Last Friday, I took my reading/listening and grammar mid-terms and yesterday I took my writing test. I can say with full confidence that I got 100% (or damn close) on all three of them, and I wasn’t the only one – from what my classmates told me, all of them are pretty sure they aced it, as well.

And how couldn’t they? The exams were ridiculously easy. Maybe it’s because we’re the most advanced level 1 class and to most of us, everything we covered in the first half of level 1 was nothing but a more in-depth repetition of stuff we’d already learned, but I think that the test should have been dead easy even for the slower and less advanced level 1 classes. Sogang really drills the few things you learn into your head and makes sure you don’t forget them. Lots of valuable teaching time is lost drilling the same words everybody already knows over and over again.

I can’t say I am too happy with this method. I hope that they start to spend more time on teaching and less on practicing and, most of all, start to teach more vocabulary.  I don’t think I learned many words at Sogang so far and I look with envious eyes at Yonsei students who complain about having to learn too many. Between the two extremes, I prefer too many rather than too few. Challenge wins over boredom.

Not to confuse anyone, I’m not going to quit on Sogang or transfer or anything yet. It’s far too early for that and the difficulty may very well increase in later levels. It’s just that I feel a little bit bored in the afternoons, but lack the motivation (most of the time) to do studying on my own. When I do study on my own, though, I find it most effective to watch Korean dramas reading the scripts and looking up all the words I don’t know. It’s a great supplement to Sogang because 5 minutes of drama gives me dozens of unknown words to study. I figure that whichever language program you choose you are going to have to make up for the areas it neglects in your free time.

In non-school related news, I am addicted to watching Legend, or Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi, a historical/fantasy Korean TV drama that feels like a mix between Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Final Fantasy.

I also have to finally let off something that’s long overdue – I have to praise my landlady for providing me with more food than I can eat in the mornings and evenings. Sometimes I seriously wonder how they are making any profit at all! They provide free internet (and I make damn good use of it, and download a lot) and in the mornings, the landlady, understanding I’m a Westerner with weird quirks, always offers to make me pancakes, toast, fried eggs or whatever else I want, and I even get fruit to bring back to my room as dessert. She also sometimes asks me what I’d like for dinner, and cooks it for me. Seriously, giving me two big meals a day plus free internet at 350,000 won a month seems like an incredibly good deal to me, especially considering all my classmates are paying close to 500,000 for the same or even slightly inferior services! This is all thanks to my boyfriend who managed to find this wonderful room for me. Thanks a lot!