration day, so make sure you set aside ample time for re-planning. Course registration are based on the fastest fingers first lol so i was camping on my IE (yes they only do internet explorer sigh) at 10am.

Sogang is very very helpful with this and the staff on facebook are cute with their replies. Could feel the concern and sincerity from them so I’m super pleased I’m in Sogang.

After registering courses they will prompt you to register for Korean classes, which is every Monday Tuesday and Thursday. Yep i doubt you can expect to have many free days for Sogang, since regular classes are also twice a week and mostly mondays/wednesdays/fridays combinations and tues and thurs you have Korean so alkjghlaksjdhglka. You could choose not to take Korean though. About $350 deposit required for Korean classes, it will be returnd if you have 80% attendance and you pass. Placement test will be conducted if you’ve learned before. Also  you will sign up for other things like your buddy if you need one, airport pickup, etc. They ask you if your personality is outgoing or reserved in the buddy form I WAS SO CONFUSED I HAD A PERSONALITY DILEMMA. And also your interests hahaha.

4. Accommodation

If you’re planning to travel before you’re allowed to check in to the Sogang dorm, accommodation is going to be very tiring. Now I’m travelling with Zenn from Yonsei so we were looking for a hostel near those Yonsei and Sogang. We raided airbnb, hostelworld, hostelbookers and finally narrowed down to two choices. Here are some things you can consider when looking for accomms:

• Location. Hongdae is a good young-people hangout place that’s relatively close to Sogang and Yonsei. Sinchon is even nearer, but you get less of the excitement in Hongdae (I think? I’ll find out soon) Find those that takes 5 min walk from Hongik Univ station if possible. We got the 10 min walk one though, but mostly because other factors were taken into consideration.
• Price. Depending on your budget~ Zenn had a budget so we searched for below $20 per night, since it was only a couple of nights.
• BATHROOM i kid you not this was important to me. It was the deciding factor for me because the other option, Sinchon Kimchee Guesthouse, had cubicle style bathrooms which i generally dislike.
• Reviews. There are bound to be good reviews but trust the bad ones over the good ones. If there are no bad ones, take the chance, they could actually be that good.
• Rooms. The bf forbid me to go for mixed dorms so i tried for 6-room female dorms.
• Facilities. Some of them don’t have heaters and some hostel sites don’t state heaters, they just state air-conditioners. Read the description of the hostels, if they have heaters they will say they have heaters. If they don’t, don’t bet on it, you don’t wanna freeze to death. Washing machines and dryers are some things to consider as well.
• You get what you pay for. Don’t expect too much paying $16 per night!

Taking all of these into consideration, we picked Mamas & Papas Hongdae Guesthouse. I made the booking via hostelworld which was the cheapest rate for this guesthouse. Remember to compare across all platforms, they tend to differ and even though hostelbookers is generally cheaper for a lot of hostels, hostelworld was cheaper for Mamas & Papas. Research research research.

Granted, Mamas & Papas was not the best ever choice because it gets noisy and it’s small and reviews are also rather mixed. But we decided on this as it seems more cosy and is as good as you can expect for $16/night, so let’s see how it really turns out!

Book in advance because it gets bothersome if some dorms are not available on one or two random dates in your entire 10 days stay.

For those with more budget, you can get decent single or double rooms for $20-$30 in the same guesthouses with bunk beds. Sinchon for example had double rooms for $23/night which is super great given the bathroom is ensuite. I think that if you’re staying single or double rooms you can be assured it will be comfy and private, just look out for other factors like location price etc. I’d think it’s more worth it to get double / single rooms in guesthouses than in a private apartment because essentially you still have your own room so why get an apartment? Esp if you’re traveling with a friend, a double room in a guesthouse is sweet. That’s just me though.

Then again, i’m prolly hypocritical when the BF comes along in May I’m looking out for apartment style LOL. You can find a decent, small studio apartment on BnB for $50ish per night (exclusing booking fee – oh yeah hostelworld and hostelbookers have no booking fees \O/). Airbnb does this per person thing so make sure when you are choosing options, state the number of people and they will help you calculate automatically if there are extra fees, and just give you the total cost. On some days it could be cheaper rate too but they don’t break it down for you on Airbnb. Hostelworld and hostelbookers do. So anyway back to extra charge… e.g. an apartment was quoted $50 per night when you selected 1 person. If you see they state $13 extra charge per person, it means the rate for 2 people will be $63/night. You’ll see the rate automatically re-calculated when you change the selection to 2 people. They also have the maximum number of people they can accommodate.

I’ve been prowling around and dammit the family apartments look sooooooo cosy i could cry. They are designed so prettily with so much space in the house creycrey

Oh yes before I forget, goshiwons! These are one-room accommodations that’s basically like your own dorm for only $18ish.

Goshiwons are typically for students and was actually created for students who can’t find dorm space in their universities. So these goshiwons are very near our universities. But heard from Zenn and her Korean friends that goshiwons are sometimes shady and info is very limited so we decided not to. But if you must, try goshipages. One problem is that you need to call and speak in Korean, I sent a message in English because it wrote that messages in English are okay, but no reply.

I’m probably gonna try a goshiwon for the extra month I’m staying in Korea though, so you can expect a review of that!

SO yeah. That’s about it for accomms.

5. Moneyyyy

okay so i’m not settled on this part yet so i have no right to really be blogging about it but anyway. Plan is to change a thousand or two to settle accomms and expenses for the first 10 days, once i move in to Sogang I’ll open the bank account and TT the money to the Korean bank. Which is really quite sucky actually, transferring online is a sucky rate so as much as I can, my parents enourage me to bring cash that I change over here and deposit there.

Citibank is the only bank Korea will accept, so if you don’t have an account there probably you’ll need to open one in Korea.

6. Clothes

Nope not really that important but just the vain part of me speaking

Do you know Korea has those kind of fleece leggings that are really warm but don’t look thick. Some even look translucent. Zenn brought me hers and it was actually like an inch thick and lined with fleece despite how it looks. E.g. this one here from qoo10:

Get your main coats in Singapore in January period where they start putting winter stuff on sale, because they’re not much cheaper in Korea. But thermal wear don’t get too many because Singapore winter wear retailers especially are quite rip-offs and may not be the best solution. Trust the locals who lived in winter seasons to come up with cheaper, more efficient winter essentials! Especially essentials where you don’t compete on fashion but more on efficiency. Trust locals! And leggings > jeans anytime i always froze my ass in jeans but these leggings are so warm. Also sweaters are affordable along Edae area in Korea so be patient and wait for it, they’ve got stuff as cheap as 5000 won!

I got my thermal leggings a bit expensive from Uniqlo (no time to order from qoo10 and hope it can arrive on time) but you can bet i’d get those sneaky fleece leggings and jeggings in Korea. I have finally uncovered the secret behind those japanese and korean girls prancing around in thin looking leggings and i was always judgin and thinking ‘pfft it’s ok they must be freezing to look that good’ WHEN I’M THE ONE FREEZING IN MY AUTHENTIC EXPENSIVE JEANS DAMMIT

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That’s about it so far! Feel free to ask me about anything~

I also have some things to rant about my packing list and my expense excel sheet HAHAHA but that will be a separate day for another post. Right now i’ve got some frequent Topik vocabulary list to memorize so i won’t screw up in Korea LOL ciao!