I am an introvert by nature. I have a small fear of meeting people, but still I try. But the people I am most excited to meet… are koreans! (no points for guessing why)
Today, we (a couple of school-mates from the school’s korean cultural club and I) met a group of middle/high school students from Korea and brought them around singapore. It was a first for me in terms of proper interaction with koreans who could barely speak english. Thus I was forced to speak korean (or whatever little I could muster!)
I must say, it was an amazing half a day.
The only time I ever speak korean to ANYONE is in my korean language class at Daehan, because I always feel so self conscious when speaking korean and it just sounds all wrong when it comes out, even though it sounds fine in my head. (hmmm…) I’m sure I’m not the only one with this problem. Anyone, due to the lack of practice, speaking korean today was a struggle for me. I’d like to qualify that some of the students could understand simple english, and they did an awesome job of translating, but I spoke whatever little korean I could to some of the younger students who weren’t very good in English.
Challenge #1
What to talk about?
You know in dramas when they have this.. “…” sign to signify awkward silences?
Well, it wasn’t so much of an awkward silence, but imagine a tour guide who could barely speak Korean leading a group of Korean students who could barely speak English. There were times when I couldn’t think of anything to say while they chattered in Korean among themselves. I felt a little left out, or maybe guilty that I wasn’t entertaining them properly.
Challenge #2
How do I say it in Korean? (ponders for a really long time, before giving up and just saying it in English)
And the thing about not speaking in Korean frequently is that you kind of know your stuff but you take really really long to extract it out from your brain, and out of your mouth.
One of the more embarrassing moments..
[when I needed to leave]
Me: (to friend) I need to leave!
Me: (to korean students) 가.. 가.. 가야 돼요.. (in a super unconfident voice..)
Bubbly korean students: 가야 된다구요? (before I could finish my previous sentence)
Anyway, I stopped at that and just replied 데 because I didn’t know what to say and I was embarrassed that such a simple 4 words took so long to come out of my mouth, even though my brain was working on overdrive trying to find the right words.
Challenges aside, this experience is one that I will definitely treasure.
1. I made new friends – they have both facebook and kakaotalk (hooray for SNS and technology!)
2. I had lots of fun – we even endured hardships (the sweltering hot sun) together
3. Learnt new things – apparently Korean muslims pray on Saturdays while Singaporean muslims pray on Fridays. Is this right? Someone please enlighten me!
4. Spoke korean for the first time outside of class – miserable attempt, but attempt all the same!
5. First korean to wish me 화이팅 personally!
One of the baby steps you take when you learn korean (or any language, really), is to force yourself into a situation where you would have no choice but to speak the language, whether it be visiting the country, or hosting an international friend.
I will definitely be doing this again!
No comments:
Post a Comment