There are two things that I will always remember fondly about the one-week Kyung Hee immersion programme. One of them was the language lesson and the other was the dowoomi (도우미) programme. Dowoomi are actually Kyunghee undergraduates who have volunteered their time to play host to foreign students like us and to help us settle into our new environment. 도우미 is derived from the verb stem 돕다 which means to help. Frankly, for our one-week stay in Kyung Hee, there was not much help we needed but we still enjoyed the good company of our dowoomi.
We were supposed to be introduced to our dowoomi on our first day of school. Some dowoomi came but not all, as the rest of them had other study commitments to attend to. But all of us eventually met our dowoomi all thanks to the hard work of the staff of Institute of International Education. While it was meant for our dowoomi to follow us through our one week stay, not all of our dowoomi were able to make it for various reasons. So I guessed that staff at IIE must have been busy making phone calls so that enough dowoomi turned up for our full-day field trip, farewell dinner and closing ceremony on Saturday, 25 Mar 06 - a day before our departure.
On our field trip day, about two-thirds of the dowoomi were fresh faces but that did not quite affect us. We still had a good time together visiting Kyung Bok Goong (경복궁-景福宮), National Museum of Korea (국립중앙박물관-國立中央博物館) and Cheong Gye Cheon (청계천-淸溪川). We ended our day with the farewell dinner (환송만찬-歡送晩餐) and closing ceremony at a restaurant in In Sa Dong (인사동-仁寺洞).
Dowoomi made a lot of different to our stay in Kyung Hee. That personal touch can never be replaced by anything else. While we might not have know each other for a long time, the short period of acquaintanceship left nothing but good memory. 도우미들이 만나서 반가웠어요. 일주일 동안 도와 주는데 매우 감사합니다. 김솔암 씨, 오랜만이죠? 잘 지내고 있나요? 왜 연락하지 않아요? 그럼 김솔암 씨 항상 행복하시고 건강하세요. ^^
We were supposed to be introduced to our dowoomi on our first day of school. Some dowoomi came but not all, as the rest of them had other study commitments to attend to. But all of us eventually met our dowoomi all thanks to the hard work of the staff of Institute of International Education. While it was meant for our dowoomi to follow us through our one week stay, not all of our dowoomi were able to make it for various reasons. So I guessed that staff at IIE must have been busy making phone calls so that enough dowoomi turned up for our full-day field trip, farewell dinner and closing ceremony on Saturday, 25 Mar 06 - a day before our departure.
NUS Ext students with dowoomi outside National Museum of Korea
On our field trip day, about two-thirds of the dowoomi were fresh faces but that did not quite affect us. We still had a good time together visiting Kyung Bok Goong (경복궁-景福宮), National Museum of Korea (국립중앙박물관-國立中央博物館) and Cheong Gye Cheon (청계천-淸溪川). We ended our day with the farewell dinner (환송만찬-歡送晩餐) and closing ceremony at a restaurant in In Sa Dong (인사동-仁寺洞).
Farewell dinner. Able to tell Korean and Singaporean apart?
Dowoomi made a lot of different to our stay in Kyung Hee. That personal touch can never be replaced by anything else. While we might not have know each other for a long time, the short period of acquaintanceship left nothing but good memory. 도우미들이 만나서 반가웠어요. 일주일 동안 도와 주는데 매우 감사합니다. 김솔암 씨, 오랜만이죠? 잘 지내고 있나요? 왜 연락하지 않아요? 그럼 김솔암 씨 항상 행복하시고 건강하세요. ^^
학팡씨 오랜만이에요^^
ReplyDelete전에도 놀러왔었는데 comment를 남기지 않았었어요.
Post가 많이 늘었네요~
대단해요^0^
한국은 언제쯤 와요??
궁금합니다~
솔암씨 오랜만이죠~
ReplyDelete솔암씨 제 블로그에서 나왔는데 내 마음이 기뻐요.^^
한국말을 연습하기 때문에 Post가 많이 써요. 아직 한국말을 잘 못 하지만.
아마 다음 주에 한국에 갈 거예요. 아니면 12월말에 갈 거예요. 잘 모르겠어요. 한국에 가면 솔암씨한테 알려 드릴게요. 솔암씨 휴대 전화번호를 이메일로 보낼 수 있어요?
한국 날씨가 추워지더군요. 솔암씨 몸이 조심하세요.