Adventures in Korea: 그런대, 공부 했어요!

So, the Korean placement results were posted today. I'm sure you all want to know how I did.

BUT

I'm going to make you wait a bit and tell you about the rest of my day first.

I had Korean Americans class first, wherein we decided to forgo the lecture seating and instead push the tables together and have a seminar style discussion about the readings. That was nice. The readings were interesting too, about causes for Korean migration to the US and the relationship between Koreans and Americans when they first began to immigrate. I won't bore you with any details however.

Afterwards, I hung out in my dorm until 12:30, when I was meeting my new Korean friend Anna for lunch. On the way, I ran into Lily, the girl from China who I met the day before, and invited her to join us. So the three of us met up and went off to find food before our next class at 2:40. I walked us to the student restaurants and we looked around, but decided instead to walk out into the city and find something to eat. After some walking around, which was nice because I've hardly been off campus since being here, we found a restaurant that sold noodles and kimbap. Anna and Lily ordered noodles, but I had yet to have Kimbap in Korea so I ordered 참치김밥, Cham Chi or Tuna kimbap. We poured our own water, which I've now noticed is pretty customary at Korean restaurants, and retrieved our silverware from a lidded alcove built into the table. Our food came out and we dug in. Seriously, even though I was full after my order of kimbap, if the waitress had brought me out three more servings of it I would have forced myself to eat them. It was so delicious. Afterwards, we still had a little over an hour to kill before class, so we decided to go find a cafe that sold 빙수 (bing soo), a popular Korean dessert for the summer that Anna had told us about, it normally consists of shaved iced topped with sweetened red beans and fruit. We found a cafe/bakery that advertised bing soo and went in. The whole front was pastries and baked goods and I made a mental note to return there to try them one day. We bought an order of bing soo to share, and waited at a table for it to be brought out. It was colorful and kind of strange looking, but really delicious! Definitely refreshing on the hot summer day. We stayed and talked for a little while longer before heading back to Woodong hall for class.

We arrived 20 minutes early, so Lily and I decided to go check our placement results for Korean. Now, I was not kidding in my last post when I said I did terribly on that test. I freaking bombed it. And any last bit of optimism I held on to that maybe I'd still be placed into a decent level shattered when I found my name on the list for absolute beginner's Korean. I was crushed, but of course, brushed it off in front of my new friends. Lily and I headed to our next class, Korean Mass Media and Popular Culture, which we shared, and Anna went to hers.

The class was incredibly interesting today; we discussed Korean feelings toward 외국인, or foreigners, learned about the demographics of Korea, and watched film clips that demonstrate feelings Koreans have towards foreigners in their country. After learning about how Koreans were treated as foreigners in America in my Korean Americans class, it was cool to see the other side. However, I spent most of that class counting down the minutes until my Korean class would start and I could speak to my teacher about being placed in that level.

The class ended, and my section of absolute beginner's Korean was scheduled to take place in the same room so I stayed and waited. Eventually, just as class was about to start, the teacher walked in and began speaking to us. My opportunity to talk to her faded as she began handing out the syllabus and discussing what we would be covering in the class. I looked at the syllabus. Korean alphabet. Introductions. Present Tense. Paste tense. Future tense. I. Knew. It. All.
So
My previous idea to simply ask my new professor whether or not I was suited for this class was swiftly washed away by a burning desire to prove to her that I was not. That, okay, maybe I bombed the placement for Korean III, but I was at least suited for Korean II. But, being polite, I didn't want to cut her off, so I waited it out until our break an hour into the two hour class. We learned Korean vowels. We learned Korean consonants. My teacher was impressed by just how fast I was picking up on them. Finally the break started, I grabbed my syllabus, walked up to her table, and then something happened.
I'm normally not a confident person, but in that moment, I knew I could speak Korean to this woman and she would understand me. I knew I could get my point across, and I knew I didn't need English to do it.
I walked up to her.
(*Note, for the purposes of the following conversation, anything spoken in Korean will be in italics)
Teacher!
She looked at me surprised and then laughed a little at my use of the word, before asking
What?
I studied Korean for one year in college. I don't know why I am in this class.
Her eyes were wide open and her mouth agape. The class behind me had turned dead silent, and I could feel them staring from behind me. Normally, this would kill me, any ounce of confidence I managed to muster would have shriveled up and my resolve to continue speaking Korean would have died and my next words would have been in my mothertongue. But I have worked too hard at my Korean and I'd be damned if I let the opportunity to better myself slip away from me. So I was not fazed.
You studied Korean at this university?
No, my university in America.
You already know the Korean alphabet?
I know the Korean alphabet. I know everything in this class.
Why are you in this class?
I don't know. The test yesterday...
I tried to think of how to express the anxiety I felt when taking the test, but didn't have the vocabulary for it.
...the test was very difficult.
Which test was it?
Level three test.
Oh... well, you need to be moved into another class!
Yes!
Which class do you want?
Maybe... Korean II?
She looked at the textbook for a moment, the eyes of the class still firmly rested on us, before she said
Your Korean is too good for that class. I think you should be in Korean III.
...Really?
Yes, we can go talk to the teacher.
So we hurried out of the classroom, probably much to the confusion of my classmates, and on a quest to find the Korean III classroom. After asking a few people, we found it. Fortunately, they were on break too. My teacher grabbed the other teacher and they went back and forth in rapid fire Korean. The only thing I could catch was my teacher recounting her shock when I went up and spoke Korean to her. At this point my courage was already dwindling, especially under the gaze of the woman who had decided I should be placed in a beginning Korean class to begin with. But instead, I attempted to understand the gist of their conversation and interjected some agreements. They appeared to finally agree on something, the Korean III teacher returned to her class, and my teacher turned to me
You'll be in level III now
I can't even fathom how ridiculous I must have looked at that moment with a gigantic grin on my face, but I managed to bow and squeak out a 감사합니다 (thank you)!
I returned to my old class, grabbed my things, the teacher informed everyone I was being moved, I said goodbye, and I walked to my new class.

Walked right in mid-lecture, right into the teacher speaking rapid Korean to the other students. I sat. I waited for her to stop. To breathe. Something. Eventually the moment came when she stopped to write something on the board. I finally figured out they were talking about flavors (salty, sweet, bitter, etc.), none of which I knew, but managed to jot down the words quickly and force myself to memorize them. We did a partner activity, asking how certain foods taste. We went back to rapid Korean lecturing. I was called on to make a sentence with a random verb in future tense and managed to do it without messing up.

And finally, the class was done for the day, not a word of English spoken.