Kimbab Debacle

I woke up early still jetlagged, so I walked around near Seoul station in search of 김밥 (kimbab) street food to no avail. I settled for the convinience store 삼각김밥 (triangle kimbab) and it took me 3 tries to get it right. The first two tries were quite funny:

1. I completely messed up the wrapper and separated the seaweed from the rice. As I sat on a stair on the street eating my kimbab, an old man told me that I shouldn’t eat it cold. (I was really confused as to what he was telling until I recognized the word 따뜻하다 (warm), at which point I started understanding what he was saying)
2. Determined to get it right, I went to another store, bought another, and asked him how to prepare it. He showed me, but this time the 김 (seaweed) tore. Finally, I went back to my hostel and watched a quick youtube video. When I bought my third one, I got it right.

Yesterday I arrived at 인천 (Incheon) International Airport, got to my hotel, and crashed.

Jetlagged, at 4AM I walked around and took photos near my hotel. Then, I took the AIREX train into Seoul, where I got a full meal for only 9000KRW (~6.5 USD), dropped my bag off at my hostel, and headed for 경복궁, Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Overview

Today I took the TOPIK 1 exam in Denver. I found the exam surprisingly difficult (I even had to Christmas-tree the last few questions). I think widening my vocabulary and working on transitions and prepositions will have an outsized effect on my performance in future Korean exams. One thing of note about the TOPIK exam is that in each section (Listening (듣기) and Reading (읽기)) the questions are in increasing difficulty. All of the instructions were given in Korean, although one of the proctors would occasionally translate the important pre-test instructions to English.

This Thursday we have Korean Language Night at CU Boulder, in which they show various projects from the different Korean classes (all levels). This year, some of my classmates and I made a cooking video, where we explain how to make 김밥 (kimbab), which is a rice roll with various fillings. Many thanks to my amazing classmates, who made the project possible!

I’ve been chugging along in my learning of Korean, nothing has really changed much. As I go through my old Korean textbooks/workbooks and learn new things in class, I’ve found that a major limitation for me is a lack of vocabulary. As such, I began studying with Anki flashcards. Evita’s deck has so far been phenomenal in that regard.

Two fun things of note are that I applied for the CLS Program in Korea and the FLAS Fellowship through my home institution, CU Boulder. I’ll find out about CLS the week of March 4, and about FLAS the beginning of April.

I’ve decided to go back and redo all of the exercises in my Korean textbook series, Anytime Korean. You can track my progress here.

Edit (February 7, 2024): I am currently a little over halfway through Beginning 1! Edit (April 12, 2024): I finished the Beginning 1 textbook!

Here are some resources that I have found helpful in learning Korean. None of the links are affiliate links; if I put a resource here I simply believe in the product.