Amanda Takes Off...

Last night was a night that made me feel like I can learn this language.

I'm meeting Sabumnim tonight for dinner. Last night I texted her in Korean to invite her out. She wrote back a message in Korean and I understood every single thing without looking anything up. Yes, it's a short message, but I had NO context or expectation of what she was going to write, and yet, I had the vocab for it.

Yesterday I'd emailed Michael. I said that I felt like I was hearing and understanding a lot of vocabulary but that I wasn't using a lot of vocabulary. He said he understood and offered some suggestions, such as trying to use five words I haven't, and last night I succeeded.

Right outside of the studio, one of the boys saw me. "아만다, 안녕하세요!" Amanda, how are you?

"네, 안녕하세요!" An older man, probably in his 60s, was walking by the studio. He stopped, looked at me, looked at my studiomate (who was running down the street), looked at me, and watched me walk up the stairs to the studio. I just smiled and bowed at him. He smiled, bowed back, and walked on.

I got to class and Cocky asked me to sign in. I said I thought we weren't supposed to, he said we were supposed to sign in but not out. When Master came in, he asked me why I signed in. I blamed Cocky and Master said I was right. See? Listening comprehension.

We played soccer. For the first hour, we played one version where five rebreakable bricks were stacked up to form the goal. This is a hard game because the goal is so small. How many bricks we get on the floor is how many points we earn. I scored a few times for my team, which felt good. A kid with about half my body mass but a whole lot of speed behind him ran into me so hard that I landed on the floor. I landed hard enough on the floor that Master stopped the game to see if I was OK.

During the break, Master asked me to move (in English) next to someone else. I said, "사이?" Between? Ding-ding, a new word! Then he started asking me about playing defense during soccer. I was so confused, "Today?" No, he meant Friday. I hadn't been paying attention and didn't realize we were talking about next week.

The second hour was regular soccer, always fun. Master has taken to yelling "play" in English when people are whining or fall down or stop the game. When he says it, it comes out as "PUH-laay!" Last night Master was tripped by one of the other students. He hit the ground and a few students yelled out, "Puh-laay!" I nearly choked, it amused me so much to hear them all yelling "Puh-laay!" in English.

Last night I took some of the boys out to dinner. While we were on the bench, Cocky asked who I wanted to take out. I said him, Studious, Grin's Brother, Crybaby, Brave and Brave's brother. He asked why Brave and his brother. I have sensed that Brave is a bit too shy, quiet, and studious for the rest of the crowd. I said that Brave was the first person to talk to me at the studio and I like him. (Having really learned how shy and quiet Brave is, I was right to nickname him that.)

Cocky asked if he was a nice person. I said of course. I asked the same in turn (착해요?") and he said, "Very, very, very 착해요!" I laughed. After class, Master dismissed me and kept everyone else (he does that sometimes, he usually talks about school and studying and respecting your parents, so I'm fine with being dismissed) so I waited for them.

After a while, I called Grin's Brother. He was trying to say they were coming, but he was speaking too fast. I asked if Cocky was there and for the first time ever, I got to say "[Cocky] 좀 바꿔 주세요?" I had thought that the phone lesson wouldn't be that useful, sometimes even thinking I only talk to my English-speaking friends or Master on the phone, I don't need to know this. Ah, yes, silly me. I struggled to memorize the vocabulary, but when I needed it, I had it. (Two new words/phrases used.)

While I was waiting to meet them, Brave and his brother walked by. I invited them to dinner, but they had to go home. Shortly thereafter, the college student woman that doesn't come to class much greeted me. I asked what she'd been up to lately. "요즘 어떻게 지내요?" I got tongue-twisted the first time and had to ask again, but she understood. (Three new phrases used.) I found out that she's been working at a part time job during her school break. She's not sure when she's going to graduate (that part I messed up, using 수업하다/to study instead of 졸업하다/to graduate) and she was on her way to meet Master, she'd called him to make sure he was there. She asked what I was doing, and I said I was meeting Cocky and Studious for dinner, but don't tell Master you saw me. She understood. She speaks so, so quickly. But, the conversation was in Korean.

Cocky showed up and I said I'd been waiting. (Four new word/phrase.) It was cold, so we headed to the restaurant and waited for Studious, Crybaby, and Grin's Brother. Over the course of dinner I found out all of their ages again, as well as their belt ranks. Studious is 20, second dan (I had thought he was higher). Cocky is 19, third dan. Grin's Brother is 17, fourth dan (he's been studying for nine years). Crybaby is 13, testing for third dan when I test for first.

I found out that Studious is starting college in March and won't be coming to class anymore. I told him my parents are coming here in May and I'd like him to meet them and that I'd gotten his handphone number from Cocky. I found out where Grin is going to college (not that I remember, it's in Seoul, he's studying taekwondo). Studious asked me who was my favorite person at the studio and I refused to answer.

Studious told Cocky to tell me to use a spoon to do something, Cocky said to leave me alone, I shot Studious a raised-eyebrow look that showed that I understood what he was saying; he froze, nodded, apologized, and thanked me for the food while I just smiled in return.

Yes, it was small talk, yes I made mistakes (I asked Grin's Brother what day it was and then self-corrected to "how old are you?"), yes I still speak slowly, but excepting a handful words, ("no delicious" said Cocky) it was in Korean. And most of the time, I didn't have to repeat myself to be understood.

Although some of the guys—mostly the ones I don't talk to much—sort of stare at me when I try to speak to them in Korean, I feel safe speaking in the studio. I don't feel stupid when I make mistakes, when I say someone's delicious or have to try and try to be understood. I ask Master questions in front of everyone. With Cocky, Studious, Powerful, Ghost and Crybaby I feel especially safe speaking Korean. They've all known me since my second week in Korea. They know how non-existent my Korean was, they know what mistakes I make, they can and do adjust their speech for me.

By far, the best part was a conversation with Cocky. Since I was tricked in December, I have wondered if I was the only one who didn't know about the party. Sometimes living here throws me off. I question my own intuition or understanding because the culture and environment is so different. I wanted to know if my belief that everyone else knew was right or wrong. I wanted to know how I could have so terribly misunderstood what was going on.

I used Korean as best I could. Although I'm sure I made mistakes (I didn't even try to use subject and object markers, for example), I used the past tense.

I said to Cocky, "십이월에 파티 있었어요. 아세요?" In December we had a party. You know what I'm talking about?

"네."Yes.

"파티 알았어요?" Did you know about the party?

"네."Yes.

"몰랐어요." I didn't know.

He nodded, "맞아요." That's right.

"모두 사람 알았어요?" Did everyone know about the party?

"왜?" What? I knew I'd said that incorrectly...

I waved my hand around at the other people at our table. "모두?"

"아, 네." He paused and said in English, "Everyone know. Amanda, surprise!"

I laughed, "왜?" Why?

I don't know all of the words he used, but the way I understood Cocky, I got the surprise because I wouldn't be at the studio in January, it was the holidays and Master thought I might be missing my family and America, and it was my first year at the studio.

"모두 알았어요?" Everyone knew?

He smiled, "Yes, everyone!"

One of my flashcards from Once Upon a Time in Korea is You tricked me! (속였구나!) I haven't quite memorized it yet, but I started stuttering it. "속여—속&#50688—" (Five words/phrases, even if imperfect.)

He smiled and agreed, "네, 속였어요." Yes, we tricked you.

This whole conversation was uplifting for a reason having nothing to do with Korean. It feels very sweet that Master went out of his way to make the party a surprise to me and that everyone in the studio kept quiet about it. Everyone knew, nobody let on. Nobody even talked about it in front of me (which makes me feel like they have some respect for my still-very low level of comprehension). They decorated the studio for testing, they practiced my forms with me to keep up the trick, they...

They are the reason I like being here so much.