Korean final spoken test.

I did so abysmally at my final Korean test, that the lecturer allowed me a second chance (because he didn't want to fail me).

So now I've been studying like made to get myself up to scratch by the 17th of June, 2010, which is when the final exam will be, with a mock one on the 11th, and a review of my answers on the 7th.

I hope all goes well.

Personally, I would've been all too accepting of a fail.

I won't be taking up Korean again next semester.  Japanese 1B it is! XD

Of Learning a Language.

It makes no sense to me at all that when I've learnt a language here at UNSW (so far only Japanese & Korean) that one of the first things they teach you is that languages written characters, often quickly discarding romanisations altogether in favour of that languages writing system.

The reason this doesn't make sense to me is that it seems to me that the best way to learn any new language was the same way you learnt the one you originally spoke - vocabulary & grammar first, then reading & writing as a distant second.

When you try to learn the written characters first, it becomes difficult because your mind doesn't have a concept to relate the "strange symbol" to, making them easier to forget.

If you learn the spoken words first, and thereby the sounds, by the time you've acquired a large enough vocabulary, and started to learn to write the characters, your mind will be like "Ah, so that's what the written form of XYZ looks like," giving your mind something concrete to which it can attach the abstract concept of the written word (and thereby solidifying the learning process of that language's written characters).

Good luck with all of your learning!

- Ian (The guy in the Mario cap)  I'll keep you posted. :-)

Strangers in a photo ...

Haven't you ever wondered who those strangers in the back of your photos are?

Or indeed, wondered in how many photos it is you that is the stranger in the back of another persons photos?

There must be so many.

Wouldn't that make a great movie, though? (If it hasn't already).

I'd like to see that movie ... I'd like to make that movie.

- Ian.

How I Learnt English (and how all languages should be taught).

Spoken words first, written words last.

Not that I actually remember the first few things I learnt, but I'm assuming, from observation of how other, younger family members in my social circles were brought up, I dare say the first few things I learnt were something like "Mother, Fater, Sister, Brother, Aunty, Uncle, Cousin, Grandma, Grandpa" (Btw, can you figure out which word from that collection is the odd one out ... and why?) ;-)

Also, by the time I'd started school, where they teach you what words are and how to write them, I was already quite fluent in the speaking of my native tongue - English.

All this makes me wonder why Universities feel the need to shovel everything - vocabulary, writing, social structure, grammar ... everything - down your proverbial throat at a million miles a minute before you've even had time to mentally digest all the information from the previous lesson.  Not to mention you've got two or three other subjects that have to be studied.

Humans are full of self-righteous bullshit.

It makes far more sense to teach people any new language the same way they learnt there own - speaking/listening first; reading/writing last.

I've often thought it would make more sense to learn the writing system in second semester, if not second year. The reason being that now your mind has a decent size vocabulary to attach the newly acquired written words too, rather than just having them as meaningless symbol attached to a meaningless letter.

Your thoughts?

Thank you. ^_^

Flash cards!

are a great way of teaching yourself. :-)

and as for free software flashcards that don't have to make yourself, I recomend: http://www.byki.com/ (byki is short for Before You Know It).

It's not going to sink in over-night, but you'll understand it eventually.

Good luck!

- Ian.

I'm thinking of dropping Linguistics ... so I've got more time for studying Korean.

When I first started at UNSW this year, I was lacking a fourth subject, but because of something the Korean lecturer said in week one, I was able to sign up to Linguistics before the first lecture had begun.

Anyhowz ... in the beginning we had one, rather entertaining person, as our Linguistics lecturer, and another, rather dull person, as our tutor.  It has since come to pass that the entertaining person has received a summons from a higher power within the university to do some sort of double checking and signing off on paper work, leaving us with the rather dull tutor, as our rather dull lecturer.

And as much as I'm enjoying the content of the course, I probably didn't do myself any favours by holding off on not only buying most of my text books until I'd found somewhere more permanent (which I now have), thereby putting myself three weeks behind the work schedule.

And as much as I love Korean, it just isn't. Sinking. In! ... so I'm really going to try and put as much of my efforts as possible into learning that, as it's a subject I want to do really well at ... or at the very least, pass.

As good as the prescribed text book and accompanying exercize book are for the subject, I've been thinking about going that extra mile and purchasing a book from the on-campus book store called something like "Korean in Easy Steps" ... which I was going to link you to using my Amazon Associates account, but as I can't seem to find the book on Amazon right now (which may have something to do with not remembering its exact title) but as that is not currently not a possibility, you'll just have to wait ... because I really don't wanna have to go all the down to the bookshop just so I can find out the name of it, so I can look it up on Amazon, and then post the link here.

I'll just remember what it's called next time - heck, I might even buy it next time.

The Computer Fair! (Which was at the Roundhouse here at UNSW on March 21)

Yes, that's a Sunday!

I was after an extra gigabyte of ram for my netbook, so I asked one of the vendors there, and he didn't know, so I asked another one and he got me to open it up first, to check what sort of RAM it needed.  After opening it, he noted it only had one slot, and that I would have to buy a 2GB stick of RAM to increase it to 2GB, which didn't bother me.  He asked me to turn my computer on to see if it worked, and it did, with a marginal, but noticeable speed increase.

I gave him the $60, he closed up the computer, gave me a receipt and I went on my way.

Between arriving at the fair, and getting my RAM I saw someone I thought looked familiar, so I went out to check if it was them or not - it was.  She hadn't gone into the fair, for not realising that students get free entry and leaving her student card at home.  And she rather waited for her friend to go and do what he needed to do rather than pay the rather minimal entry fee ... was it $5 or less?

- Ian (the guy in the Mario hat)

p.s. Okay, so this blog is hardly written in chronological order of the events of the day, but ... meh! :P XD
(If you want me to write more coherently, please say so).

First assignment of the year!

The first assignment of the year this year was the Korean one, which was a take-home, open book test, designed to encourage the student to study.  Admitedly, I did use Google Translate to get some of the answers, but the imporant thing is, even if I didn' get 100% of the answers correct, that it was 100% of the questions that I answered.  (This assignment accounts for 10% of the total grade).

Tomorrow (23rd March, 2010) I have another test, and this one is a vocabulary test, which I must once again study the text book for (but I only have to study "Unit 4").

I hope I do well.

Wish me luck! XD

- Ian (the guy in the Mario hat)

"uniwide" down again. -_-;

"uniwide" is the name UNSW give to their university-wide wireless internet network.  It allows freedom from having to be restricted to a computer in the library for the duration of an hour - you can be on your own computer for as long as you like! (Class dependant, of course).

Unfortunately, a few weeks ago it was down for about two days total, and it seems to be down again.

I went to the IT crowd to see what they would say, and they said there us maintenence being carried on uniwide today, which would hopefully be resolved "soon" (by the end of the day). 

So I hope that when I come to universtiy tomorrow that the problem has been resolved.

Sometimes it's hard to be alone ...

These are the lyrics of the song "In My Heart" by "Three Dog Night", and here is the film clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySvuJRz8CAw




In my life
I've had to try to make it on my own.
Sometimes it's hard to be alone.
In my mind,
My loneliness would never seem to end.
Something is happening that I don't understand.

(Chorus) In my heart, I feel the heat
Of something burning deep inside of me.
I'll be the man that I could never be,
Now that I've found you.
In my heart, I realize
You are the light that opened up my eyes.
You are the answer and the reason why
I'm living my life for you.

Through my eyes,
I've seen a world that no one's ever seen.
Seems like I've lived inside a dream.
In my dreams
I never thought I'd have someone who cared.
Then you walked in my life, and made me so aware.

(Chorus)

And if my world should fall apart,
I know that you will be there... In my heart.

(Chorus, repeat)


=====


And it is with by far the first verse of this song that I can relate to the most, for that just seems to be the path of this student; wondering down this lonely path all by myself, wondering if anyone will ever care to join my journey with me.


As for the minute, my classmates and I are just ships passing in the night, sailing down a common stream.


I sometimes wonder if any of my classmates will, over the years, become a bigger, more important part of my life than they at the moment.


Sometimes I feel like I connect with people, and then a time comes when you and that person are no longer a part of one another's lives, and I just ... find it so hard to let go ... while I watch our two, once parallel paths, divide as I go one way and they go another.


But I j want to let it be known, to all of the people who have come into my life and gone ... I Will Remember You (By Sarah McLachlan)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHooH4464dQ&feature=fvst

I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories

I'm so tired but I can't sleep
Standin' on the edge of something much too deep
It's funny how we feel so much but we cannot say a word
We are screaming inside, but we can't be heard

But I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories

I'm so afraid to love you, but more afraid to loose
Clinging to a past that doesn't let me choose
Once there was a darkness, deep and endless night
You gave me everything you had, oh you gave me light

And I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories

And I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories
Weep not for the memories 


... I'll keep you posted.


- Ian (The guy in the Mario hat).

Teacher's Strike!? LOLz!!!

After the past few weeks, people have been standing at the various entrance ways to UNSW handing out leaflets fore telling of the upcoming teachers strike (Today - Thursday, March 18, 2010).

The leaflet had brief sentences on it stating the reasons for the strike (something about fairer conditions and more money).

A few days ago, I, and the entire student population of UNSW received an email stating the University's fear of the upcoming strike and the confidence that it would not go ahead.

Given the severely large number of people that are here, I dare say the few teacher's that did strike - if any - are feeling rather foolish for themselves right now.

My Grandmother's Funeral (and thank God for facebook).

A part of a students life, as well as studying, is the unexpected events that life can bring such as the death of a loved one; last year it was my sisters beloved cat, Basil.  This year it was my 92 year old Grandmother, who, by the way, was in a state of perfect health, and on the night of Thursday the 11th of March, slipped away quietly in her sleep.

Her funeral was the following Wednesday (Yesterday, as of my typing this), and I had to fly back to my home to town to attend which included the missing of some classes, but as they were all lectures, it hardly really matters all that much.

At the funeral were family members, who, if not for my telling them through facebook would have perhaps never have known, which made me all that much happier that I found them on facebook when I did a few months ago.

One Aunt was considering not showing up for fear that her ex (my biological uncle) would be there and cause havoc, however, that particular uncle's last words to his mother were something along the lines of "I don't have a mother any more."

Thankfully, the aunt and her five children showed up, with the sorry excuse of an uncle nowhere to be seen.

After all was said I done I took the afternoon flight back here to Sydney.

Wasting paper.

Whoops!

It seems that rather than thinking things through, and realising that I need only print one of the two text books for Korean A (The exersizes one), I not only printed both, but did so single sidedly.  That is to stay, instead of thinking to print not only the one of the two text books, but I also failed to think that I could have printed them either double sided, or as a booklet, there by saving quite a lot of paper.

"Booklet" would have been ideal, as a total of four pages would have printed double sided on one A4 piece of paper, so the pile would have been small enough for me to staple together.

I now find myself stuck with an almost two ince pile of A4 paper!

"If I could turn back time ~ if I could find a way ~" - Cher.

I'm sure I would have come to that conclusion before printing had I have had a more decent nights sleep. >.<;

Read my previous post http://tinyurl.com/yjx6s8l to see what I'm referring to in regards to "a more decent nights sleep."

"I have immunity to certain house rules" - certain house mates' attitude's PART II

This blog will deal with the house rule listed as "1)" in my previous post:

1) "Residents are responsible for keeping the common areas clean and hygienic, with chores assigned according to an agreement made mutually made by all the current residents of the house.  This is particularly important in the kitchen, bathrooms and garbage area."


Living in a share house, particularly with other students, it seems that they all seem to think that that "cleaning up after yourself" is some else's responsibility.


Since I've been here I've purposely avoided using all common areas so as not to have to get caught up in the "Who's responsible for what" debate/war, mostly because I'm only here while I find somewhere else more permanent to live.


Today, the land lady came over and gave certain students the third degree about keeping the place tidy and cleaning up after themselves, as the place has slowly become quite disgusting.


Not to mention, she also gave them quite a stern talking to about abusing internet downloads and having no respect for other students using the same internet, as because of those two downloading more than their fair share of things, the internet had capped - perhaps they were unaware that internet plans in Australia are all capped.


I believe she told them that if there excessive downloading were to continue that they were to look at getting their own internet at their own expense.


I'll keep you posted!


- Ian (the guy in the Mario hat).

"I have immunity to certain house rules" - certain house mates' attitude's PART I

Of the two A4 pages worth of house rules, two of them are as follows:

1) "Residents are responsible for keeping the common areas clean and hygienic, with chores assigned according to an agreement made mutually made by all the current residents of the house.  This is particularly important in the kitchen, bathrooms and garbage area."

2) "Keep noise down to reasonable levels at all times.  After 10:00pm, any sound generated within your room should not be audible by other room."

It is the latter of these two rules I shall be commenting on first, as it's more personal.  (btw, the word "latter" does not mean "the last on the list," like many people believe - using it to make themselves look intelligent - but in actual fact means "the second of the two.")

First of all, I should make it known that in 2009 when I originally attempted university, the bedroom of the place I was staying in had a wall in common with the very big, very flat +103com television, that, so long as the owners of the house were home, was turned on, and very, very loud - I could literally hear every word, every sound, and every note of any program that was on; it was torture, and what I have come to deem "inconsiderately loud" (in that the owners took no consideration of the fact that they had students staying with them).

Keeping that, and the house rule I have listed as "2)" in mind, you'll be glad to know I was quite pleased when I read that rule, thinking I'd finally be able to get sleep at a decent hour of the night, so I could wake up early and refreshed the next morning (I generally like to go to bed at around 10:30pm, but admittedly, some times I'm in bed as late as 11:30pm).

The first few nights I noticed that my Ugandan house mate liked to have his music up at high levels (because obviously everyone else in the house has his taste in music) often leaving his bedroom door open when he's in the kitchen so he can hear his music.

I also noticed that after 10pm it only got turned down ever so slightly, with it still being loud enough to hear from my room.  Perhaps not loud enough for me to hear exactly what song was playing, but loud enough for me to hear that there was a song playing.

I thought I'd let it go for a few nights to see if it improved, and last night was by far the worst with the music being easily loud enough for me to tell exactly what song he was playing, which carried on until around three in the morning.

So annoyed was I by this that around 1:48am, after having already woken a number of times to the same piece of music being played over, and over, and over, that I got out of bed, turned on my computer and emailed my landlady about the situation.

I don't know if she mentioned anything to him about it when she was here this morning.

I don't hear any music coming from his room right now, but that's partly because of got my window open and the sound of traffic tends to drown everything else out ...

Okay, I just closed the window and laid on my bed as a test, and while I can hear it, it doesn't seem to be as loud as it was last night, however, right now it's only 9:34pm, so it still remains to be seen whether or not he has this attitude of thinking that this particular house rule doesn't apply to him.

I'll keep you posted.

- Ian (the guy in the Mario hat).

I've applied for new accommodation.

After the landlady not being able to sign the Rent Assistance Certificate, and especially after being accused of clogging the toilet, I went on the hunt for new a new place to live, regardless of how much extra it cost.

I remembered a place I'd seen when I was looking on domain.com.au before ... it was a share house, but each room has its own en-suite and bar fridge - the rent is an extra $65/wk, but I thought it was worth to get out of a place where I have people accusing me of toilet clogging, and act as if their above certain house rules (more on that in a later post).

So, after a few days back and forth with the real estate, as I got various paper work sorted to show them, I have been told that I'll know this coming Monday (March 15) if my application has been successful.

Apparently the owners were a little concerned as to my incoming money, as the money gets taken directly out of my bank account one calendar month in advance from the date I'll potentially be moving in (The 18th).

So ... wish me luck on a successful application!

Thank you.

Who clogged the toilet?

Can you believe that after only having been here one day, I was accused of clogging the toilet? (Because none of the other house-mates owned up to it)

Here's how it happened:

It was about four or five in the afternoon, and I decided to go to the local shopping centre and buy a waste-paper basket, a bath towel and a laundry hamper, as they weren't provide as standard in my room (Remind me that if I ever rent out a house to students, to have coat hangers, wast-paper baskets, and laundry hampers as standard with the room - as for the bath towel, I just simply didn't have room to pack one).

I got to Go-Lo and thought about whether it would be worth buying one or not given my impending move in about two weeks - because my landlady was unable to sign the Rent Assistance Certificate as owner ship of the house was currently being transferred from her husband to her mother-in-law.

I ultimately decided against it, and went and had a small cheeseburger McValue meal with a Sprite at the McDonalds in the shopping centre.

After I was finished, I casually walked home, came in, sat down and started using my computer as usual i.e Chatting on MSN, watching YouTube videos, etc.

After about fifteen minutes of coming home the was a knock on the kitchen-side door of my room (my room has two doors - one that goes to the front of the house and the outside world, and one that goes to the hallway which leads to the kitchen ... which in turn leads to the back yard) so I got up to answer it and saw my Ugandan house mate standing there, who then began a conversation that went something like this:

"Are you a student?" - at this point I thought he wanted nothing more than a little socialisation to get to know the "new guy" a little better.

"Yeah, I study over at UNSW."

He then went on to tell me that "...in this house, we clean up after ourselves..." - I was somewhat puzzled at this point, wondering why he would want to tell me something so seemingly random.  "You might not know, but on this toilet you really need to hold down the flush."

"Oh yeah," I started thinking to myself "that's just like the one we have back home" (referring to the toilet back in parents house in my home town)

Continuing, he told me that he comes and goes from the house during the day, just like all the other house-mates, and that when he got back at 5:30pm, he had to use the toilet quite badly, and when he got to the toilet, it was clogged, his exact words being " ... and it was nasty!"

At this point he accused me of clogging the toilet (Believe me, I'll be the first person to admit that I've clogged a toilet) under the assumption that "None of the other house-mates owned up to it, so therefore it must have been you."

Note that he had ample opportunity to come to me at any time before seeing any of the other house-mates, and yet still chose to come to me last.  Suspicious, no?

Thinking back, I also found it odd that the big middle eastern guy from Room #1, just as I'd answered the knock from the Ugandan guy popped his head out his room for no apparent reason and said "Oh, hi Ian!"

======

You'll remember in an earlier post how great I thought it was going to be to live so close to the university, right?  Well, given the events written above, these days I just take my netbook to the library between classes and do whatever needs to be done while I wait for my next class to begin.

Now I generally only use the toilet here before going to bed at night, and when & if I need to go in the middle of the night.

My Four Subjects.

Okay, just to clarify, these are the subjects that I am definitely studying this year:

Korean A
Concepts of Asia
Psychology
Linguistics

At this point I'm very glad that I enrolled in Korean A - I think I was "supposed to" (that is, in the grand scheme of things).  Why do I think that?  I think that because of the Korean lecturer mentioning linguistics.  Therefore, if not for having enrolled in Korean, and having instead enrolled in something else, I would perhaps still be without a fourth subject.

So thank you to that man whose name I currently forget ... sorry!

Thank you.  ^_^

I've moved in.

Flew into Sydney from Port Macquarie on the 08:30 flight this morning, and slept on the plane most of the way down.

Once the plane had landed, and I was in the terminal, I texted my land lady to say that I had arrived.

I was initially going to catch a bus, then walk from where it would drop me off, but sometimes it's just easier to pay for the convenience that a taxi can offer.

Only a minute or so after sitting in the taxi, my landlady rings, asking where at the airport I was, saying that she was willing to come and get me. "If only she'd rung ten minutes ago," I thought to myself after the phone call had ended.  I looked at my phone and there was a missed call from her.  When?  Ten minutes ago. -_-;  How did I miss that?


Anyway, I'm here now and that's the main thing.

I'm living with a few other students, also studying at the University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Moving tomorrow ...

This time tomorrow I'll be in my new house, with my fellow students.

I'm living in a house that, at the most, is a twenty minute walk to/from the uni, which is much better than last years forty-five minute walk.  What this basically means is that now, in cases where I have large gaps between the end of one class and the beginning of the next, I can go home and either study or have a rest.

I don't understand paragraphs.

Looks like I'll be getting employment, too ... maybe.

Given that university is starting this Monday, I'll hopefully have more posts, more frequently for you starting very soon.

- Ian.

Applying for Austudy.

Well, today I applied for Austudy, and after printing, filling out, and returning the three final forms* , my application will be complete.

*One for Proof of Identity; one to say how much rent I'll be paying; and one to give another person permission to do dealings with Centrelink on my behalf.

It's a bit of a pain, as I don't currently have any accommodation lined up in Sydney, so filling out that form will be impossible, and I have to have the forms lodged by the February 18.

What am I going to do?

I'll keep you posted.

UNSW Teaching Period 1 begins on the March 1.

So it seems that UNSW is starting early this year, as in other years, it hasn't started until about the second or third week of March.

And I still haven't found a place yet.

My Life As A Student - Part One.

Originally, I applied for Program Leave for two semesters, but after one semester felt in myself that it was okay for me to go back.

I emailed the university (UNSW) enquiring about the possibility of returning after only one semesters leave, and was given permission to return.

Subjects for this semester include:

Concepts of Asia

Introduction to Film

Psychology

and I'm having a bit of trouble getting into English - Narrative, as it doesn't seem to know whether it's full or not; I've contacted the university about this problem, and am waiting for their reply.