Well, this is officially my last week in Korea before I visit home. I took 2 finals on Friday, and I have 2 more tomorrow. I'm really excited to finish this term, probably mostly because I that just around the corner are all sorts of American goodies waiting for me.
I went to an event last night. A group called "B-LINK" approached me and my classmates at school and invited us to an event a while back. I believe I wrote a blog post about it. (The B stands for bilingual. Don't ask me what the other ones stand for.) They had a "Thanksgiving Potluck" yesterday. I went with a friend dreaming about turkey and apple pie. Instead, I got Turkish food and no pie. But hey, other than the Turks, who can say that they ate Turkish food for Thanksgiving? I consider myself lucky. Even though the entire event was in Korean, I still had Koreans coming up to me acting like I had no idea what was going on. I'm beginning to get more and more annoyed at how astonished Koreans are that I can speak English. Here's a sample of a conversation I had last night:
Korean: WHAT... IS... YOUR... NAME?
[Koreans aren't the only ones who yell and speak slower for foreigners fyi]
Me: Hi, my name is Joe.
Korean: WOW, YOU SPEAK KOREAN SO WELL!
Me: Not really, I'm just studying.
Korean: So, I'm curious about something. When you came to Korea, what stood out to you?
[At this point, I was thankful that I had graduated from the yelling/talking slow treatment]
Me: Well, I was really surprised by the-
Korean: WOW!!!! (To another Korean) He really speaks Korean well. His accent and intonation are really good too!
I realize that they are trying to compliment me... complement?... They are trying to say something nice, but it kind of comes across like I'm the student with the dunce cap in the corner who finds picking his nose a bit more interesting than the ABCs. They then started introducing me to other foreigners (who are actually at a lower level of Korean than I am) by saying, "Hey, even though this guy's an American, he can speak Korean really well! Try speaking Korean to him!" Thankfully, the other foreigners don't treat me with the same regard. We're all in the same boat when it comes to Korean, so me speaking Korean isn't really anything special to them since they are going through the same learning process that I am.
"Compliments" or no, I was still very pleased with myself by the end of the night. I had held down a table conversation with native Koreans for roughly 4 hours. I also revolutionized my view on speaking Korean. Before last night, I was (still kind of am) shaky when it comes to speaking Korean. I'm so worried about making a mistake that I often just find an easier way of saying something or don't say anything at all. The fool who keeps his mouth shut is considered wise kind of a thing. But last night when I told one of the Koreans that speaking was my hardest area when it came to learning the language, he said, "Why? Writing is by far the hardest. If you speak to me, even though you may have some mistakes, pronounce a word wrong, etc. I still know what you're saying. I have your face and gestures to go off of as well as your voice. However, if you're writing, I would have no idea if you misspell a word etc."
It got me to thinking that no matter how stupid I sound, I am definitely proficient enough to get my point across. For example, let's say I don't know the word "compliment." I do know how to say, "Say something good to someone else." Sounds a bit awkward, but there is at no point something a native speaker wouldn't understand. Unfortunately, this strategy doesn't work very well for the speaking test that I'm taking tomorrow. Go figure, but they would rather me use the correct vocabulary word.
I also taught a class of 14 geniuses on Friday. It was purely a listening class for the students, so they can't read the text at all. And the topic was on stem cell research. Keep in mind that these students are 4-6th grade. Not only did they follow along, but they totally got the information too. I was super impressed. Most importantly though, they are all very well behaved and respectful, which makes both of our lives so much easier. Luckily, I will be teaching this class every week when I get back from America. It's classes and students like these that make teaching worth every second.
This week I plan on scouting out a place to live starting in January, buying Christmas presents for the family, singing karaoke, having one last group meal with all of my awesome classmates, and boarding a plane bound for America on Friday at 10 pm Korean time.
