Tuesday, August 05, 2008

다시 시작하다

The first day of school began at 10 am on Monday with a course introduction conducted in English in one of the classrooms in the Institute of International Education (IIE). Our short-term summer 3-weeks course programme is as shown:

1. Korean Language Class (9:00am - 1:00pm)
Every day from Monday to Friday except Aug 7 and Aug 14 (field trip) and Aug 15 (public holiday).

2. Korean Culture Class (2:00pm - 4:00pm)
Subjects which include Taekwondo, Korean movie, song and game will be conducted on Aug 8 (Fri), Aug 11 (Mon), Aug 13 (Wed) and Aug 18 (Mon).

3. Field Trip (9:00am - 6:00pm)
Field trip on Aug 7 (Thu) is to Icheon Ceramic Village, Korean Folk Village and Global Campus of Kyung Hee University. The following week on Aug 14 (Thu), the trip is to Weongol Village in Gongju and the Independence Hall.

4. Nanta Performance (3:00pm - 5:00pm)
The school will sponsor students to watch Nanta performance on Aug 15. Optional.

At 10 minutes to 11am, we were made to assembled at IIE 210 which is the institute's auditorium. We were first shown the corporate video of Kyunghee University. Once that ended, as a formality, the director of IIE, Prof Kim Jung Sup, was invited to the stage to give his opening address. This time round, I was able to understand all that he had said - a little consolation for my last one year of study. Attending this summer course are 156 students from 20 countries over five continents. The countries include Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, USA, UK, Ukraine and Vietnam. There are 5 Singapore students and not surprisingly, the Japaneses form the bulk of cohort.

At the opening ceremony. Not surprising, majority are Japanese students.

Opening address by Director IIE. I can finally understand all that he said.

The opening ceremony was short and sharp. Everything was probably wrapped up within half an hour. After that, we made a beeline for the welcoming lunch at Mi Seong (미성) restaurant, located outside the campus.

Welcoming lunch at Mi Seong restaurant which serves fish soup.

Before we could digest our lunch, we were back at IIE 210 for the placement test. The test comprises three parts. The first part is a paper with 50 multiple-choice questions. The questions get more and more difficult towards the end. The last 10 questions are probably advanced level questions. The second part is essay writing. There are three topics to choose from. The first topic is meant to be a 100-words essay for the elementary students. The second topic is a 200-300 words essay for the intermediate students. The last topic is a 400-500 words essay for the advanced students. I wouldn't say that there are choices because elementary students can't probably write on topics meant for the intermediate or advanced students. The third part is the oral test. Teacher will ask very simple questions and the student is expected to reply appropriately and fluently in simple sentence... Just to end the day, there was an optional campus tour after the placement test.

It is quite rare to see the fountain working. Hence, this picture was taken.

Walking up the slope to the Grand Auditorium in summer is madness.

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