Language Lessons

Susanna and I (followed closely by Caroline and Gabriel) are doing our best to learn to speak Korean, but it is definitely a struggle. The younger ones (Susanna included) pick it up much quicker than I do - whether that is because I'm older or just slower (sometimes I think it's the latter) I don't know.

Having lunch with our teacher - we had soup which contained mandoo (dumplings), eggs, seaweed, boiled fish heads, & dok (rice dough).
Every Wednesday, Susanna and I meet at the house of a Korean lady for an hour of Korean and an hour of English. We happened to meet her on a bus while we were traveling in to Seoul. She saw us both studying Korean and began to chat with us. It turned out that she attends Global Mission Church and has also taught Korean to many other foreigners. She wanted to be able to brush up on her English, and we were desperate for a teacher, so we've worked out a trade.

Learning Korean has it's ups and downs. There are times when I hear a conversation and can actually understand it which makes me excited. But then there are other times (which are by far the majority) when I don't understand anything and am utterly confused. The worst was one time last year when I tried to ask a little boy his name, and he said in his broken English, "I'm sorry; I don't speak English." That was a bit discouraging, but thankfully it hasn't happened to me lately! As I was walking through E-Mart yesterday (their equivalent of a super Wal-Mart) my amazing language abilities enabled me to translate something they were advertising for baby diapers - they were green tea scented! That's one pampered baby...

Even though my feeble attempts at speaking their language are sometime laughed at (mostly by little kids), we have had a few good laughs ourselves from some of the English we hear over here. The best are the giant advertisements all over the city. Businesses like to advertise in English to be catchy, but some of the things that they say make absolutely no sense! Here are a few examples:
Under a giant advertisement for Mercedes-Benz: Your intelligence choice! (Yeah, real intelligent.)
Painted on one of our mugs: It's always great to meet another world. (Yeah, I'd have to say that each time I've met a new world, it's been a great experience.)
On the back of a bag of charcoal: It sounds great if the remains are used for manure of flowering plants. (The remains? Of who?)
On a package of bread rolls: To make you family happy, please try the heart-warming delicacy of Shilla Myunggua. Our efforts on little details will help you create a peaceful, harmonious family life and share pleasant conversations. (Forget family discipleship - it sounds like a package of bread can solve all your family problems!)
The advertisement for a photography studio: Happy Moment. Well, I hear the rhythm. Close my eyes - in a flash I hear the moment. I am happiness. (No comment; I don't get it at all.)