'Seoul Study Abroad Diary' Korean Life from Scratch
SU-YU-TING
3 days ago
After eight years of working, I decided to give myself a 'mid-career break.' Although long experience in the workplace made me more adaptable, I always had a dream of learning Korean well and experiencing life abroad. So I gave myself an extended holiday and decisively came to Seoul Station to enroll in a language school and start my Level 1 Korean life.
When I first chose this school, besides its solid teaching reviews, location was also my top priority. The Seoul I wanted to experience wasn’t just the vocabulary in textbooks, it was the lively streets themselves. Returning to being a student, I remember the first day I received my textbook, that fresh, unread book smell somehow moved me. This was more than a language class, it was a chance to find myself again and redefine my life.
After joining the Level 1 class, I found the language school's teaching to be very solid. The teacher didn't rigidly teach grammar, instead they used lots of conversation and interaction so we naturally learned to use Korean in everyday situations.
The hardest part at first was pronunciation and basic spelling, for example a seemingly simple word like 'ttatteuthae-yo' (warm) requires repeated practice to get the pronunciation and linking sounds right. In class, the teacher encourages us to do role plays, simulating situations like shopping at a supermarket or asking about the weather.
After class every day, I would use my favorite pen to write and rewrite the Hangul in my notebook, and those pages are the evidence of my daily effort. I just finished the midterm exam and unit tests recently, and I realized that Korean had quietly settled into my mind.
There are two cultural experience classes during the course, and our first one was making a name seal of your Korean name! It was tiring, but really interesting and a lot of fun, a truly rare experience.
The second time we visited the Korean Folk Village, where we watched a traditional Korean performance. Afterward, the teacher led us to lunch together. After lunch we had free time, but each class had an assignment to shoot a 3-minute video, with the theme chosen freely by each class. The videos are shown on the graduation ceremony day, and the best class wins a small prize! This assignment was great, it helped everyone in the class bond. Our class used to be full of strangers, but the video task brought us closer. After filming we had more free time, and there are rides inside the Folk Village. Our class ended up doing everything together, which made us even closer, and now class is full of laughter every day, we chat with each other all the time!
Life at the language school isn’t limited to the classroom. Every weekend I go shopping with my roommate. Seongsu-dong and Myeongdong are the places we visit most often. The industrial style mixed with indie vibes in Seongsu-dong always gives me lots of inspiration.
Whenever I successfully communicate with a shop clerk in Korean, even managing a simple two-line chat about the weather, that feeling of accomplishment far surpasses the joy of just buying something. When we get tired from walking, we find a café to sit and rest, and I order my favorite drink, peach iced tea. Watching people pass by on the streets of Seoul Station, sipping my drink and discussing grammar we learned in class with my roommate, practicing speaking Korean together, this pure happiness is something I rarely experienced during the past eight years in the workplace. In Seoul Station, every street and every café is the best classroom for practicing Korean.
Living in Seoul Station, having a like-minded roommate is a real blessing. At first I was nervous not knowing which country my roommate would be from, or worried about their living habits, and so on, but I was lucky to meet a fellow Taiwanese. We went from being strangers to now discussing midterm exam questions together, and even planning weekend trips to 'visit every café in Seoul Station.' My roommate and I both started at Level 1. Although we were in different classes, in the dorm we often quiz each other on vocabulary, write Korean dictation together, practice topic presentations together, and check each other’s homework. This shared struggle in learning turned dorm life into fun memories.
Going from office worker back to student, the biggest realization was, 'It's never too late to learn.' Although at first I worried my memory wouldn't match younger classmates, eight years of work experience gave me better self-discipline and logical thinking. I can now comfortably accept my mistakes, and slowly correct them bit by bit. The new calluses on my fingers from holding a pen are the most precious badge of this journey for me. I will never regret it, and I'm grateful I was brave enough to take that step.
