세번째

Perhaps this is just another certificate to many but to me, it holds a lot more significance. It marks more than one and a half year of wait since I last received the certificate for completing my Conversational Korean Level 6 in November 2006. I have a mixed feeling when I received this certificate in yesterday class. On one hand, I am happy that I am back in NEX - the cradle of my Korean language's aspiration. On the other hand, I feel a tinge of sadness as I don't feel I have made much significant progress since I last left NEX. Though I gained a lot more experiences by continuing my Korean study in SKS, I still feel that my Korean language ability has not improved at a satisfactorily rate during this period. I must clarify that my feeling has nothing to do with the quality of SKS lessons. SKS's Korean lessons are really fine. In fact, I trust SKS's class to help me obtain good grade in TOPIK or KLPT anytime. The feeling is more of an outcome of the many "disruptions" which I experienced in the last one and a half year. To speak the truth, I am very tired of hoping for the next higher level Korean course to start soon, only to be disappointed time after time. Continuity in Korean study is hard to maintain when it reaches intermediate level because currently there aren't many people in Singapore who are interested enough in the language to go that far and if there are, many will be too busy with work to continue. To illustrate what I mean, by attending the NEX's Exploring Korean (Intermediate Level 2) Course, which started last Saturday, I will be revisiting chapter 5 to 8 of the Kyunghee's Exploring Korean Intermediate Book 1 for the third time. That's how much thing has stagnated for me. I wish I could have reached another level of mastery by now but there is always a dimension of reality that I have to grapple with. Regardless, I am glad that I am still able to do what I like. These days, I am having 7 hours of Korean lesson every week. I am tiringly happy though.