SEOUL - OCTOBER 31, 2000
Today will be a short journal entry. Halloween came and went without much incident. Last weekend there were quite a few bars with a Halloween theme. I've been feeling so overwhelmed by my Korean class, that I didn't go out too much last night. My friend Lance came by for awhile, so we went out for a couple hours. There were people out in the bars, but it didn't seem too much out of the ordinary from any other weekday night.
Korean classes are becoming quite overwhelming. I can see that I'm learning things everyday, but at the same time, each day in class I feel like I'm really struggling to keep up.
Half of my class has Japanese as their native tounge. Two others have Chinese as their native tongue. As I've been explained to by many people now (as I've been asking around about this). They have many similar root words. I mean this is the sense that like English and Spanish have many of the same root words. So for Japanese (who also have a very similar grammar structure to Korean) and for Chinese (where most of the Korean root words came from), have a large advantage for understanding and remembering words. So now I have a good understanding why the Asian students in my class seem to be comprehending and speaking so quickly and so rapidly after only three weeks of classes.
I do have a certain advantages over the Turkish and Mongolian students though. Fortunately, having English as my native tounge, most everyone knows some English, so vocabulary or phrases or tricky grammatical rules, can easily be taught to me through English. Unfortunately for the Turkish and Mongolian guys, they don't have that, as neither of them knows much more than very basic English. Even though I do have this advantage, I still have to memorize sound syllables that don't have any meaning to me whatsoever, whereas a Japanese person may see that this syllable's root means 'fire' for example, and have a deeper understanding of what the words mean, plus they usually have a very similar sound to them.
The Portuguese guy seems to be picking things up really well. I spoke with him recently, and he took a six week class before coming to South Korea. Plus he is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, English, and who knows what else. He is probably arguably one of the better students in the class. Although many of the Japanese students are also automatically at a much high level. Japanese seems to have similar grammatical structure, similar word order, and similar root words. For Japanese and for Korean, they have each other as the most easiest language for them to learn. Whereas for English speakers, Spanish is the easiest language for us to learn.
On to the job front. I have had yet another interview at Goldmans in Seoul. They still seem very interested. I even faxed them my passport photo, because they would like to look into a work visa. I still haven't been hired though. We have yet to negotiate pay. Also, they really need someone to be on call all the time (they would be willing to give me a company phone - I still don't have a phone yet), and they'd like me to put in late hours and be on call for emergencies. So, this would be a problem for me. At this time in Korea, I can't have a full-time job. I have offered to only work 25 hours a week. It still seems like too much to me, but its the only compromise I could make. I don't know if they will accept that or not. Hopefully, sometime this week, they will let me know. I have also mentioned to them that I will be here for awhile, and maybe when I am not so consumed with studies, I would be able to commit to full-time work. But I am incapable of that at this time. So I don't know what will happen regarding this job opportunity. If I didn't have any time commitments, I would definetely be hired, but that isn't the case.
Also, if I am hired, I would receive a work visa. This is good because then I don't have to leave the country every three months to renew my tourist visa. The downside of this is that I really want to travel, at least for a week or two, to other neighboring countries every few months.
This Winter, between my two language semesters (if I continue Korean studies in January), I have a break of three and a half weeks. I have really had my heart set on going to Indonesia during that time. I've been wanting to see that country for years now, plus it will be freezing cold in Seoul, whereas Indonesia will be quite hot. I am extremely interested in exploring Jakarta, Bandung, and most of Java and Bali. I hope that I will receive the opportunity (whereas if I'm hired by Goldmans, I may be able to take a week or so off around the Holidays), but I was really hoping to have some extended travels for three and a half weeks.
To read the Next Journal Entry: November 5th
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com
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A
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