Dreams and Typhoons
Hi again,
So I forgot to mention that I am over the halfway mark now- I came over here on a twelve months contract and as of 28th June I have broken the back of the contract and am on the downward slope back home. Those of you that I have spoken to (either on the phone or by email) have expressed surprise that it has been only 6 months. I guess that in a way it feels much longer to me too. I certainly feel very well settled now and if you could see the state of my room you would know that it takes a long time to gather that amount of crap around one's self (favourite trash item in the last month or so has to be the rather large and ugly cuckoo clock now hanging above my bathroom door. Not sure if it works or not but I am not taking the risk and putting batteries in it as I already have three ticking clocks in my room and anymore would just tip me over the edge of craziness I fear!). My Korean lessons never really amounted to much though I am thrilled to bits that I can read things and even more so when the thing that I am attempting to read turns out to be an English word- hooray!
Though being able to read Korean does pose its own problems for me- I am a compulsive reader as many of you know. I read EVERYTHING- backs of shampoo bottles while in the bathroom, roadside billboards whilst on a bus, the side of beer cans in the off license- you get the picture. Now I am the same with Korean- I spend half of my time in front of the TV trying to read the subtitles quickly enough before they change. It gets much worse when I am drunk and the locals are off amused at the presence of a swaying foreigner staring at a sign above a shop mouthing 'Oo- you- sung- ba!- Ooyousungba! Ha I got it!! Sometimes I wish that I could turn off my knowledge of the letters so that I could get home from the pub much quicker- especially when my bladder is feeling that special tug for home. But it is handy when trying to get around to be able to read the place names and it actually helps with the pronunciation a bit too. Overall I am proud of myself!
What else has changed for me in the last six months- when I went to Seoul recently I realised that there was something that I take for granted here which I can't do when I get back home- that no-one else can understand what we are saying when out in public. Therefore we can talk about really intimate things right in front of grandmothers without the risk of shocking them to the roots of their blue rinse. Also we can comment on the people around us without them understanding which can brighten up a long train journey. But I found myself doing it in a western bar in Seoul and was taken aback when the Irish guy that I was talking about spoke back! I am worried this might be a hard habit to break and that my nose is more likely to get broken in a pub first.
Something which I think will be great whenever I get to an English speaking country again will be how easy it is to make yourself understood. Example, when we went to the now sadly departed Subway sandwich place here in Mokpo we had to stand next to the counter during the sandwich making process so that we could nod of shake our heads as appropriate depending on what ingredient was being held up. Then I saw our Korean friend go in there and order a sandwich and tell them exactly what he wanted and then go to his table until the sandwich was delivered to him. I was jealous at his ability to communicate and I fear that it would take a lot of Korean lessons to get that fluent. Another example was yesterday I went into a camping shop and saw a poster for tents. There was one that I wanted to look at. I pointed at it and said 'tent' the lady agreed with me. I said 'here' (one of the Korean words I know) the lady smiled and nodded and carried on with what she was doing. I tried to indicate that I wanted to actually see the item and she replied in a burst of Korean. I left the shop without seeing the tent. Imagine being able to walk into a shop and ask to see something and then ask intelligent questions about it- I had to work out how to use my camera myself as the instructions both verbal and written were in Hangeul. I am not complaining about this you understand and certainly don't expect the people around me to speak fluent English just because I have walked into a shop- I just look forward to the luxury of being understood without ten minutes of miming first!
One other thing is that I am having a recurring dream about being in a large bookshop and actually being able to read all the books! The first time this happened it was clearly a bookshop in Sydney and I was grabbing books off the shelf and running up to people shouting 'I can read this!! I CAN READ THIS!! YOU DON"T UNDERSTAND HOW GREAT THIS IS!!!' Though I do seem to have gotten over my other recurring dream about going to a fish and chip shop and coming out with a large portion of chips and garlic sauce !!!
Please share with me any similar experiences so I can feel more 'normal' again!
But I am loving my time over here and it is certainly a huge eye opener to be in the (ethnic) minority. Not much to report in terms of life over here today- we are catching the end of a typhoon which has been fun and windy though the rain is a lot lighter today. There was no rain yesterday and so the mogee thought it was a good opportunity to go out for dinner and I was eaten alive while on the phone to my sister yesterday. Ah well, another day another mossie bite.
I will leave you there and get back to you next week I am sure!
take care H xx
So I forgot to mention that I am over the halfway mark now- I came over here on a twelve months contract and as of 28th June I have broken the back of the contract and am on the downward slope back home. Those of you that I have spoken to (either on the phone or by email) have expressed surprise that it has been only 6 months. I guess that in a way it feels much longer to me too. I certainly feel very well settled now and if you could see the state of my room you would know that it takes a long time to gather that amount of crap around one's self (favourite trash item in the last month or so has to be the rather large and ugly cuckoo clock now hanging above my bathroom door. Not sure if it works or not but I am not taking the risk and putting batteries in it as I already have three ticking clocks in my room and anymore would just tip me over the edge of craziness I fear!). My Korean lessons never really amounted to much though I am thrilled to bits that I can read things and even more so when the thing that I am attempting to read turns out to be an English word- hooray!
Though being able to read Korean does pose its own problems for me- I am a compulsive reader as many of you know. I read EVERYTHING- backs of shampoo bottles while in the bathroom, roadside billboards whilst on a bus, the side of beer cans in the off license- you get the picture. Now I am the same with Korean- I spend half of my time in front of the TV trying to read the subtitles quickly enough before they change. It gets much worse when I am drunk and the locals are off amused at the presence of a swaying foreigner staring at a sign above a shop mouthing 'Oo- you- sung- ba!- Ooyousungba! Ha I got it!! Sometimes I wish that I could turn off my knowledge of the letters so that I could get home from the pub much quicker- especially when my bladder is feeling that special tug for home. But it is handy when trying to get around to be able to read the place names and it actually helps with the pronunciation a bit too. Overall I am proud of myself!
What else has changed for me in the last six months- when I went to Seoul recently I realised that there was something that I take for granted here which I can't do when I get back home- that no-one else can understand what we are saying when out in public. Therefore we can talk about really intimate things right in front of grandmothers without the risk of shocking them to the roots of their blue rinse. Also we can comment on the people around us without them understanding which can brighten up a long train journey. But I found myself doing it in a western bar in Seoul and was taken aback when the Irish guy that I was talking about spoke back! I am worried this might be a hard habit to break and that my nose is more likely to get broken in a pub first.
Something which I think will be great whenever I get to an English speaking country again will be how easy it is to make yourself understood. Example, when we went to the now sadly departed Subway sandwich place here in Mokpo we had to stand next to the counter during the sandwich making process so that we could nod of shake our heads as appropriate depending on what ingredient was being held up. Then I saw our Korean friend go in there and order a sandwich and tell them exactly what he wanted and then go to his table until the sandwich was delivered to him. I was jealous at his ability to communicate and I fear that it would take a lot of Korean lessons to get that fluent. Another example was yesterday I went into a camping shop and saw a poster for tents. There was one that I wanted to look at. I pointed at it and said 'tent' the lady agreed with me. I said 'here' (one of the Korean words I know) the lady smiled and nodded and carried on with what she was doing. I tried to indicate that I wanted to actually see the item and she replied in a burst of Korean. I left the shop without seeing the tent. Imagine being able to walk into a shop and ask to see something and then ask intelligent questions about it- I had to work out how to use my camera myself as the instructions both verbal and written were in Hangeul. I am not complaining about this you understand and certainly don't expect the people around me to speak fluent English just because I have walked into a shop- I just look forward to the luxury of being understood without ten minutes of miming first!
One other thing is that I am having a recurring dream about being in a large bookshop and actually being able to read all the books! The first time this happened it was clearly a bookshop in Sydney and I was grabbing books off the shelf and running up to people shouting 'I can read this!! I CAN READ THIS!! YOU DON"T UNDERSTAND HOW GREAT THIS IS!!!' Though I do seem to have gotten over my other recurring dream about going to a fish and chip shop and coming out with a large portion of chips and garlic sauce !!!
Please share with me any similar experiences so I can feel more 'normal' again!
But I am loving my time over here and it is certainly a huge eye opener to be in the (ethnic) minority. Not much to report in terms of life over here today- we are catching the end of a typhoon which has been fun and windy though the rain is a lot lighter today. There was no rain yesterday and so the mogee thought it was a good opportunity to go out for dinner and I was eaten alive while on the phone to my sister yesterday. Ah well, another day another mossie bite.
I will leave you there and get back to you next week I am sure!
take care H xx
posted by Helen @ 5:12 PM
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