This month I met up with my language partner Somyung Kim. I would first like to acknowledge how special it is for me to have her as my teacher. She was my very first teacher when I started learning in freshman year and I am cherishing how she will finish off my language journey in Richmond through my last Korean class here.
When we met up we caught up on how our winter break was. We talked about how we spent a lot of time with our families. We also talked about our goals this semester. This semester I want to continue maintaining my speaking skills because it is so easy to lose your skills after not speaking a language for months. I would also like to develop how I think culturally in the language.
When I met with my language partner we went out to achieve one of our cultural experiences in getting boba. In South korea, teenagers would spend a lot of time in coffee shops and go get gong cha which is a famous brand to socialize with their peers. I am so thankful for my language partner because she bought us our drinks. While we were enjoying our drinks, me and David told her about what we want to do as our cultural experience this semester.
This year we plan to go to a bakery shop near town but we would have to go really early since there is usually a long line. We also want to do a session where the students cook for the teachers. David Kim and I decided to learn how to cook various Korean dishes this semester. One thing I want to serve Somyung is 감자 짜글이 which is translated into some potato stew. This is a invention dish created by a very famous chef in South Korea called 백종원. This is the first time Somyung had musically talented students as her students to teach Korean. We found out that David plays a lot of instruments such as the guitar, piano and he even creates music. On the other hand I have been playing the violin for 14 years and I am in the chamber ensemble in our school. Somyung has played the bass for a couple of years. We plan to gather together and try to play very korean or cultural music with our instruments. I think it is a very good idea and it's very fresh. I can’t wait to meet as a group and collaborate in music. South Korea is becoming more popular in the music industry because of KPOP. I love how we can be culturally involved in the language through our skills of playing music.
On the way back home we had a quick review on how to use directions in Korean. In Korea there is a translation of directing people right and left which is 오른쪽 and 왼쪽. However, when people are driving they use slightly different terms such as turning right for 우회전 and turning left for 좌회전. I am always confused by these terms which is why I was very confused when I was testing for my drivers license in South Korea. But I was able to figure out a easy way to distinguish between these two by using sound of "OO" as the first letter 우 in 우회전 (right).
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