What consumed my Spring 2014 Semester (TA Blog)

By TA Frida Tobias

Second Semester is almost coming to an end and seems like I haven’t accomplished all my objectives yet. This summary tries to single out my achievements from those that were apparently substandard efforts occurred between March and May 2014. A reflection I need in order to keep me motivated; I still have a whole month of June though to cross out the remaining targets from my checklist.

Students looking forward to making good memories this semester

In starting a new semester, students like us experience some fears and excitement. We do not know of what lies ahead during the semester, what to expect for our course work. Questions like: will I be able to get along with my classmates pop out of our minds.

Photos of Class 2-5 during their sharing session

During our class sharing session, we found out that most of us get excited about meeting new people and making friends from our classes, including the G.E.O program. Moreover, through the G.E.O program, we want to improve our English listening and speaking skills. For us, we think this is an important part of this semester. Also we are really looking forward to going to membership trainings (MTs) with people who are in the same major or department such as ours, attending festivals and joining other activities.

Student from Class 2-5 strike a pose (",)

However, we also have some fears about several things. We are a little bit scared because even as early as third week of classes, we already have a lot of homework and reports to turn in. We are afraid of speaking English and taking English classes. For example, in English 1 class, we have to translate English textbooks to Korean and explain about it. Sometimes, we have difficulties in understanding what the professor is saying.

Students smiling happily... Exemplifying a positive attitude

We have mixed emotions right now, but in our opinion, we have more positive feelings than negative feelings. We’re very optimistic about things and we want to make the most out of this semester. We want to enjoy our school life and make a lot of good memories with new people around us. Actually, at present, we are already having a good time.

By: GEO Class 2-5, Professor David and TA Jihyeon

Looking forward to a fruitful GEO 9 Experience

The team solicited student's expectations of GEO 9. Look at the student's responses below:

Ju Hyun Park says: "Expectation in GEO? I don't want to look forward to many things. We learned English in middle & high school. However, speaking English in South Korea is tough at times unless go to the Insadong or Itaewon. As you know, the problem is the atmosphere. Some people go overseas for the atmosphere – to listen, speak and think in English 24 hours! I expect GEO to provide us an experience similar to English speaking countries' atmosphere, without the need for us to go there. Just merely memorizing vocabulary and grammar is useless if we can’t use it frequently. That is why I am looking forward to conversing and using the English language often during the duration of this program."

John Yoon disclosed that this 2011 is the start of his second year in Seoul seminary. He said, "Thanks to God's providence, right now, I am taking GEO classes with other seminarians. Joining GEO 9, I anticipate that I could read and comprehend English terms and expressions as much as I can. At the same time, I as a seminarian, envision myself to do my routine regularly during this GEO camp. For instance, singing the Liturgy of the Hours, expressing adoration, and practicing Bible meditation. Though I feel that GEO life is quite exhausting at times due to tight schedule, I still am motivated to make class and team work productively to learn English. I hope everyone here in GEO 9 would work together to make our GEO life more meaningful to all of us. GO GO GEO9!!!!!!!"

Sung-wook Moon a.k.a. Michael shared: "Honestly, I was wondering how many CUK students will join the GEO 9 Winter Camp, because I heard that most of students are from seminary. I hope to meet new friends from CUK. I was curious about the education we get from GEO. Aside from English, I was wondering what I can learn from GEO.

Since I am here, I am enjoying my time in studying and improving my English skills and meeting new people. After the camp I think I am going to miss this time. I will also suggest GEO to other people who haven’t experienced GEO camp yet.

By the way I will do my best in this camp and I hoped that my team will be the first place in Z league. Moreover I want to enjoy all of the GEO Program until the end of GEO 9 camp without any troubles. Thank you."

GEO 5-1 Class' (John, Timo, Simon, Joseph, Paul, Timo & James) OBF Coffee Time

with Corien & Abby

For the GEO 9 Team's part, the team expect students to be active and participative during the class, club and team time. The team believes that each student is gifted with innate talents and skills. Hence, they look forward to unleashing the great potential in each one of the students during this GEO Camp. As always, they highly encourage students to speak their mind, not worrying about the mistakes they might commit. After all, everyone's here to learn and making mistakes is part of growing and learning to become better individuals.

Responses from GEO 9 Class 5-1 (Professor Corien & Victoria, TA Jinju & Abby)

The Expected achievement at the end the GEO program

Fortunately when I was age of 15, my family immigrated to New Zealand and it was a great opportunity for me to learn English. I lived there for 5 years, but I had to leave the place in February 2010, to come back to Korea in order to enter the seminary.

From this unusual and fortunate experience I got this useful gift called “English”, but if I could stay there 2 or 3 years longer, this gift can be developed better. I regretted that I didn’t put more effort on learning English while I was there. This is why I tried to keep attending the English Conversation class at the seminary, not to lose the “feel” at least.

At last the chance has come. From the Global English Outreach program, I have this strong feeling that I can maintain the “feel” of English and at the same time make some improvement.

However, in order to improve, there should be a specific goal and a method in mind. Professor Nico said in the opening ceremony, the method will be provided through the GEO Program, but the goal should be set by oneself.

Therefore I set my goal. It is to improve in aspects of “formal speaking” and widen my vocabulary and idiom range. Increasing the number of vocabulary will be the preliminary step for the good formal speech.

It’s been three days since we started the first lesson last Tuesday.

I am enjoying the course very much and I hope every one of you is doing so as well.

by Jun Park, GEO 9 Class 5-1 (Professor Corien & Victoria, TA Jinju & Abby)