안도의 한숨

"A sigh of relief"

Probably the best way to describe the feeling after taking the final interview test of any semester at Sogang--which I just did, yay! Not to mention we learned this line from a story that was the first one that came to mind when the teacher interviewing me asked me "what stuck out in your mind the most from 읽기 (reading class)?" requiring me to tell the story on the spot without having practiced it. But that's good! Considering doing a story on the spot probably assesses my narrating skills (one of the core themes of level 4) better than just telling something I had thought up of in my head. At the end of the interview though, she asked me if there was any question (we were given a sheet of questions that the teachers could or could not use--my teacher happened to use a LOT of them and connected them very smoothly haha) I had prepared a lot that I wanted to answer. I completely blanked at that point (of all questions haha) and said not that I can think of...and afterwards realized that it probably would have been nice for me to tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood, which I had prepared in my mind before. Ah well. I've always been the "regretting" type so I'm pretty upset at myself for not having told that story or having described my wallet (both things I had prepared). I probably shouldn't worry so much though, since I can't be penalized for what I didn't say and I think the interview felt pretty smooth and I felt fairly confident about it, but as a famous Korean saying goes "김치 국물 먼저 마시지마"--that is "Don't drink your kimchi soup first"--that is, in English, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch." So I'll hold my breath a bit longer til results tomorrow ^^;;. And I'll stop thinking about it now because now I'm getting nervous. 긴장 긴장 (nervousness)! Always that fear...>__<).

Although I still feel rather ethnocentric (probably partially a result of being from America...) but I've been becoming increasingly ethnorelative I'd say. Nothing specific exactly, but I think being at Sogang has especially fostered this increased ethnorelative understanding. Being in such a diverse sphere of students really exposes you to all kinds of people and all kinds of thought. The fact that sharing the differences in our cultures is one of our recurring topics and the fact that we all use Korean as a medium to express our thoughts makes language school friends a very unique set. Not to mention it's a pretty sad thought, making international friends when you'll get close for some set time and then be able to see each other only every now and then once you all return to your hometowns you'll most likely never see some of them ever again and the others you'll rarely be able to see. Ahhh, 섭섭해 (the sadness you feel when parting) ㅠㅠ.

One thing that's really interesting to see in different languages is humor...I've noticed that even though sarcasm can be used in Korean, it's executed very differently from English, although from learning with all my language friends, it's still kind of fascinating to see how we all crack up at very similar thoughts (disconnected thoughts, running jokes, inside jokes, etc.) Back to the sarcasm point, in English it's very easy to say "Noooooooooo" in a sarcastic manner, with a certain tone of voice, but somehow dragging out or changing the tone of "아니요" doesn't quite have the same effect...of course, things can be said very deadpan but there isn't the same effect as in English where there's a mutual understanding of sarcasm. Very very interesting. My language partner recently had a unit on jokes in her English hagwon and some of the questions included whether they had ever heard "running jokes, inside jokes, cruel jokes, sick jokes, etc." It's funny how we have all these kinds of separations for jokes. In Korean and Chinese (and possibly, probably, other Asian languages) there are "cold jokes" which involve a completely unexpected answer, which is where the humor is derived from. At the same time where it's amazing to see how much we can differ just because of language and culture, it's pretty crazy to think about how much we match and are similar too, and how there are so many things that are considered universal humor. Time for a photo update--this time filled with pictures from the dog cafe in Hongdae that Henry, Xue Qing, Ayano, and I went to last week. First a picture of adorable bunnies we saw on our way to the cafe.
Henry with a puppy.
Me with a beagle (this one took a liking to me ^^). Oh and by the way, yes, I did dye and perm my hair!
Xue Qing and her favorite dog--the bulldog, that is, Handsome Dan, woo Yale Pride! :D
Ayano and a golden retriever!
And now featuring the dogs!
Awwww ^_^!
A sad looking (Handsome Dan!)
Awwww, this husky peeked out right next to my leg haha.
Hahaha crazy looking dog eating my treat!
This dog looks so elegant!
Awww ^^.
Cute! Although the beagle liked me better ;D!
Hehe don't know what's going on here.
Awww, yawn!
I am totally getting a dog when I have my own place and money.
This family was popular with the dogs hehe. And this place is called Bau House in case someone wants to look it up ^^.
Afterwards Henry, Xue Qing, and I went to eat at a sushi buffet. Ahh, how I miss Sushi Palace back at Yale!

So, tomorrow is graduation ceremony and then two weeks of break until (hopefully) Level 5! This weekend = Taiwan with Bob and Sneha, woo! We'll see what's in store :D.