오랜만에

I am finally back at NUS Extension. It has been one year in the waiting and intermediate level Korean language course is at last a reality at NEX. According to a NEX staff, the response to this inaugural course is so overwhelming that they have to open up two classes. Both classes are on Saturday - one class is in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Such response is quite unprecedented for a high-level course though it is not surprising since demand has been accumulating over the last few years.

As today is our first lesson of the course, self-introduction (자기소개) is always a must. Our teacher, 김세화, started by giving a self-introduction of herself. She majors in Korean Language and Korean Studies as an undergraduate and has a Masters in Teaching Korean as a Foreign Language. Her teaching experience includes teaching Korean to Chinese students in Qingdao for one year. She even came prepared with a PowerPoint presentation of her family and colleagues at Kyunghee University.

When it comes to the students' turn to do self-introduction, I am more or less prepared to answer the three most commonly-asked-questions:

1. How long have you been studying Korean?
2. What is your reason for studying Korean?
3. What do you want to learn through this course?

True enough, our teacher did not deviate much from these standard questions. The only additional question which she asked was who our previous Korean teachers were. My previous Korean teachers include both her predecessors, 김민재 and 지서원. If I am to compare her teaching style with both of them, I think she is somewhere in between. She is not a "livewire" like her predecessors but is pleasant and lively enough to be a rather interesting teacher.

During one conversation, she thought she saw me in Kyunghee before but I didn't remember seeing her. I am quite used to people commenting that they saw me somewhere before because I think I have the so-called "common look". But after some rewinding of event in my mind, I think she maybe right. Perhaps she is one of those teachers who followed our field trip when I am in Kyunghee last year. But then, I cannot be too sure.

Today lesson is conducted completely in Korean and our teacher is so relieved that she can finally used Korean to teach. Before our class, I think she must have been struggling to teach her lower-level Korean classes with her limited English. I can grasp 95% of her teaching but I am not too sure if anyone in the class has problem understanding her explanation in Korean. I know I have problem coping with lesson taught in 100% Korean when I first started my intermediate-level lesson last year. However, I have resisted the temptation of asking our teacher to explain in English as I need to cut my reliance on English and start to think in Korean.

A language can only be taught by itself just like a diamond can only be cut and polish by another diamond. Because of that, I am feeling that writing this blog in English is no longer helping me in my Korean study. What I need is to spend more time in listening, reading and writing in Korean which I rarely have time after blogging. I will need to consolidate my foundation in intermediate level Korean before moving on to the advanced level. This would mean that I may need to cut down on my blogging frequency to find more time for self study.

Starting next week, I will have 7 hours of Korean lessons every week. But I am not complaining because I am doing what I like. How do I know that? Because I am always feeling this indescribable sense of happiness while attending Korean class. Sometimes, I wonder how can this happen. A sense of happiness can only be felt if I am also feeling a sense of unhappiness. Perhaps this sense of unhappiness is coming from my work. My life is just trying to find its balance afterall.