My friend text-messaged me the above, saying he’d seen it as a name for a 학원 [hagwon]. It means: “Computer & Filial Piety.” Which, in and of itself, just about summarizes the weird tensions in Korean society between old and new, East and West, etc., etc., and all that trite cliche stuff that’s nevertheless totally going on.
I wonder what the classes are like, there? Is it like a Confucian-style computer-literacy school? Or is it computer-based Confucian moral education? Or a little of both? Or is it just a cool sounding name, and has nothing to do with curriculum or teaching philosophy? Hmm… I’d vote for that last one, based on my personal experience. Maybe there’s neither a PC nor an analect in sight.
Day: January 26, 2010
Caveat: Full-time Student
Well, my class doesn't start until Monday, but I've been contemplating what I'm attempting. I've been worrying about my ability to really, truly, single-mindedly pursue this. I always approach things so dilettanteishly, in life. In fact, I've made a bit of a positive personal philosophy out of being a dilettante in many fields rather than an expert in any one subject.
All of which is to say, I'm actually feeling a bit terrified at the prospect of trying to be a full-time student, with virtually nothing else on my agenda, and no excuses not to study. Even if it's only a one-month commitment. Well. We shall see.
I just barely placed out of the absolute beginning level on the placement test at the hagwon I'll be attending. I would have been slightly mortified if I'd actually ended up in absolute beginning Korean 101. As it is, I'm in something roughly equivalent to 102.
The problem, as I suspected, was entirely due to my weak vocabulary. There was a section where I had to fill in noun case-endings, for example. I know, quite well, my Korean case-endings. But getting the right ones is next-to-impossible if you don't what the verbs are in the sentences in question. So… not such a good score, there. I actually did better on the spoken section, where the woman asked me questions and I had to answer. But she said I was too informal, and my tenses were wrong.
I have decided that between now and next Monday, I'll try to work through the first half of the textbook, which is the Korean 101 that I just barely placed out of.