Bilingual

bl, true Christ is the ultimate expression of "hardcore". but blast beats and breakdowns are what i'm talking about. i just want something to keep me awake while i work. law firms can be pretty dull

--From the "Comments" section of Relevant TV's Web page, referring to Christian hardcore music

Today I got lost again, this time in an area near Euljiro. I was looking for the park that Grace took me to Sunday evening, and I wanted to attempt a more direct route than the roundabout way we took. It wasn't pretty. I rode the subway to what I thought was the nearest station. But as I got out and walked around, I noticed that I was in a neighborhood I had never been in before, and Namsan Mountain was far away. Too far away. I had to ask directions from three different people along the way. I had to get back on the subway and take it to the stop by Youngnak Church. I came out of a totally different exit, and so I was still lost. The last guy that helped me, I approached him and asked him in broken Korean where the church was, that being my only landmark. He responded to me in broken English. Turned out I was two blocks away. I ran into Pastor Leon and another gentleman who apparently didn't speak much English. However, he offered to buy me an ice cream bar at a mini mart next to the church. That was pretty cool. I listened to spoken Korean in my headphones to try to redeem all of this time I was spending walking around aimlessly. By the time I got to the park I was a little bit tired and ended up not spending as much time there as I had planned.

From my observation most Koreans are not bilingual. Many Koreans I have met do not speak any English. There's a street vendor near the school that sells fried seafood, and I've stopped by a couple of times to buy my lunch. I order in broken English and point at what I want. I also hold up four fingers to indicate that I want four of those fried thingies. The woman at the stand speaks no English, yet barrages me with questions as if I'm supposed to understand her. I though my hand signals were simple enough, but apparently she needs all forms of clarification. I look forward to a day when I can actually understand her. She looks annoyed when we try to communicate. I just continue smiling and saying "Ne" ("Yes") until I get what I want.

Monolingual Koreans notwithstanding, I've been impressed at the number of people here who speak at least some rudimentary English. Even the lowest-level students at my school can express themselves fairly coherently, if not eloquently. It amazes me because Korean and English are radically different languages. My study of Korean has been an uphill battle. It's sometimes hard for me to imagine so many Koreans exerting a similar effort to learn English.

It's 10:46 p.m. I'm in a "PC bang" ("PC room," or Internet cafe) getting ready to type out my syllabi, which I realized should have been done already. I also have to do some lesson plans. My first three days represent a work in progress. I have a steep learning curve. I seem to be connecting well with most of my students. I think my height and general appearance have really surprised some people. The most difficult thing. I'm teaching three different curricula a day, spread out among seven classes a day. Fortunately I don't have to assign homework for all of those, and my school's curricula are pretty straightforward. But I've underestimated the workload and now it's crunch time. I actually shouldn't even be writing on this blog tonight. My move-in date has been postponed again, but Friday (tomorrow) seems to be the day. I'm going to be kind of crazed for the next 24 hours.

This morning was the first time I woke up so tired I had to drag myself out of bed at the sound of the alarm. In other words, I'm over my jet lag and it feels just like home!