Korean Winter Classes

Another terribly delayed post, but perhaps not quite so for those who are enrolling for Fall 2014 and staying over the Winter break! You lucky people!!

Don't have a picture of the class, but here's a picture I took of the main building at the main gate of KU one day
during a snowstorm after class!

During January in the Winter breaks (and Summer breaks) Korea University offers Winter (and Summer) Korean classes for foreign students. As mentioned in previous posts, I took the Winter classes in January 2014, despite having no intentions of taking it until the day before (laughs).
Normally, people should register during the last few weeks of the semester. However, people who made their decisions late (like me) could still apply for it provided that they turn up to the 'placement tests' and sign a sheet of paper at the One Stop Global Center.

The placement test was done on Thursday 2nd January. It wasn't really a test. at least for us level 1 people, more like walking in, attempting to understand and answer the prof's questions. Claiming that you took semester 1's Korean classes, and then they'll tell you that you're in.
If you are planning to take the Winter classes but didn't attend the previous semester's Korean class, the prof's might attempt to discourage you from taking the Winter classes. Despite the email stating that all levels of speakers are allowed to take the classes, it turns out the Winter classes are mainly for those who wished to carry on learning the remaining chapters from the textbook.Only that in reality you still don't actually get to go through all the chapters in the textbook.
I believe there were around 5 or 6 chapters that we had yet to cover in that book.

So the assessment goes as follows:

• Exam: 40%
• Quiz: 10%
• Task: 20%
• Activities in class: 20%
• Attendence: 10%

Miss 4 classes and you instantly fail.
Fail and you have to pay up 200,000₩ (ouch).

Classes started from 6th January till 29th, Mon-Thurs from 2-5pm. So 3 hours per day, 4 times a week.
Not so bad when you don't have much planned for the holiday break.

In comparison to the regular Korean classes offered in during the school semester, the Winter classes were definitely more intense.
5 chapters were covered during the month. Based on the level 1 book we studied the following chapters: weekend activities, hobbies, transportation, family, and pharmacy. So it's no suprise that the classes were fast paced since we had a lot of stuff to cover within a month. We were essentially cramming 2 months worth of Korean into 1 month.

The speaking test (which I'm assuming was the task) was based on forming a small group of 3 or 4. Present the class a dialogue in which the group members converse about where they went and what they did, or a dialogue in which they are making plans to go somewhere.
It was important to include a place in your dialogue, how to get there, what mode(s) of transportation to use, how long it took to arrive, and what activities to do/were done in that place.

The quiz was similar to a midterm, and the final exam was a tad harder but still doable - well at least for me. Still the same format: multiple choice, short sentence answer, and final task which asks you to come up with 5 sentences in relation to a topic.

At the end of the Winter classes we never got our results back. Despite not knowing how well I did, at least I didn't get an email saying I needed to pay 200,000₩ in the end. So I guess knowing that I passed is better than nothing..? 
Though, I'm still kind of bummed about it. Maybe it's the Asian genes.

Unfortunately, I will not be taking the Korean Summer classes that's happening in July since I will be leaving this beautiful land on 11th August! I need more time to travel and take in all of Korea's Summer beauty!