Passing the Beginner TOPIK

It felt like I had to wait FOREVER for the TOPIK scores to be posted.  However long I waited, it's ok because I PASSED!  I achieved my goal of making level 2!  Turns out I did a lot better than I thought I was going to do.  Walking out of the exam hall, I felt like bombed it.  Definitely glad that wasn't the case.  

Enough humble bragging.  What I really want to write about is how to pass the TOPIK.  

The best way is, most unhelpfully, however works best for you.  There are tons of books, study guides, and classes out there geared for preparing you for the TOPIK.  Your best bet is doing whatever you feel most comfortable with and whatever benefits you the most.  I can only offer my personal opinion and advice based on what was best for me.  

From this point on, I'm assuming that basic knowledge of the Korean language is something you already have.  If not, I suggest learning through   Teach Yourself Korean or Talk To Me In Korean.  Both help you learn Korean from the very beginning,

I used 3 main resources to prepare for the test.

1: TOPIK Guide.com

TOPIK Guide gives you a TON of information.  Info about the test itself, vocab lists, writing tips...it's all there.  Definitely something to check out.  What I found most useful were the writing tips and the vocab lists.  Everything is broken up by test level so it's easy to navigate.

2. Korean Grammar In Use

This book was a lifesaver.  It has all of the basic grammar points that you need to know for TOPIK levels 1 and 2.  The presentation is great and it includes examples, dialogues, exercises, and useful explanations.  While it's designed to be a compilation and review tool, it's layout can still help you learn things you have not yet been exposed to.  Note: In Korea you can get this book MUCH cheaper than the link I posted.  Try Kyobo Book or your local bookstore.

3. Practice!

The TOPIK website has a bank of previous tests that you can download and take.  I highly recommend taking as many as you can.  Don't do it casually tho.  Take the test all at once and in the time that you get for the real deal.  This will help you see at which points you get held up.  Don't stop to look anything up either.  Make a note of the question and then after you grade yourself, you will know what points you need to study more.  Also practice your writing.  Either get a Korean friend to grade your essays or use a website like italki or HaruKorean to practice.  Starting in July, the beginner level test doesn't have a writing portion, but the intermediate/advanced level has an increased writing portion.  Start practicing early so you'll feel more comfortable when the time comes.

As I said before, these are the things that worked for me.  Different people will find the methods and tools that work best for them.  That being said, I do believe that practice is the most useful tool for anyone.  Through practice you can find your confidence.  Once you have your confidence you will know when you are ready to take your test.  

The next TOPIK test is on April 19/20 depending on where you live.

Good luck!

Pill Identification

I recently found this very helpful.  Yesterday I went to the doctor to do something about my cold.  Normally if I'm not feeling like I'm on the verge of death, I let whatever it is that I have run its course.  A big exception, however, is when I have a cold.  Being a teacher, working with a stuffy nose and phlegmy cough is not so great.  I'd rather treat my symptoms than be miserable for a few days.

In Korea, the pharmacist puts your pills in little paper packets.  Instead of having a bottle of pill A and a bottle of pill B, the pharmacist puts one of each pill in the packet.  Each packet is your dose of all your meds.  This time it's a 3 a day regiment.  My after lunch pills have a check on the packet.  Easy, right?

One thing I always forget to do is look at my prescription and see what kind of meds i'm on.  Pretty dumb.  These pill packets get put in a big envelope that doesn't have the name of the medicine or any information other than the dosage schedule.  A great resource I found was the Korean Pill Identifier.  The first two blanks are for what is stamped on one side of the pill.  The middle is for the brand stamp.  The third section is for the shape of the pill, and the last is the color.  I usually just do the first and last sections.  Imprint and color.  You'll get a list of pills with pictures and you can just find what you have.

It helps to know a little bit of hangeul in order to read the name of the pill.  If not, don't worry.  The last column of the results is the drug name in English.  From there just search what the drug is/what it's for/side effects.

Double Up

Exciting news!  Maybe not real news, but it's new to me.  I just found out that I am eligible for dual citizenship!  I can be a citizen of both the United States and Korea.  Previously (before 2010? I'm not sure exactly when this happened.  I have to research the timeline more) dual citizenship wasn't an option for anyone.  There were and are visa options for ethnic Koreans that were adopted in America, foreign spouses of Korean nationals, and children with Korean and foreign parents.  Those options still exist, but now does the option of dual citizenship.

Previously, if an ethnic Korean or foreign spouse wanted Korean citizenship, they had to renounce their original citizenship.  Not something I'd be interested in doing.  Now, as part of the process, you have to take an oath saying that while in Korea, you give up your rights as a foreigner.  Basically, if you get in trouble with the law, you can't go to your embassy for help because you are being counted as Korean while in Korea.  While outside of Korea, you can be counted as a citizen of your home country again.

Dual citizenship has some perks.  As a foreign teacher here, these are not so relevant.  As a foreign spouse who is looking to do something other than teach, they are nicer.

• Taking out loans and owning property will be easier if you were a citizen.
• 2 passports(!) and the visa privileges that go with them.  Cheaper Chinese visas for Korean citizens as opposed to more expensive ones for US citizens.
• Getting to use the short immigration line at the airport(!!!)
• Other things made easier by not having the "foreigner" label attached to you.

There are some drawbacks, too.  While gaining the perks of being a Korean, you'd also lose some perks of being a foreigner.

• Some scholarships to study in Korea are only available to foreigners.  
• If you are in trouble, you can't go to your original country's embassy for help.
• Since you are not a foreigner, any children you have in Korea won't be eligible for an international school.

Then there's the big drawback if you're planning on being an English teacher:  All of the bonuses perks that you'd get for being a foreign teacher can go away.  Housing allowance: gone.  High salary: gone.  Re-signing bonus: gone.  NOTE: I'm not 100% sure of this, but it seems very possible that it could happen.  Most of it would depend on if you are working at a public school or an academy.  You might not even be eligible for some jobs because you are technically not a foreigner anymore.  

Dual citizenship sounds like a cool thing but it is more than just having two passports.  You get the rights of citizens in either country, but also have to bear the responsibilities.  In Korea's case there is a mandatory military service requirement for all able bodied male citizens.  Dual citizenship can complicate this for many people.  For my situation being a foreign spouse, I would not need to enter military service.  For a male with dual nationality who tries to renounce Korean citizenship in order to dodge military service, the rules are stricter.  Now, a male citizen who is trying to renounce his Korean citizenship after the age of 18 cannot unless he has fulfilled his duty.   

I think maybe in the future If we decide to stay in Korea long(er) term and I work somewhere other than a school, dual citizenship might be for me.  As for now, I have the benefits of the mighty F-6 spousal visa and am content with that.  I can even use a short line at the airport, just not the citizens line.  Visas like the spousal visa, long term resident visa, and ethnic Korean adopted to another country visa give many of the conveniences but not as many of the responsibilities of being a full fledged citizen.  They are a happy medium.

Movie Monday

I haven't seen too many Korean movies but what I have seen, I've liked.  Hopefully with movies like Snowpiercer and Stoker that feature Korean directors, they will become more widely known.  This past weekend I saw 숨바꼭질 (soom ba gok jil).  Hide and Seek in English.  Sidenote: I watched it without subtitles.  I got the general gist of the movie but Victoria had to fill me in on some of the dialogue.

Image: Asianwiki

Hide and seek is one of those movies that you watch and think "holy shit, that could totally happen to me."  Have you ever felt like there was someone in your house when you know there wasn't?  Have you ever felt like you were being watched?  If so, this movie will give you chills.  

Hide and Seek follows the story of Sung-Soo, a cafe owner who investigates the disappearance of his estranged older brother.  His investigation leads him to discover a code written by the doors of the apartments in his brother's building.  Sung-Soo discovers the meaning of the code, only to find it written on his own door.  

I couldn't find out how to insert the trailer directly onto the page, and youtube doesn't have a version with
English subs.  Check here and scroll down the page and click on the English subtitled version.  

Happy watching!

More Festivals??

If there is one thing Korea doesn't lack, it's festivals.  Festivals for food, festivals for holidays, festivals for.... pretty much anything.  Most regions and cities are famous for at least one thing, usually food.  Whenever that food is in season, there is a festival.  There are other non-food festivals though, like the Mud Festival, the Reed Festival, and the Turtle Ship Festival.  This past weekend, we went to the Suncheon Light Festival.

The Light Festival is pretty small compared to festivals, but it was still a pretty cool experience.  I'm not sure if it's an annual thing or not.  This was the first year I've ever heard of it.  Basically take a small park and put ALL of the LED lights in it.  Light up the trees, light up the water, lights for daaaaays.

While there wasn't much to do outside of walking through the park, it was still a decent way to spend a fall night.  It's nice to know that if you're feeling bored, there is usually something going on that is worth taking a look at.

SHRIMPAPALOOZA

Mmmmmm shrimp.  What's better than regular shrimp?  JUMBO SHRIMP!  And what could be better than just jumbo shrimp?  A JUMBO SHRIMP FESTIVAL!  Fall is shrimp season in Korea and to celebrate, a couple of cities throw jumbo shrimp festivals (대하 축제).  Food-centric festivals in Korea are always a good time.  There are restaurants and stalls selling the spotlight food, as well as drink booths, games, and activities relating to said food.  At the jumbo shrimp festival in Hongseong, there was even a shrimp catching contest.  We got there too late for that tho.  Because of the trains and buses we had to take, our journey from Yeosu ended up taking almost six hours.  In the end it was worth it, tho.

Along the street were a ton of restaurants all selling daeha (jumbo shrimp).  Most of the menus were the same.  You order by the kilo or you order a set that came with grilled shrimp, fried shrimp, and either steamed crab or crab soup.  At our restaurant we ordered a kilo of shrimp (대하구이) and a two person serving of crab soup (꽃게탕).  The owner gave us some fried shrimp (대하튀김) for free!  Score!

Delicious gut-busting shrimp.

For two people, this was a lot of food.  It took us about two and a half hours to get through all of it.  two and a half delicious hours.  I think the festival would have been more enjoyable if we hadn't gotten there so late, but with how far Hongseong is from Yeosu, there wasn't much we could do.  Before we went back to Yeosu, we ordered a couple of kilos of daeha to be delivered to our house.  When they arrived, we had a bbq down by the waterfront with some friends.  Because really, there is no such thing as too much jumbo shrimp.  Add a little lemon butter, and oh boy.  My mouth is watering just from typing this.

Shrimp AND samgyeopsal?  Getting crazy here.

We had our bbq at Ocean Park.  The weather was perfect and the bridges were in all their light-up glory.  Even the passing boats were decked out in color changing LED because, well, Korea.

Dolsan Bridge 1, Dolsan Bridge 2, and a Turtle Ship harbor cruise

Festival Info

Hongseong Jumbo Shrimp Festival

Period: September 13th-November 26th 2013

Location: Hongseong Namdang Harbor

Travel Info: Take a train to Gwangcheon (광천) instead of Hongseong.  You'll be closer to the festival grounds.  From there, take a bus to the grounds at Namdang-ri (남당-리).  You'll know when you're there.

Website: Hongseong Jumbo Shrimp Festival

Anmyeon-do Jumbo Shrimp Festival

Period:  September 27th-October 27th 2013

Location: Anmyeon-do Baeksajang Port

Travel Info: Take a bus to Taean (태안) and then a bus to Anmyeon-do (안면도)

The Anmyeon-do festival seems to be the bigger of the two.

5 day weekend!

Last week the moon did everyone a solid and was full on Thursday the 19th.  So what?  Full moon, big deal, right?  Right.  Korean Thanksgiving, or Chuseok, follows the lunar calendar.  Last week's full moon was the harvest moon and in Korea, that is Chuseok.  The holiday, focusing heavily on seeing family and honoring ancestors, requires people to go back to their hometowns and prepare a big feast with their families.  Because of that, the holiday is actually 3 days long.  The actual full moon (August 15th on the lunar calendar) and the day before and after.  This year, Chuseok fell on a Wednesday-Friday.  Can't get much better than that.  5 day weekend!  Sometimes it falls on a Friday-Sunday and isn't so great.  

But this year was awesome.  With how busy the actual holiday was, it was nice to have the weekend to relax before school started again.  It was also nice to have time to digest.  There was so much eating involved.

My rough Chuseok outline was like this:

Wednesday: Go to the traditional market and buy all the ingredients/requirements for the Chuseok food.  I'm not clear on the rules, but I think it's something along the lines of "something from the mountains, from the ocean...etc."  The rest of the day was spent cooking and at night we took a loooooong walk through Soho-dong.  It was reminiscent of the Narragansett Sea Wall.  

Hello, Thursday morning.

Thursday:  We woke up early.  Really early.  6:30 early.  So early that the sun hadn't even cleared the mountains yet.  See picture above.  By the time we had actually gotten out of bed and put decent clothes on, Victoria's dad had already set out all the food.  We did the memorial ceremony "Jesa", ate, and took a nap.  An 8am nap.  When you eat that much food and drink makkoli that early, you DEFINITELY need your 8am nap.  Later on we visited the columbarium.  5 points if you didn't have to look that one up.  That night, the rest of Victoria's family came over and we ate and drank like it was going out of style.  

The Jesa feast

Friday: We're just going to write Friday off.  It was a recovery day.  

Luckily we had another two days to relax before the week started.  Chuseok is a great holiday to meet family, but it is pretty exhausting.  Though I do miss the times when I could go party in Seoul or take a trip somewhere during the holiday, it has become just as fun to spend some quality time with the family.  It makes me really want to go back stateside for a Christmas or Thanksgiving.