Potential Plan For Upcoming Semester Break

What a frustrating day I had yesterday!

Okay, firstly it has got something to do with my application for the Korean language program in Seoul National University. My passport, certificate and academic transcripts were needed as part of the application so I had to go to school to scan them since I don’t have a scanner. The scanner in school was the huge multi-purpose photocopying machine in which you can photocopy, scan and print. I had such a hard time scanning the documents because once I scan them, they will be saved into my usb but then I can’t see if they were scanned properly. The only way is to get a computer and check the images. After scanning all my documents the first time, I went to check them on the computer and realised only 3/4 of each document were scanned properly. So I had to go back…. This happened a few times, so I made many trips back and forth- scanning and then finding a computer…. It was so frustrating!

I knew it was the problem of aligning the documents properly so the machine could scan the entire doc. But the first time I did it, it was properly aligned and it turned out only 3/4 of the docs were scanned. After so many attempts, I finally got them properly scanned. Frustrating!

Anyway, I manage to apply for the program yesterday. It was quite a hustle because I had to sign in, register, etc… AND I had to upload a photo of myself onto my profile page which I presume an official resume kind of photo was needed, but damn I didn’t have such a photo. Thus, in my desperation I went to Facebook and find a photo of myself, download it and crop it. Haha… Well, I have no choice!

For the Korean language program, if I manage to get accepted, I will be there for at least ten weeks because that is how long the program will take. That means I will be there for most of my holidays…!! I cannot even celebrate Chinese New Year at home… It took me some time to think about applying because of these aspects and more, but I really hope to fast track my learning progress for my own abilities and for the translation thesis I’m doing right now. There is also the matter of my speaking ability which has not seen much progress… Even though I may have a Korean boyfriend, his English is better than my Korean, so I end up speaking English to him when I can’t express myself in Korean. That’s something which will NOT help in my speaking abilities because I have to push myself in speaking Korean if I want to get better. I’m sure my speaking abilities and confidence will improve heaps when I study in Korea.

Skip spring and move on to summer instead!

Typical weather of Brisbane… From winter, skip spring and bring in summer instead. The temperature heated up to 33dc yesterday, bringing in serious bushfires around Queensland causing the entire city to be engulfed in haze today. Well, I’m not sure about the city but suburban areas and UQ were definitely affected.

Surprisingly, I was not really use to wearing summer clothes again today. Especially exposing my legs without stockings and jeans… maybe after all the time my legs were hidden under the long pants and stockings, it was weird looking at them bare. haha. >.< But it felt good to be wearing summer clothes, lighter and less clothes, more comfy!

Although the sun can be blazingly hot, unlike the humidity in SG, Aus weather is much drier so I don’t feel as sticky. The good sides of Aussie weather~ minus the blazing hot sun. ;)

I just hope the weather won’t go overboard before I head back to SG. On that, the future is quite bleak….

Already half-way through the semester.

 

As the title says, September is here, I’m halfway through the first semester of honours. A very very overwhelming first half and I doubt that will change for the rest of the semester! Although overwhelming, I find myself absorbed into a quicker pace for learning Korean, because I have to do translations which are, sad to say, most of the time beyond my abilities. It is saddening and stressful at times, but I get to learn a lot of things along the way, practicing and hopefully, advancing my Korean abilities. I try not to let stress get in my way and positively take up the challenges as this is the only way to improve!

One of the greatest challenges I’m facing right now is having to translate a Korean novel for my translation thesis (for my honours, lazy to elaborate right now).  

Yes, I have this novel! It’s called <우리들의 행복한 시간> AKA “Our Happy Times".

A gave it to me last year when he was still in Brisbane! :D I tried to read it last year but it was soooo difficult that I gave up after a couple of pages. Haha. Now I have to face it because it’s going to be part of my translation thesis wherein I have to translate about 15,000words of it. I chose this on my own accord, of course. It has also been adapted into a movie, which some of you may be familiar with:

Kang Dong Won!! Hehehe.

I haven’t get down to watching it yet but I will do it very soon. A told me that the contents in the movie should be almost the same as the book’s.

The thing about translation is I have to be good in Korean and even better in English. I may be translating something but I am also writing it in English, and it has to be at a novelist level since it is going to be treated as an English novel. This is another aspect which I’m struggling with- WRITING IN ENGLISH! WRITING. WRITING A NOVEL. Sad to say, I’m not very good at writing and I think this is an area which I have to work on as well.

There are too many things to work on……