Amanda Takes Off...

Snapshots from my Very Good Korea Day. (Vast majority of conversations were in Korean or mostly Korean.)

Somehow, when I wasn't looking, all of my kindergarten kids finally got it! They used to yell "no speaking Korea!" to each other. It made me crazy. Today, while they were playing a Pointing at Each Other with Each Syllable game, I heard them clearly yelling, "No-spea-king-Ko-re-an!" Oh happiness, they're saying Korean!

I got to the studio and a kid who's no longer in my class was there. He started screaming at me. "Amanda! Amanda! Hi, hi, hi!!" I asked where he'd been lately and he said the 6 pm class. He sat down to practice his English with me. "Do you study English?"

"No."

I asked the same thing in Korean. "Yes!"

Then suddenly he started pointing to my eyes and yelling about my "lens." I thought maybe he hadn't seen my new glasses, but he switched to Korean. 눈! Ah...I took off my glasses and leaned in close. "고양이?"

He started screeching (in English, he tried so hard) about my eyes. Were they green, were they blue, maybe brown? He decided they were blue, then said, "My eye, brown!" I pointed to everyone else in the studio and said, "Yes, they all have brown eyes."

He informed me that in fact there are two eye colors in Korea: brown and black.

I didn't know black was an eye color. Then again, I never knew I had cat's eyes until I came here.

I'm reading a light pop-science book, Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life.

This freaked the young boys out. "English! English! No! So much English! You can read all that?"

Their intense reaction to this book surprised me. They know I read. They never have that reaction when I'm reading books about Korean history before class. One day I'm going to bring an easy Korean book to class and read it to them to truly make them scream.

Brave's Brother sat down and looked at this sentence: The "new kid on the block" effect appears to be present in most networks.

"The! The! New! Um..."

"Kid."

"Kid! No!"

I corrected him. "On."

"On! The! Um... to! Be! In!"

I gave him a high five (after all, that is how I will be reading Korean) and we started back-and-forthing "Korean is hard, English is easy/Korean is easy, English is hard."

Then he asked what the book was about. I said, "You know 'computer network?' Computer friends?"

"A little."

"That." Not exactly and more than that, but how do you talk to a 14 year old kid about that when you don't have the same vocabulary? I know! Math puzzles!

I turned to the page with people at a party and showed how strangers end up being linked over time. He understood that quickly. Then I turned to a page with a circle of people. You only know your nearest and next nearest neighbors. What's the shortest path across the circle? What about when just a few of the people know more than their neighbors and next-neighbors? How short is the path then?

Then I pulled out the Konigsberg bridge problem and tried to explain that he should only take one path without repeating his steps. Is it possible? He tried at least seven times, each time with me pointing out the path he missed. Finally I said, "It's impossible, but with one more..." We drew it on the white board, adding one more bridge. He was immensely excited to find out that it was possible with the extra bridge. He was even more excited to find out that there was more than one possible solution then.

My next job here, I'm aiming to elementary or middle school aged kids. While I won't be teaching them this, I miss that age group.

Master's father, who took and passed his ninth dan test last weekend, came up to the studio while we were playing soccer. We all stood and saluted and bowed in to him. I was standing behind two guys. He looked around. "Is Amanda here?"

I stepped forward and shook his hand, once again forgetting to use both hands, once again forgetting to use the -sumnida form. At least I bowed deeply.

Nobody else was singled out.

There's a new kid in the studio, not nicknamed yet. I like him because he's neither obnoxious nor shy with me. He's a black belt, friends with another studiomate and wears a Nambuk dobok, so I'm not sure if he trained at Nambuk previously or what.

When he was introduced last week, Master had everyone raise their hands by school grades. (Confucian society and all that.) Since I'm the only college graduate in the studio (excepting Master, of course), I raised my hand last. "아만다 누나예요." She's Amanda Big Sister.

He was goal keep today. While I was near the goal he kept saying, "Amanda?"

"Aniyo."

I thought he was asking me to switch and be the goal keep. We had this same dialogue a half dozen times before I thought, I am an idiot.

I said in Korean, "Yes! My name is Amanda!"

"Ah! Good!"

When we were resting, I asked his name and told him why I'd kept saying "no." He laughed. I think he liked it the next time we were up; I demanded he be out of the 가위바위보 selection process for goal keep since he'd already done it.

We played soccer tonight and the younger boys were hilarious. The first time I was on Ghost's team. He pointed to the other team, "Amanda! Kill!"

I said, "죽다?" To die? I knew I wasn't using the same word; I was simply trying to use the word to make it easier to memorize.

My teammates all cheered, "Yes! 죽어요!"

After the break, Ghost and I were on opposing teams. Every time I'd go after the ball against him he'd say, "Amanda, why? Why?"

At one point in the middle of the game (the ball wasn't near us), I grabbed him in a big bear hug, "Oh! [Ghost] Little Brother, I love you!"

"Amanda, why? Why?" I let go of him and he immediately got bopped with the soccer ball. "Oooh! Amanda! Thank you!" he called, going after the ball.

At another point we played 가위바위보 to determine who would get to kick the ball first. I won and my teammates weren't sure I understood. "Amanda, kong, kong, OK?"

"Chukkukong kongjuyeayo?" I joked. I'm the soccer ball princess? I faked kicking the ball really far. They looked confused. Just then, Master kicked the ball for his team. I don't know the word for "prince," so I said, "Like Master? Same thing? Soccer ball princess?"

There was a 3-second pause and then they all started pawing me, tapping me, high-fiving me the way they do. "Yes, yes, soccer ball princess!"