Amanda Takes Off...

I'm stuttering on the phone. "관장님...뭐 해요... 국-가-대-표-선-발-최—" Master, what is...guk-ga-dae-pyo-seon-bal-choe— I was talking about something I'd found on the Kukkiwon's Korean calendar.

Master gets excited, "국가대표선발최종대회? 선배 아세요?" Gukgadaepyoseonbalchoejongdaehoe? You know 'seonbae?'

No, I didn't, but he told me I would probably be interested in going. When I broke the word down with a dictionary, it came out:

국가 + 대표 + 선발 + 최종 + 대회

a nation + representation + forerunner + the last + tournament

So, I gleefully ran off to the Kukkiwon. This was my first visit to the Kukkiwon. It was smaller than I expected, yet there had to be more than 500 people there.

Watching the competition was interesting. I saw high school and college teams, but I'm not sure who else was there. It was neat to watch the methods and strategies of various teams. Not much "Amanda-style" going on there, a lot more "chance-making."

I think my sports photography is improving. However, I need a much better digital camera...

Class tonight was great for the most part, especially considering Master wasn't there for the majority of it. At the start of class he'd told me that a friend of his had watched the sparring today, and would be there tomorrow again. While I was doing sprints, we were having a conversation. Who was this friend? Had I met him? When? Where?

At the end of class, I went into Master's office. He said that he'd called his friend (선배, Master's senior) and I was to meet him tomorrow and watch the sparring with him (and possibly the middle school team he coaches). "You've met him, the middle-school coach."

Was he at the soccer game this month? No. Was he at the Suwon tournament? No. Was he at the October tournament? No. Where did we meet? In Master's office. Did he speak English very well? No. What did we say to each other? Hello.

I looked at Master and tried to say in Korean, "Master, I've met a lot of your Kwanjangnim friends. I don't know who this is." I asked where and when we'd meet and he called his friend. He didn't see my jaw drop when he said something about me.

He gave me the meeting place and time and said, "Amanda, very, very, very little English."

I gave the standard, "Little English, little Korean, together, OK!" response that Master and I use all the time.

"No, Amanda. Very, very, very, very, very little English. You, much Korean."

Master kept emphasizing "very little," so I realized that he was seriously warning me. I said, "Oh no, is he nervous?"

Master looked surprised, "Yes! He said, 'Oh, I don't speak English, I'm so nervous! I'm so nervous!' But I said, 'It's OK, Amanda speaks Korean very well.'"

I looked at him dryly, "I know. I heard."

"Oh! See! Very good Korean!"

Yes, Koreans often say this about anyone who knows anything beyond "hello." But Master is usually very honest with his Kwanjangnim friends about my level of Korean, so he's serious. I'd better be prepared to speak only Korean...

화이팅!