Amanda Takes Off...

Last night we went to the elementary school field and played basketball for an hour. Master asked me if I liked basketball and I said, in Korean, "Elementary school, glasses" and then I mock broke them. EVERY time we played basketball in school, my glasses broke. So I was completely afraid to get the ball. Master passed it to me a few times and I went after it, I even shot (but didn't score) once. Master and the other boys would cheer for me everytime I did anything. I know they were doing that to encourage me, because I certainly didn't deserve it, but I didn't mind.

I was on Master's team and he told me to go "man-to-man" with Late Boy. So I was all over him. At one point Late Boy was trying to shoot and I was going for the ball and I SMACK! Slapped him hard right on the forehead. I started apologizing and nervously laughing and I really did feel bad. Master said, "Oh, Amanda! Get Late Boy? Good! Good!"

Ironically, I still have the bruise from playing soccer against Late Boy two weeks ago.

Then we played soccer until Brother's Studio showed up and we played against them. Master asked me to go man-to-man against his brother. I said, "Like Late Boy?" and smacked into Master. Master sucked in some air through his teeth, shook his head, and said, "Amanda, um...careful." I just grinned. He said, "Not ice hockey." Later I told him we should all go play ice hockey together. He said January or February, so maybe we will?

So while playing the game, at one point I went for the ball and completely smacked into Brother Master's leg, causing a 반칙 (foul). Master seemed to be really happy with how I was staying on his brother, which is good since my thighs were burning from all of the running.

Now, some background information before my thoughts on studying Korean and Koreans.

I've been more diligently studying my vocabulary words lately. (Read: I have been taking the time to make flashcards and actually use them lately.) I have my Sogang text words, my tae kwon do specific words, and then general vocabulary words that I draw from an incredibly handy book Michael gave me. This week I'm working on animals and body parts.

So as we were walking to the school, I asked Powerful and Studious what elbow was, since it's not on my list. "팔꿈치." I tried it, "Amanda, Amanda, '꿈,' dream! 팔꿈치." I kept trying it, finally got it, and then Studious started doing the Korean version of the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". In the middle of the street. And Powerful joined in, so I did, too.

There were very few there at the start of class, and as we were walking to the basketball court I tried asking Powerful where everyone was. I asked him several times to mostly blank, but friendly looks, before I realized that I was forgetting a word. I tried it again and he said, "Oh! 몰라요." I repeated it, "몰라요?" He said it again. I looked at him blankly. He turned to Tired Guy guy and said, "몰라요?" "I don't know." Powerful turned to me, said, "OK." He put on this slightly different voice he uses when he speaks English, "I don't know," and grinned at me.

Later I was asking Powerful and one of the kids a question. Korea uses "counters." The counter for people is 명, for animals it's 마리, for paper it's 장 and the general counter for things is "개." So if you want three ice creams, for example, you say "ice cream three thing-counter give me." I was trying to find out what the counter for "points" was in the basketball game. I said, "three people, three bears, four papers, six things, OK?" Then I pointed to the basketball hoops. "One...what is it?" We went back and forth until Powerful realized what I was asking. "점! 점! 점수!" I think part of the problem is that I was using one counting system when I needed to be using the other, unbeknownst to me.

Later I was asking two other guys what the score was, again, all the wrong way. "Score, what is it." I said that sixteen times and then decided I should be using "how much is it" but I can't pronounce that word quite yet. Again, after a lot of tries, and me even growling "Oh, Korean, so hard!" a bit, they understood.

Walking back home with Master helping me with some other aspect of Korean, I was feeling so frustrated with myself and my Korean. Then I began to wonder why the boys help me as much as they do. There are the ones I go to first—Powerful, Studious, Ghost, Cocky—because they seem the most willing and able to help me, but I've gotten to the point where I ask anyone near me anything. Often the boys ask each other until they can help me, last night they did songs in the middle of the street, they teach me bad words, and help Master explain things to me.

I can't figure out why they do it.

I know that it must be frustrating as sin to deal with me sometimes (my mother is laughing right now), so why are they so helpful? Is it a sense of obligation? Do they actually enjoy helping me? Are they happy that any foreigner is learning trying to learn their language? Is it a novelty to be teaching the English teacher, to get to correct her vowels and word-mangling for once? What do they get out of it?

They are doing a LOT of work to deal with me the way they do, and I wish I could tell them how much I appreciate it. I don't want them to think I expect it from them. They don't owe me anything.

Maybe I'll bake a bunch of banana bread or something for my studiomates. Of course, I won't be able to explain why I'm bringing bread...maybe I'll just say, "I am here four months now. Thank you." Of course, I need an oven first...

"하나, 둘, 셋, 통일!"

Cocky Guy came up with some sort of Tongil Thumbs Up gesture about a week ago. He counts, "One, two, three, Tongil!" and upon saying "Tongil," he goes into a thumbs-up horse-riding stance. He's gotten some of the other boys to do it, too, and he taught me how. "Amanda, Amanda, OK, OK...good, good!"

Tonight we played basketball and soccer at the elementary school field and when he showed up I called out to him, "Cocky Guy, "하나, 둘, 셋, 통일!" and we faced each other in stance. After class I intended to just get a picture of him doing it, but he made most of the other boys help him out.

Back row, left to right, is a guy who doesn't have a nickname but the boys always tell me he's "Black, Amanda, Black!", Powerful, Cocky Guy, Brave, Studious and Tired Guy.

Had some realizations/frustrations about learning Korean today and studying with my studio, will post tomorrow. Must get sleep. Big news should be forthcoming soon...

Today we had a Halloween party at school. I have no clue where the kids got the costumes since Halloween isn't done in Korea, but all but two showed up in store-bought costumes. We also had a birthday party, took the kids trick-or-treating to the two closest restaurants and had a long, long day with the after-school class. As soon as the kids left, Daniel (one of our Korean coteachers), Ali and I let loose. Ali threw me on her shoulders piggyback and we ran outside, with me yelling to Cocky Guy's father, "Balance! Power!" in Korean.*

Daniel's costume was a supermodel (I decided this for him after watching him walk the runway during our costume fashion show) and Ali and I used our sports' uniforms as our costumes. (No, I don't normally wear my dobok with socks, one slipper, rings and my watch on.)

I introduce you to the Supermodel, the Rugby Player, and the Taekwondoist.

On the way to the studio tonight, I ran into Ghost and another studio kid (whose name I don't know) on their bikes at the stoplight. I dipped my head between them and they said, "Oh! Amanda! Hi!" I said, "Tae kwon do?" They said, "Ah, Survivor...um..." I said, "돈?" The other kid said, "Yes! Money!" The other people at the stoplight were just staring at us.

I had a belt test tonight. I only did my form, no sparring. Master made me do it a second time, but unlike my Worst Belt Test Ever, it wasn't because I did a really awful job. I've been having problems ending my form at the same place it started. I asked him about it Tuesday night, but I guess I didn't entirely understand his response. He told me to change one stance and voilà, it worked! He said, "Look." I loked at my feet to find them firmly planted exactly where they should be and said, "Oh! Wow!" He just grinned.

I stopped at a stationary supply store and managed to get some more of my printable business cards/flashcards. I also bought some delicious spicy kimchi mandu from a shop on the way home. Minor events, but new shops I haven't dealt with and I was able to make myself understood quickly; that was neat.

After class I asked Master about two words he uses a lot, 앞으로 (the front, I figured this from the name of some stances but wanted to double check) and 뒤로 (back, backwards, behind). I wrote them in my notebook and Master said, "Amanda, no, no."

He wrote the letter ㅍ on the board. I write it like I write the Roman numeral II. I do the vertical strokes, then the horizontal ones, top to bottom. Korean stroke order for that letter is top horizontal stroke, vertical strokes (left one first), bottom hoizontal stroke. I laughed and said, "I know, but it's hard." I wrote the ㅎthe correct way (top horizontal line, bottom one, circle) and said, "Korean." I drew the circle first, then the lower horizontal line, then the top one and said, "Me." Master just wrinkled his nose at me and said, "No! No!" I laughed. I mimicked that it took me forever to start writing the letter ㅐ correctly. I wrote it like the English H for a long time. Now I do it correctly, left vertical stroke, horizontal stroke, right vertical stroke. I'll probably never write an English H correctly again.

Master is not one to talk about writing. It's taken me months to figure out his semi-script style of handwriting. (Seriously though, learning the correct stroke order makes reading his handwriting multitudes easier and it's less confusing when I'm spelling—or having words spelled—on my hand.)

* Cocky Guy's dad works for the organization that owns our school and he's how I found the studio.

Last night was more running around the elementary school track. He said ten times, but it was eleven. After laps and sprints, we played a game at the elementary school that confused me in explanation but was a blast in reality. We broke into two teams of five on the (smaller than normal) basketball court. One of the teams than split up amongst the hoops. Master dragged his toe in the sand to make safe zones around the hoops. The goal was to run from one safe zone to another without getting tagged by the other team, which was standing in the middle of the court. I only managed to run across once, but I tagged four people out. It was all fun and games until we went back to the studio and did more sit ups and leg things.

When I first started coming to this studio, I was a bit concerned that he did so many non-tae kwon do things. Now, however, I'm very happy that he mixes things up constantly. I think it prevents burnout and makes the body work harder.

Tonight we did poomse and I discovered, once again, that I'm not the only one to forget the forms. Tomorrow I have another belt test. Passing will bring me to a red belt, and to learning the form I need to test for my first degree (first dan) black belt. Master found out that they count six months from my ARC date, which, because my workplace dragged their feet, was issued more than a month after I got here. Black belt tests are only held once a month, and I miss the February test by one week. So it looks like I'll be testing in March.

I can surely use the extra time and practice, and nobody owes me a black belt, least not by a certain date, but it's still slightly frustrating when Master wanted me to test next month or the month after. It also means that I probably won't be able to compete at the big regional tournament in January or February. And I won't actually get my black belt for a few months after that, which isn't a big deal.

A few days ago Master started fake shooting at me again. He said, "생존?" I stared at him. He said, "Hmmm, Survivor?" Turns out that in November the Saturday Activity is paintball (페인트볼) at 북한산 Bukhansan National Park. He also mimicked revving a motorcycle, so I think there will be motorbikes there?

I honestly have very little idea what we're doing, but I signed up. I've never done paintball and I'll probably be awful at it and fall into a fit of giggles, but I love these Saturday activities. During soccer, hiking, and tournaments I have a lot of fun and learn a lot of Korean.

Taekwondo tonight was unusual. I got there early and studied some of my Sogang vocabulary words. When Master came in, I put the cards away and sat down. While we were warming up, Master saw them and started flipping through them, testing me on my words, testing his own English. Meanwhile, there were less than ten people in class for the first hour because the high schoolers have some exam tomorrow.

First, there was 23 minutes of running around the studio, listening to the mixed-music CD Master always plays when we run around the studio. One of the songs is Sir Mix-A-Lot's "I Love Big Butts" and as we were running around in circles, I decided that it was most amusing that we were listening to a song with a line begging a woman to keep her big butt when in fact, we seem to be trying our hardest in class to make our butts as small as possible. So I just started laughing. Master asked what was so funny and I said in Korean, "I love fat this [hitting myself]." He was laughing and I was laughing and making a fool out of myself. Sometimes you just have to make a fool out of yourself when you're learning a new language.

After break many of the teenage boys including Cocky Guy, Blue, Studious, Brave, and Tired Guy showed up. We did the presses against the wall and I felt muscles in my hips I haven't ever felt. If we do them against tomorrow, I may die. Then we split into two groups to do target work. Master used to throw me with the kids for whatever reason, but I think he realized that I fit better with the guys because of my height; recently, to my delight, he's been putting me with them.

Master left briefly, and Cocky was fitting his nickname to a T so I told him he was crazy in Korean. He disagreed and when he finally turned around to kick, I twirled my fingers near my ears, which made all the other guys laugh. This then turned into a big Cocky and Amanda Teasing Each Other contest until he was getting so annoying (by never kicking) that I finally put together some awkward sentence, "Stop talking!" Late Boy then yelled across the room, "Amanda, Korean, '닥쳐.'" In other words, "shut up." A fairly rude form of it, too. So I looked at Cocky and said, "닥쳐!" He dropped his jaw and ran after Late Boy and we finally got back to target practice.

Master came back in and we all lined up. He asked why we were laughing and Cocky Guy started telling him the story. In September Master retold a story concerning me in front of me, but I couldn't help him tell the story except to nod and say, "Yes, yes." This time I sputtered out, in Korean, "Cocky Guy, talking talking talking. Kiyap [imitating him]! Me, 'Stop talking!' Late Boy, '닥쳐!' Cocky Guy, 'I'm sorry I'm rude, I'm sorry. Oh, Amanda...' Cocky Guy is funny but talks, talks, talks. I am Cocky Guy [imitating him in the mirror]." ALL of the teen boys were laughing and adding to the story, Master was laughing but told Late Boy not to use the rude form of shut up, and Cocky turned to me and said, "Amanda! Amanda! Awwww. You like me, yes?"

When I was in Costa Rica, I got into an argument with a cheating taxi driver and thought, "Oh! I've reached a milestone of fluency." Tonight barely any of my diatribe of Korean was correct, but I felt like I'd reached some milestone to even sputter that much speech out in front of the whole class, and to tease Cocky Guy so much in line for target practice.