I Can't See Clearly Now... It's Still Raining

This past week has probably been my busiest one yet. I worked a full week in addition to school/minimal study. I can't imagine having to do this every week. I would only be able to retain about half of the info I need. I now have a renewed compassion for those that work full time and do school. At the end of the day, your motivation to study is far surpassed by your desire to sleep. Especially when learning a language. There's not much reasoning that goes on; studying involves pretty much just straight memorization. It's kind of hard to get excited about studying, unless your geeky like me. I'm beginning to see patterns in different words (etymology) but it can be really frustrating at times. It might be a Chinese root or a Korean word, and I have no real way of knowing... So at this point, it's still just memorizing.

My Korean is getting much better though. If the person is patient enough, I can have a conversation with them. (Tell stories, my opinion on things, etc.) Normally, I like talking with other Asian classmates because they are in the same boat as me but have the Chinese background advantage. Nothing too deep of course, and it takes me a while to be able to actually switch languages in my head. Basically nothing translates from this language to English. It's really tiring, but a new way of thinking.

My biggest challenge is still speaking. When I write in Korean, I have time to think, but when speaking, that time is greatly reduced. Since the languages are so different, I can't think in English and speak in Korean or else my brain might explode. So it forces me to think in Korean as I speak. However, I find that when I think in Korean, it is like my brain is enveloped in this nebulous cloud of mist. I'm literally not thinking anything. There's only this nothing-like blankness. The more I practice, the less hazy it gets, but it's definitely a long way to sunny days.

This week during teaching, I surprised two of my students, and the look on their faces was priceless. They came early to class as I was setting things up. They were talking in Korean about where they wanted to sit, and I finished preparing and just sat down and listened. "No, I don't want to sit there. I want to sit here. I hate it over there." At which point, I decided to jump in in English with a "Why?" Both of them just turned to me and were stunned out of words. After about 10 seconds of staring, one asked in Korean, "Teacher, do you speak Korean?" At which point, a Korean staff member walked in. They went crazy trying to explain to her that I spoke Korean, but I pretended like I had no idea what they were saying, and I just was doing some work on the computer. The Korean staff member told them they were being silly and to sit back down. I've never seen so much confusion on the face of a children before.

Apparently, I can hang with the Asians when it comes to playing ping-pong. After tutoring one of my students yesterday, he invited me over to his house to play with him. His house ended up being a mansion in the middle of one of the richest sections of Seoul. There was a fountain and everything in his yard. (I instantly thought that I was undercharging him.) He beat me 5-4, but I did have a small handicap due to the fact that he had only one good paddle. Next time, I won't be so generous.

Yes, I Am That Popular

Sorry. It's been a while since I've written one of these. I've been pretty busy on the weekends recently. I promise I will try to make up for it with incredible wit and style, would you expect anything less?

2 weeks ago, we had the singing competition at my school. It was actually quite enjoyable. I had to take a bit more of a major role in the actual performance due to lack of class participation, but who ever said I didn't like stage time? One of my classmates filmed it and put in on a private channel on youtube. Unfortunately, it's gonna stay private. My ego's already been hurt enough this week. I will say this about it though, when we walked up on stage, I could hear Chinese girls saying (in Korean), "Wow. They're so handsome!" and the performance ended with me throwing my fedora into the crowd. I'll just let your minds create the best situation possible from that and bury what actually happened.

I got interviewed at the end because I was the class president. I randomly met the MC last week, so he told me what questions he was going to ask me. He wasn't too creative, so he asked me to just try and be funny with my answer. The song my class did is about a certain area of Seoul, so his question was whether or not I've been there. Of course, the answer could just be "yes" and that's the end of the "interview." So I decided to go a bit further due to my performance high. I said something similar to, "Yes, and if any of you want to go contact me and we'll go together." The next day, my teacher was really disappointed with me, but I had no idea why. When I finally asked her, she said, "You didn't give out your number. If you had given your number, you would be going on a date tonight." Oh well... maybe next time

I went to a pretty interesting market the other day with my language group. You buy tokens like at an arcade, and then you go around and spend them on different dishes from different stores. It was really cool. I found my restaurant there though. Literally, the sign reads "Lee, Joe Restaurant." Normally, I would say it's just coincidence, but I've been quite the celebrity in this country recently. You never know...

On this week's episode of "Language Blunders" we have an attempt at saying, "I'll ask my Korean friend where to book a plane ticket for a cheap price, and I'll get back to you." But what ended up coming out was, "I'll bite my Korean friend and get back to you." Also, I've found out it's next to impossible to understand older people in a foreign language. Mumblers, the lot of them! I honestly can't tell sometimes if they're speaking Korean or not. So, what usually happens if an older person speaks to me is a pause, me trying to guess from nonverbals/situation, and then just saying, "I don't know" and continuing on.

I also got my hair cut/styled last week. Surprisingly, there were no glaring language blunders. The stylist wouldn't stop talking either, so I definitely got my share of practice in. She was really nice though. She asked me if I miss my family, and I told her, "I call my parents _______ a month." to which she responded, "How many times a month?" If tipping were a thing in Korea, she would definitely have gotten one. The guy helping her told me that he saw all the Spider Man movies and wondered if America were similar to those.

I also went to a break dancing contest last night. It was really cool. Unfortunately, they make it look much easier than it actually is. Last time I try that gymnastics thing where you stand on your hands and spin your legs around. Doesn't turn out so great.

 If you wanna hear what it sounds like when a Korean tries to say "wolf" listen to this new song that just came out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAal8xHfV0c