Amanda Takes Off...

I am eating 진라면 순한맛 way too much lately. I am almost, but not quite, ashamed to admit that it's been dinner most nights in the last week. What can I say? Less than 70 cents for a huge packet, it cooks in about 7 mins total, it fits perfectly in my big bowl, and it's vegetarian, though I didn't even know it. And I'm getting really good at slurping noodles with chopsticks. I might give "hot" a spin instead of "mild" next time I buy my five-pack of noodles.

Master says:
태권도 열심히 하고 한국어 공부도 열심히

In English:
Study taekwondo and Korean hard.

(Actually, it's more like "study zealously," which I like the sound of better, but we'd say "study hard" in English.)

Will do. Am doing. Sometimes at the same time.

A few days ago GW from Blue Wave Taekwondo School asked if they were still calling what I call a jumping double roundhouse kick a "dubal chagi." I asked Sabumnim tonight and she said dubal dollyeochagi can be two kicks with the same leg or two kicks with alternating legs, but you put your foot back down on the mat between kicks. She said that narae chagi is the jumping double that I'm thinking about, where you alternate feet before landing.

When I got to the studio tonight, I sat down next to Sabumnim. I asked how her weekend was and HR said, "Oh, Amanda! Kukkiwon?" I had no idea if he was speaking Korean or asking about cookies. I said, "Kukkiwon?" He said, "Nay, nay, il dan?"

I looked at Sabumnim. "What did you tell them?"

She had told them that I was only there for a month and that I was testing for my first degree black belt next month. I sort of froze. Since Kwanjangnim hadn't told them when he introduced me, I figured he hadn't wanted them to know. She said, "They didn't know."

I said, "I guess Kwanjangnim didn't tell them I was here temporarily?" She sort of froze too.

In any case, I said in Korean, "February 22nd I am taking the black belt test." She explained that it wasn't in Seoul, it was elsewhere. She said to me, "They say it's a long way to travel."

I didn't know what to say. In Korean, while pointing to my heart (where Koreans both feel and think) I said, "Tongil studio, Kwanjangnim, black belt...my little brothers." Luckily TempMaster called us to line up before I got asked any more questions.

The rest of class was fine. HR mouthed off to TempMaster and he basically took it. I guess that's just his style.

Michael and I haven't studied Korean together since November. I've done two lessons on my own (not enough, I know) and will be looking at the next lesson in hopes of moving things along. I finally realized that since we only meet once a week I've really got to study beforehand and use most of our lessons for going over pronunciation and grammar rather than vocabulary. (Of course, if I memorize vocabulary pronunciation incorrectly that's not good, but when I was going to my old studio, I'd ask someone to read every word for me once, and I am getting used to the shifting sounds.)

I've started reading the lessons through once, then making flashcards of all the vocab words, which I study for a few days before looking at the lesson again. If I already know a word, I still write it down. I do this for five reasons. First, a lot of the words I know I've never seen written. Second, some of the words I know in a conjugated form but not in an infinitive form (I knew 아파요 but had no idea its basic form was 아프다). Third, a lot of words that I know have multiple meanings that I don't know (일 meaning one, day, and work, for example). Fourth, Michael told me that the diplomat course at Sogang has them memorizing about 50 words a day, which are then recycled over time. I do occasionally go over my older words, but why not throw them in there? If it works for the diplomats... Fifth, it's a motivation trick; I feel like I can actually master the vocabulary if by the second time through I've gotten rid of at least 10% of the cards, which makes me practice more. The words I know may only be in the daily rotation for a day or two before moving to another pile, but it's not going to kill me.

When we do meet again (hopefully this weekend), I hope he's shocked at how much vocab I've learned since mid-November. He'll probably also laugh at some of it. 메주먹 (first and third pictures)!

This weekend I made my new vocab cards. I knew 20% of the words (yes, I did the math) from taekwondo. And these weren't body part words. They were things like "week," "to end," "to prepare," "that's not so bad/no problem." Knowing 20% of the words in one lesson due to taekwondo seems like a pretty good return for just being in class and asking questions. At least I know those words will pop up again in my life. Who knows what it would be like if I looked at more than one lesson, but last week I knew all of the numbers and days of the week mostly because of taekwondo.

For our next lesson, I'm also going to bring a copy of the long Cyworld message I left Master, asking Michael to look at with me.

And I'm going to bring a Chinese take out menu from a local place and learn how to order food over the phone.

Hmm, we'll have a lot to do...

I learned a new word today. It's one of those repeating words. 뒤뚱뒤뚱걷다 (twittungtwittungkeodda) is the way a goose walks—think "waddling."