After school yesterday, one of my co-workers asked me if he could give me a ride home. It took a little while to figure this out. First he said, "I go your home". I thought he was inviting himself over for dinner. I think he sensed the confusion on my face so he rephrased, "you go home with me." Now, I thought he wanted me to come over to his house. We finally were able to work out that he wanted to give me a ride home. The problem was, I was not planning on going home. I had some errands to run and I needed to get to the bank. Since he was offering, I asked him if he could give me a ride to the bank. This was his response.
"I can't take you, my car is broken!"
Really, your car is broken. We just spent 5 minutes figurig out that you wanted to give me a ride home. He said, "It's OK, we can take a taxi." So yesterday, I rode home in a taxi.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Namdaemun
The cirriculum for my students classes are often funny. We follow the lives of fictitional characters through books and videos. The videos are pretty cheesy and the students are only into them if something funny happens to a character (like his pants ripping). Today my students started laughing at an unusual spot in the video. Jinho (one of the main characters), was at the top of N'Seoul tower. A foreigner woman asked him where Namdaemun was, so she could look at it with the towers telescope. Each class when she said Namdaemun the students would giggle. I wondered if she was not pronouncing the word right since sometimes students laugh at me when I mispronounce a Korean word, but then I thought, "this is a nationwide cirriculum, it should not have pronunciation mistakes". I asked my coteacher during the video in one of my classes why the students were laughing. She whispered to me, "Namdaemun means men's jipper". When I realized what she said I started cracking up. I know enough Korean to know that Namdaemun means "South Gate". So they use "south gate" as a slang term for a man's open zipper.
Right after the video stopped I was still laughing. The students wanted to know why I was laughing and she told them. Now, we are all laughing and I have to have them repeat the following dialogue.
Woman: Where is Namdaemun?
Jinho: It's down there.
Woman: Wow, It's so Beautiful.
Woman's Husband: Wonderful!
It was totally inapropriate and completely hillarious.
Namdaemun
Zipper
Right after the video stopped I was still laughing. The students wanted to know why I was laughing and she told them. Now, we are all laughing and I have to have them repeat the following dialogue.
Woman: Where is Namdaemun?
Jinho: It's down there.
Woman: Wow, It's so Beautiful.
Woman's Husband: Wonderful!
It was totally inapropriate and completely hillarious.
Namdaemun
Zipper
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Something Special
After a long day of work, I sometimes find myself feeling like I deserve something special. Thankfully I live in a country were special things can be poured into a glass for only 11,000 Won.
Monday, April 13, 2009
(Kim Jung) Ill Communication
I just received a computer at work. This means I can finally access my google account from the school. I don't care to spend my limited free time in the evenings writing posts, which should explain my long absence from the blogosphere (If you follow Jill's blog you will know this is not from a lack of noteworthy things to write about). Only time will tell if Blogger access at work will produce more online material for your reading pleasure.
I was able to Skype with my folks today and they had asked me a little bit about North Korea. If you are like me, you are always wondering how much information the American media is actually giving on certain issues. I would love to sit here and write an articulate account of South Korean views towards the Norths testing of a long range missile. This would be incredibly hard to do though. There are the obvious issues of language barriers between me and the South Korean friends and coworkers I get to talk to and I also believe there is a frustration with the whole North South situation that is not often talked about.
The other day I was riding in a car with a man from my school. I asked him about the North Korean missile test and what he thought about it. He is a smart man, but his English is limited. He was able to communicate to me that the missile test upset him. There seemed to be a frustration in his voice about the state of Korean affairs. He mentioned how China, Japan, Russia and America all had a role to play in negotiating with the North, but I could tell he felt like the context of the whole situation was wrong. He clearly does not care for Kim Jung Il, but there was a deep love and respect for the people of North Korea. When I asked him how he felt about the people from North Korea he said "North Korean people and South Korean people are one family." I asked him him if he wanted a reunification of the North and South and he looked at me very seriously and said, "I very very want!" This made me wonder what the response to the North would be from people who see North Korea as part of their family.
This conversation obviously does not do much in the way of helping to find a solution to the rising tensions with North Korea, but I think it does provide some context for any of you who hear North Korea mentioned in the news. Most Koreans believe that an artificial line was drawn in the sand 60 years ago and they have deep deep wishes for that line to be erased. The interesting thing I took away from this conversation was his ability to separate his feelings from the North Korean state and the North Korean people. It reminded my of my trip to Nicaragua while Bush was president. I had a number of different conversations with people who did not like "America", but loved Americans. They disagreed with American foreign policy, yet they warmly embraced me as an American.
There are times where it is easy to think of a government and a people as one entity. Especially coming from a country that is supposed to be "by the people and for the people". I was encouraged by my conversation with my friend. It reminded me that there is a longing for reunification within all of us. It also made me wonder what a foreign policy would look like if we all had the sense that people on the other side of "the line" are part of our family.
I was able to Skype with my folks today and they had asked me a little bit about North Korea. If you are like me, you are always wondering how much information the American media is actually giving on certain issues. I would love to sit here and write an articulate account of South Korean views towards the Norths testing of a long range missile. This would be incredibly hard to do though. There are the obvious issues of language barriers between me and the South Korean friends and coworkers I get to talk to and I also believe there is a frustration with the whole North South situation that is not often talked about.
The other day I was riding in a car with a man from my school. I asked him about the North Korean missile test and what he thought about it. He is a smart man, but his English is limited. He was able to communicate to me that the missile test upset him. There seemed to be a frustration in his voice about the state of Korean affairs. He mentioned how China, Japan, Russia and America all had a role to play in negotiating with the North, but I could tell he felt like the context of the whole situation was wrong. He clearly does not care for Kim Jung Il, but there was a deep love and respect for the people of North Korea. When I asked him how he felt about the people from North Korea he said "North Korean people and South Korean people are one family." I asked him him if he wanted a reunification of the North and South and he looked at me very seriously and said, "I very very want!" This made me wonder what the response to the North would be from people who see North Korea as part of their family.
This conversation obviously does not do much in the way of helping to find a solution to the rising tensions with North Korea, but I think it does provide some context for any of you who hear North Korea mentioned in the news. Most Koreans believe that an artificial line was drawn in the sand 60 years ago and they have deep deep wishes for that line to be erased. The interesting thing I took away from this conversation was his ability to separate his feelings from the North Korean state and the North Korean people. It reminded my of my trip to Nicaragua while Bush was president. I had a number of different conversations with people who did not like "America", but loved Americans. They disagreed with American foreign policy, yet they warmly embraced me as an American.
There are times where it is easy to think of a government and a people as one entity. Especially coming from a country that is supposed to be "by the people and for the people". I was encouraged by my conversation with my friend. It reminded me that there is a longing for reunification within all of us. It also made me wonder what a foreign policy would look like if we all had the sense that people on the other side of "the line" are part of our family.
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