Lost in translation

While living in Korea I have had a hard time with the language. I do not speak Korean other than the simple phrases like "Hi" or "thank you". When you are living in a big city and wanting to be independent, those two words don't get you very far. I have had some funny situations lately where either me or the person I was talking to left speechless or laughing hysterically.

Down on the farm -

One weekend some of my girlfriends and I decided to hit up the Drum Festival here in Seoul. It was a huge success complete with drum groups from Mexico, England and Korea showing off their thumping rhythm and loud costumes. We took the subway to the park, but it was late when the festival ended so we decided to take a taxi back to the school. This can be a bit troublesome if the taxi driver does not understand the accent of the WAY GOOKS (Korean for foreigners). When we all piled into the taxi we told him where we wanted to go. He looked at us and repeated the same thing we said. We respond with NEH (Yes, in Korean) and he starts laughing uncontrollably. This is not so unusual for me....I have been laughed at many times for my attempts speaking a foreign language. We look at each other and decide to try again. He repeats what we just said for the second time and starts driving. We assume he knows where he is going so we relax. Then he begins speaking in Korean and laughing out loud - cackling as a matter of fact. We start laughing as well and soon we are talking to him in English telling him we don't know why he is laughing. THEN, he starts clucking like a chicken! No lie, people! Believe me, this would be a hard story to fabricate! As he is making his clucking sound I say "CHICKEN" in English. He laughs again and then he starts to MEOW! At this point all of us girls are just howling with laughter because we think our taxi driver has gone mad! We then repeat in English the word "CAT" and we start meowing with more intensity. It went on like this a couple more times with him making a "MOO" sound and us supplying the appropriate label of a farm animal. He was so happy and just enjoying himself and I guess I got a little carried away. I decided to switch it up a bit and I made an animal noise and barked. I was in the back seat and I said, "WOOF!" All of the sudden complete silence. I looked at the taxi driver and said it again, "Woof." He looked back at me and looked straight ahead in complete silence. The girls in the taxi were loving this and were laughing so hard they almost wet themselves. I am intrigued as to why the animal loving taxi driver is not responding to my dog calls. I try again for the third time and I bark in the back seat. The taxi driver then turns and gives me a dirty look! We drive with him not saying anything until he dropped us off at our destination. We pile out of the car and he said goodbye with a sheep salutation, "Baaaaaaah" - we rolled out of the taxi with our sides in stitches! Best taxi ride to date!

Blonde Ding Dong -

Since I have Korean on the mind and I am consciously trying to remember how to say things in Korean rather than letting my Spanish take over, I often times get confused and switch back and forth from English/Spanish and the occasional Korean. At church, I am talking to some girls in my small group. We are discussing what it is like being new to Korea and they were asking me where I live. I told them I live on campus at Seoul Foreign School and I said I live in Yonhi Dong. For those of you non-native Koreans "dong" means neighborhood. I had a good time with this when I first arrived because I live in D buidling on campus and it is commonly known as D dong. So, my friends at home have affectionately called me a Ding Dong! Not nice, but somewhat humorous.

Anyhow, we are talking at church and this guy comes up and joins our conversation. We start talking about where we live and he turns to me and asks my location. I tell him about my neighborhood and then without thinking I say, "Where is your dong?"

There was silence for about 10 full seconds and I contemplated running away to the nearest exit.....then all of us burst out laughing - including the guy whom I asked about his dong.

I think I will still show up to church next Sunday, but I plan on sitting in a different place, maybe I won't see him again EVER!