숲속의 호수 | Korean Camp

The last two weeks, I went to Concordia Language Villages’ Korean Camp, Sup Sogŭi Hosu (숲속의 호수), in order to learn a bit more Korean before I leave. It was definitely very helpful to getting a strong start on learning the language. It also allowed me to try out some cultural things, such as Samulnori and Korean Sign Language. At the camp, I went by the Korean name 가을 (Pronounced “Kah-ule”) which means Fall.

Learning some Korean Sign Language during an evening program.

When I was at the German camp it always seemed as if the two-week campers did basically nothing, but I found myself working hard through the entire experience. During the classroom times, my teacher, 민욱이형, taught us the question words for Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How (누구, 뭐, 언제, 어디, 왜, and 어떻게 respectively) and how they are used and answered. He also taught us how to put dictionary form verbs into the present, future, and past tenses along with many more things such as directions, counting, and vocabulary.

The Activity Group that I chose to do for the two weeks was the calligraphy class, which was a lot of fun. We started off with painting the letters, which I started on fairly badly but finished with some fairly good work. I really did great when we moved on to painting pictures and got a reputation for painting amazing trees. Unfortunately, my teacher for the class, 세진이형, didn’t give back my finished pieces. He told me that he would give them back if I came to visit him while in Korea, which I am planning on with the amazing artwork that he showed me from his work as an illustrator.

One of the paintings I made

Overall, I enjoyed my time at camp. I feel that it really prepared me for hearing only Korean along with teaching me some of the vocabulary required to survive upon arrival. Above all, I felt that it allowed me to find a few Koreans that will be inside the country while I’m there. Hopefully I’ll be able to arrange visiting them later on in my exchange. Being at the camp also made me think about working there once I come back, so I’ll definitely have to work hard on learn the language.

While I was gone, my brother, Davy started moving into his own house. Since I’ve been back from camp, my family has been putting me to work with painting and such to get the place ready so that he can move out in time for the arrival of my family’s exchange student from Germany, Luca. He arrives on the 16th of August, just a week before I head out. His English seems very good, which is helpful for my parents because I am the only one in my family who knows any German.

Also, today I got a package from FedEx that had my passport and my plane tickets. I leave at 6:00 AM on August 23rd, the day after my birthday, from my county airport to fly to Chicago. There, I meet up with the other students going to Korea to take the long flight to Incheon International Airport where I’ll meet with the Rotary people from the Seocheon Rotary Club on August 24th. This means that I have only two more weeks before I leave.

기멈수 (Kim  Bum-Soo) – 나타나 (Appear)

This is one of the songs from the Korean television show “Secret Garden”. We watched a few episodes of this show at Sup Sogŭi Hosu.