한국 피아노 왕자

It was raining heavily in Seoul. It was May 2002 and I had just arrived in Itaewon. The spring season normally brought on a lot of rainfall. I expected it but there was nothing much I could do except to "glue" myself to the TV inside my hotel room.

I was watching a talkshow in ArirangTV channel and the guest for that show was Yiruma. The name Yiruma (이루마) sounds very much Japanese but no, he is a Korean. I had no idea who Yiruma was but was interested enough to know what he was good at. From the show, I kinda of knew that he was a new age pianist and he was Korea's answer to Richard Clayderman and Yukie Nishimura.

After the rain stopped, I took the subway to COEX Mall and bought my first Korean CD - "First Love" by Yiruma.

산 및 들

View from Mt Namsan - Go We Bong 고위봉(494m)

This picture which I took from the top of Mt Namsan in Kyongju probably best illustrates the title of my blog "Mountain and Field". A vast plain of fertile field surrounded and sheltered by mountain ranges that seem to stretch to the end of the world. A view of tranquility and harmony. A world at peace with its consciousness.

같이 등산할 까요?

It was middle of October 1998 and I was in Busan. The autumn colour has not set in but the weather was cool and ideal for mountain hiking. It was my only off-day of the trip and my destination was Mt Geumjeong (금정산-金井山). A literal translation of Mt Geumjeong is Golden Well Mountain. The legend has it that a fish from the heaven descended to a well in the mountain and the well water glittered like gold ever since. The most prominent temple of Busan, Beomeosa (범어사-梵魚寺), also got its name from the same legend. Beomeosa means "Heaven Fish Temple" literally.

The main entrance into Beomeosa

I took the subway and exited from the Beomeosa station. While there were buses going up to Beomeosa, I decided to take a walk up the slope and enjoyed the roadside scenery. It took me an hour though to reach Beomeosa which was supposed to be one of the five greatest temples in Korea. The original Beomeosa, as I knew, was built in the 7th century but like many other Korean historical relics, it was destroyed during the Japanese invasion in 1592 and only to be rebuilt later. Of all the things about the place, I enjoyed the conifers, the pine trees and the peaceful charm.

The main hall of Beomeosa

However, Beomeosa was not my final destination for the day. I was determined to trek up the 800m high Mt Geumjeong. I followed up a rocky stream which was to be found to one side of Beomeosa. I thought I would be the only soul trekking up the slope but to my surprise there were quite a number of Koreans going up the same route and they did it almost effortlessly. Before I came to Korea, I didn't know that mountain hiking was a leisure activity among the Koreans. It isn't a leisure activity in Singapore for sure but then again there aren't any mountain in Singapore to begin with.

The rocky stream leading up to the peak of Mt Geumjeong

It took me almost three hours from Beomeosa to get to the peak of Mt Geumjeong. While maybe not the peak. I was almost there but I couldn't figure out how to make the final ascent to the highest point "Gomobong" (고모봉-姑母峰). I was more like 795 metres above sea level before I called it quit. I took a picture of the weathered peak just to remind myself that I almost did it that year. From where I took my picture, many groups of Korean family were having their sopung (소풍-picnic) and eating their kimbap (김밥-seaweed roll). I relish the idea of a picnic after a mountain hike with my family and eating gimbap under the cool weather of autumn. 등산하는 것이 마음에 들어요.

Mt Geumjeong - 801.5 metres above sea level

도우미 어떻게 지내요?

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.

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. ^^

처음부터 지금까지

처음 - The Beginning

Four years ago in Kyongju, I was waiting to cross a street in the city when a Korean man came up and spoke to me in Korean. Apparently, he had mistaken me for a Korean. I replied to him in English that I don't understand Korean. Immediately he switched and spoke to me in a mixture of simple English and Korean. I guessed that he was asking me where I came from. I told him I came from Singapore. He said that Singapore, beautiful. I smiled. He went on speaking in Korean and the only words I could pick out was "hangook myon" (한국면-韓國面). I used my hand to pull out an outline of my face and repeated "hangook myon?" to confirm that he was actually trying to tell me that my face looked like a Korean. He nodded his head. I grinned.

Back then, I have not started my learning of Korean language. So I was pleasantly surprised at myself for guessing correctly what the Korean man was trying to say. But guessing was not something that I was satisfied with. On returning from my Korea trip, I started my search for Korean language course, textbook, dictionary and website. I thought that it was that "accidental" meeting which set me off on my Korean language learning journey.

Four years ago, Hanryu (한류-韓流) has yet to reach the shore of Singapore. The opportunity for Korean language learning was very limited. The Singapore Korean School was one of those few institutions that offered Korean language course. But when I checked their website, there was no updated information on upcoming language course. In fact, for more than a year, the language course information in SKS's website was not updated. Maybe there could be courses running, but I never called to check. The Cambridge School of Languages was another institution which I checked on. I wrote several enquiry e-mails at different time to them but they all bounced because the school's mailbox had reached its size limit. It was quite disappointing. Because of that experience, I thought that the school was not my type of institution and I decided to give it a miss.

I also checked on the National University of Singapore's website but there was no Korean language courses offered. Finally, I had to settle for self-study. I bought three Korean textbooks and one dictionary from the bookstore. None of them was published in Korea. The dictionary was published in the US and the three textbooks were published in places like London, Taiwan and Hong Kong. I self-studied Korean language for about three years. But there is a limit to how far one can learn through self-study. The downside of self-study was apparent to me. I was strong in writing, average in reading and very poor in speaking and hearing.

In August 2005, I decided to search the web again for Korean language courses in Singapore. I was in luck when I checked the NUS's website. Korean language courses finally made their way into NUS. I submitted my application form for the Conversational Basic Korean Level 1 which started in October and the rest was history.

지금 - The Present

It was almost a year since I started my Korean language programme at NUS Extension. The progress I had made in my Korean language over the last 10 months was way much more than what I had achieved over the 3 years of self-study. For my course now, I am using textbooks published by Sogang University and a respectable English-Korean dictionary published in Korea. I am grateful to my Korean teacher for undertaking the task of setting up a comprehensive curriculum for Korean language learning in Singapore and to Hanryu for creating a sizeable demand for Korean langauge courses and set the momentuan for the development of better and higher level Korean language courses locally. Today, I am still a beginner in Korean language and I will like to remain a beginner in my learning of the language.

싱가폴에 괴물이 올 거야

한국에서 가장 인기 있는 괴물이 곧 싱가포르에서 나다날 거예요. 이주 후에 9월7일부터 극장에서 볼 수 있어요. 이 영화가 재미있을 것 같아서 보기를 너무 기대해요. 언제나 괴물이 있는 영화를 좋아해요. 나는 괴물도 좋아하겠어요.

《怪物》快要登陆新加坡了！韩国有史以来人气最高的电影，两个星期后就要在本地戏院上映。不过《怪物》来到本地就要变种了-变成《异种》。真受不了影片厂商，又《异形》又《异种》存心想混淆我们观众。看惯了美国和日本的怪兽，很期待看到韩国的怪物。

All these years, we have gotten quite used to Hollywood monster movies and those american beefcakes, marines or special forces who go around slaughtering monsters mindlessly. It will be refreshing to see how a simple Korean family turn themselves into monster-busters in Gway-Mool (The Host). In two weeks time, this movie could well create a new "korean monster wave" in Singapore.

비디어

- Trailer
- Trailer
- Interview
- On the set
- On the set
- On the set
- Interview

현지학습 - 남이섬

南怡岛-单听它的名，我就想去看看了。南-有南洋风，亲切而道地的感觉。怡-有怡然自得，心旷神怡，愉快的感觉。感觉上，我给它100分！南怡岛之行是庆熙大学一周韩语课程的其中一个"現地學習"项目。

南怡岛因南怡将军(1441-1468)而得名。南怡将军二十五岁就当上国防部长。二十七岁就被奸人陷害而着处决。真是英雄气短。以下是南怡将军所笔的七言绝句：

白头山石磨刀尽
豆满江水饮马无
男儿二十未平国
后世谁称大丈夫

此诗可见南怡将军的雄心和气魄。南怡将军立志二十岁要平定国家。这已超出孔子“十五志于学，三十而立”的论调。真不愧是乱世出英雄。

南怡岛真正会出名，不是因为南怡将军，而是因为《冬季恋歌》。《冬季恋歌》在亚洲的成功，为南怡岛带来了络绎不绝的观光客。现在去韩国旅游，很难不被带到南怡岛去走一趟。

岛上的树木，整齐地排列在步道两旁。草地旷阔，空气清爽，很适合散步，骑自行车和野餐。不过，观光客一多，散步起来，一点情调都没有。骑自行车，或许是比较不错的选择。在春天的气候中，骑自行车在树荫道上来回暗爽的样子，其实很不错。可惜我当时没有那么做。所以现在只可以凭想象来暗爽一下。

不过我觉得最可惜的还是我们一团队没有机会在那儿野餐。如果可以带草席，食物和饮料来南怡岛野餐和玩游戏，那该有多好呀！

三月中的南怡岛，树木还是光秃秃的。草地也还是黄褐色的。春天的气息还没来临，拍起照来不是很好看。 就是少了春天的绿，秋天的红和冬天的白。如果有下一次，一定不会选择三月去南怡岛。^^

뭐가 가장 중유해요?

선생님: 무슨 생일 성물을 받고 싶어요?
학생 가: 돈을 받고 싶어요. ㅋㅋㅋ

선생님: 여행할 때 뭐가 필요해요?
학생 나: 돈이 필요해요. ㅋㅋㅋ

선생님: 뭘 가장 좋아해요?
학생 다: 돈을 제일 좋아해요. ㅋㅋㅋ
선생님: 건강이 중유하지 않아요? 싱가포르 사람 . . . . .

물론 돈이 가장 중요하죠! Of course, money is very important in life but in our Korean class it has achieved "the most important" status. I don't think we are really crazy about money when we keep using money as the subject or object in our sentences. In fact, we always laugh at our own shallow replies.

However, there is a certain lure to using 돈 especially for beginners whose Korean vocabulary is still very limited. 돈 is universal and almost anything can be directly or indirectly linked to 돈. When "돈" is used, our sentence will make sense most of the time especially when 돈 is used as a reason as to why we do or don't do something.

• 돈이 있으면 유럽에서 여행할 거에요.
• 돈이 없어서 여행할 수 없어요.
• 돈을 좋아하니까 투자(投資)에 관심이 많아요.
• 돈이 없어서 집에서 자요.

So I think it is quite alright for students to use "돈" in the sentence-making exercises without feeling embarass about it.

처음 한국 텔렌트를 만났다

우리 선생님 배현경(좌) 및 친절한 양미경

Two days ago, 양미경(梁美京) and the Korean Ambassador to Singapore, visited the NUS Extension. I have no idea who is 양미경 because I do not watch the highly popular korean drama 대장금(大長今). Apparently, she acted as 한상궁(韓尙宮) in 대장금. It was a Thursday night and we were supposed to have our language lesson but because of the impending visit of 양미경 씨, we ended our lesson one and a half hour earlier.

양미경 was here in Singapore to promote the Korean culture and to mark the 15th Anniversary of the ASEAN-Korea Cultural Exchange Programme. Her time of stay in Singapore was less than 48 hours. So it was quite a privilege for us, the students of the Korean Language Programme, to have an half hour face-to-face session with her.

The visit of 양미경 and the Korean Ambassador to NUS Extension showed the importance which the Korean authority has accorded to the Korean Language Programme at the Park Mall campus. In the Ambassador's short speech to the students, he wished that the Korean Language would make its way into the NUS main campus at Kent Ridge. I do hope that his wish can become a reality. That would mean that I can continue with my language study to a higher level in Singapore.

Another thing worthed mentioning was that we were treated to a buffet by the school after the event. Wow! Never thought I could get something back from the school after paying so much for the course fees. I ate to my heart's content. It was indeed a satisfying day for me. ^^

머나지 않게 해주세요

韩国映畵《時越愛》来到新加坡时被翻成《穿越爱情海》。其实我觉得《時越愛》这片名在意境上已经相当完美了。再把它翻成《穿越爱情海》无疑是画蛇添足。可是我也明白，新加坡人的中文程度并不是很好。如果沿用《時越愛》，也许会有很多人不知所云。不过这些年来，我大概也只记得它的意大利文片名-Il Mare. Il Mare 是我看的第一部韩语片。影片播映时，韩国连续剧还没在本地盛行。韩国连续剧真在本地风靡起来，也是三四年后的事了。当时，半句韩语都听不懂的我，还是很欣赏这部朴实无华却能引人深思的影片。时间和爱到底有什么关系呢？

我喜欢影片对爱的剖析。例如，这世上有三样东西是不能压抑的。它们是咳嗽，贫穷和爱。你越想压抑，它们就越要表露出来。或，爱是痛苦的，不是因为它已经停止了，而是因为它还在延续 。。。。。

我喜欢影片对爱含蓄的表现。这世上不是能说出来的才算爱。政宰和剧中的父亲因为误解而无法沟通。但是父亲还是通过为儿子设计的海边屋，以另一种方式来表达出他对儿子的爱。政宰也同样通过为智贤设计的海边屋，来传达一份不能面对面说出来的爱。

However, the most intriguing part of this movie is in the playing out of the relationship between time and love. It kinda set me thinking about the possibility in real life for two persons to be separated in time and yet able to communicate and know each other well enough to want to meet in the future. I thought that it may afterall be possible if we can accept that time is relative in a way that different people can have different perception about the length of time.

If you can imagine this. You have been reading my blog for two years. Even though we have not met, to you, it may seem that you have "known" me for two years. You will know the cafe which I like to visit on a free afternoon. The time and station where I took the last train home. The people whom I like and the things which I dislike. But to me, I will not know of your existence. The time that I "know" you has yet to start. There is a different between the time you "know" me and the time I "know" you. This "time-lapse" between us is two years.

If you so decide to drop me a comment in my blog after two years, the time that I "know" you will only start to tick after that. We could have enjoyed chatting with each other online to the extent that we agree to meet each other one week later. To me, the time to the meeting will be exactly one week later. While for you, you have been thinking about meeting me since reading my blog two years ago, it will seem to you that you have "waited" two years to meet me. Due to our different in time (as in the time we know each other) perception, "time" has effectively "separated" us. In a certain sense, the cyberworld has become that magical mailbox in the movie that relayed messages across "time".

How then do love "survive" in a "time-warped" zone? The movie may have given the answer. When Ji-Hyun was still unable to let go of her love for her ex-boyfriend, Jung-Jae was killed in an accident and never made it for their appointment. But when Ji-Hyun's heart finally fell for Jung-Jae, the time was turned back and Jung-Jae "survived" to meet her in the future (this was the movie-ending scene). It strikes me that love can transcend a "time-warped" zone only if two hearts are connected. But If one of them does not love the other, the "future" will kinda "die" and there will not be any future for them to meet.

Do you believe in miracle? 要能欣赏这部电影，你必须也要能相信奇迹。