Language and Eating

Saturday, January 20th,

I survived another week of teaching, while still having a cold. I gave my first test and the students did well. Lessons are starting to get easier and hopefully more interesting for the students. They did fill out an evaluation of the course and teacher, so in a week or two, I could be getting some advice on how to improve.

On Thursday, I started talking with a couple of the Chinese instructors in the teachers' lounge. I joined them for lunch and somehow through my poor Chinese, their ok English, and little or no Korean, we had a nice conversation. I actually could remember a few things and they guided me through on things that I could really say. It helped that their English was better than my Chinese.

On Friday, I went to lunch by myself. I decided to check out the food court at the Hyundai Department Store. It is a 14 story complex, but four stories are underground. I went to the food court and walked around to see what was available. Like any food court, there was about 10-15 different types of food. One problem was that all of the signs were in Korean with most places having pictures. The big problem was that I couldn't just point at an item, pay, and have them make it. I recognized the "system" that they used. All food was paid for at one central location, but the sign was only in Korean and no pictures. I didn't want to have the problem of trying to point to the board and not able to receive what I wanted. This was a frustrating situation and another reminder that I need to start learning Korean quickly.