Immersion

Today was my class's first day of immersion. We spent all day in our school house's auditorium, only speaking Korean. I was really worried about it beforehand, because I didn't know  what to expect, but once I was there, I didn't worry anymore and just had fun. It was a real blast, and I got a very small taste of what it would be like to be in a place where only Korean is spoken. It wasn't exactly the same, because I have a harder time understanding my fellow classmates than I do my teachers when they speak, but that's probably as a result of me watching dramas a lot.


In the morning, we split into four groups and did a lot of research on four of the major cities in South Korea. Then, we put together a presentation and delivered it to the class. Once that was done, we had lunch, all of which was delicious Korean food, and the only thing I didn't try was the kimchi, but that was only because I had zero room on my plates (I had seconds). But I did try kimbap, which is essentially Korean sushi, only it's actually really good. I have had sushi before (while Balgram was on her mission) and I didn't like it a whole lot, but the kimbap was actually pretty good. I couldn't even taste the seaweed and there were plenty of veggies. I think the meat inside it might have been crab? But I'm not sure. I also ate beef bulgogi (I like pork better, it is more spicy), rice (slightly undercooked) a green cooked veggie that I think was some kind of cabbage, dried squid (mmmm, yummy), pot stickers (mandu in Korean), a white, chopped, unidentifiable veggie that was really good, noodles, rice cake, some kind of fish patty, and I washed it all down with delicious aloe water.

We played lots of games during lunch and watched some music videos (though for some reason we only ever watch girl groups unless I am in control...) then for the afternoon we divided into four different groups for role playing. There were four stations, a rental car agency, a souvenir shop, a pharmacy/doctor's office, and a travel agency. There was a break in between the four, during which we had fun trying on traditional Korean clothing. By the time the day was over, I felt like no time had passed at all, and I felt like I was actually learning Korean. I can speak in only Korean for a full 8 hours. How amazing is that?

Of course, I'm not the best at speaking, but I'm certainly not the worst, by far, and for that I'm very grateful. I will continue working hard to achieve a fluency in the Korean language so that I can go live in Korea and meet and marry a handsome Korean singer/actor so that I can do the job the Air Force wants me to do.

Here are some pictures for you of the traditional Korean clothing.

The Asian man in the second to bottom picture is one of our teachers, the short woman in green and purple is one of my classmates (also Air Force), the man in the blue is a classmate (Army, married, younger than me...) and the crazy one in the back of the top three pictures is another classmate (Navy, friend, crazy.)

Note: My hair doesn't look extremely cute, no matter what my teachers try to tell me, because it's under a hat any time I'm outside, and I don't shower in the morning so it's really just combed bed-head. Also note that I don't look amazing in Hanbok, because I have such short hair. Gah, I'm not photogenic at all...