Learning Korean

I had an interesting experience with the language the first time I visited Korea. Brief history: I have a limited working proficiency in Spanish. I took classes from high school to college and could/can communicate well enough to assist in a retail atmosphere.

What does Spanish have to do with Korean? Apparently, in an attempt to adapt to the unfamiliarity of the language, my brain switched to Spanish-mode. I found myself starting to say "Hola", "Gracias", and "Dónde está el estación del tren?"

I finally laughed at myself when I realized what I was doing, and also I had about 1000x better chances of finding someone who spoke English rather than Spanish at Incheon International Airport.

Since then, Oni and our other expat friends (as well as some of our Korean friends) have been kind enough to teach me some basic Korean phrases, such as "hello", "thank you", and "where is the train station?"

OK, so I don't actually know how to ask where the train station is yet. However, I do know how to say hello, thank you, I would like this [food] to go, and what to tell the cab driver to get back to Oni's apartment. I have used all of these successfully several times. The usual reaction is a surprised shock followed by a flood of what I can only assume is encouragement for my language skills.

This normally sends me running, terrified, in the other direction as I have no idea how to respond.

I'm working on it, okay?

On occasion, however, we run into someone who speaks some English. The most noteworthy to date was the Korean man who asked where I was from, and then told me I was beautiful. That's it. Where are you from? America! You are beautiful.

It was quite possibly my favorite conversation of the day.

So I've been becoming more brave with each passing encounter; hopefully, at some point, I'll be able to converse without fear of making a mistake. Because there's no reason to fear something that is inevitable. It doesn't change anything. There are way too many innocent words that sound uber close to dirty ones for you not to confuse the two. Mistakes are going to happen.

So I'll keep you updated on how my learning Korean is progressing.*

*Oni is may update you on her Korean as well... if she ever posts anything... *hint hint*