"Your Best Bet is to Head South" - Public Affairs Officer, On What We Should Do in the Unlikely Event that the North Does Strike the South

I write in Hangul and then romanize it in English to help me read and recall the information quicker. 

RESULTS OF THE FIRST KOREAN LANGUAGE QUIZ

I got a 17/20 on the quiz! Not bad, especially considering the fact that the three points I missed were all under the listening part. Most ETAs in the class encountered similar problems differentiating between the different sounds our instructor was making. One of the things I got wrong was putting an "m" for an "m" sound that is actually spelled with a "b" (again - don't ask). The whole class probably missed this question because we were all just dumbfounded. 

FIGURING OUT THE MYSTERIES OF HANGUL

How can an "m"-sounding letter at the beginning of a word be spelled with a "b"??? He spent about 5 minutes of class just re-sounding out "m"s and "b"s for us. This didn't help very much since I already know what Korean "m"s and "b"s sound like. Alone, the "m"s and "b"s sound like how they should. However, when the one letter "m" comes to be paired with the rest of the word given to us on the quiz, it somehow magically sounds like a word that starts with a "b." 

The other two mistakes I made were on word order. Hangul is composed of an initial consonant (on top), followed by a vowel (on top), and a final optional consonant (on the bottom). What got me were the dipthongs - vowels that made the "eu" or "wo" or "ia" sounds. Apparently, when there's a dipthong, one of the vowels can be at the bottom while the other one stays in its original position to the right of the initial consonant. (I apologize if that was confusing).

I was still slowly processing the mysteries of Hangul when the teacher started re-collecting our quizzes. I asked if we would get them back to help us study for next Monday's quiz, and he said no. 

THE BEST PERFORMING CLASS - SO FAR

He did say though that, out of all of the beginner's classes, our class performed the best. I take this compliment with a grain of salt, knowing that we are the Beginner A class (out of Beginner B and C, which are more "advanced"). I was tempted to ask who scored the highest, but didn't. And, by "didn't," I mean that I did but that he misunderstood my question and was on a roll explaining something else to me. I didn't want to interrupt or disrupt his energy so I just left it alone. He was trying so hard to articulate his responses in English!

Class ended two hours early due to a visit by the Public Affairs Office.

VISIT BY REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE
During this visit, ETAs brought up some important questions for the reps to answer, such as:

• How are the relations between North and South Korea progressing? 
• What is the likelihood that major conflict will arise between the two countries, especially while we are here? 
• Does the U.S. government have a plan in place to keep Americans in Korea safe in the case of such an event? 

The representative's responses were thorough, though not definitive for obvious reasons. He said that:

• North Korea does not have the capability to stand up to South Korea. SK is still interested in and attempting to build positive relations with NK but that the latter has not been "as sincere of a partner as they would like." 
• He doesn't foresee the place falling apart, but that the international community is still trying to "assess" Kim Jong-un, and the kind of control and influence he has over NK. The country up north poses a very small threat to the county down south. However, a threat is still a threat and it is being addressed accordingly.
• In the very unlikely case that NK makes a move against Korea, we should all "Head south towards Busan." He said that the farther south we are, the less likely any kind of anything will hit us from North Korea. 

"Don't be in Seoul." 

He then added, "I don't think there will be any kind of major incident or anything like that," and apologized that what he had just shared was probably not as comforting as we may have wanted to hear.

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU

What do you know about North-South Korean relations? Do you think the two countries will ever be reunited? What leads you to believe yes or no? What other question(s) would you have asked the representative during his visit? Share your thoughts and questions in the comment box below.