Last days In Inha University, Korea

Korean Language Class

These photos were captured on the last class of our Korean Language in Inha University. I remembered how  I was impressed by our Korean teacher's flawless skin and slim figure. She was so gentle, friendly and cheerful all the time. Our class had more than twenty students from Malaysia, China, Iran and Uzbekistan but our teacher had no problem in explaining the class in Korean, Chinese and English.

Our teacher (or known as 선생님 seonsaengnim in Korean) made learning the new language interesting and fun. She planned games, gave prizes, taught us to sing songs, reminded me of learning languages when we were in kindergarten but undeniably, she made me looking forward to every class. She taught us to sing 'Three Little Bears', the popular children's song in 'FULL HOUSE' drama, and 'That Man/That Woman' from the drama The Secret Garden lol. And she taught us how to make Kimchi, visually.

Seonsaengnim divided us into five groups. We had to compete against one another to win. In the photo above, we were playing Bingo, the Korean language style to test whether we could speak numbers in Korean. I used to memorize all of them but now I totally forgot how to write and read them. Yaiks.

Korean ladies, naturally, are extremely conscious about how they look. Many of them are in their forties and fifties but still look gorgeous and flawless, not a single acne spot, no dark circle and no saggy skin. In fact that morning we just rushed back from Busan, arriving our hostel just one hour before the class, quickly took a shower, breakfast and rushed to the class. Busan was extremely hot and dry, the trip was hectic and it was quite a sleepless night. In conclusion, I looked swollen and terrible.

And I was lucky enough to be in the same class with some interesting people. (Below) (right) Yong Fang is a joker and (left) Zhang Miao is more girly and quiet. They are both from China. 

Since it was the last week of our summer program, the international office organized a fun event called cultural performance. It is not the traditional type of performance as the name literally suggests. It's open to all students to perform singing, dancing or whatever, as long as it's in Korean language. Some sang Korean love songs, children's song ('Three Little Bears' was the most popular), recited poems and coolest of all, K POP dance. The winning team from Indonesia danced to a medley of hot K POP songs and it was absolutely fantastic! Judging from their performance, I think they must had practiced for really long before this. Their professionalism blew us away! I recorded their whole performance as it was so cool lol.

And we had more important things to do... to capture moments instantly. That's me and adorable+cute but independent and smart Wen Li from UPM. 

I purchased that new specs from an optical shop in the campus. It's not an ordinary pair of specs you know! To me it's like sci-fi. From choosing frame, eye-checking, paying and getting the specs............... it takes me only ONE HOUR! Plus their service was so good. The optician, actually he is an uncle in his fifties, couldn't speak English well. He tried hard to communicate with me. During the eye-checking I was supposed to tell him which side was clearer. He asked me 'left left or right right?' 'up up or down down?'... 'this good? OK?' 'can can?' 'see good?'... all these little questions.

I don't know whether we are so advanced here in Malaysia, cuz normally it takes me three to four days to get my specs considering my power is so high.

 

This was the last meal we had in the campus, kinda like a farewell dinner after the cultural performance before all the foreigners leave on the next day. Basically it consists of Bibimbap (mixed vegetables and rice), croquette, tofu, kimchi, a clear-sour-cold- cucumber soup and a bottle of grape juice.

He is one of the few Korean men that I will miss-- the guard ahjussi of our dorm. We used to practise Korean with him, kept asking him 'How are you?' 'Have you eaten?' everyday. Oh I miss his shiny forehead.

And most important of all, the journey would not be memorable and complete without these girls. Naturally we flocked together as we are all Malaysians, plus we were all incredibly in sync! Before we left on the next day, we decided to have a good look at the campus and capture some memories together in front of the university's main building, the building we visited when we first stepped into the campus.

It was a really beautiful experience..