Sunday, a few of the Light Fellows in Korea got together for a dinner hosted by 최선생님 (Professor Choi) from Yale’s Korean department. Back at Yale, she has taught a fair share of the higher level Korean language courses. At the dinner, Professors Daniel Bostman and Professor John Treat of Yale’s History and East Asia Languages & Literature departments, respectively, joined after presenting at the Yale-Ewha Conference. We had dinner at 용수산 (Yongsusan), a franchise popular for honing quality traditional Korean dishes, in 삼청동 (Samcheongdong). Dinner was delectable and the conversations flowed through various topics from the future of Yale’s Korean department (a department which I feel may be in precarious spot) to our summer experiences thus far to their experiences of Korean when they studied here. It was a pretty pleasant, semi-formal evening.

Onward to Korean life…

Out of the need of much needed vacation and my birthday unfortunately falling on a Tuesday this year, I convinced a few a Yalies to take a break avec moi out to 부산 (Busan).

For those who don’t know, Busan lies in the deep in the southeast corner of South Korea. Rich in beauty and a vast coastline, Busan worked as a valuable port city for the Japanese during their rule in the early 20th century. During the Korean War period, it and Daegu became invaluable safe zones for South Korean during communist invasions throughout the country and even became the capital during wartime in large part due to naval access.

Historical presence did play a role in Busan’s modern prominence, but cultural significance helped Busan permeate many social spheres. Busan hosts an annual international film festival (which I strongly hope to attend this coming October) as well as the Pusan Film Critics Awards, one of the two biggest film honors in Korea next to the Grand Bell. (Side note on the two different spellings: There exist three systems of Korean Romanization–the Revised Romanization (current), the McCune-Reischauer (old but current in DPRK), and the Yale Romanization (used heavily in linguistics). The new system favors digraphs over diacritics in order to establish consistent transcribing, eliminations of diacritical signs that many are not used to, and ease of English typing for internet use. Feel free to research further if you’re keen on the linguistic methodology of the three.) Home to a strong film culture, many come to hone their cinematic art skills in this port city.

Another fun insight on Busan is the different between standard Korean and 경상도 사투리 (Gyeongsangdo dialect), the dialect prevalent in and around Busan. When voiced, it tends to sound more tonal and rhythmic in comparison to standard. Often times with foreigners, Busan locals will speak with a standard dialect but 아저씨들 will speak the way they damn please, which is especially quite fun to listen in on for those who really appreciate language. To get a little taste of the difference, watch this video to see how the difference in Gyeongsangdo and 전라도 사투리 (Jollado dialect) gets a man in some funny situations.

Sounds like fun, right? I’m glad you agree.

But, essentially what that all equates to is my week just consisting of me speeding through my work and such so I could be ready to kick back and relax in Busan. (Basically, I sped through homework while watching the first season of “Masters of Sex”–I highly recommend the show if you’re into sex, research, both, or neither.) But, it was definitely a productive few days in Seoul. If anything, I received an early present from my mom when an impromptu fruit and chocolate basket came to my room after my dance practice the night before I headed out. I would say that made my week pretty awesome (especially for my stomach)!