What About Recess?!

June 29th...

I started my first day of class today at Hanyang University! I signed up for Korean Language class in hopes that I could acquire a few skills to get around Seoul a little better during the month that I am here. There were about 15 people in the class, and then the teacher brought us all out individually for a test in Korean to determine the level we already attained. I was the first one to take my exam. It pretty much consisted of this: I walked into the room and smiled at her, she said something in Korean...I smiled at her again...she said something else in Korean...I smiled at her once more...then she wrote down "Beginner 1", and sent me on my way! I'm pretty much starting from the bottom up and am really excited to start learning a new language.

Well, that excitement started to fizzle a little bit after 4 hours of trying to memorize the vowels...their sounds and variations, how to write them and understand them...wow, it was mentally exhausting! I felt like a little kid again, trying to learn the alphabet. I tried to keep myself in the mindset that I did this when I was young, learning my letters for the first time...and I was only 4 or 5 years old. Clearly, as a 24-year old, I must have an extended capacity to understand this! Well...it's just not that simple! Part of me does enjoy being in that position again, like a little kindergartener...except that we don't get milk breaks or recess. I'm going to learn how to ask for that in Korean.