Korean Musings...

Well, I know that Michael has already posted about traffic lights in Korea, and about how no one obeys them, especially not buses. So, just a few minutes ago I was walking around the area of Suji by Avalon, because I am at work right now. Here at the Nokjiwon campus we have what's called "holding period" for the next 2 weeks. What that means is that our students (middle schoolers) are having big exams at their Korean schools, so most of them do not come to Avalon during this time in order to study and prepare for their tests! This also means that we have fewer classes to teach and very few students actually in those classes, but we also have other kinds of work to do instead, like paperwork, lesson planning, revising the textbooks, etc. Anyway, back to my story (sorry, I am definitely a "prefacer"). Since I had no students show up for class, I decided to walk down to the bank and then go to Dunkin' Donuts to get a strawberry banana Coolatta. I was standing at the crosswalk, obeying the red light and waiting for it to turn green, and I noticed there was a Police car parked across the street from the crosswalk, with about 5 or 6 cops (do they use that term in Korea? Maybe it's cop-ee) standing around talking. Some looked like they were going into the building next door, or maybe behind it. I couldn't figure out what they were doing there and I was wondering what was going on, when all of a sudden this car pulls up behind another car waiting at the red light and honks at her. Mind you, she is sitting at a red light with 6 cops in front of her, and the car behind her is honking for her to go. She kind of inches forward but is being very cautious, when the honker decides to swerve to the left of her and go around her, just as a car had turned left onto the street they were coming from. That car honked loudly to avoid a collision, and the annoying honker guy swerves between both cars and makes his right turn. All this is going on, and the policemen NEVER batted their eyes--they didn't even turn around to see why the car had honked!! Wow. I don't know what is in their job descriptions, but it certainly doesn't include enforcing traffic laws!

Here's something else that cracks me up. So, as I mentioned, I was heading to Dunkin' Donuts. There are Dunkin' Donuts shops in pretty much every little neighborhood around here. They are pretty yummy too! What I love is the caption on their drinking cups. It says, " Loving in Dunkin' " on the side. Haha. What does that even mean?! We have discovered the joys of "Konglish"--like Spanglish, but Korean instead of Spanish. The signs and the translations into English of things are SOO hilarious. I will have to take some photos of these for examples when I get home tonight. Michael and I joke that it's similar to Yoda talk. hehe Really, if you say an English word and add the schwa sound at the end, or /ee/, it helps them understand what you are saying. For instance, today we were buying something and we didn't think our Mastercard was working. The clerk said "change-ee?" to us, to see if we wanted to use a different credit card. Haha, it just really makes me laugh.

By the way, today is Michael's 31st birthday and our 3 year Anniversary! I'm going to add some more when I get home tonight about our great day and gifts and everything. So, wait on the edge of your seat!! :)

~Leslie