I am definitely happier when I am amongst the Koreans. I feel out of place when I'm holed up in my apartment and begin to worry unnecessarily. But after my first class yesterday, I just simply felt better.
I am also getting very good at 'pretending to understand', kinda like osmosis in an effort for the words to sink in. If I believe I know what they're talking about, then I do.
Due to the monsoon - yes, only here a week and I have lived through one. Lots of rain and wind. Kinda like a hurricane. But because we are so far inland, I don't think it ended up causing that much damage. Okay, ya, so I'm not really sure what happened around the whole country but we just had lots of rain that pooled up so high some streets were flooded. Doesn't really much matter if you don't have a car does it?
Anyway...due to the monsoon, our afternoon classes were cancelled. We left the school early to do some shopping at the Home Plus which is owned by Tesco and kinda reminds me of home except for the fact I can't read anything or understand what the people are saying. So, ya, mostly the same.
We decided to stop at McDonalds - when we travelled Europe D would have cut off his right arm before buying anything from McDonalds - I think even he was wanting a bit of comfort food.
The girl didn't speak English. As I've pointed out, we don't speak Korean (yet). The sign language got us 'two number two meals' but then we were on our own. She said something that seemed like 'what would you like to drink with that?' and so I said 'Cola'. It was the right answer. First mini success.
D wanted water so that was a bit confusing but in the end we managed.
Then came another sentence, which I'm sure meant 'For here or to go'. I made the 'for here' motions with my hands and she nodded in understanding. Second mini success.
She then launched into a sentence - which I then took to mean, 'Your fries will be anothEr 5 minutes, please have a seat and I'll bring your food to you'. Smiling, I said kamsa-hamneeda (an important one to know as it means THANK YOU) and sat down.
Mission accomplished.
This was not the only success of the evening. We ended up stumbling upon a DVD rental place. Nothing is more relaxing then watching TV on my weeknights now so we went in and thought we'd try our luck. Lucky for us, the movies are not dubbed in Korean, only subtitled and hey, this is an opportunity for us to learn the lauguage. Listen in English - read in Korean.
We got to the counter and the woman smiled and made a hand gesture that we assumed was asking us for our membership card. I made an X with my hands and she proceeded to ask our name. I looked at D - Big A must of had a membership here.
'Big A Last Name', I said and up it came. She wanted our telephone number, which I have written down and then she asked us for the equvialent of a Canadian dollar.
Smiling, she said what we assumed meant 'This is due back tomorrow' and we confirmed this but nodding and saying 'tomorrow?' She smiled and with Mr. and Mrs. Smith, we were on our way.
This can be done. I can do this. I just need to remember to be patient. Ms Communication may have to be slightly in-communicado with the rest of her world for a while.
Maybe that will teach me to shut up once in awhile.
I am also getting very good at 'pretending to understand', kinda like osmosis in an effort for the words to sink in. If I believe I know what they're talking about, then I do.
Due to the monsoon - yes, only here a week and I have lived through one. Lots of rain and wind. Kinda like a hurricane. But because we are so far inland, I don't think it ended up causing that much damage. Okay, ya, so I'm not really sure what happened around the whole country but we just had lots of rain that pooled up so high some streets were flooded. Doesn't really much matter if you don't have a car does it?
Anyway...due to the monsoon, our afternoon classes were cancelled. We left the school early to do some shopping at the Home Plus which is owned by Tesco and kinda reminds me of home except for the fact I can't read anything or understand what the people are saying. So, ya, mostly the same.
We decided to stop at McDonalds - when we travelled Europe D would have cut off his right arm before buying anything from McDonalds - I think even he was wanting a bit of comfort food.
The girl didn't speak English. As I've pointed out, we don't speak Korean (yet). The sign language got us 'two number two meals' but then we were on our own. She said something that seemed like 'what would you like to drink with that?' and so I said 'Cola'. It was the right answer. First mini success.
D wanted water so that was a bit confusing but in the end we managed.
Then came another sentence, which I'm sure meant 'For here or to go'. I made the 'for here' motions with my hands and she nodded in understanding. Second mini success.
She then launched into a sentence - which I then took to mean, 'Your fries will be anothEr 5 minutes, please have a seat and I'll bring your food to you'. Smiling, I said kamsa-hamneeda (an important one to know as it means THANK YOU) and sat down.
Mission accomplished.
This was not the only success of the evening. We ended up stumbling upon a DVD rental place. Nothing is more relaxing then watching TV on my weeknights now so we went in and thought we'd try our luck. Lucky for us, the movies are not dubbed in Korean, only subtitled and hey, this is an opportunity for us to learn the lauguage. Listen in English - read in Korean.
We got to the counter and the woman smiled and made a hand gesture that we assumed was asking us for our membership card. I made an X with my hands and she proceeded to ask our name. I looked at D - Big A must of had a membership here.
'Big A Last Name', I said and up it came. She wanted our telephone number, which I have written down and then she asked us for the equvialent of a Canadian dollar.
Smiling, she said what we assumed meant 'This is due back tomorrow' and we confirmed this but nodding and saying 'tomorrow?' She smiled and with Mr. and Mrs. Smith, we were on our way.
This can be done. I can do this. I just need to remember to be patient. Ms Communication may have to be slightly in-communicado with the rest of her world for a while.
Maybe that will teach me to shut up once in awhile.
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