(no subject)
Something I never mentioned here is the alarming linguistic gap present in modern Chinese vernacular:
The Chinese have no word for a hangover! It took me a long time to explain really what I was talking about, but once I explained it they all sort of shook their heads and commented that there was no way to express that concept except "I drank a lot last night and now I don't feel good." What's sort of endearing to me is that my friends immediately took to the colloquial Spanish expression "andar con la gorrilla en la espalda" which I translated into Chinese for them as "carrying an orang utan (I didn't know gorilla!) on my back." Now they all use that. Ha ha! Good work me!
Jung Eun told me before I came here that Korean TV is "informative." Man, she's really right. Every program is about, like, how high a certain kind of rodent can jump and how one of them escaped from his cage in Korean zoo, or how you can make strong alloy that floats from recyclable metals. What the Hell!
My Experience in Korea continues to be amazing. I realize that it's probably a combination of factors - Jung Eun will have better friends than other people, I'm just staying a short time and being a guest, I'm in a big city - but the people I meet are amazingly willing to step outside their comfort zone to really try to be friends with me. In two nights I've talked a lot to two different people who have basic English (one much better than the other, though). My sense of Chinese culture tells me that if they were Chinese they would not say a damn WORD to me because they were embarrassed about their English. Instead, these two people used anything they knew to try and talk to me. I feel embarrassed that I can't even try to meet them half-way - I don't know more than 15 words of Korean! Anyway, I'm having fun that doedsn't stop and meeting people to whom I'm connecting in a way I never expected. After a year in China I expected to be sitting there silent most of the time, but it's not been the case. I've been included in everything (also, Jung Eun is an amazingly thorough and hard working translator for almost all the conversation that's going on). Today we're going to a wedding and after that we're going to the beach with a group of JE's friends (among whom was my favorite person from two nights ago).
So long every body! Keep you updated with anything interesting!
Good to be me
The Chinese have no word for a hangover! It took me a long time to explain really what I was talking about, but once I explained it they all sort of shook their heads and commented that there was no way to express that concept except "I drank a lot last night and now I don't feel good." What's sort of endearing to me is that my friends immediately took to the colloquial Spanish expression "andar con la gorrilla en la espalda" which I translated into Chinese for them as "carrying an orang utan (I didn't know gorilla!) on my back." Now they all use that. Ha ha! Good work me!
Jung Eun told me before I came here that Korean TV is "informative." Man, she's really right. Every program is about, like, how high a certain kind of rodent can jump and how one of them escaped from his cage in Korean zoo, or how you can make strong alloy that floats from recyclable metals. What the Hell!
My Experience in Korea continues to be amazing. I realize that it's probably a combination of factors - Jung Eun will have better friends than other people, I'm just staying a short time and being a guest, I'm in a big city - but the people I meet are amazingly willing to step outside their comfort zone to really try to be friends with me. In two nights I've talked a lot to two different people who have basic English (one much better than the other, though). My sense of Chinese culture tells me that if they were Chinese they would not say a damn WORD to me because they were embarrassed about their English. Instead, these two people used anything they knew to try and talk to me. I feel embarrassed that I can't even try to meet them half-way - I don't know more than 15 words of Korean! Anyway, I'm having fun that doedsn't stop and meeting people to whom I'm connecting in a way I never expected. After a year in China I expected to be sitting there silent most of the time, but it's not been the case. I've been included in everything (also, Jung Eun is an amazingly thorough and hard working translator for almost all the conversation that's going on). Today we're going to a wedding and after that we're going to the beach with a group of JE's friends (among whom was my favorite person from two nights ago).
So long every body! Keep you updated with anything interesting!
Good to be me