The Teacher Becomes the Student
Currently, I am living in Seoul, having moved here for my five-week vacation to take an intensive Korean class at 이화 여자 대학교. I originally hoped to read and write and speak entirely in Korean for the whole month, including this journal. It started out that way, (as the Korean entries below will attest,) but, at least in regards to this journal, the reality has been different. I am speaking and reading almost entirely in Korean, that part has become true, but I am finding that with all the Korean this jounal is like an escape into a known world where I can explain things completely. I am in the third level class (out of four) and the class consists of me, one other American and seven Japanese women and one Japanese boy (he is only 19: I can call him a boy.) Some of the J-women probably can speak English, but it is just easier to speak Korean with them, so I really have no idea what their actual English ability is. The teacher probably speaks English very well, but I really don't know because, except for a handful of words (which she pronounces very well), I have never heard her speak it. Also I find that because, for the most part, I can find a way to express myself satisfactorily (though probably not grammatically) in Korean, I have had no reason to not speak only in Korean.
Class is in the morning, from 9 to 1, and, of course, that is all Korean, all the time. Afterwards, a bunch of us usually go to lunch together. The J-students will usually speak Japanese if everyone in listening distance is Japanese (although I have seen them all together speaking only Korean on a few occasions) but if myself and/or the other A-student joins them, they will quickly switch. Sometimes even after lunch we continue to hang out. Then I usually have dinner with ㅈ when she gets off work. During dinner, ㅈ usually speaks English, whereas I speak Korean. And there are days like today. Today we had a special culture event after class. We went to some place near City Hall and after an exibition that involved all of us playing traditional Korean double-headed drums (장구 ) we saw a performance of various types of dance and song including 사물노시, (note the ribbon hats; another clip is here), 판소리, 부제춤, and many others. A lot of it I was familiar with, having lived in the "Capital of Traditional Korean Culture" for two years but I had not seen all the varieties performed all together or as well as they were today. And everything was in Korean. The class has been very good for putting the pieces of everything that I have learned together in a more comprehensive way. The teacher is very good about not only explaining the grammatical structure at hand, but also how that structure differs from similar structures. This is something that my education has been lacking, especially since asking four Koreans often means getting four vague answers.
Also at the traditional performance for Korean speaking foreigners there were, of course, cameras. They wanted to interview me (they always do,) but I begged off and pointed them in the direction of the other A-student, who is the best speaker in the class. They insisted on a picture with me though ("잘 생겨요" was their explanation for why they chose me; "거짓말 하지마세요" was my response.) but that turned out to involve dressing me up in 한복. Now, I have no problem with 한복, but I think it looks very phony and cheesy to see foreigners, especially western foreigners, in it. I (more or less) enjoy living here, and I like learning and speaking the language, but I am not Korean, I don't want to be and I don't like pretending that I am. However, it is clear there was no getting around the 한복. So, they dressed me, and a very beautiful J-student from another class, in the 한복 and everyone took pictures. Whatever...
Spending most of the day speaking with the J-students has led me to two thoughts. The first is that there is something strange/unnatural about an American communicating entirely in Korean with Japanese people. It seems almost...illicit is some way (And that is not even getting into heavy geo-political irony that Japan and America are probably the two countries that Koreans hate the most.) But its unnaturalness also has a great pleasure. Yet again a non-English world has been opened up to me, and yet again I feel a bit like an interloper. (Side note: I have coined a term. It is a term for the sudden and unanimous scream of delight that Japanese women and girls make when they hear or see something delightful--usually involving a singer, group, or tv drama. The term I have chosen: jorgasm. The screaming seems to be something unique to Japanese women, as the Korean version is more of an "ohhh!")
The other realization that I made is that as an English speaker I am at a disadvantage. The amount of Japanese I know is exactly 5 words/phrases, whereas, the J-students, if they don't actually speak English, (a likely possibility,) are at least very familiar with it and know quite a lot of it and about it. Since my German is becoming more of a memory everyday, It is depressing to realize that all the J-students I speak Korean with are at least one language ahead of me (in particular the J-student who speaks Russian with her Korean boyfriend.) Everyone knows that Americans are behind the language learning curve, but to see it writ large everyday is a bit humiliating. What I need to do is use this shame to motivate me to start learning another language, now that my Korean is becoming more stabilized. The only problem is which one? French I would love to be able to speak, but I tried that once and it really is not a good fit. Spanish is too common. I have been toying with the idea of Tagalog, Malay and Russian. Any other ideas?