Practicing my Korean

안녕하십니다.

저는 채크리 입니다.

저는 25생이 입니다.

저는 선생 학생 부인입니다.

남편이 한국 사람 습니다.

매월 요일에 수요일에 금요일에, 저는 학원에 갑니다.

학원에서 영어를 가르칩니다.

매 토요일에 학원에 갑니다.

학원에서 한국말 공부합니다.

hahaha! My first e-mail to my Korean teacher. Let's see what my grade is. :)

My First Opera in Korea...or Anywhere for that matter!

We knew that there were going to be a lot of people at the theater because of the crowded subway. As soon as we exited the station we just followed the long line of people headed for only one place: Sumi Jo's concert.


As usual, I knew nothing about this lady. My husband was astounded and patiently informed me that Sumi Jo happened to be one of the most famous opera singers in the world. The following day I did some research and wikipedia says this about her: "Sumi Jo is a Grammy award winning South Korean lyric coloratura soprano known for her interpretations of the bel canto repertoire." I read on and felt like such a dumb ass for thinking that Kim Yona (the world's figure skating champ) was Korea's most famous superstar. I wouldn't be surprised if they had some more that I, the ignorant, just didn't know of.

Anyway, back to the program. We finally reached the concert hall and BOOOOY was it packed. The seats in the middle are (I'm just guessing) those who 1. paid quite a lot of money for their seats 2. VIP's and 3. sponsors (although maybe I should count those sponsors as VIP's as well.) The group of seats directly after the seats in the middle are the seats for people like my husband and myself, who only got the tickets for free (from Youngbae's friend, Seungbum, who got the tickets because he's a VIP at Hyundai Department Store, the show's main sponsor) as well. Sadly though, the best seats were already taken and we simply retired ourselves to the seats at the side of the stadium. It was really hard to see the stage, something I discovered after several failed attempts at seeing at least the face of the conductor using our camera's zoom-in function.Often frustration would take over and during those seconds when the futility of my actions were dancing in front of my eyes I'd just aim the camera at the huge tarpaulin on the left side of the stage where videos or pictures would be shown---sometimes of the singers, sometimes of the orchestra, at other times of videos shown to accompany the music.

I've attached some videos here for you to see. Sumi Jo is really amazing, so I hope you guys enjoy. :D


Here's a video of the opening that the orchestra did for the concert:

Below is a video of one of Sumi Jo's performances. Pardon the clarity (or the lack of it), but listen to the voice. Forget watching. All you need to do is hear that voice!

I LOVE THIS GUY. It's when I listened to him that I KNEW I was listening to an OPERA. Amazing! He brings pictures of fat women singing to mind, but it's not a bad image! It's just that little Miss Ignorant doesn't know much, except stories of how those large women are some of the best opera singers before! :0 Enjoy!

My second to the last video, because I think I've posted one too many videos already. This video is of Miss Sumi Jo singing the "Ave Maria :-)

This last video is of Sumi Jo singing "Champions", the song she sang for the World Cup in Seoul in 2002. :-) It's not very clear, but still I hope you enjoy. :D

The night ended with me and Youngbae crossing the street to get something to eat then heading home for our needed sleep. The next day was going to be another adventure, after all. :-)

The i-touch is such a blessing

Ever since I discovered that the OS of my i-touch could actually be converted into English (it was originally in Korean) I've discovered why people have been crazy about it. I used to see it as just a higher version of an i-pod, its main use as an audio book or as a music player that you can easily carry around. Yet now I've discovered its many, beauuuutifuuuul! uses, and I'm currently using it to read through books, learn Korean faster, and surf the internet whenever I'm bored.

It's a gift from God. I love it! :-D

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

A Sad Truth (of a Non-native English Teacher in Korea)

It was December last year when my father-in-law took my husband and I to a school outside Seoul. Darkness was overpowered by the bright lights outside and made everything feel so surreal.

So even after my interview with the principal, everything felt surreal, unreal, like a dream that had just begun. I didn't want a job at the time; the job just came to my doorstep, and my husband was more excited than I was at the offer of his father's friend. I was thinking of studying Korean more at the time, actually, but how could anyone also reject such an immediate opportunity to fulfill one's dream? "A teaching job!" My husband had said, the words lighting his eyes up. "a job with no stress and you'll only have to work for half a day. Isn't that great?"

Of course it was. I had a month later begun to feel the loneliness being a wife in a country whose language she couldn't speak could feel, and the teaching job was a way to get to talk to other people within the same country. I developed friendships and discovered new things, and teaching here, albeit much harder than teaching in China, is still a good experience.

Sadly though, the goodness of this experience is slowly disappearing. This past month children from the school that I'm working in are slowly starting to drop out not because they feel that the quality of the education has been compromised, but rather because they feel that their teacher has an accent that they would not like to copy. My principal tells these people of my qualifications---a TESOL certificate, a graduate from a prestigious university, experience teaching abroad... qualities that my principal had felt would surpass the qualifications the other native speakers who had applied for the same job had. Yet her theories do not seem to be shared by the other parents, and one by one students are dropping out like flies.

I'm happy to have been given this chance to work in this company, as demanding as the job is most of the time. So I pray that this gets better, not just for the sake of pursuing this dream but also for my company's sake.

An Hour to finish Vocabulary Words

Why is it taking me an hour to finish 15 vocabulary words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Arrrr haha arrr!!!!!!!!

When Procrastination Beats You

It is 5:43 AM. I woke up at 5AM today telling myself that I would be getting some job done, finally, because I need to. I promised myself I would, and yet to this very second I am doing what I always do---procrastinate.

In a previous life I interviewed a man who explained to me what true laziness is. Laziness comes in different forms, and procrastination is another form of it. If there were ten things on your list but you choose to do the one that you like best instead of the one that needs urgent attention, then you are lazy. To claim otherwise is to defend your laziness; a lazy person is a lazy person, unless of course the person in question is able to overcome this.

Sadly though, I still have been unable to overcome this laziness. It's not due to lack of interest in the subject, but rather due to the numerous tasks that I have to do every time I teach my classes. I've never taught in a school wherein there are at least 3 tasks to do per class per day. I want to say that it's stressful, but like my husband says, it's just a time management problem.

Argh, back to work. Somebody give me an adventure again.

A Scary Adventure in Garden Five, Seoul

Minutes before the clock struck eight PM, my husband and I left the house to head over to Garden Five, a mall that was opened late April last year and which is famous for its CGV Movie theater. Rumor had it that that this 10-storey mall is practically empty, its main and only feature its movie theater. I didn't know about this until my husband told me about it in the car.

We parked the car (the parking was free!) and headed up to the 10th floor. The theater lobby was amazing! It was so wide that a group of kids could play soccer in it. There was a cafe at one end of the theater lobby (Twosome Place, I believe. That cafe is quite famous around here) and there were quite a lot of people hanging out there, just smiling and laughing amongst friends.

I asked my husband what else there was to see in that mall. He led me to the elevator and we went to the ground floor. We saw through the elevator glass the lights from the top of the garden (refer to the picture on the right) and I was absolutely amazed. I was almost certain that this place couldn't be as empty as Youngbae said it was. The location was good, the place was astounding and the sights were marvelous!

So naturally, I wanted to look around. I was never the type of person who would just wait 30 minutes sitting in a cafe for a movie to start---especially if I were seeing the mall for the first time! So I asked my husband to prove to me that this mall was really as empty as he claimed it to be. He groaned and eventually reluctantly agreed. Fortunately, there was no one else in the elevator with us, so I could go to every floor and see for myself whether or not the mall was as empty as my husband said it was.

Lo and behold! It really was! I had never seen such a beautiful and yet empty mall in my life. At this hour, malls that were as gorgeous as this one are usually filled with people all rushing to buy products before closing time. Here, on the other hand, the mall was practically empty save for a handful of shops on the 9th floor, and some others on the other floors which I can't really recall.

The reason though why I vividly remember the 9th floor is because we actually got stuck on that floor. After visiting floors one to eight and finding out that most of those floors had no shops on them (some had, but barely) I was excited to find lights and some shops on the 9th floor. I quickly exited the elevator and rushed to the floor grounds to survey the few existing shops. They had no customers at all, some didn't even have anyone guarding the store. It was as if the stores were just there for the sake of being there.

We were stuck. We went from one elevator to another (that place had a lot of elevators) and none of them worked. We were getting desperate because the movie was about to start and looked for a staircase we could take, but none were open (I have never seen a place without a staircase. They have, but only staff were allowed to enter.) We went to the 8th floor and had the same problem. We didn't know what in the world was wrong with the elevators.

We approached the only restaurant on that floor (and in that building, I believe) and asked for some help. A female waitress in the restaurant pointed us to some elevators that she assumed was working, but also to no avail. In the end, my husband and I had to take the cargo elevator and head to the ground floor, then from there ride a working elevator to the 10th floor. (The cargo elevator only reached the 9th floor.)

My husband and I were absolutely frustrated! But luckily the movie we had watched, Shutter Island, was really good. If you have a chance to watch it, you ought to do so. Leonardo di Caprio's performance was absolutely excellent. The story as well was amazing. It was thanks to that movie that our mood lightened (a lot) and, even though the cargo elevator was really scary (it's the type of elevator you'd expect a madman with a knife to be waiting for you when the doors finally opened) at least we had an adventure we'd like to never happen again.

But before I end this story, let me tell you why this mall is such. According to my sources this mall was originally built for those street peddlers stationed near that area. The street peddlers were asked to leave the streets (due to construction and restoration of a nearby lake) and wait until a mall they could move into was finally erected. Garden Five was therefore created for those street peddlers and those local businessmen who would like to purchase some space there.

This plan backfired though when the government asked the street vendors to rent a space, because the cost was too high. The street peddlers were furious and I could imagine them screaming, "we're street peddlers because we don't have a cent! Our livelihoods are based on what we sell every day!"

Local businesses didn't seem to find this place interesting, as well, even though the location was absolutely good. The only venue that this place can really boast about other than its sights is its CGV Theater, which was really good. The movie was jam-packed and I think that this business is doing very well.

It's really a waste of good space, though, so if my sources are right then maybe the government should rethink its strategy. Otherwise this place will forever be just another waste of beautiful space.

Korean foods

Several weeks ago my boss (I'm a teacher) asked us to help the kids with their opening class. Their opening class was supposed to be a debate on which the better food is: Korean food or Western food. Of course, the Korean group had much more information and they could have won hands down, but my team (the Western group) had the fight in them and seemed to be on attack mode whenever we had a mock debate even though there was nothing to attack, really.

That debate though was later on canceled because a grueling month the kids were still more focused on attacking rather than promoting their cause. Still, after reading all of their research and constantly editing their works, I felt that maybe I could put their research into good use.

So here I am, about to talk about Korean foods first, then Western foods on another day. My name is Jackie Chua-Park, a foreigner residing in Seoul, and I'd like to show you why Korean foods are just as good---if not better, you be the judge--- than Western dishes.

Korean dishes are mainly known for their spiciness, their most famous dish being the world-known kimchi. The birth of this spicy dish traces back to ancient times, when people wanted to preserve their vegetables in order to have vegetables during the winter. The ancient Koreans uprooted their vegetables during the summer, mixed them with several spices depending on what kind of kimchi they planned to make and compressed them into a huge jar that they would later on bury underground until it was finally needed for consumption. People nowadays seldom do this procedure though, thanks to air-tight containers that can be left in "kimchi refrigerators" until a month later or two later, when the kimchi is considered "fermented" and ready to eat.

This kimchi is famous worldwide not only because of its exotic taste (the one in the picture is sweet, salty, sour---a combination of tastes that will delight any exotic-loving person) but also because of its health benefits. As many individuals have most likely noticed, Korean women aren't that big. To be honest, most of the women around me are either slim or sexy. To suggest that everyone in this country is on a diet is insane, so here's why I think they're this way: it's because of their food.

Spiciness, as I've discovered here, isn't a bad thing, since the spiciness of Korean foods actually helps digestion and diet, and I hear that it also prevents cancer as well. The problem though is that while th


1.

Married Life, So Far

My name is Jaclyn Chua, turning 25 this 7th of April, and on November 21, 2009 (Philippines), I married Park Youngbae.

If you are reading this because you know me, then I'm sure that the above are details that you've already known, so I hope that you bear with me as I go on with details that you might already know, and details that you probably don't know. I'm writing this because ever since the day that my husband proposed marriage, my life has been in a crazy uproar, going wilder and wilder but always ending (or beginning) with me learning a new lesson.

On the 26th of July, during our trip to Palawan, my husband asked me if I would marry him. I forced him to get on his knees and ask, as men often do on TV. He did, and he repeated this once more during dinner one night with my family, and once in a while he'd do it again, not as serious as before but of course, with the same love and affection as we had exhibited the first two times he had done those actions. Here I learned that love is something that just happens; but to love is to be forever romantic, to make an effort to keep the love alive.

Soon, we decided to marry in October. When August was almost over I asked Youngbae if we could move it to November, which he reluctantly agreed to. His father requested if we could marry in October instead, but in my determined way I told him, "of course. Would you like to plan the wedding by yourself, then?"

For more or less four months I planned a wedding which resulted more dramatically and memorably as it could have, just like on TV. The rings and flowers came late and so did my wedding coordinator, and just when the pastor was about to skip the rings part of the wedding (and just go on to kiss the bride, I believe) my friend arrived with the rings, the veil, the coins, the pillow, the other accessories and of course, the expensive but beautiful flowers, and literally saved the day. My wedding couldn't have been more breathtaking and heart-stopping and perfect than it had been. From this I learned that no matter what problems you face, so long as you let go and believe in God (as Youngbae and I had done; everyone but us were panicking, haha) then things will fall into place.

Soon after, we zoomed to Mindanao for our honeymoon. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously, of course, until I heard that about 57 people were brutally murdered in a town less than four hours away from us by car. I read the newspaper, fearing for our lives. As much as we enjoyed our honeymoon, I couldn't wait to leave that island.

We returned to Manila to stay with my own family for two days, before we finally left for South Korea. I arrived in Seoul with my heart feeling down, and the first month was probably one of the roughest months I've ever had in my life. It is during that first month when you realize that you're actually really living with someone---someone who will be with you for the rest of your life---that you ask yourself whether or not you've made the right decision.

I was also able to get a job during that first month through my husband's father. He had a friend who was looking for an English teacher, and it just so happened that I was available. It was also during the first month that I understood the importance of a cellphone when my husband screamed at me one evening because I had not answered even one of his more than twenty calls. It was also the first month when we realized the possibility of me being pregnant, and it was also the first month when I cried my hardest because I missed my family.

January of this year wasn't any easier for me. We had visited the doctor and found out that I was, in fact, pregnant! The doctor predicted that the pregnancy must have begun during our second week in Seoul. Soon after, I decided that I had to quit my job, and my employers found my news absolutely shocking and did not know how to take it, since I had promised them earlier that I would stay for at least a year. I was also studying then and decided to study on Saturdays instead of everyday, because it might be too bad for the baby. It was also late December when it snowed in Seoul, and in January I began to learn how to abhor that white rain. That month, I had also finally met up with my long-time Korean friend Joungwen, which made me really happy because at least I had one friend in this foreign land.

My baby died in February, while he/she was in my tummy. My child didn't hold on tight enough, and my doctor says that my child died due to natural causes. Of course it's true, but to this day no almost-mother will really believe that in her heart. I told my boss about it, and she was quite relieved. "I'm sorry to hear that," she told me, forcing her smile to disappear. But a smile is a smile, and no matter how small a smile is still a smile. "But we would like to keep you for at least a year, but can you please not get pregnant first?"

It's finally March, and I'm beginning to adapt. But my husband might get a job that'll land him overseas, and that only means that I'll soon be overseas with him, as well.

Wild? Oh yeah it is. But hey, the fun's just begun. It's only been four months, after all.

(This is just the first draft. I'll edit this one day. For now, I'm just contented with the fact that I've actually written a journal entry today. :-) )

White Day (and the 14th of every month)

Days before the 14th of February, 2010, I asked my husband if he was planning to give me anything for Valentine's Day. My husband laughed and said, "on Feb. 14, girls give guys gifts, not the other way around."

I was surprised at his reaction and asked him to explain further. He just laughed and said, "you're in Korea now, my dear. Here in Korea, girls give the guys they care for some chocolates or sweets. Guys, in turn, return their love (if there's any) on March 14. Either that or they give sweets to the girls they actually like. Those who don't get any gifts on either dates are supposed to eat jajangmien (black noodles) together on April 14th." April 14, also known as "Black Day", is the day for those who are yet to find their soulmates. :-)

Times Square in Seoul: Woww

The other day I went to biggest mall in Seoul today (according to both my husband and the Korean Tourism's official site), the Times Square. As soon as we got there my heart started beating like crazy because hey, this is the first time in a long long time since I've seen a mall that actually resembled a "big mall" like the ones that are in the Philippines in and in Malaysia.

Sadly though, aarrr I forgot to put the memory card back in the camera. Arrr! Imagine that. So later on we decided to buy a new memory card. After buying though we found out that we had forgotten to charge. ARRR again! And I was therefore unable to post pictures.

So we were walking through the mall's gigantic hallways (and amazed at the numerous shops and dining establishments inside, it's way bigger than COEX, another incredibly famous mall in Seoul) and Youngbae would once in a while be surprised at my disappearance and suddenly find me reappearing inside a shop, like a little girl ogling at the product's sitting prettily on the shelves. Arr! Felt so much like home.

Next thing I knew, Youngbae was getting hungry. We bought some drinks (and some gifts for my students) in E-Mart (which is also huge, compared to some of the other E-marts I've seen, and it looks spanking new!) and also bought bread in Mix & Bake, which was also delicious. The shop is right outside Basement 1's E-mart establishment, so it's hard to miss.

We headed for the cinema and found ourselves awed by this particular cinema called "Starium". (Youngbae's theory was that this word is the combination of the words Star and Stadium. I had no other guess so I think I'll have to accept his.) This Starium claims to have the world's biggest screen, and maybe it is true, after sitting barely 15 seats away from it during the screening. But in my opinion, a big screen isn't a very good idea if the crowd is sitting not too far away from it. It's best, I believe, if they made the cinema itself much bigger as well so that people will have more options to sit far away from the screen and enjoy the movie better. But of course, all's done, and I doubt that any expansion will be considered anytime soon.

So, for anyone who's looking to visit a mall in Korea, I highly recommend visiting Times Square. If you're just looking for somewhere to stroll or watch a movie, shop for clothes (they have a small market in the subway for those on a budget) or even just have dinner with a loved one, this mall's got it all. It even has an excellent view of the stars because of its glass ceilings.

Have fun! :-)

Dreams

I've been having strange, recurring dreams as of late. In those dreams I'd usually appear in a location that I'm not supposed to be in, and the people surrounding me are either close friends are complete strangers. But in all of these dreams I seem to be the one who creates trouble.

I say "creates trouble" because I always "accidentally" end up doing something that always gets us into a near-death situation. My dream earlier today, for example, was about getting into this strange scene that I knew I shouldn't be a part of and so I decided to ask around about how to get out of whatever place I was in. I started making friends, and so decided to stay awhile. Next thing you know, some people are hunting me and the people I'm with because I had done something to provoke them (I'm still not sure what exactly it was that I had done, but whatever it was pissed them off.) Me and my comrades hid in so many places and in so many locations around the neighborhood that they wanted to kill me for the trouble I put them in! Eventually we ended up hiding in the first home that we had hidden in---which, amongst all of the places we've hidden in has the least number of hiding spots. We panicked, silently prayed and made sure to breathe as silently as possible as one of us hid inside a closet, the other behind a small cabinet, me I can't remember... and we had almost given up when we realized that they too, had decided to give up looking for us! One of them just announced that there was no one in the house, and so they left and never returned. The relief on our faces! After that life and death situation (the men chasing after us had some guns strapped to them), I doubt that that group of people would ever welcome me again.

After that dream, I wondered to myself whether or not these recurring dreams (in different forms with different characters but with more or less the same story) had any meaning. I strongly believe in God, so at one point I wondered, could this be a message?

I asked my husband about it, but as most people would say, he thought I was going nuts. So case closed, and I guess that I'll just have to wait 'til my next dream arrives.

Got Lost! Hahaha :-)

Just almost got lost today. I fell asleep on the bus en route to my work, and woke up to realize that I was somewhere that was absolutely unfamiliar. Had no choice but to wait for the next bus to arrive (which was maybe 10-20 minutes later) and using the little korean I had to ask people how to get to my destination.

I'm just a bit proud today, knowing that I can actually survive even with the little Korean that I know. :-)

For Promise's Sake

I've been reading this book, entitled "A House for Mr. Biswas." It's about an Indian man who always believed that something better was out there for him, and no matter how many trials he went through that feeling never left him. That he was able to own his own home represents that.

I hope this entry makes sense, because I'm honestly writing this in order to keep a promise to myself. I promised myself to start writing on a daily basis and try to regain whatever writing skill I had before, if there was any. I'd like to practice, because like Mr. Biswas, I used to have a dream that, years after, I'm still dreaming of.

When I was younger, back during my elementary and high school days, I used to write stories. I wrote stories about my friends (using pseudonyms, of course) and also wrote journals, fiction, whatever I could write. I tried joining the Newspaper Club (I can't remember the name right now) back then, but I wasn't accepted. I wasn't good enough, I think and in addition to that I don't think that I really knew anything about newswriting at the time. This holds true up until today, proven by one of my professors in my university before when he told me that my news writing was really bad, and that I had a long way to go before I could write actual news.

So maybe it'll surprise you to know, dear reader, that my first job was actually to write about business news (the company name was Philippine Business News). My job was to investigate, write articles that catered mainly to the OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers). My job was to let them know what exactly they should invest it, why earning money abroad isn't working out for them and what they should be doing with the money instead. For example, instead of just sending the money to your husband, my dear OFW, (who, p.s., might be using it on his mistress) why not demand him to work as well, and make sure that he deposits the amount that you send him into a bank account that you can monitor as well? Yes, it's because "baka masaktan siya, baka isipn niya wala akong tiwala sa kanya," but times are changing. Trust HAS to be an issue.

Arrr, but that was a long time ago. That was probably one of my favorite jobs though. And it's actually because of that job (even though the boss ran away and didn't give me my last paycheck) that until now, I still believe that maybe, in some distant future, my works will be published again. :-)

Thank you for reading, if you did. If I said anything that I shouldn't have said, please let me know. I'll remove that part immediately.

Thank you, and yeeees. I kept my promise.

한 국 말 어 렵 슴 니 다

한 국 말 어 렵 슴 니 다 . That's it. I've nothing to say actually, except that learning Korean is freaking hard. (I don't even know if what I just wrote was write. Arrr haha)

I had almost forgotten about the existence of this particular blog until seconds ago, when I decided against typing Korean words in my facebook, giving people the impression that I can actually speak decent Korean. On the contrary, my Korean is practically non-existent and I think that I need to work harder at it if I plan to master it within 6 months.

Crap, this isn't easy. Good luck to me.

If you stay tuned to this site though, I'll most likely update it with some more new stuff I learn along the way. That'd be interesting. :-)