Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Back To School

I took my placement test on Monday (6/22).

I wish I brought my camera with me that day. When I got to the front entrance of the KLI building, I was stopped by a woman with a list of names. She asked me my name, and I told her, then she checked me off, and let me through. I was then stopped again at the actual door. This time, a woman in a white mask asks me to come to her, and lean forward a little. She sticks a thermometer in my ear (with plastic cover of course). She messes up the first time, and then has to stick the thing back in my ear. FINALLY I get inside.

I head downstairs to room 121, which I thought was funny because usually when room numbers start with 1xx, they are on the first floor. I see a ton of people of all ages. Mostly asian of course, but I saw several Caucasians, and a few Hispanics. There were a ton of Japanese and Chinese people.

We all sat in this lecture hall, and then the program coordinator went over a few things in Korean, then English. Then another lady came on stage and said the same speech in Japanese, then another lady does it in Chinese.

It was rather boring. We then received slips of paper with random room numbers. Those were our testing rooms. The placement test consisted of two tests. There was a written exam, and a speaking portion, which they called an interview. The written exam wasn't too bad, we were instructed to go as far as we could, which I did. But the interview was a little tricky.

My main problem with speaking Korean is vocabulary. This lady was asking me simple questions at first, but as the interview progressed, she started busting out words that were probably very simple, but baffled me.

There is supposed to be an orientation today, but because of the "H1N1 virus," it has been cancelled. Classes still begin on Thursday, June 25. I'll know what level I'm in when I go to school that day.

Hopefully I learn a lot.

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