My Korean week

So…. Easter break is officially over, and I’m back at work (currently spending my coffee break writing this post feeling that I deserve a break given that I was teaching the earliest class of the day right after a week of vacation).^^

It has been one of my most productive weeks (Korean-wise) in a very long time. I’ve been reviewing, learning, reading, shadowing, listening and watching several hours a day, and having so much time to study truly makes a tremendous difference.

I’ve also hesitantly started looking at my TOPIK preparation book “TOPIK master – intermediate” from Darakwon. I’m aware that the new format makes this version a bit outdated, but I’m mainly using it to familiarize myself with the style and types of questions. I bought the book from www.heyeonni.com a month or so ago, but until now it has merely been on proud display in my Korean section of my bookshelf. (Yes, within 8 months I have managed to purchase so many Korean books, that I have an entire section for them. ^^ Last time I counted 21 books. And I have quite a few on my wishlist too.)

…But back to the point. Do you ever feel that you sometimes need a long runway before taking off? I do, and I think I know why too. When I first got accepted as a graduate student, I was super happy the week before I started. In that time, knowing that I would start, but not having actually started, I could easily imagine myself being the d… best graduate student of economics the world had ever known. All the while being aware that when I would actually enrol in the study program I would quickly realize how little I knew about anything, and how much I would have to struggle to pull through. Being on the other side, I can safely say that those years weren’t all that hard, but when I say that I was not the best graduate student the world ever saw, I’m not lying either. Anyway, that sweet short time before you embark on a new challenge is amazing, because you can picture yourself doing amazing stuff. So, you basically want to extend that period as much as possible. In other words, you want a long runway before you take off.

I guess I’ve felt the same way about my TOPIK book. With my goal being the TOPIK 2 in October, and koreanstudentblog kindly reminding me with every post that time indeed is quickly passing by, I couldn’t bear to realize exactly how far away I still am from that goal. Imagining that the test wouldn’t be that difficult and that I was probably already able to pass seemed far more appealing. But just as with my three years as a graduate student, things turned out less perfect than I had fantasized and also much less awful than I had feared (as most things in life tend to do). Granted, I couldn’t have answered all questions without my Naver dictionary, and certainly not within the allotted time frame, but still. There’s a first time for everything, and my first time really studying with my TOPIK books certainly confirmed that I still have a long way to go, but also that going the distance is possible.