Sleeping in SongDo

osted on July 24, 2016 by unravellingkorea

My most recent trip to Korea before coming back as a teacher was as a student in the Korean language program at GGU. I was accepted under a tuition scholarship for 4 months during Spring 2016.

Although 4 months went by so fast, I had fun times at GGU and my Korean level went up quite a lot. There really isn’t much information about GGU online, so I didn’t know what to expect upon arriving. Of course, I knew it was in the countryside, but I don’t think anything really prepares you for how secluded and quiet it is here. We wake up to the neighboring roosters and cows… a good sign that you’re not in Seoul anymore! The university is a part of the city of Nonsan, but it actually about 40 minutes outside the city area by bus. However this quietness has its charms, and definitely allowed me to get a better view of the Korean countryside. I think there is nothing that unites people quite as well as being such a small community far off from the city life.

For those interested in applying for a scholarship at this school, here is the link: http://www.ggu.ac.kr/eng/html/students.php It is an easy and straightforward application process and from what I understand most students with complete applications get accepted with a full tuition scholarship! I definitely recommend it as language schools in the city can be quite expensive. The program is divided in 3 levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced, so no matter your level this program will be great for you! IN my advanced class we were using the Seoul National University textbooks, although this changes each semester and by level based on what the teacher likes using.

This was the view from my dorm room^^

We were approximately 30 foreign students during the Spring semester, which allowed us to get to know each other quite well. There’s nothing quite like having fried chicken and beer to get to know people better (also, the delivery fried chicken here is simply amazing!!!).

The view from the top of the library here is also unbeatable! Amazing sunrises and sunsets

I was also lucky enough to be in Korea during the cherry blossom season! The photos really don’t do it justice but at least you get the general idea.. it’s straight out of a movie scene. There are also cherry blossoms on campus, although it is best to go to Daejeon, Seoul or other famous areas to get a full appreciation of the cherry blossom festivals. This photo was taken next to Lotte World in Seoul.

Each month the program takes us on a new culture trip outside the university. One of my favorites was to Jeonju, a city with a beautifully preserved hanok (traditional home) village. We learnt how to make the famous Jeonju bibimbap and got to walk around and take pictures in a traditional dress.

Another one of my favorite trips was our temple stay. Each student as GGU must participate in a temple stay during their studies, including us foreign students. This was a very new experience to me, and there were tough times and great times alike. We lived like buddhist monks for 2 nights and 3 days (and yes… that means waking up at 3 am for a prayer and hiking session). Despite having extremely tired legs by day 3, I wouldn’t miss the chance to experience this and would definitely go back again one day! The best part, the whole trip was funded by the temple itself as GGU is a buddhist university!!!

Despite being a smaller university, they prepared a student festival week (the one’s at larger universities are huge!) on a smaller but enjoyable scale. The students had a day off from classes to go out and have fun (except us… we still had to go to Korean class, we enjoyed the festival in the afternoon though!). There were food booths, water balloons, a giant inflatable water slide, a haunted house at night, and AMAZING fireworks!!! It was a fun day for all of us and a good break from our regular afternoon schedules.

For those who are more curious, I also wrote a short article in the schools online blog/news regarding the program and my experiences: http://webzine.ggu.ac.kr/global-foreigner/articles/view/tableid/global-foreigner/id/154

EVERY SOME ANY AND NONE

모든 every 모든 것 everything 모든 사람 every person

~나 every 어디나 everywhere 언제나 every time 누구나 everybody

~ㄴ가 some 어딘가 somewhere 뭔가 something 언젠가 sometime 누군가 somebody

아무 any… 아무나 anyone 아무거나 anything 아무데나 anywhere 아무 때나 anytime

아무도 no… 아무도 nobody 아무것도 nothing 아무데도 nowhere

You are studying to save those patients.

You are studying to save that family’s mother from a lengthy jail sentence.

You are studying to teach us all.

You are studying to improve global communication.

You are studying to improve the environment.

You are studying so we learn from the past.

You are studying so technology progresses.

Who ever you are and whatever your goals are.

Your decision to study will change the world. 

BORN FREE

자유로운 네가 좋다

너희가 있는 그 곳이 낙원이야

The National Institute of Korean Language decreed that the Seoul “dialect" is how modern Korean should be spoken. Hence the Seoul accent is considered the standardised Korean dialect (표준어). Yet like any country, and with any language, you will come across many different dialects.

Gyeongsang: The people of the Gyeongsang Province, which includes cities like 부산, 대구, 마산, 포항, 경주 etc, speak 경상도 사투리, which is considered one of the harsher dialects.

There are quite a few notable differences between standardised Korean and the Gyeongsang dialect, but I will only list a few of significance. For example, 경상도 speakers are often unable to pronounce ㅆ when it appears at the beginning of a word, such as 쌀 (rice) and so it will often be pronounced 살.

Speakers of this dialect also miss the vowel sound for “ㅡ” which has a “eu” sound, and will instead replace it with “ㅓ” and pronounce it with an “oe” sound. This means words such as 음악 “music” will be pronounced like 엄악.

Gyeongsang dialect also has difficulty with compact vowels, such as ㅘ or ㅢ, which means that it is common for the first vowel of a compact vowel to be dropped. So words like 사과 “apple” is pronounced like 사가, and 의사 “doctor” is pronounced like 이사.

Chungcheong: Chungcheong is quite close to Seoul, so there are very few notable differences between Chungcheong and standardised Korean. The biggest difference between the two, is that people of Chungcheong have the tendency to speak really slowly. Alongside this, it is also very common for speakers to replace ㅗ with ㅜ, and ㅛ with ㅠ, especially with verb conjugations. For example, instead of saying 하세요, it might be very common to hear 하세유, or even the shortened form 하슈.

Gangwon: Gangwon is a large province, bisected by the high Taebaek mountain range, so historically, very few people lived in the area. The Western part of Gangwon has no physical barrier between itself and Seoul, so for the most part, no significant dialect was developed. However, on the Eastern coast, Gangwon did develop a few unique dialect differences. The most notable being a speaker’s tendency to use tones to distinguish the meaning of homo-phonic words. This dialect also has quite a few words that are very unusual.

Jeolla: Jeolla has its very own and very distinctive dialect. Jeolla’s dialect is also slower than Seoul’s, but much faster than Chungcheong speakers, and it also contains frequent ups and downs in sound. The most distinctive part of Jeolla is the vowel conjugations, since it is a very common characteristic to end sentences with 잉. Similarly, the ending ~요 is replaced with ~이라 or ~어라, and the vowel conjugation ~데 is changed to ~디 in this dialect.

It is also very common to add extra ㅅ and ㅂ in within certain words, like how the word 더워 (hot) is pronounced 덥어. It is also common for ㅏ and ㅓ to be pronounced as ㅐand ㅔ. For example, the word 마음 (mind) is pronounced as 매음.

Jeju: Jeju is the most geographically isolated population, so much so, Jeju speakers have such an unbelievably unique dialect that it is almost completely a separate language! Jeju dialect is still grammatically Korean, but with a very unrecognisable vocabulary. This is due to the island’s isolation and neighbouring influence. The dialect still maintains extremely old Korean words, whilst seeking inspiration from Japan, China, and even Mongolia. 

Vowel conjugation is also notably different. The basic honorific ~요 is replaced with ~ㅂ서, and instead of ~ㅂ니까, the honorific question is ~꽈.

Seoul, South Korea, 2016

Seoul, South Korea, 2016

Seoul, South Korea, 2016