Amanda Takes Off...

Class was awesome tonight. We worked on demonstration kicks. Master just laughed at me when I tried to do a triple jumping front kick. I sort of flailed my legs about as if I were running in air. It was OK that he laughed at me; I was laughing at me, too.

At one point we were doing some sort of flying something or other kicks. I was amused when Master started pounding on the glass to see if it would hold in case of anyone running into it. I was more amused when he made Goalie stand up and spot for half the class. I was a bit less amused and a bit more freaked when Master actually grabbed me to keep me from running into the window. First, I wasn't really going to hit the window (though I was close), second, there were four (sometimes five) people getting very close to hitting the windows and only two spotters.

There was some guy there, I'd never met him. A bunch of classmates seemed to know who he was, though. After class Master introduced us. He said that he was a Kyung Hee University 후배 and a few years ago he'd been an assistant at the studio for two years. He was now in the Korean Navy, though he'd tried to do three years abroad to make up for his 26 months of mandatory military service since giving up taekwondo for that long is not good. He was visiting on his seven day leave.

Master explained that he was part of KH's taekwondo demonstration team, a national demonstration team (I think I understood that correctly) and was a champion. He said to Google something. I said, "What's that?"

"His name."

"Then why do his pants say that?" I pointed to another name.

"Oh! My father's pants!"

I laughed, "Ah, I thought he was your cousin!"

I did as I was told and Googled, but I mostly get Mooto news entirely in Korean.

Since Master and I had talked about our families a bit last week, I brought in photos of my family members. I thought Master would be busy with his 후배, but he said he wanted to see them. In Korean I pointed out that my brother, father and I all have the same nose. I pointed out that Johnny and Dad have the same hair color. I showed him photos of Mom and George and me taken the night before I left America. I showed him Johnny's wife. I showed him a photo of my best friend and me together. This lead to a sort-of funny conversation.

In Korean I said, "He's my best friend. Oh! I love him."

"Amanda, then why isn't he your boyfriend?"

"He has a boyfriend." Long pause. "He has a boyfriend." Long pause as I reached for my dictionary—

"He has a boyfriend?"

"Yes." He started nodded slowly. I continued speaking. I didn't ask, I said, "You understand."

"Yes. But here, not common. I don't know anyone like that." I nodded because I didn't know what to say. Master went on, "How long have you been friends?"

"Fourteen years. We met in grade six."

"Wow! Long time!"

Another minor language victory occurred when Late Boy and I were both in the changing room getting things from our bags. Out of the blue I asked him how old he was (19) and that lead to a short conversation about school and preparing for the suicide inducing CSAT that he will be forced to take this year.

I read quite a bit about Exam Hell/CSAT this weekend. I had to wonder how long it would take America to get to this point with No Child Left Behind and the high-stakes testing that comes with it (although I think it would be impossible; Americans would push back before it got to such a point). Although I have always loved my "little brothers," I now feel like I understand what they go through a bit more. Poor kids, I feel for them.

In any case, just to chat about something non-critical, to have that living communication I so enjoy...that felt really nice.

I was complaining to a friend about how hard it is to find regular notebooks here. Notebooks that don't say nonsensical things like "Happiness chocolate dark song always gentle." However, I found this one for 500 won (about 53 cents) and decided it would be perfect as a scratch notebook.

My Name is Pomme

Traveling alone or jumping out with
Umbrella can't explain everything
of my character
I am a girl who dreams exciting future

Translate it from English to Korean and that's about how I speak. Awww, Pomme, sister in solo travel... I feel you, girl!

I do not, however, feel the pink tomato-hatted backward-piano-sitting coffee-drinking rabbit-like thing. 뭐예요? What is that?

Meanwhile, although I am behind schedule to reach my goal, I have started the 1B level of my Sogang books. I like the Sogang books. They lessons are useful and fairly short. The grammar explanations are also quite good, though this 1B book has a whole lot more grammar than 1A. I'm at the point where I have to learn the grammar pattern and listen for it for a few days before I feel like I can use it. Luckily, I've always got taekwondo as a built-in listening exercise.

The other reason I like the books is because the text is amusing, but in a mostly-realistic way. One of the reading exercises was about a guy who took the bus before discovering the subway was much faster. Another one was about two people who were supposed to meet but one kept screwing up their plans. Another was a guy discussing his vacation plans with a friend, and another was someone price-checking plane tickets over the phone. Those are pretty realistic situations.

When I studied Spanish in college, most of the listening/reading exercises were things such as "Spain is a fabulous country. Let me tell you about calamari." Or "Mexico celebrates Day of the Dead. Day of the Dead is..." While the Sogang books have cultural points in them, there's just one question/point per lesson. The entire curriculum is not a glorification of [language] and [culture], which is a problem I see in most language textbooks. (In short: I have yet to read about the glory of kimchi or Korea's four seasons.)

Back to my shiny new red book! So far, I'm amused. One little section of lesson two has some cartoons that you are supposed to match with possible dialogue. (The next page, not shown, includes more cartoons with full dialogue.)

I laughed when I got to this part:

"와! 멋있는 남자." Wow! He's gorgeous!

"와! 멋있는 여자." Wow! She's gorgeous!

I roared when I got to this part:

"나는 재미없는 남자는 정말 싫어요." I really don't like boring men.

"나는 안 똑똑한 여자는 정말 싫어요." I really don't like stupid women.