Adventures in Korean

This sort of post shouldn't be written. I should be using Korean with relative facility. I should still be learning vocabulary, but after 6 years of living in Korea, I should have some sort of ease with Korean. When I lived in Croatia, I was on my own capably using Croatian within a week - going to the post office, getting directions, talking to students.

I got off to a terrible start in Korea - which is to say that I actively tried not to learn the first two years. I would just fall back on the "foreigner card" and basically fumble around like a helpless person until someone bailed me out. And they did, because it was clear that I'm clueless. I really think that my failure to try to learn had some sort of a distorting effect on the language center of my brain because it's as if I'm trying to undo that programming now, and learning Korean continues to be a great struggle.

Since 2012 I've spent a lot of time and energy learning Korean. For financial reasons I haven't had a teacher. I have had to learn by reading books. Sometimes the people who've helped me have disagreed with the books I've used to learn which is disruptive when one is learning steadily, if not spectacularly. Also the conditions might not have been the best. It's very rare that I have sat down at a desk at home or in a coffee shop and, in nice relaxing conditions, tried to study the book. Usually when I was studying I was hanging onto the strap on the subway with one hand, my bag hanging from my shoulder, book in the other hand, trying to learn Korean.

When I use Korean I'll get most of the word right or I'll change the first letters of two syllables - or whatever....I'm so close. Close, however, is not all the way there.

And I'm not patient which just makes it worse.

I learned other languages - French, German, Croatian - very easily and so I'm not used to struggling at it. I feel like my Korean is like a gallant but ultimately losing sports team. They indisputably put forth effort, and it's admirable, but the results are still the same.

To illustrate my awkwardness with Korean, I just wanted to share a story. The first one happened over the course of a year. I had come back to Korean in 2012 and I worked for a woman at a hagwon (a school for getting extra instruction in English). Her name was Seongil Kim but never mind that. I called her Wonjangnim which is the Korean word for boss at a hagwon. So when the kids would ask why we had to study until a certain time or they'd ask why they had to something and the answer wasn't mine, I'd say "ask Wonjangnim".

I thought that was her name!

It sounds like a Korean name!!! Well, that's the story I'm sticking to anyway! I don't believe it caused any confusion. The kids knew her in that relationship also, so when I said wonjangnim, it wouldn't have confused them. Anyway, it was a couple of years later that it dawned on me that I had been referring to her title rather than by her name. Yep....a bit slow at times.

at the cinema

Like Vincent wisely said about the difference between Europe and the States in Pulp Fiction (and I think it's largely true regarding South Korea and the States), "it's the little differences. They have the same sh** there that they have here, but there it's just a little different."

For example, at the theater I went to recently to see Shutter Island, one had to take a ticket to line up and get a ticket. There was no one at the counter and not an awful lot of people around. It reminded me of that great scene in Meet the Parents Ben Stiller's weekend at his prospective in-laws has crashed to a halt and he fumes while a punctilious clerk runs through the routine of the checks she has to do in spite of the fact that he's the only passenger.

Anyway, one goes up to the ticket counter and tries to buy the ticket. It was just two foreigners, neither of whom speak a lot of Korean....but fortunately many of the movies are just Koreanized versions of English names so indicating which film we wanted to see wasn't too much of a challenge.

But in Korea one has to choose one's specific seat. So the ticket clerk turned the monitor around and I indicated lamely where we wanted to sit-cheogi (there!). They have all kinds of healthy refreshments at some theaters although I don't remember whether they did at this one. The portions aren't so huge though. No 64 ounce sodas or popcorn that requires its own seat. Sometimes they have apples and bananas and other things which are better for kids than monster servings of popcorn and nachos. The theaters are quite nice though at least the auditoriums I've been in have fewer seats than many in the States. The seats are a little bit cushier.

second day of school

First day of teaching is over here. It’s a little early to make any broad generalizations, but after first couple days, I can say:

• Teaching kids at a much lower English level. They’re all excitable and of course they’re amazed that I’m tall and have hazel eyes, but they can’t say much more in English than “Hi teacher” or “Nice to meet you.” That said, teaching seems really nice. I think I’m going to enjoy it. My co-teacher has a lot of experience and seems really nice. I think I’m gonna like it here. That said, I could see the Devil outside my door and think, well, “I think I could take him."


• You knew it was gonna come back to food with me; the kids eat in their homerooms here, with their teachers. Lunch food is good and very cheap. Today we had a chicken stew, kimchi, strawberries, rice, all for under $2. Yesterday rice, kimchi, apples, seaweed, some meat. I love Rialto but I don’t miss dried food that is made of who knows what. Fresh ingredients is where it’s at.


• Kids are very polite here. I’m sure part of that is a cultural difference or the fact that it’s early days yet. I imagine the kids will be better behaved than my gangstas with hearts of gold in Rialto, but I guess we'll see. There's something to be said for ignorance. It's good not to know what people are saying about you because perhaps you wouldn't like what they were saying anyway.


• I really wish I could speak more Korean. This year there are of course fewer native English speakers with me so I will have to do even more listening. It's frustrating to hear conversations that sound like a lot of fun and everyone else is getting into....and I sit there grinning like a doofus. It’s only two days of school so far so I’m sure I’ll get to know some of my co-workers better anyway, but it's frustrating. And if I practice, I’m sure I can learn Korean. And if I don't, as Led Zep says, it's "Nobody’s Fault But Mine." I like that-it puts me the responsibility on to me.