It's been a week.

What am I doing outside of class & workshops?

1) K-pop dance class.

•  K-pop is a modern form of South Korean pop music covering mostly dance-pop, pop ballad, electronic, rock, hip-hop. 
• We learned the dance to a new song called "Overdose." It's from a relatively new K-pop boy band called EXO. If you'd like to compare the Fulbrighters with the band, click on the original video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI0DGvqKZTI. But, if you're morally against tight, poppy dance and a good beat, just check out the picture below to get a sense for what a typical K-pop boy group looks like.
  

For all you family members out there

When my friends asked me if I had siblings, I showed them this picture. I should probably have brought a more recent picture because they thought my 'little brother' was so cute.

 

Where did the country name 'Korea' come from? 

The country name 'Korea' came from the name of the Goryeo dynasty (Goryeo/Korea - pretty close). But! Remember that Koreans don't call their country "Korea." They call it 한국 (pronounced 'han-guk,' which clearly sounds nothing like the name 'Korea'). So why does the western world call the country 'Korea' if that's not what they call themselves? Basically, an explorer from the western world traveled to the Korean peninsula during the Goryeo dynasty period. Provided that the country changed its name according to the dynasty in power, they were then identified as 'Goryeo.' This explorer simply bastardized it a bit and wrote it as Korea. So that's why we call it Korea! Ta da.

 

 

Then where did the country name Hangkuk originate from?

 

The short answer is that it comes from the Samhan, the proto-Three Kingdoms of Korea (1st century BC-1CE). Sam (三) is a Sino-Korean word (word that worked its way into Korean from a word that was original Chinese) meaning "three." This referred to the Three Kingdoms. Han is a Korean word meaning "great (one)" (speculated by some to be cognate with "khan" used in inner Asia for leaders). So, that explains how they got the 'han' part. The 'guk' part is a morpheme that means "country." So, America is called 미국 (pronounced 'me-guk'). This literally means "beautiful country." How sweet, right?!

The Silla kingdom was lead by a woman. Girl power! She was Korea's first regent leader. And a hard-core Buddhist.

Korea beat Gutenberg's 1450 creation of the printing press by 78 years. In 1377, the oldest extant movable metal print book was created and used to print the Jikjii (the abbreviated title of a Korean Buddhist document, whose title can be translated "Anthology of Great Buddhist Priests' Zen Teachings.

  

Last names in Korea

 

Looking at the circle pie chart below, you can see that half  of the Korean people bear some variation of the family names Kim, Lee, Park, or Choi.
 

  Kim, Gim, Ghim

  Lee, Yi, Rhee, Yie

  Park, Pak, Bahk

  Choi, Choe

  Jung, Jeong, Chung, Cheong

Married men and women usually keep their full personal names, and children inherit the father's family name.

There is no middle name in the Western sense. Given Korean names typically consist of 1-2 syllables, tending towards 2 syllables. The family name is usually 1 syllable. So, full Korean names generally have 3 syllables.

Many Koreans have their names made of 1) the family surname, 2) a generational name syllable (each member of that generation like siblings and cousins share that syllable in their name - although this practice is declining in the younger generations - it was originally a Chinese practice) and 3) a given name. So, a typical Korean name might look like this: 박 지연 (park jee yawn) [surname - generational name - given name].

 

 

Where's the shower?

In Korea, the shower doesn't have a specific location within the bathroom like it does in the U.S. Instead of taking a shower in the bathroom, you kind of take it...all over the bathroom. There's no separation of floor space or walls to designate the shower space. Pretty fun. You use the silver, movable shower head and it's that simple. So, on your next trip to Korea, don't be the foreigner who asks, "Where is the shower?"

 

Konglish
Yes, 'Konglish' refers to a mashed up Korean-English speak. You'll get used to seeing this title header, as this section of my blog might have to be my favorite one. Within this section, I'll include pictures of signs, book covers, t-shirts with phrases...etc that are in English but with some mis-translations. To begin, we have our first installment of the Konglish section. They will only get better from here. Enjoy! 

 

 

Seeing the light of day

The dorms, the cafeteria, the ETA lounge, the gym, the convenience stores, and classes are all in the same building. So, really, life at Jungwon University is sustainable from within. Pretty odd coming from Penn State, but SUPER convenient. Just gotta take the initiative if you want to see the sun. I actually starting a yoga class here within the Fulbright group, so we're going to try to meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning from 6:30-7:30am. I just put up a teacher sign-up sheet in the lounge, but I'm teaching the first class tomorrow. Wish me luck! 

What's on the menu at Jungwon University?

Below, I've put a picture of a breakfast, a lunch, and a dinner. Try to guess which is which. The Pictures go in order from 1 - 3 starting at the top. Post your guess at the bottom of the blog! Sorry some of the pictures are sideways! I'm still a blogging newbie.

 

Korean Language class

I have two teachers who each teach for 2 hours each day M-F. Their names are 박 지 연 (jee-yawn park) and 이동규 (Dong-kyu Lee).  
 

Teacher Park was throwing jokes at me when she learned I studied at Yonsei University. She went to Korea University, and the two schools are intense rivals. The top three schools in Korea are called S.K.Y. = Seoul University, Korea University, Yonsei University.

 

My classes are conducted in all Korean (with only a few isolated English words interspersed).

I understand 85 - 90% of what's said in class.

The Coffeshop on the Hill

So, when you walk into a Starbucks in the U.S., do you pay before or after you consume the coffee? Before, right? Well, at this coffeeshop (not necessarily all of Korea), you pay after. So, my friend and I go to order coffees, and we sit down to chat. When the woman working brought us our coffees, we asked her if they sold pastries or snacks. She told us unfortunately they don't. A couple minutes later, she came up with a tray of cookies she must have had from her own stash. We thought that was so sweet, so we wanted to show her our gratitude. So, we wrote her a little thank you note. (Note: this woman also lent me an umbrella when it was raining one day). We realize it's almost time for our next seminar, so we head out and COMPLETELY FORGET TO PAY. We ran back in after a few minutes and I explained the misunderstanding. She said 'it's okay,' but her eyes weren't quite as forgiving. Ahhhhhh  #cultural ambassador faillllll number 1.

* Exciting follow-up: So, I just returned to the Coffeeshop on the Hill and ended up giving the owner my email. She emailed me the following message: 

Here are some pictures of the coffeeshop itself.

 

This is the view of Goesan town from the Hilltop Cafe. Note the Korean heart sign we're making with our arms.

Some more views of Jungwon campus

 

The Fulbright ETA lounge

 

This is where we all gather to play ping pong, pool, study, watch TV, chat, and hang out. We have little envelope mailboxes on the wall that we use to write messages to each other. It's really formed a great sense of community. #ETAlove

 

Hayley's first full Korean sentence!Kodak moment.