Performing day-to-day activities in a country where you
don’t speak the language is interesting. The other night I went to get myself
some dinner and discovered a place that said “BBQ! Chicken”. English! I figured
I could probably function in there to order something successfully. Changwon
hasn’t been super English friendly. Which is fine, this gives me even more of
an excuse to improve my Korean. When I entered the store I was handed a menu
that was all in Korean. I tried to pick something from the pictures, but
everything looked the same and I was clearly having trouble. The cashier said
something to me in Korean and I looked up and smiled, shook my head and said
“Je neon mi gook sa ram im ni da” which means “I am an American” and I have
been using this phrase as an equivalent to “I don’t speak Korean.” and it has
seemed to work out okay so far. He smiled back and pointed to the menu on the
wall which had everything listed in English as well. Hooray! I looked under
“Boneless” and attempted to order something called “Boneless chicken cracker”.
“Boneless chicken cracker juseyo”. Which means “Please give me boneless chicken
cracker.” I got a blank stare back and realized very quickly that while things
were listed in English, the workers in this store probably didn’t encounter
English speakers very often, if at all.
I then suddenly realized that there was a lot of nonsensical English on
the walls as well like “Fresh Fruitess!” next to pictures of chicken and “It
taste is good!” Okay. Shit. So I just kept smiling, and a lady from the back
came out and yelled at the guy I was speaking to and sort of slapping him, I caught something along to
the lines of “waygook” and “migook” which is “foreigner” and “American” and I
got the feeling that she was giving him shit for not knowing how to communicate
with me better. I started to feel kind of bad. It wasn’t his fault that he
didn’t know what I was saying and she didn’t understand me either. She pulled
out a ruler and started pointing at each item on the menu with it and I said no
in Korean until I said yes in Korean at Boneless Chicken Cracker. She started
clapping. Success. Boneless chicken cracker turns out to be some kind of silly
shaped chicken nuggets. It comes with what I think is pickled radish on the
side and some sauce that is a sort of hybrid of ketchup, sweet and sour,
barbeque and hot sauce. Interesting.
I also got into a fight with my
Korean washing machine last week that I lost. I thought that I did what my
co-teacher showed me to the day I moved in but I must not have. I’m not sure
where the “spin dry” button is but I couldnt get my clothes to rinse all the
way. When I opened the machine, there was still soap everywhere. I tried again,
but to no avail. So I had been rinsing the extra detergent out in the sink and
then wringing out as much water as I could. Also, Korea doesn’t really do
dryers so I have to dry out all my clothes on a metal drying rack. It took all
my clothes about three days to dry because everything was still soaked no
matter how much I wrung them out by hand. My co teacher has since corrected my
error, I think. I hope. We’ll see, I haven’t
dared to try yet.
On Saturday a friend who’s been
living in Changwon for a few months showed me around. We went over to this lake
and while we were walking through the park around it, a Korean woman came over
and started talking to us. From the body language, I thought that she wanted us
to take a picture of her with her young daughter in front of the lake. So I
said “Ok.” Instead of handing me her phone, she picks up her daughter, hands
her to me and then positions my friend and I with her in front of the lake and
takes a picture of us. Then shuffles us
over somewhere else and takes a picture of us there and keeps saying
“Beautiful! Beautiful!” It was probably the weirdest thing that has ever
happened in my life. I hope I end up in
some random Korean family photo album. Anyways, we went to the area of Changwon
where all the foreigners hang out by the International hotel. I’m glad I know
where to go socialize now, met a bunch of people.
I haven’t
really done too much teaching yet. It’s mostly been desk warming and showing a
powerpoint presentation about myself. The school is still sorting out it’s scheduling.
I’m not sure what all the paperwork is for either but all my co-teachers
apparently have tons of it to do at any given time. The kids pretty much just
smile and giggle at me, the little ones try to touch my hair. Some of the kids
are bold enough to muster a wave and say hello and then run away laughing.
Hopefully I can figure out this teaching thing soon enough.
